Zork I is one of the first interactive fiction games, as well as being one of the first commercially sold. It is one of the most famous interactive fiction games. Here it is portrayed running on a modern interpreter.

Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as computer games. In common usage, the word refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game with text-based input and output. The term is sometimes used to encompass the entirety of the medium, but is also sometimes used to distinguish games produced by the interactive fiction community from those created by games companies. It can also be used to distinguish the more modern style of such works, focusing on narrative and not necessarily falling into the adventure game genre at all, from the more traditional focus on puzzles. More expansive definitions of interactive fiction may refer to all adventure games, including wholly graphical adventures such as Myst. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Zork I: The Great Underground Empire is an interactive fiction computer game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Anderson and published by Infocom in 1980. ... Software redirects here. ... In computing, a command is a directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task. ... In non-technical terms, no matter what the context (whether scientific, philosophical, legal, etc) a narrative is a story, an interpretation of some aspect of the world that is historically and culturally grounded and shaped by human personality (per Walter Fisher). ... Computer and video games redirects here. ... This article is about the computer and video game genre. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... A puzzle undone, which forms a cube Puzzle cube; a type of puzzle For other uses, see Puzzle (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Myst franchise. ...

As a commercial product, interactive fiction reached its peak in popularity in the 1980s, as a dominant software product marketed for home computers. Because their text-only nature sidestepped the problem of writing for the widely divergent graphics architectures of the day, interactive fiction games were easily ported across all the popular platforms, even those such as CP/M not known for gaming or strong graphics capabilities. Today, interactive fiction no longer appears to be commercially viable, but a steady stream of new works is produced by an online interactive fiction community, using freely available development systems. Most of these games can be downloaded for free from the Interactive Fiction Archive (see external links). This article is primarily about a certain class of Personal computers from the late 1970s to mid 1980s, see Domotics or Home servers for home computers used in home automation. ... CP/M is an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ... Zork I is one of the first interactive fiction games, as well as being one of the first commercially sold. ...

The term "interactive fiction" is also occasionally used to refer to hypertext fiction, collaborative fiction, or even a participatory novel, according to the New York Times^{[citation needed]}. It is also used to refer to literary works that are not read in a linear fashion, but rather the reader is given choices at different points in the text; the reader's choice determines the flow and outcome of the story. The most famous example of this form of interactive fiction is the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. For others, see gamebooks. Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links which provides a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. ... Collaborative fiction is a form of writing by two or more authors who take it in turns to write a portion of the story. ... The Cave of Time, the first Choose Your Own Adventure book. ... A gamebook is a book with a branching storyline that serves as a medium for gameplay. ...

Medium

Text adventures are one of the oldest types of computer games and form a subset of the adventure genre. The player uses text input to control the game, and the game state is relayed to the player via text output. Computer and video games redirects here. ... This article is about the computer and video game genre. ...

Input is usually provided by the player in the form of simple sentences such as "get key" or "go east", which are interpreted by a parser. Parsers may vary in sophistication; the first text adventure parsers could only handle two-word sentences in the form of verb-noun pairs. Later parsers could handle increasing levels of complexity from sentences such as "open the red box with the green key then go north". This level of complexity is the standard for works of interactive fiction today. In linguistics, a sentence is a unit of language, characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. ... An example of parsing a mathematical expression. ...

Interactive fiction shares much in common with Multi-User Dungeons ('MUDs'). MUDs, which became popular in the mid-1980s, rely on a textual exchange and accept similar commands from players as do works of IF; however, since interactive fiction is single player, and MUDs, by definition, have multiple players, they differ enormously in gameplay styles. MUDs often focus gameplay on activities that involve communities of players, simulated political systems, in-game trading, and other gameplay mechanics that aren't possible in a single player environment. This article is about a type of online computer game. ...

Interactive fiction usually relies on reading from a screen and on typing input, although speech synthesis allows blind and visually impaired users to play interactive fiction. Reading is a process of retrieving and comprehending some form of stored information or ideas. ... This article is about entering text. ...

Writing style

Interactive fiction features two distinct modes of writing: the player input and the game output.

