The Digital Antiquarian discusses
ludic narrative
and has been filling in by bits and pieces an amazing history of
recreational computing and adventure gaming.
The Rise of Experiential Games traces the development of Wargames from H.G. Wells' (!) wargame for toy soldiers,
Little Wars, to Avalon Hill's Squad Leader; he discusses the development of
Dungeons and Dragons (part
2,
3) led to
the first CRPGs on
PLATO. He'll tell you things you didn't know about
Oregon Trail (part
2,
3,
4,
5,
postscript, the
1975 source code!),
Hunt the Wumpus (
part 2),
Colossal Cave Adventure (part
2,
3,
4,
5),
Eliza (part
2,
3),
Scott Adams' games (part
2,
3,
4,
5), the
TRS-80 (part
2,
3), the
2 adventuring cultures of university minicomputers and home PCs, and their
unlikely bridging. [more inside]
posted by Zed
on Sep 11, 2011 -
18 comments
9:05 Remember back in the heyday of
Infocom when you would routinely spend four or five days straight (subsisting on RC cola and beef jerky, only taking breaks to visit the john) trying to crack all the puzzles in Zork II or Suspended? Yeah, those were the days. Now, of course, you're a busy guy -- you can no longer devote entire weekends to the joys of text adventuring. That's why, today on your coffee break, you should play Adam Cadre's
9:05. Playing the entire game, from start to finish, should take you no longer than 10 minutes. But set aside a bit more time, because you'll probably want to play it again.
posted by Shadowkeeper
on Apr 3, 2002 -
28 comments
Remember Zork, Planetfall, and the other creations of late game company Infocom? Well, "interactive fiction," as the format is called, is still alive and well. Every year the IF community -- which is known for releasing work of quality far surpassing even Infocom's masterpieces -- holds a competition for short works, and
this year's contestants have been released! Read this post's comments for more info...
posted by tweebiscuit
on Sep 30, 2001 -
13 comments
