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Interactive Fiction Then and Now

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the infocom-4-eva dept.

Flipkin writes "Interactive Fiction was immensely popular in the 80s and believe it or not has a strong, albeit small, following today. MobyGames takes a look at the origins and history of Interactive Fiction and where it is heading." These games really were some of the best I've ever played.

22 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Choose Your Own Adventure Books! by RockModeNick · · Score: 3, Informative

    Were my first interractive fiction, I used to love those. Especially the ones where you could die really easily.

    1. Re:Choose Your Own Adventure Books! by voice_of_all_reason · · Score: 3, Informative

      The best ones had the endings derived totally on luck, where even choosing the most logical and safe path would lead to your untimely demise. I liked that Packard guy who wrote the later ones (shiny covers). The earlier editions had stuff like "To run from the bear, turn to page 37. To fight him off with your fists, turn to page 129". And you always knew the endings were in the back :)

    2. Re:Choose Your Own Adventure Books! by ronfar · · Score: 3, Informative
      I have one, Knight of the Living Dead . It's pretty well written, by some guy named Allen Varney. I loved some of the dialogue in that game.. oh, and the neat picture of the one vampire lady taking a bath...

      Now, Tunnels and Trolls made this their focus for a while. I have a ton of Solitare dungeons for T&T.

      Chaosium had their Alone Against series, though I think there were only two, Alone Against the Wendigo and Alone Against the Dark, I have both. Pagan Publishing published a similar solitare scenarion Alone on Halloween which I do not have, and looking at the current price probably never will.

      Oh, and there is something called Fighting Fantasy which is apparently British, so I missed out on that.

      Still, being an angry loner as a teenager really paid off for me, as you can see....

      --
      All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
    3. Re:Choose Your Own Adventure Books! by PatrickThomson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In practice though, nobody did them. Why? because a failed luck stat either lead to death or a fight, and a failed fight lead to death. Noone's going to go back to the start of the book because they rolled a 5.

      --
      I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
    4. Re:Choose Your Own Adventure Books! by _|()|\| · · Score: 4, Informative
      I was a huge fan of the Lone Wolf series.

      The author of the Lone Wolf series has generously allowed many of them to be published on line, free of charge.

    5. Re:Choose Your Own Adventure Books! by Spaceman40 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Especially the ones where you could die really easily."

      I had a set where - no matter what set of choices I made - I always was killed by ninjas. No, seriously; "Oh no, there's a tornado outside! Do you: get into the storm cellar (turn to page 54 and be killed by ninjas hiding in the storm cellar) or face it head on (turn to page 86 and be killed by ninjas falling out of the tornado)?

      Madness, I tell you.

      --
      I [may] disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
  2. No mention of MUDS?!? by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Informative
    How can you write an article about IF and not mention MUD's, which continue to be popular even today? These games not only continue the text-based adventure tradition, but they also allow for interaction with other players within the text "world."

    -Eric (former alum of the Kobra MUD)

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:No mention of MUDS?!? by mgblst · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can't believe they didn't post an screenshots!

    2. Re:No mention of MUDS?!? by lpangelrob · · Score: 4, Funny
      It's okay, here's one I found:
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

      >_

      --
      -Rob

      Biblical fiscal responsibility

  3. Slash interface by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

    > L
    You are on slashdot.
    You can see the headlines.

    > Read headlines
    There are 12 old articles.

    > N
    You are in the mysterious future.
    There is 1 article here.

    > RTFA
    I'm sorry, you cannot do that.

    > open article
    You open the article in the mysterious future.

    > L
    It is empty in the comments section, You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Slash interface by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Funny
      It is empty in the comments section, You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

      > make post in comments section

      First post - YOU WIN!

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  4. Where it's heading? by mccalli · · Score: 5, Funny
    MobyGames takes a look at the origins and history of Interactive Fiction and where it is heading.

    I can tell you that. Currently it is in a maze of twisty passages, all alike...

    Cheers,
    Ian

  5. Re:look around by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny
    >witty reply

    I don't know how to "witty reply."

    >clever reply

    I don't know how to "clever reply."

    >lame reply

    You make a lame, cliche-ridden Slashdot post, probably having something to do with Netcraft or "Star Wars."
    There is an angry moderator here.

