Interactive Fiction

[Supergrunch]

People may or may not have heard of this, but there's a genre of games that get called "text-based," where there are no graphics, only on-screen descriptions, and you play by entering instructions into a command line which effectively parses a very pared down English. The genre has its origins in relatively simple cave crawling type games, such as the famous Zork series, but more recently an indie community has sprung up which has been stretching the genre far more, and some pretty interesting stuff has been made. If you're a total beginner, there's a nice guide here, which gives you the basics. Some games will play online in embedded flash software, but for the best experience (including easier saving and nice typography), download an offline interpreter like Gargoyle.

 

Anyway, here are a few of my favourites, most of which are quite short and so good for beginners:

 

9:05: Quite a good one to start off with. The game starts with you having overslept, and you have to work out what to do from there. Online link. Download link (you might have to scroll down to find the right game).

 

Suveh Nux: You play a magician's apprentice trapped in a room and have to work out a linguistic magic system to escape. Just amazing. Maybe a little easy, but such a clever idea. Online link. Download link.

 

Violet: You play a grad student trying to finish his thesis, with the interpreter being your girlfriend. Quite amusing, if a little cheesy, and some nice puzzles. Online link. Download link.

 

Galatea: The entire game is a conversation with a living statue. A nice open-ended exercise in NPC interaction. Online link. Download link.

 

Shade: You're in your apartment the night before a festival. Creepy, fun, and quite clever. Online link. Download link.

 

Spider and Web: A longer game, that's more typical of traditional text-based games, but with a clever twist. Fun, although quite hard and I've yet to finish it. Download link.

 

Lost Pig: A bit of a parody of cave crawling games, where you play an orc looking for a pig. Pretty amusing, and you get a great sense of the main character. Online link. Download link.

 

That'll probably do for now. Let me know what you think!

[Emasher]

I tried to play Zork once, but I just couldn't get into it. Although, it was mostly the poor writing that put me off. Are these written any better today?

[Supergrunch]

I tried to play Zork once, but I just couldn't get into it. Although, it was mostly the poor writing that put me off. Are these written any better today?

Yes, mostly. Zork is to modern text-based games what Mario Brothers is to Mario Galaxy.

[jayseven]

did an entire module on 'digital fiction' which encomasses interactive fiction, text-based interactive fiction, digital text aand... other stuff I forget. Digital literature? Mostly the module was around the versatility of a digital-age piece of literature, but we came across a few more game-like pieces. When I get on my own laptop I may be able to provide a few links to some interesting things.

[dwarf]

The closest thing I've come to text based games / interactive fiction was through this thing called Xi, a Playstation Home space that was basically this really cool and challenging mystery thing, with various puzzles and challenges that took place across different 'in-Home locations' and across the web.

 

One of the spaces included this gem of a game:

 

 

you basically use the analogue to go in a direction or control your inventory/actions.

 

I'd happily pay for a full retail game of that, except with graphic changes that made it less strenuous on my retinas.

Edited July 28, 2010 by dwarf

[Supergrunch]

Right, last night I played Photopia, which is really amazing and everyone should play it. The z-code file (for interpreters) is here.

[Tyson]

This thread has actually been keeping me entertained for the past few nights, replacing my regular pre-bedtime dose of Professor Layton. I loved Galatea, although I was pissed off when I accidently ended it by telling about my family twice.