As described above, player input is expected to be in simple command form (imperative sentences). A typical command may be: In linguistics, a sentence is a unit of language, characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. ...

pull lever

The responses from the game are usually written from a second-person point of view, in present tense. This is because, unlike in most works of fiction, the main character is closely associated with the player, and the events are seen to be happening as the player plays. While older text adventures often identified the protagonist with the player directly, newer games tend to have specific, well-defined protagonists with separate identities from the player. The classic essay "Crimes Against Mimesis"^[1] discusses, among other IF issues, the nature of "You" in interactive fiction. Second-person narration is a narrative technique in which the protagonist or another main character is referred to by employment of second-person personal pronouns and other kinds of addressing forms, for example the English second-person pronoun you. You are not the kind of guy who would be at... // literature]] and storytelling, a point of view is the related experience of the narrator — notTexts encourage the reader to identify with the narrator, not with the author. ... For referencing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing sources. ...

A typical response might look something like this, the response to "look in teachest" at the start of Curses: Curses is an interactive fiction computer game created by Graham Nelson in 1993. ...

That was the first place you tried, hours and hours ago now, and there's nothing there but that boring old book. You pick it up anyway, bored as you are.^[2]

Many text adventures, particularly those designed for humour (such as Zork, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Leather Goddesses of Phobos), address the player with an informal tone, sometimes including sarcastic remarks (see the transcript from Curses, below, for an example). Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I • Zork II • Zork III Beyond Zork • Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter • Sorcerer • Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer • Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis • Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters • Kings • Creatures Timeline • Magic • Calendar Zorkmid... The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is an interactive fiction computer game based on the seminal comic science fiction series of the same name. ... Cover of the Lane Mastodon comic—the instruction manual for the game Leather Goddesses of Phobos is an interactive fiction game published and developed by Infocom in 1986 for the DOS, Apple II, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST and Commodore 64 computers. ... Curses is an interactive fiction computer game created by Graham Nelson in 1993. ...

History

Adventure

Around 1975, Will Crowther wrote the first text adventure game, Adventure (originally called ADVENT because a filename could only be six characters long in its operating system, and later Colossal Cave).^[3] It was programmed in Fortran for the PDP-10. Stanford University graduate student Don Woods discovered Adventure while working at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and in 1977 obtained and expanded Crowther's source code (with Crowther's permission). Crowther's original version was an accurate simulation of the real Colossal Cave, but also included fantasy elements (such as axe-wielding dwarves and a magic bridge); Woods's changes were reminiscent of the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, and included a troll, elves, and a volcano some claim is based on Mount Doom, but Woods says was not.^[4] William (Willie or Will) Crowther is a computer programmer and caver. ... This article is about an early text based computer game. ... An operating system (OS) is a software that manages computer resources and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... Fortran (also FORTRAN) is a statically typed, compiled, programming language originally developed in the 1950s and still heavily used for scientific computing and numerical computation half a century later. ... The PDP-10 was a computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from the late 1960s on; the name stands for Programmed Data Processor model 10. It was the machine that made time-sharing common; it looms large in hacker folklore because of its adoption in the 1970s by many... Don Woods is a perennial hacker and computer programmer. ... The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (commonly called the Stanford AI Lab, or SAIL), was one of the leading centres for artificial intelligence research from the 1960s through the 1980s. ... This article is about the general term. ... Mammoth Cave National Park is a U.S. National Park in central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. ... J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ...

In early 1977, Adventure spread across ARPAnet, ^[5] and has survived on the Internet to this day. The game has since been ported to many other operating systems. ARPANET logical map, March 1977. ... An operating system (OS) is a software that manages computer resources and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ...

The popularity of Adventure led to the wide success of interactive fiction during the late 1970s and the 1980s, when home computers had little, if any, graphics capability. Many elements of the original game have survived into the present, such as the command 'xyzzy', which is now included as an Easter Egg in games such as Minesweeper. Adventure (also known as ADVENT or Colossal Cave) (Crowther & Woods, 1976) was the first computer adventure game. ... The first easter egg. ...

