| Interactive Fiction | 2004-03-04 07:15 12 comments |
 by Flemming FunchExcellent article, Magic Words: Interactive Fiction and the 21st Century, about, well, Interactive Fiction. Which is the kind of text adventure games that were quite popular in the 80s. I first played the classic "Adventure" game in 1975. I still have my map of Colossal Cave lying around here somewhere, and remember a lot of the rooms. Another well-known series of adventures is Zork, which starts like this: You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door.And then you can essentially move in different directions by typing commands in very simple English. "Go West", "Open mailbox", "Pick up sword" and that kind of thing. And you explore various creepy and strange places and solve riddles and meet strange creatures. Or whatever the scenario might be. Interactive text games might seem really ancient for kids today who are used to full motion 3D virtual reality. But it is an intriguing world of its own, stimulating other faculties of imagination. And it is in no ways dead, even though no games makers are making money on it. The article illustrates that well. There are thousands of titles, often made by enthusiasts just for the joy of it. They're often not really games, but more like stories you can walk around in and explore. Now, if I actually had too much time on my hands, I wouldn't mind writing some interactive fiction. Or how about the possibilities of combining the Interactive Fiction style with navigating around a blog or a WIKI. Like hinted at on that site. "You are at the title page of an Interactive Fiction feature. In the left sidebar you see a selection of text links which will lead to other pages within the article. A blinking cursor prompts you to make your selection."Navigating the web might be more stimulating if you're at risk of being eaten by a grue in the dark. |