
The End of Books (1992) - cmod
https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/27/specials/coover-end.html
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throwanem
The mention of the Hypertext Hotel reminds me of "The Toothpaste Disaster"
[1], a Lexicon [2] game which provided a great deal of inspiration for the XP
reboot of the classic Paranoia [3] RPG system. Lexicon has more rules than
what's described in the article, but still provides a good playground for the
same kind of creative urge.

I'm not sure hypertext has really found its fictional style. For the most
part, I'm not sure anyone is even really still trying. It'd be nice to know
about anyone who is.

[1] [http://paranoia.allenvarney.com/](http://paranoia.allenvarney.com/)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicon_%28game%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicon_%28game%29)

[3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-
playing_game%...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-
playing_game%29)

~~~
Kadin
One well-known designer still producing text-based games is "Porpentine". Her
work is mostly built using the Twine engine/platform/backend, which runs in a
browser. (There is a seemingly active community around Twine; Porpentine is
just the most well-known developer that I've run across.)

Some of her works are more what I'd think of as "interactive fiction" as
opposed to "games", although they certainly serve to blur the line between the
two genres.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpentine_(game_designer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpentine_\(game_designer\))

I am particularly a fan of "Ultra Business Tycoon II":
[http://aliendovecote.com/uploads/twine/tycoon/crime.html](http://aliendovecote.com/uploads/twine/tycoon/crime.html)

~~~
throwanem
Also, why the quotes around her name?

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jhbadger
This really reminds me of the time when hypertext was a thing. Yes, you can
argue that technically any web page with links is "hypertext", but they really
meant something else in those days. Literary works with links that would let
you read scenes from another character's perspective, and so on.