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  6. Four words that sum up the awesomeness.. by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny
    You have:

    no tea

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  7. Some good amateur IF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Try Metamorphoses and Photopia. The former is known for its diverse ways of solving the puzzles; the latter is known for its nonlinear plot, touching story, and controversial lack of influence over ultimate outcomes. (Slight spoilers in the Wikipedia entry.)

  8. Re:"Read Game" in The Escapist by Allen+Varney · · Score: 3, Informative

    Dang, why didn't the link go through? The URL for "Read Game": http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/7/12

  9. Good games by Rekolitus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Myself, I reccomend Return to Ditch Day and The Plant (as well as Adam Cadre's works.)

    Anyone else played these?

  10. Recommended book and game by MythMoth · · Score: 3, Informative

    I recently read "Twisty Little Passages" ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262134365/ ) by Nick Montfort which despite its horribly self-consciously academic approach (it's all about developing a "theory" of IF for lit. crit. purposes) still has some interesting sections about the history of IF and comparing the various approaches to the field against each other.

    It also introduced me to my favourite work of IF, "For a change" by Dan Schmidt, which is really proof that the genre has more to offer than you might have expected. He's a genius, and it's beautiful.

    Give it a go online here: http://paperstack.com/for_a_change/ (requires Java) or download the ZCode files from Dan's site: http://www.dfan.org/IF/

    --
    --- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
  11. Re:What I hated about CYOA by bjorniac · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's quantum mechanics - the universe was in a superposition of containing organization x and not containing it, and by turning to page 137 or 25 you collapsed the wavefunction. Either that, or it was a neat way of making sure you could re-play the game without knowledge of what was going to happen if you took a different turn early on...

  12. Re:look around by allanc · · Score: 5, Funny

    >examine moderator

    This moderator looks like a pasty white Linux geek who hasn't left his parents' basement in at least a month. He is unsubtle, and quick to anger.

    >attack moderator

    The moderator is unphased by your ad hominem attack
    (Score:-1, Troll)
    (Your karma has just gone down by one point)

    >tell moderator about linux

    The moderator already knows about linux.
    (Score:-1, Redundant)
    (Your karma has just gone down by one point)

    >tell moderator about linux superiority

    You tell the moderator stuff he already knows about how much better Linux is than Windows. Even though he already knows it, he likes hearing about it.
    (Score:+5, Insightful)
    (Your karma has just gone up by five points)

  13. No mention of online IF? by aussie_a · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wow, I'm really surprised that this article could completely miss online IF (otherwise known as MUDs). Not only are there commercial entities successfully running online IF (such as Iron Realms it allows for a much larger story to be told.

    The big problem with IF is that you can't do whatever you want. You're limited to what the creator was able to forsee and program. Not so with MUDs, which are able to have long and rich stories. The reason MUDs are able to overcome this limitation is that they have staff running it all the time, who are constantly adding new code updates and story updates.

    An example of a player run storyline is in ArmageddonMUD, which is based on Dark Sun. In it a player playing a dwarf decided to free his fellow dwarves who were slaves in the obsidian mines, and lay seige to the city-state that had kept them enslaved. This was entirely thought up by players, and with the staff's help, done by the players.

    MMOs sometimes attempt to be roleplaying games, to enable an interactive story to be told. But they're even further limited by the fact that, you can't do what you want. You can only do what animations have been coded. Again, MUDs don't have this limitation, with any action being able to be provided by emoting. MUDs have the advantage over IFs in that they are multiuser. Whereas in an IF there's no-one but yourself.

    So I'm very surprised that something discussing interactive fiction, including it's future (which IMO are MUDs, with more and more being created every day while others continue to be run for over 10 years), didn't feel the need to mention MUDs.

  14. Re:Play these games on PalmOS by Xamien · · Score: 4, Informative
    The Inform compiler is available from inform-fiction.org for those who want to try their hand at actually creating old-school IF. It produces story files for the Z-machine that will run under Frotz. There is also an online copy of the Inform designer's manual available.

    Inform isn't the only system available for creating IF -- see the rec.arts.int-fiction Authorship FAQ.

    On a related note, the Interactive Fiction Competition is apparently still going strong after over a decade, with entries sorted by authoring system.