Adventure was also directly responsible for the founding of Sierra Online (later Sierra Entertainment); Ken and Roberta Williams played the game when it first appeared, and when unable to find any other games of similar quality, decided to design one of their own.^{[citation needed]}

Commercial era

Adventure International

Adventure International was founded by Scott Adams (not to be confused with the creator of Dilbert). Adventure International was a video game publishing company started in 1978 by Scott Adams and his wife Alexis. ... Scott Adams (born July 10, 1952) is the co-founder, with wife Alexis, of Adventure International, an early company producing computer games. ... Dilbert (first published April 16, 1989) is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. ...

In 1978, Adams wrote Adventureland, which was loosely patterned after the original Advent. He took out a small ad in a computer magazine in order to promote and sell Adventureland, thus creating the first commercial adventure game. In 1979 he founded Adventure International, the first commercial publisher of interactive fiction. The company went bankrupt in 1985. Adventureland was a text-based adventure program written by Scott Adams. ...

Infocom

The largest company producing works of interactive fiction was Infocom,^[6] which created the Zork series and many other titles, among them Trinity, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and A Mind Forever Voyaging. Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I   Zork II   Zork III Beyond Zork   Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter   Sorcerer   Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer   Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis   Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters   Kings   Creatures Timeline   Magic   Calendar Zorkmid... Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I • Zork II • Zork III Beyond Zork • Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter • Sorcerer • Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer • Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis • Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters • Kings • Creatures Timeline • Magic • Calendar Zorkmid... Trinity is an interactive fiction computer game written by Brian Moriarty and published in 1986 by Infocom. ... The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is an interactive fiction computer game based on the seminal comic science fiction series of the same name. ... A Mind Forever Voyaging (AMFV) is an interactive fiction game designed and implemented by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in 1985. ...

In June 1977, Marc Blank, Bruce K. Daniels, Tim Anderson, and Dave Lebling began writing the mainframe version of Zork (also known as Dungeon), at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. The game was programmed in a computer language called MDL, a variant of LISP. In early 1979, the game was completed. Ten members of the MIT Dynamics Modelling Group went on to join Infocom when it was incorporated later that year. Marc Blank is an American computer game designer and game programmer. ... Tim Anderson helped create Zork; one of the first works of interactive fiction (a form of adventure game), was an early descendant of ADVENT (also known as Colossal Cave). ... Dave Lebling, ca 1985 Dave Lebling (born 1949) was an interactive fiction game designer, or implementor, at Infocom. ... Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I • Zork II • Zork III Beyond Zork • Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter • Sorcerer • Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer • Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis • Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters • Kings • Creatures Timeline • Magic • Calendar Zorkmid... Project MAC, later the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS), was a research laboratory at MIT. Project MAC would become famous for groundbreaking research in operating systems, artificial intelligence, and the theory of computation. ... MDL (the MIT Design Language) is a descendent of the Lisp programming language. ... Lisp is a family of computer programming languages with a long history and a distinctive fully-parenthesized syntax. ...

In order to make its games as portable as possible, Infocom developed the Z-machine, a custom virtual machine which could be implemented on a large number of platforms, and which took standardized "story files" as input. Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I • Zork II • Zork III Beyond Zork • Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter • Sorcerer • Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer • Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis • Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters • Kings • Creatures Timeline • Magic • Calendar Zorkmid... In computer science, a virtual machine is software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system, so that the end user can operate software on an abstract machine. ...

The Infocom parser was widely regarded as the best of its era. It accepted complex, complete sentence commands like "put the blue book on the writing desk" at a time when most of its competitors parsers were restricted to simple two word verb-noun combinations such as "put book". The parser was actively upgraded with new features like undo and error correction, and later games would 'understand' multiple sentence input: 'pick up the gem and put it in my bag. take the newspaper clipping out of my bag then burn it with the book of matches'. A parser is a computer program or a component of a program that analyses the grammatical structure of an input, with respect to a given formal grammar, a process known as parsing. ...

In a non-technical sense, Infocom was responsible for developing the interactive style that would be emulated by many later interpreters. The Curses excerpt below, for example, is recognizably in the 'Infocom style'.

