09/11 Top-10 Text Based Games

[Mmmbacon]

I almost came back and deleted that post because I was sure it smacked of elitism and came off as a slam to the show. But your response tells me you didn't take it that way. I really appreciate it. The "listeners are our battery" is not just a hollow phrase you bandy about, it's evident show after show. Maybe that's where the passion comes from, each of us (well me at least) feel a part of the show, and when you get to a persons favorite genre or game, we just temporarily lose our minds (well me at least). Thanks for taking my post as intended. Ill continue to be a battery (go ahead, try and knock it off my shoulder [that reference should tell you our ages or eras are fairly close]). Maybe next time, Ill provide it with just a little bit less "ranty". Thanks for the hard work you guys put into the show. It's appreciated.

Your copper-top friend,

Mmmbacon

[rickreynolds]

I really enjoyed this top 10. I posted this as an idea for a top-10 some months back (I'm sure I wasn't the only one). So thanks for tackling one of my favorite genres!

Playing text adventures (IF) is still something I come back to again and again. Is the community here aware of the very-much-alive IF hobbyist community? Many, many free text games are available from the IF archive. Many hobbyist games are as good (and better) than the stuff that Infocom/Plan 9/etc. was putting out. And the timing of this top-10 is excellent as the yearly IF competition just started! Many new games get published each fall.

Also, I agree strongly with UK Mike: get a copy of "Get Lamp" and check out that documentary. It's very well made and is full of great information.

IF Archive: http://www.ifarchive.org/ (it's a little nerdy in terms of navigation)

BAF's guide to the IF Archive: http://wurb.com/if/ (really helpful for searching through games, seeing ratings, etc.)

The IF competition site: http://ifcomp.org/

Get Lamp: http://www.getlamp.com/ (the film is actually creative commons licensed so you can watch it for free on youtube, but you can support the guy by purchasing a physical copy)

A side note: I had a brush with greatness in that I worked at a company some years ago with Andrew Plotkin, who is somewhat of a modern IF luminary. His games are always very well done and usually quite good (and sometimes quite strange!).

[Mmmbacon]

Is the community here aware of the very-much-alive IF hobbyist community?

Look up above you, 2 posts ago. I said (ranted) the same 2 days ago. Thanks for the links. The podcast and discussions afterward, are sure to convert some unsuspecting people into and IF afficianados....

Just a little addendum. Maybe you can even shoehorn in the fact that there is still a fairly bustling IF community, still making IF and even taking it to new heights with Inform7, an innovative IF Language. Some games even rival the masters of Infocom. And then maybe supply a list of links to current games and sites.

[rickreynolds]

Ooops! Sorry to have missed that. I read over the postings in the thread rather quickly.

[Mmmbacon]

No problemo. How long did you work with Plotkin? And was he authoring IF back then?

[CptNeeda]

This show got me to look at the other Infocom games from my past. What about Bureaucracy? I think everyone missed this one.

I think the concept was brilliant. "The man" messes up your bank account, your mail, etc after you just moved and its your job to fix it.

Have you ever had the proverbial nightmare when trying to get something important done. This game makes a joke of it. Its kind of like the Seinfeld version of a text adventure.

It's written by Douglas Adams and I think the manual is funny enough.

Check it out at the Infocom Documentation Project : here

[miner2049er]

That looks really interesting, I'll have to look into it, thanks.

[meu2]

Can’t say I’ve spent much time with any of these except Zork, but I SoCal Mike really sold Deadline. You could nearly say they were doing “Augmented Reality” before that was a thing.

[tcv]

I had little patience for games beyond the typical pick-up-and-play-as-long-as-you-can. I had a friend that was heavily into Infocom games at the time, though. He tried to get my involved. I think I had picked up Leather Goddesses, but just didn't keep up with it. Interestingly, I thought that when that first graphic/text hybrid Zork came out it was the end of the era.

[DoctorMikeReddy]

When I saw this was going to be discussed on Facebook I responded with a list of games, including the REALLY great games of IF. It's frustrating that work got in the way, and I didn't catch up to the podcast till yesterday, but this is one top ten that shows your parochial rather than inform(ed) understanding of Interactive Fiction. It didn't feel that the discussion had the depth of experience or knowledge worthy of such a topic, compared to other top tens you've done. I'm a BIG fan and supporter of the show - not sure I deserve battery status, because I hit the forums only when I can. Maybe charged capacitor? - but I wish you almost hadn't done this one, it was such a wasted opportunity. Why? Because although you're a retro show, even new IF titles (and there are many lovingly crafted ones that push games as art) count just because the medium is the original backbone of most story based computer games in the modern sense.