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Magic Words - Interactive Fiction in the 21st Century

Posted by simoniker on from the zorkmid-exchange-rate-on-the-rise dept.

An anonymous reader writes "1UP has just published a nine-part article on Interactive Fiction, the politically correct name for what used to be called text adventure games (e.g. Zork, Stationfall, etc.). The feature includes an overview of the genre and its history, lengthy interviews with the genre's leading current creators, and resources for aspiring IF writers. Anyone who has fond memories of typing their way through dank caverns or outsmarting leather goddesses and ravenous bugblatter beasts with nothing but a keyboard should read this -- not just for the nostalgia, but to see what's become of the format."

5 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, the memories! by perimorph · · Score: 5, Funny

    My favourite part was the endless game of seeing how many different ways you could type a sentence before the computer realized what you were talking about. Ah, nostalgia!

    1. Re:Oh, the memories! by Hitmouse · · Score: 5, Funny

      Eliza: Why is the endless game of seeing how many different ways you could type a sentence before the computer realized what you were talking about, your favorite part? Does your mother feel the same way?

  2. Re:PC? by dilby · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would have thought they'd call them graphically challenged adventure games.

    --
    This post patent pending.
  3. Re:Interactive Books by Tonith · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you want to kill the ogre, turn to page 452.
    [turns to page 452]
    The ogre laughs at your pitiful attempt to kill him and rends the flesh from your bones.
    "Damnit!" [turns back to page 231]

    If you want to befriend the ogre, turn to page 294.
    [turns to page 294]
    The ogre befriends you - with an ogre-hug of epic proportions. You are crushed to a pulp.
    "Damnit!" [turns back to page 231]

    If you want to run away from the ogre, turn to page 583.
    [turns to page 583]
    You turn to run away, and run smack into a tree. While you stumble back, the ogre picks you up and throws you off a nearby cliff. Your body plummets onto several sharp pointy rocks, and you see vultures start to circle around you. "Damnit!"

    I never won at those things. Stupid ogres.

    --
    "I'll burn my books; ah, Mephistopheles!"
    -The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
  4. Re:IF today by Dennis+G.+Jerz · · Score: 5, Funny
    That's a good one... Scott Adams tells this story about "SCR* BEAR"... I've posted an .mp3 of him telling this story at an academic panel a couple years ago...

    http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams/audio/bear.mp 3

    Well, I got a fan letter in that just had my whole company rolling in the aisles. It said:

    We got to that bear on the ledge. We tried giving it the honey and he ate it up and boy that was a treasure and that was no good. So we reloaded the saved game and we went back to that bear. We pushed that bear, we prodded that bear, we tickled that bear, we have gotten so upset with that bear we could get nowhere.

    Now the following is rated PG-13 so if you don't want to hear it, please close your ears. Ok. Continuing..

    So we finally said "Screw the bear!!" And the game replied, "The bear is so startled he falls off the ledge!"

    They thought I was a genius programmer!


    http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams
    --
    Literacy Weblog http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog