Kotaku: infocom

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 'Infocom Drive': Milliways, the Hitchhiker's Guide Sequel

Maggie Greene — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:30:00 MDT

Working weekends here at Kotaku means that we can't lay claim to articles when we find them — and I'm constantly amazed as to what interesting articles I've come across have (and haven't) been posted by the time I stumble in on Saturday mornings. This week, it was the 'Infocom Drive,' a complete backup of Infocom's shared network drive from 1989 — including a whole lot of discussion and documentation about the unreleased sequel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It's an interesting look at the internal workings of Infocom and a look at a game that never was:

A sequel seemed like such a sure thing, they mentioned it in the game's ending. In the final scene, the Heart of Gold sets down on Magrathea and you exit the ship. "Slowly, nervously, you step downwards, the cold thin air rasping in your lungs. You set one single foot on the ancient dust — and almost instantly the most incredible adventure starts which you'll have to buy the next game to find out about."

Two playable (short) prototypes are tacked on at the end of the post, and the comments section is awash in interesting information, reminisces and pissed off Infocom employees (notably Michael Bywater, one of the key players in the Milliways narrative that was strung together in the original post). It's an interesting look at the last days of Infocom and the process of designing IF.

Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [Waxy]

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]

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]