The company was bought by Activision in 1986 after the failure of Cornerstone, its database software program, and stopped producing text adventures a few years later. Activision, Inc. ... Cornerstone is a relational database for the PC released by Infocom in 1985. ...

In 1991 and 1992, Activision released volumes one and two of The Lost Treasures of Infocom, a collection containing most of Infocom's games, followed in 1996 by Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom. The Lost Treasures of Infocom is a collection of 20 computer games from interactive fiction pioneer Infocom, released in 1991. ... Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom is a collection of 33 computer games from interactive fiction pioneer Infocom, and the top 6 winners of the 1995 Interactive Fiction Competition, released in 1996. ...

Legend Entertainment

Legend Entertainment was founded by Bob Bates and Mike Verdu in 1989. It started out from the ashes of Infocom. Legend Entertainment was an American developer of computer games. ... Bob Bates is an American computer games designer. ...

The text adventures produced by Legend used (high-resolution) graphics as well as sound. Some of their titles include Eric the Unready, the Spellcasting series and Gateway (based on Frederik Pohl's novels). Eric the Unready is an adventure game from Legend Entertainment. ... Spellcasting The term is most often found in a variety of communities. ... Gateway (Frederik Pohls Gateway, 1992) and Gateway 2 (Gateway 2: Homeworld, 1993), are interactive fiction games released by Legend Entertainment, and written by Glen Dahlgren and Mike Verdu. ... Frederik George Pohl, Jr. ...

The last text adventure created by Legend was Gateway II, while the last game ever was Unreal 2 (the well-known first-person shooter action game). Legend was acquired in 2004 by Atari. Gateway (Frederik Pohls Gateway, 1992) and Gateway 2 (Gateway 2: Homeworld, 1993), are interactive fiction games released by Legend Entertainment, and written by Glen Dahlgren and Mike Verdu. ... Unreal II: The Awakening is a first-person shooter computer game, designed initially only for a single-player campaign. ... This article is about video games. ... This article is about the corporate brand. ...

Other companies

Probably the first commercial work of interactive fiction produced outside the U.S. was the dungeon crawl game of Acheton, produced in Cambridge, England, and first commercially released by Acornsoft (later expanded and reissued by Topologika). Other leading companies in the U.K. were Magnetic Scrolls and Level 9 Computing. Also worthy of mention are Delta 4, Melbourne House, and the homebrew company Zenobi. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers Ltd, and was a major publisher of games for the BBC Micro. ... Topologika is a British publisher of educational software. ... “UK” redirects here. ... Magnetic Scrolls was a British computer game developer during the mid 1980s and early 1990s. ... Level 9 was a British computer adventure game company who produced some of the most advanced games of the 1980s. ... This is an article about the UK company, for the missile see Delta IV rocket. ... Melbourne House is a game development studio owned by Atari and based in Melbourne, Australia. ... Zenobi is probably the single company that have released most interactive fiction, the total number is well over 150 adventures. ...

In Japan, companies such as Data West developed limited interactive fiction games, such as the seven-volume murder mystery series Misty.^[7] Later, interactive fiction became more popular in Japan in the form of visual novels. A visual novel is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art. ...

In Italy, interactive fiction games were mainly published and distributed through various magazines in included tapes. The largest number of games was published in the two magazines Viking and Explorer^[8], with versions for the main 8-bit home computers (ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and MSX). The software house producing those games was Brainstorm Enterprise, and the most prolific IF author was Bonaventura Di Bello^[9], who produced 70 games in the Italian language. The wave of interactive fiction in Italy lasted for a couple of years thanks to the various magazines promoting the genre, then faded and remains still today a topic of interest for a small group of fans and less known developers, celebrated on Web sites and in related newsgroups. The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. ... C-64 redirects here. ... Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s. ...

Modern era

After the demise of the commercial interactive fiction market in the 1990s, an online community eventually formed around the medium. In 1987, the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction was created, and was soon followed by rec.games.int-fiction. By custom, the topic of rec.arts.int-fiction is interactive fiction authorship and programming, while rec.games.int-fiction encompasses topics related to playing interactive fiction games, such as hint requests and game reviews. Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, decentralized, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name. ...

