Interactive fiction (better known as text adventure games) is the forerunner of narrative-based video games. In this episode, we discuss the origins of IF, its commercial heyday, and what contemporary IF has become.
(Apologies for my voice – I’d been rather ill that week! -Lyle)
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Hypothes.is & Annotate – online annotation tools
- Amazon Bic for Her reviews
- Lyle’s The Pyxis Memo
- Colossal Cave Adventure by Will Crowther (AMC’s retro emulator version)
- Rick Adams’ History of Colossal Cave Adventure
- The Interstellar IF Game (available now only through the Wayback Machine)
- Adam Cadre’s 9:05
- Wonderbox’s review of 9:05
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy text adventure game (BBC 30th anniversary edition)
- Wonderbox’s Resources for Writing Digital Fiction
- Aaron Reed & Alexei Othenin-Girard’s Sand-dancer
- Aaron Reed’s Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7
- Emily Short’s Bronze
- Emily Short’s IF Resources
- Infocom’s Trinity on My Abandonware
- Infocom’s A Mind Forever Voyaging on My Abandonware
- Oregon Trail on Classic Reload
- Interactive Fiction Database: tons of IFs!
- My Abandonware: retro games for download to emulators or playable online
- IF Comp – yearly interactive fiction competition
This episode’s “Pick a Card” topic:
Many thanks to Bangor University’s School of Creative Studies & Media for use of their recording equipment and support of this podcast.
Produced by Lyle Skains & Jordan Glendenning. Music from Kurt James Werner.
