Kotaku: Zork

Lifetime Sales Figures For...Infocom!

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:30:00 MDT

Jason Scott, connoisseur of all things old-timey, knows (and loves) his gaming history. His Flickr gallery shows this. It also shows, remarkably, that he's got a copy of the lifetime sales figures of a bunch of Infocom games. Infocom being the developers of games like Zork and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's fascinating stuff, especially when you consider that shifting 380,000 units of Zork between 1981 and 1986 is, relatively, shifting a lotta units.

Great Scott: Infocom's All-Time Sales Numbers Revealed [GameSetWatch]

The iPhone Just Became A Text Adventure Goldmine

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:40:51 MDT

iPhone gaming just got a shot in the arm with the release of Frotz, an interactive fiction (aka text adventure) app that's free to download. With it, iPhone owners can while away the hours with dozens of text-only games, getting lamps, facing north, being frozen by wizards... all that fun stuff! That means you have another opportunity to play Zork, Trinity or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy should the only high-def visuals you require be ultra smooth fonts.

Frotz, available via the App Store right now, comes with "several" built-in, public domain games. It also provides easy access to the Interactive Fiction Database, giving you nearly endless options for replayability. Get on it!

‘Frotz’: Interactive Fiction Comes to the iPhone [TouchArcade]

A History of Interactive Fiction

Maggie Greene — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:30:00 MDT

This is an oldie (appearing in 2006) but goodie if you're interested in interactive fiction — Jimmy Maher wrote a lengthy, well-written and comprehensive history of interactive fiction, from Eliza to the era of Infocom to the state of IF today. It's a fascinating wrap up, even if you're not one of the handful of active IF players; but IF's fall from commercial grace hasn't stopped IF creators from trundling on to creating bigger and better things:

... The genre has fallen from all commercial grace, and its overall popularity is a miniscule fraction of what it once was. Barely twenty years ago, at least one IF game sold one-million copies at price points of thirty dollars or more; today, the active community of IF players is reduced to a bare handful of thousands, despite the fact that its games' creators now give their work away for free. On the other hand, though, those remnants of IF's once prodigious fanbase who remain have largely shed the lure of retro-gaming nostalgia that has afflicted similar revivalist efforts in other genres and produced work of often amazing originality and quality. While there is plenty of detritus about, the top ten-percent or so of hobbyist IF of the past decade easily dwarfs that of the commercial era in terms of design, sophistication, and literary quality. That a relatively small group of amateurs has been capable of surpassing the work of well-funded companies not just once or twice but on a regular basis is remarkable. That they have taken IF in directions those companies never dreamed of is inspiring.

I'm personally really interested in IF for a number of reasons, and had a grand time reading through a comprehensive but digestible history of IF, from Zork to its current stars.

Let's Tell a Story Together [Jimmy Maher]

Pac-Txt: A Pac-Man Text Adventure

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:20:51 MDT

I'm not sure what's more soul-crushing—that someone took the effort to write a web-based Pac-Man text adventure in the style of Zork or that I just spent fifteen minutes ensuring that it adhered to the maze layout perfectly. Regardless, your semi-daily reminder that someone has far too much time on their hands is at the official Pac-Txt site.

Pac-Txt [via Digg]

'The History of Zork'

Maggie Greene — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:30:31 MDT

Gamasutra has published the second installment of its series that "present[s] in-depth histories of the first ten games voted into the Digital Game Canon," and the subject this time is Zork. It's a fun look back, and perhaps forward - at least according to the author, who says flat out that "My goal is to persuade you that the text adventure is still a viable genre for modern gamers, even in an age when software and hardware developers are making breakthrough after breakthrough in graphics and animation."

It's a history, an homage, a bit of a love letter, and a fun read overall.

What Zork seemed to contribute more than anything was the idea that the computer could simulate a rich virtual environment much, much larger and nuanced than the playing fields seen in games like Spacewar! or Pac-Man. Furthermore, the game demonstrated the literary potential of the computer. Thousands upon thousands of gamers have been charmed by the wit and elegance of Zork's many descriptions.

