
The Story of Infocom (2000) [pdf] - pmoriarty
http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2000/infocom/infocom-paper.pdf
======
nathell
For anyone interested in Infocom and the Z-machine, Graham Nelson's "The
Inform Designer's Manual, edition 4" [DM4] is an indispensable resource. In
particular, it includes a detailed chapter on the history of interactive
fiction, an edited version of Nelson's earlier article "The Craft of
Adventure."

[DM4]: [http://inform-fiction.org/manual/](http://inform-fiction.org/manual/)

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dukedougal
I loved Infocom adventures. Harry Potter owes a great deal to The Enchanter.

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tarr11
I thought the Z-Machine technology was really interesting. It seems that it
was what caused games like Zork to be successful, but also what caused their
graphical games to fail.

~~~
pmoriarty
As a player and fan of Infocom games back in the day they were released, I was
always turned off by the very idea of them moving towards graphical titles. It
seemed like they were trying to jump the shark[1], losing their uniqueness,
and betraying the principle and vision of the original, purely text-based
games.

Though Infocom died, their spirit lived on in a lively and incredibly
innovative amateur interactive fiction community.[2][3][4]

For a tiny taste of how far interactive fiction has come since the days of
Infocom and the Z-machine, see Inform 7.[5][6][7]

[1] -
[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JumpingTheShark](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JumpingTheShark)

[2] -
[http://www.spagmag.org/archives/index.html](http://www.spagmag.org/archives/index.html)

[3] - [http://brasslantern.org/](http://brasslantern.org/)

[4] -
[http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page](http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page)

[5] -
[http://brasslantern.org/writers/iftheory/tads3andi7.html](http://brasslantern.org/writers/iftheory/tads3andi7.html)

[6] -
[http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Inform_7](http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Inform_7)

[7] -
[http://brasslantern.org/writers/howto/i7tutorial.html](http://brasslantern.org/writers/howto/i7tutorial.html)

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lurkinggrue
Ok, This is wonderful.