One of the most important early developments was the reverse-engineering of Infocom's Z-Code format and Z-Machine virtual machine in 1987 by a group of enthusiasts called the InfoTaskForce and the subsequent development of an interpreter for Z-Code story files. As a result, it became possible to play Infocom's work on modern computers. For the virtual machine language introduced by Infocom, see the article under Z-machine. ... The Z machine at Sandia National Laboratory. ... In computer science, a virtual machine is software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system, so that the end user can operate software on an abstract machine. ... The InfoTaskForce was a group of Infocom enthusiasts who first reverse engineered the Infocom Z-Machine and wrote a public domain version in C. The ITF started in 1986 when an Australian adventure game player was playing Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and wondered whether there was a way to... In computer science, an interpreter is a computer program that executes, or performs, instructions written in a computer programming language. ...

For years amateurs formed a small community producing interactive fiction works of relatively limited scope using the Adventure Game Toolkit and similar tools. The breakthrough that allowed the interactive fiction community to truly prosper, however, was the creation and distribution of two sophisticated development systems. In 1987, Michael J. Roberts released TADS, a programming language designed to produce works of interactive fiction. In 1993, Graham Nelson released Inform, a programming language and set of libraries which compiled to a Z-Code story file. Each of these systems allowed anyone with sufficient time and dedication to create a game, and caused a growth boom in the online interactive fiction community. The Adventure Game Toolkit is software that supports the development of adventure games. ... TADS is a programming system for creating interactive fiction games. ... Graham Nelson (born 1968) is the creator of the Inform design system for creating interactive fiction (IF) games. ... Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. ... A programming language is an artificial language that can be used to control the behavior of a machine, particularly a computer. ... A diagram of the operation of a typical multi-language, multi-target compiler. ...

Despite the lack of commercial support, the availability of high quality tools allowed enthusiasts of the genre to develop new high quality games. Competitions such as the annual Interactive Fiction Competition for short works, the newer Spring Thing for longer works, and the XYZZY Awards, further helped to improve the quality and complexity of the games. Modern games go much further than the original "Adventure" style, improving upon Infocom games, which relied extensively on puzzle solving, and to a lesser extent on communication with non player characters, to include experimentation with writing and story-telling techniques. The Interactive Fiction Competition is an annual competition for works of interactive fiction that has been held since 1995. ... Spring Thing is an annual competition to highlight works of Interactive Fiction (text adventure games and other literary works). ... The XYZZY Awards are an event to recognize extraordinary interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards or Grammy Awards but for a far smaller community. ...

While the majority of modern interactive fiction developed is distributed for free, there are some commercial endeavors, including Peter Nepstad's 1893: A World's Fair Mystery, several games by Howard Sherman published as Malinche Entertainment, and The General Coffee Company's Future Boy!. Emily Short was commissioned to develop the game City of Secrets but the project fell through and she ended up releasing it herself.^[10] Some authors offer optional commercial "feelies" (physical props associated with a game) through feelies.org or similar services. Malinche Entertainment is an interactive fiction development and publishing business founded by Howard Sherman. ... Emily Short is a prolific interactive fiction (IF) writer, perhaps best known for her debut game Galatea and her use of psychologically complex non-player game characters. ...

