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Text Adventures

theoptimist

theoptimist

New Member
Did anyone used to play text adventures?

Something reminded me of them earlier, i remember spending hours on these! :cool:
 
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I have a bunch of old Infocom games, and a few from another company. I have not played them in a long time. The early ones were good, but then they started getting really obscure with what you actually needed to type ('HOLD MAGNET OVER CRACK IN FLOOR' as 'USE MAGNET ON CRACK' or such would not work). They are fun, but if you are easily frustrated then they are not for you.
 
Most, if not all, are in the IF Archive, as are the interpreters to play them.

You might want to take your pick from the previous winners of the annual IF Comp to see what's on offer.

Notable games are Jigsaw and Curses (Graham Nelson), Photopia (Adam Cadre), Anchorhead (Michael Gentry), and City Of Secrets (Emily Short), and my personal favourite, The Moonlit Tower (Yoon Ha Lee).
 
Stewart said:
Most, if not all, are in the IF Archive, as are the interpreters to play them.

You might want to take your pick from the previous winners of the annual IF Comp to see what's on offer.

Notable games are Jigsaw and Curses (Graham Nelson), Photopia (Adam Cadre), Anchorhead (Michael Gentry), and City Of Secrets (Emily Short), and my personal favourite, The Moonlit Tower (Yoon Ha Lee).
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Wow, thanks for that! I'll check them out tonight!
 
I don't know if it qualifies, but I played Zork. I always found it rather frustrating trying to find the right commands. Must say that I prefer the newer adventure games.
 
pink shadow said:
I don't know if it qualifies, but I played Zork.
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Of course it does, it was one of the major games by Infocom.

I always found it rather frustrating trying to find the right commands. Must say that I prefer the newer adventure games.
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Same here. I don't like having to type out examine in, Zork say, when in modern games I'm used to typing x.
 
I was playing City of Secrets last night, and had just woken up on the second day (first morning) in the hotel room, but became stuck when it wouldn't let me pick up the ticket on the table, and wouldn't let me leave the room without it. I tried GET TICKET, GET EXPRESS, GET TRAIN TICKET, GET TRAIN PASS, GET EXPRESS TICKET, PICK UP TICKET but it still wouldn't do it. Is there some trick to it?

EDIT: Never mind. I used GET ALL
 
Originally Posted by MonkeyCatcher
I was playing City of Secrets last night, and had just woken up on the second day (first morning) in the hotel room, but became stuck when it wouldn't let me pick up the ticket on the table, and wouldn't let me leave the room without it. I tried GET TICKET, GET EXPRESS, GET TRAIN TICKET, GET TRAIN PASS, GET EXPRESS TICKET, PICK UP TICKET but it still wouldn't do it. Is there some trick to it?

EDIT: Never mind. I used GET ALL
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I was stuck at the same spot!!!

Are text adventures pretty common in the UK? I have not heard of them until I read this post.
 
Or
iginally posted by Stewart
You may like to read the history of text adventures from the Inform Designer's Manual.
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Thanks, great site!

It is hard to believe I have not been exposed to Inform before, programming used to be a hobby of mine and many of my friends are programmers.
 
Stewart said:
Same here. I don't like having to type out examine in, Zork say, when in modern games I'm used to typing x.
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I actually prefer games where you don't have to type at all, just point & click or use your gamepad, for example The Longest Journey or Riven or anything with my dream-man Guybrush Threepwood ;)
 
The IF Comp 2006 is due to start on October 1st. Will anyone be playing some of the entrants once they are available?
 
as far as i can remember, just the original leisure suit larry, and the hitchhikker guide to the galaxy (didnt go very far on that one)
 
Did anyone use to play text adventures on the Acorn Electron? (Or BBC micro). I remember being amazed at the quality of a game called "The Lost Crystal", which not only seemed vast but was also illustrated (up to a point) and its parser could understand complete sentences. All that in 32K! I can't remember if I ever completed it - all I can remember is a hydra that was very difficult to kill. I used to have hydra-themed nightmares while playing that.

I felt betrayed when text adventures were effectively killed by graphical adventures. Now that graphical adventures are all but dead as well, I feel doubly betrayed. But there's still hope...
 
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