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Two Events Celebrate Text Adventures, Roguelike Games (ifcomp.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the amulet-of-Yendor dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The 24th annual Interactive Fiction Competition kicked off Monday, unveiling 77 new text adventures which will vie for nearly $9,000 in prize money. The contest's organizers are encouraging people to play and rate the free games, and encourage their friends to join in the fun (or to donate more prize money or other prizes). They're dedicating this year's competition to the memory of Stu Galley, who co-founded the pioneering text adventure company Infocom back in 1979 with his classmates from MIT. Infocom went on to create everything from Zork to a popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game, and Stu is credited as the driving force behind text adventures like Moonmist, Seastalker, and The Witness.
Meanwhile, long-time Slashdot reader paulproteus reminds us that the "Roguelike Celebration" is happening today and tomorrow at the GitHub office in San Francisco -- and is streaming on Twitch. The Roguelike Celebration is a community-generated weekend of talks, games, and conversations about roguelike [games] and related topics, including procedural generation and game design... It's for fans, players, developers, scholars, and everyone else, including people new to this type of game.

19 comments

  1. Sorry by nospam007 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "encourage their friends to join in the fun (or to donate more prize money or other prizes"

    I would but I was eaten by a grue.

  2. It's not total shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But I just don't have time.

    1. Re:It's not total shit by Tuidjy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Every few years, I find the time, and play some of the games. Usually I try to do it before the votes are tallied, but sometimes I really do not have the time, and just play the winners.

      There has not been an year where I haven't really enjoyed at least one of the games. Sometimes, enjoyed is not the right word... some of those games are less interactive, but tell a story that makes you think, or that stays with you because it throws quite the curve ball.

      If you have the time, give it a try. Some ideas are better made into a text adventure than expanded into a novel...

      --
      No good deed goes unpunished...
  3. Anchorhead by Camembert · · Score: 4, Informative

    I havenâ(TM)t tried these interactive fiction submissions for years yet always found them interesting - some are surprisingly original and even arty in approach.
    A free, Lovecraftian text adventure I can recommend is Anchorhead. Itâ(TM)s some 25 years old and it convinced me how good a text adventure can still be while competing with graphics extravangant modern games,

    1. Re:Anchorhead by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 1

      It's some 25 years old and it convinced me how good a text adventure can still be while competing with graphics extravangant modern games,

      Heh, don't think I ever played a text adventure on anything other than an 8 bit machine lol. "The Hobbit" on Sinclair ZX Spectrum comes to mind...

      I think the strength of text adventures is exactly that they draw on the imagination of the player. Player has to fill in (in his/her mind) what graphics don't provide. Kind of like reading a novel where a picture forms in your mind but the words only say so much about what it should like like so the reader fills in the rest.

    2. Re: Anchorhead by Camembert · · Score: 2

      Indeed. Loved them on my C64 in the early 1980s, and youâ(TM)d be surprised to see how they have evolved now as a niche game style with. Sometimes innovative story structures even. Anchorhead was remarkably satisfying.
      Tangentially, as a teenager dabbling with programming, I found it a fun challenge to create a simple adventure engine in Basic on my C64. Still think it is a good challenge for beginners.

  4. November NetHack by jmccue · · Score: 2

    And keeping with this theme, starting Nov 1 we have November NetHack:

    https://old.reddit.com/r/netha...

  5. I put on my robe and wizard hat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's get this adventure started!

    1. Re:I put on my robe and wizard hat by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      All I have to say is...

      PLUGH

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    2. Re:I put on my robe and wizard hat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see your plugh and raise you an xyzzy.

  6. A breath of fresh air by Shaitan · · Score: 0

    I needed something positive today

  7. Radio Slack by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Madness and the Minotaur now available on game cartridge for the Color Computer.

  8. infocom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Interactive Fiction Competition

    INFICOM?

  9. Someone PLEASE test my game! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    link (dos/win,Mac, and linux versions):

    http://trek7.sourceforge.net/f...

    Debugging has been left in, please report all problems.
    Email info is in the doc files.

  10. Play them online by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can play a lot of the Colossal Cave variants and most of the Infocom games online at www.gobberwarts.com.

  11. Anchorhead, anniversary edition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's now also an expanded edition for the 20th anniversary, with the code rewritten in Inform 7 and the prose revised and polished, and extra scenes, puzzles, and details; even lovely greyscale illustrations, if you're into that.

    (Captcha: a gateway to other worlds, projected onto a wall. Huh, Curses had a similar use for cards: I wonder if there's a link.)

  12. Re:Fucking hate "rogue-likes" by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    You're perfectly free to feel that way, but is it a good enough reason to write a comment-like?

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20