Notable works

• Colossal Cave Adventure by Will Crowther and Don Woods was the first text adventure ever made.
• The Zork series by Infocom (1979- ) was the first text adventure to see widespread commercial release.
• The Hobbit by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler of Beam Software (1982) was an early reinterpretation of an existing novel into interactive fiction, with several independent non-player characters.
• Planetfall, by Steve Meretzky of Infocom (1983), featured Floyd the robot, which Allen Varney claimed to be the first game character who evoked a strong emotional commitment from players.^[11]
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky of Infocom (1984), was notable in that the author of the original work was involved in the reinterpretation.
• A Mind Forever Voyaging, by Steve Meretzky of Infocom (1985), the first story-heavy, puzzle-light game.
• Amnesia, by Hugo Award and Nebula Award winning science fiction and fantasy author Thomas M. Disch (1987), the only purely text-only adventure ever published by Electronic Arts.
• Curses, by Graham Nelson (1993), the first game ever written in the Inform programming language. Considered one of the first "modern" games to meet the high standards set by Infocom's best titles.^[12]
• Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki, by Square Co. (1996), one of the earliest text adventures on a video game console.
• So Far, by Andrew Plotkin (1996), the first XYZZY Award for Best Game winner in 1996.
• Anchorhead, by Michael S. Gentry (1998) is a highly rated horror story inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.^[13]
• Photopia, by Adam Cadre (1998), the first almost entirely puzzle-free game. It won the annual Interactive Fiction Competition in 1998.
• Varicella by Adam Cadre (1999). It won four XYZZY Awards in 1999 including the XYZZY Award for Best Game, and had a scholarly essay written about it.^[14]
• Galatea, by Emily Short (2000). Galatea is focused entirely on interaction with the animated statue of the same name. Galatea has one of the most complex interaction systems for a non-player character in an interactive fiction game. Adam Cadre called Galatea "the best NPC ever".^[15]
• Slouching Towards Bedlam, by Star C. Foster and Daniel Ravipinto (2003). Set in a steampunk setting, the game integrates meta-game functionality (saving, restoring, restarting) into the game world itself. The game won four XYZZY Awards and held the record for the highest average score of any game in the Interactive Fiction Competition before 2006, when it was overtaken by Floatpoint.^[16][17]
• Rendition, by nespresso (2007). A political art experiment in the form of a text adventure game, forcing the player to confront their own complicity. Its approach to tragedy has been discussed academically by both the Association of Computing Machinery^[18] and Cambridge University.^[19]

This article is about an early text based computer game. ... William (Willie or Will) Crowther is a computer programmer and caver. ... Don Woods is a perennial hacker and computer programmer. ... Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I • Zork II • Zork III Beyond Zork • Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter • Sorcerer • Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer • Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis • Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters • Kings • Creatures Timeline • Magic • Calendar Zorkmid... Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I   Zork II   Zork III Beyond Zork   Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter   Sorcerer   Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer   Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis   Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Topics in Zork Encyclopedia Frobozzica Characters   Kings   Creatures Timeline   Magic   Calendar Zorkmid... The Hobbit is a computer game released in 1982 and based on the book The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. ... Melbourne House is a game development studio owned by Atari and based in Melbourne, Australia. ... For the 2005 movie, see Planetfall (movie). ... Steve Meretzky Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957) is an American computer game designer, with dozens of titles to his credit. ... This article belongs in one or more categories. ... The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is an interactive fiction computer game based on the seminal comic science fiction series of the same name. ... Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. ... A Mind Forever Voyaging (AMFV) is an interactive fiction game designed and implemented by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in 1985. ... Thomas M. Dischs Amnesia is a text adventure computer game created by Cognetics Corporation, written by award-winning writer Thomas M. Disch, and programmed by Charles Kreitzberg and Kevin Bentley. ... The 2005 Hugo Award with base designed by Deb Kosiba. ... The Nebula is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years (see rolling eligibility below). ... Thomas M. Disch Thomas Michael Disch (Born February 2, 1940) is an American science fiction author and poet. ... Electronic Arts (EA) (NASDAQ: ERTS) is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games. ... Curses is an interactive fiction computer game created by Graham Nelson in 1993. ... Graham Nelson (born 1968) is the creator of the Inform design system for creating interactive fiction (IF) games. ... Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. ... Square Company, Limited ) was a Japanese video game company founded in September of 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi. ... Game console redirects here. ... So Far is an interactive fiction game written in 1996 by Andrew Plotkin. ... Andrew Plotkin, also known as Zarf, is an important figure in the modern interactive fiction community. ... The XYZZY Award for Best Game is one of the annual awards given by XYZZYnews to works of interactive fiction. ... Anchorhead is the name of a 1998 interactive fiction computer game by Michael S. Gentry. ... Michael S. Gentry is an award-winning interactive fiction author. ... This article is about the author. ... Cthulhu and Rlyeh The Cthulhu Mythos encompasses the shared elements, characters, settings, and themes in the works of H. P. Lovecraft and associated horror fiction writers. ... Photopia is a piece of literature by Adam Cadre rendered in the form of interactive fiction, and written in Inform. ... Adam Cadre (born February 5, 1974 in Silver Spring, Maryland[1]) is a U.S. writer. ... The Interactive Fiction Competition is an annual competition for works of interactive fiction that has been held since 1995. ... Varicella is a Latin name for chickenpox. ... The XYZZY Awards are an event to recognize extraordinary interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards or Grammy Awards but for a far smaller community. ... Galatea is a piece of art work by Emily Short rendered in the form of interactive fiction, and written in Inform. ... Emily Short is a prolific interactive fiction (IF) writer, perhaps best known for her debut game Galatea and her use of psychologically complex non-player game characters. ... An NPC from the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. ... Adam Cadre (born February 5, 1974 in Silver Spring, Maryland[1]) is a U.S. writer. ... Slouching Towards Bedlam is an interactive fiction game. ... For the comic book, see Steampunk (comics). ... The XYZZY Awards are an event to recognize extraordinary interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards or Grammy Awards but for a far smaller community. ... The Interactive Fiction Competition is an annual competition for works of interactive fiction that has been held since 1995. ... Floatpoint is a 2006 work of interactive fiction written by Emily Short about a diplomat sent to an endangered alien colony to discuss evacuation options and terms of cohabitation. ... Experimental literature are written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style . ... For other uses, see Tragedy (disambiguation). ... The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the worlds first scientific and educational computing society. ... The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world, with one of the most selective sets of entry requirements in the United Kingdom. ...

