It Is Time For You To LEARN…
It’s a slow weekend, nothing to do but some shopping, some editing and some gaming, but I figured I would do you all a favor and turn you onto something that you really have no excuse to be unfamiliar with now, Infocom Text Based Adventures.
Back in the 80’s this was one of my all time favorite genres of gaming because it was BOOKS YOU EXPERIENCED rather than books you just read. It was like an author welcomed you into his world and let you play around in it, rather than simply being a spectator. Infocom was the big producer of quality games in this department with such titles as The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (Written by Douglas Adams himself!) endearing little titles like Wishbringer, the infamous Zork which started it all, and lots of other fun titles like Planetfall and Leather Goddesses Of Phobos.
Most of these games are classified now as “Abandonware” in that no one makes them and really have no intention of ever bringing them back. However, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can find most of these games free for download if you spend a few minutes digging deep. I’ll get you started though, you can find Hitchhiker’s, Wishbringer and Zork here.
I’m currently giving A Mind Forever Voyaging a shot. It’s one of those games that was hailed as a masterpiece of the genre but at the time of its release, my spending power was limited, and it was $50. If you’re interested in other interesting attempts at interactive fiction, people have since gone on to create their own (I haven’t yet dug up the addresses for those sites yet, but I mean to) and there is one in particular that I highly reccomend by Activision of old. It’s more passive than Infocom games, in that what you did was navigate a series of menus to “unlock” more of the stories, but it was a well told tale for fans of science fiction called Portal.
Check ‘em out, these are gems, and you can be sure not many people will jump on this bandwagon, so you can maintain your snooty “I prefer text adventures” attitude for years to come. Lord knows I have…