GameSetWatch also pointed out that Matt Barton, the author, made the full interviews available on his own website, so you can find them here.
The History Of Zork [Gamasutra]

The 10 Most Important Video Games

Mike Fahey — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:40:21 MDT

Henry Lowood, the curator of the Stanford University History of Science and Technology Collections, announced this past week a list of the 10 Most Important Video Games of All Time. This game canon has been created to preserve to cultural and historical significance of gaming. The list is a result of a collaboration between Lowood, Warren Spector, Steve Meretzky, academic researcher Matteo Bittani and gaming journalist Christopher Grant from Joystiq, and represents the games we must protect at all costs...our cultural artifacts.

Spacewar! (1962)
Star Raiders (1979)
Zork (1980)
Tetris (1985)
SimCity (1989)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990)
Civilization I / II (1991)
Doom (1993)
Warcraft (Series) (1994)
Sensible World of Soccer (1994)

The games all represent firsts for lasting genres, such as adventure games, multiplayer, FPS, story-driven RTS, et cetera. Each gamer is required to save these titles to a microchip embedded in the base of their skull in order to preserve our gaming heritage. Michael Fahey

Is That Just Some Game? No, It's a Cultural Artifact [The New York Times, via Grand Text Auto]

Adventure Gamers Adventure To AdventureCon

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:40:33 MST

Celebrating thirty (THIRTY!) years of Zork and twenty years of Leisure Suit Larry, the Las Vegas AdventureCon will act as the meeting ground for gamers who love the dying point-click-read genre.

Old and old-shool gamers who have a fondness for The Longest Journey, Zork, or Gabriel Knight should clear their calendars for the August 28th and 29th get together as it promises some pretty big names... in the adventure game world, of course.

Registration is open now and the whole shebang will set you back $599 per person (including hotel rooms, meals, and con tickets), but cheaper packages are available. Hardcore adventure games hitting Vegas in the middle of summer? I expect a sexy, texty time! Michael McWhertor

AdventureCon Plans Adventure Game Celebration [Gamasutra]

Gen Con 2006: The Heart of Dorkness

Brian Crecente — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:00:45 MDT

Slashdot Games' Zonk has quite a lengthy and in-depth piece up looking at this year's Gen Con 2006, or the heart of dorkness, as he calls it.

While a bulk of the convention coverage deals with table top gaming, there's enough cross-over from and into the video game world to make it interesting to those not into dice, cards or miniatures.

Both the World of Warcraft and EVE: Second Genesis trading card games were being show in the convention hall. Zonk also took a look at Dungeons and Dragons Online, Warhammer Online, Neverwinter Nights 2 and NCsoft's free Dungeon Runners. Brian Crecente

Gen Con 2006 in a Nutshell [Slashdot Games]

ZAsterisk: Play Zork By Phone!

brownlee — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:40:04 MDT

Back when I was 4, I spent a great deal of time being gently irradiated by my mother's work unix terminal, playing the meager selection of remote text games installed on the New England Telephone mainframe. Go Fish was about the only one that I was good at; Rogue was my favorite. And I never had any idea what the hell to do in Zork.

And still don't! But maybe now's a good time to find out: Zasterisk is a mobile phone port of Zork, except that it's played entirely by voice command. "Listen as the eerie voice of Festival takes you into the Underground Empire, and marvel as you explore this world with your dial pad, unlocking the secrets within!" Apparently, issuing directions is as simple as saying things like "Go north!" into your phone in a voice of stern command. Maybe I can finally figure out what to do with that stupid lantern.

Zasterisk (via Boing Boing)

Polygons Meet Pebbles

kotaku.com — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:40:00 MDT

We don't know where this came from, but it's pretty funny. A small group of stones as they might theoretically be rendered in videogames from Asteroids to Zelda. And there's space for you to provide your own! Seriously, if you have any idea where these came from, let us know. We like to give credit where it's due.

Update: The folks at http://www.4chan.org lovingly crafted these pebbles. Bravo!