Sample transcript

This is a brief transcript from one of many possible ways to not win the game Curses, by Graham Nelson. The player has entered instructions on the lines beginning with '>' (shown here in italic); the rest of the text is printed by the computer. The computer begins with a printed introduction giving a little context to the game (much more would become apparent as the game progressed): Curses is an interactive fiction computer game created by Graham Nelson in 1993. ... Graham Nelson (born 1968) is the creator of the Inform design system for creating interactive fiction (IF) games. ...

It's become a matter of pride now not to give up. That tourist map of Paris must be up here somewhere in all this clutter, even if it has been five years since your last trip. And it's your own fault. It looks as if your great-grandfather was the last person to tidy up these lofts...

CURSES
An Interactive Diversion
Copyright (c) 1993 by Graham Nelson. New players should type "help".
Release 8 / Serial number 930603 (Compiled by Inform v634)

Attic

The attics, full of low beams and awkward angles, begin here in a relatively tidy area which extends north, south and east. The wooden floorboards seem fairly sound, just as well considering how heavy all these teachests are. But the old wiring went years ago, and there's no electric light.

A hinged trapdoor in the floor stands open, and light streams in from below.

>inventory
You are carrying:

a chocolate biscuit
an electric torch (providing light and closed)
a crumpled piece of paper

>read paper

Things to do:

1. Find map
2. Phone airport to check parking
3. Health forms...

and so on. Let's face it, 1. is more enticing than the rest put together.

>enter trapdoor
Yes, probably just as well to give up looking, and heaven knows there's enough packing to do, what with the rest of the family in uproar. Oh well.

*** You have missed the point entirely ***

In that game you scored 0 out of a possible 550, in 3 turns, giving you the rank of hapless Tourist.

Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT?
>^[2]

Development systems

A number of systems are available today to write interactive fiction. Among them are ADRIFT, Inform, Hugo, Quest, and TADS. The majority of current IF development is implemented in Inform, TADS, or ADRIFT. In the 2006 IFComp, the lions' share of the games were written for Inform, with a strong minority of games for TADS and ADRIFT, followed by a smattering of games for other systems.^[20] ADRIFT is a graphical user interface used to create and play text adventures. ... Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. ... Hugo is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction created by Kent Tessman. ... Quest is a piece of software developed by Alex Warren (Axe Software) to play text adventures written in the Adventure Scripting Language. ... TADS is a programming system for creating interactive fiction games. ... The Interactive Fiction Competition is an annual competition for works of interactive fiction that has been held since 1995. ...

While familiarity with a programming language leads many new authors to attempt to produce their own complete IF application, most established IF authors recommend use of a specialised IF language, arguing that such systems allow authors to avoid the technicalities of producing a full featured parser, while allowing broad community support. The choice of authoring system usually depends on the author's desired balance of ease of use versus power, and the portability of the final product.^[21]

Older development Systems

• Gilsoft's The Quill and the Professional Adventure Writer
• Incentive Software's Graphic Adventure Creator (GAC)

Gilsoft was a British producer and publisher of video games and related utilities. ... The Quill (or The Quill Adventure System as its full name is) is a program to write home computer adventure games. ... Professional Adventure Writer or PAW (sometimes called PAWS for Professional Adventure Writing System) is a program which allows the user to write textual adventure games with graphic illustrations. ... Incentive Software Ltd. ... Graphic Adventure Creator (often shortened to GAC) was a game creation system/programming language for adventure games published by Incentive Software and written by Sean Ellis and Brendan Kelly. ...

See also

• Grue
• Interactive Fiction (IF) MUD

Zork universe Zork games Zork Anthology Zork trilogy Zork I • Zork II • Zork III Beyond Zork • Zork Zero Enchanter trilogy Enchanter • Sorcerer • Spellbreaker Other games Wishbringer • Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis • Zork Grand Inquisitor Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Companies Infocom • Activision • FrobozzCo Miscellaneous Z-machine • AFGNCAAP • Books A grue is... ifMUD is a MUD associated with the rec. ...

Related Concepts

• Hypertext fiction
• Roleplaying Games, which are occasionally described as another form of interactive fiction.
• Visual novel, interactive fiction with graphics.
• Multi-User Dungeon (MUD), which may be considered as a kind of multiplayer or collaborative interactive fiction
• Addventure
• Gamebook
• Graphic adventures, adventure games with roots in interactive fiction.
• Amateur adventure game
• Interactive storytelling

Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links which provides a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. ... A roleplaying game (RPG) is a type of game in which players assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create stories. ... A visual novel is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art. ... This article is about a type of online computer game. ... An addventure is a type of online interactive fiction that combines aspects of round-robin stories and Choose Your Own Adventure-style tales. ... A gamebook is a book with a branching plot that serves as a medium for gameplay. ... An amateur adventure game is a freeware computer game belonging to the adventure genre. ... Interactive storytelling is a developing kind of computer entertainment. ...

Specific Related Fiction

• Choose Your Own Adventure
• Fighting Fantasy
• Lone Wolf (gamebooks)

The Cave of Time, the first Choose Your Own Adventure book. ... For a list of Fighting Fantasy media, see List of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, originally published by Puffin and now by Wizard Books. ... Lone Wolf role-playing gamebooks. ...

Notes

Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 101st day of the year (102nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 108th day of the year (109th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 115th day of the year (116th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 119th day of the year (120th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Graham Nelson (born 1968) is the creator of the Inform design system for creating interactive fiction (IF) games. ... Curses is an interactive fiction computer game created by Graham Nelson in 1993. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Seton Hill University is a small Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 142nd day of the year (143rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 65th day of the year (66th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 65th day of the year (66th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 5th October (Serbia). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... {| style=float:right; |- | |- | |} is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 73rd day of the year (74th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Nick Montfort is a poet, computer scientist, scholar of new media and game studies, and author of interactive fiction who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• Montfort, Nick (2005). Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-63318-5. 

MIT Press Books The MIT Press is a university publisher affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

External links

• Interactive Fiction Database, a community site where you can find personalized recommendations for IF games to play.
• Text Adventures at the Open Directory Project
• The Interactive Fiction Archive, a large archive of free-to-download and play interactive fiction (random mirror).
• Baf's Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive, a more user-friendly interface for the IF archive.
• The Interactive Fiction Wiki, a MediaWiki wiki specific to Interactive Fiction.
• Something about Interactive Fiction - MobyGames examines the history (and future) of this gaming genre.
• A Brief History of Interactive Fiction, a timeline of events in interactive fiction history at the Brass Lantern website.
• Interactive Fiction: More Than Retro Fun, a beginners introduction and setup guide to Interactive Fiction games and interpreters