links.lmorchard.com - #ifiction

The Visible Zorker Project

Wed, 20 May 2026 01:57:20 +0000

But it also lets you see the game running as you play. Every time you type a command, you’ll see the source code of the functions that executed it. You can also browse the game’s variables and the state of every object. Track your progress on an interactive map. So you can see exactly what the game does and how it does it.

Tags: #gaming #ifiction #zork

The Adventure Family Tree

Mon, 11 May 2026 21:44:11 +0000

An incomplete chronicle of Crowther and Woods' Colossal Cave Adventure, the "fons et origo of interactive fiction, and one of the hallowed artifacts" of computer gaming history.

Tags: #adventure #gaming #ifiction #retro

Adventure 751 (1980) | Renga in Blue

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 18:23:35 +0000

Adventure 751 has been, by my reckoning, the most sought-after variation of Crowther/Woods Adventure. It was generally available on the online portal CompuServe from nearly the beginning of the service and it disappeared when they shut down their games in the 90s. Arthur O’Dwyer started a web page in 2012 (with semi-regular updates!) dedicated to hunting down a copy. To finish off a wild 2025 in game preservation, Arthur O’Dwyer announced the game has been found (by LanHawk, a regular amongst the comments here) and is playable.

Tags: #gaming #history #ifiction #nifty #retro

Celebrate the fictitious 35th anniversary of Ruin, a faux point-and-click adventure game that never was | Rock Paper Shotgun

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 01:11:25 +0000

The actual game in question here is Ruin: Chapter 0, an interactive fiction game in the stylings of something you might have seen on the ZX Spectrum, albeit with a lot more flair. And, perhaps, a lot more glitches - a big flashing imagery warning is needed for this one. Playable within your browser, it's kind of hard to describe what you do, or even what you're doing, in Ruin. From what I can gather, you are a knight, the hero of rune, tasked by the king to retrieve a sword and defeat evil forever. But no matter what, I just keep getting my ass kicked by this evil, and every time I die it just says "get owned" at me! Rude!

Tags: #gaming #ifiction #nifty #retro

historicalsource/zork1: Zork I (Microcomputer Version) by Infocom

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 19:35:38 +0000

This repository is a directory of source code for the Infocom game "Zork I", including a variety of files both used and discarded in the production of the game. It is written in ZIL (Zork Implementation Language), a refactoring of MDL (Muddle), itself a dialect of LISP created by MIT students and staff.

Tags: #gaming #history #ifiction #retro #zork

Preserving code that shaped generations: Zork I, II, and III go Open Source

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 19:34:53 +0000

Today, we’re preserving a cornerstone of gaming history that is near and dear to our hearts. Together, Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO), Team Xbox, and Activision are making Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III available under the MIT License. Our goal is simple: to place historically important code in the hands of students, teachers, and developers so they can study it, learn from it, and, perhaps most importantly, play it.

Tags: #gaming #history #ifiction #retro #zork

The Greatness of Text Adventures

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:04:40 +0000

Text adventures are weird. They are so weird I don’t know how to write this article, so prepare to read something even more rambly than usual.

Tags: #games #gaming #ifiction

Whimsy by Ct.js

Fri, 09 May 2025 16:28:56 +0000

Whimsy is a small game engine and a fantasy console for making interactive stories where you can navigate the worlds you create and talk with stuff! Whilst simple in nature, the toolset allows making narrative-driven exploratory games with no prior experience in game development.

Tags: #fantasyconsole #gamedev #ifiction #web

The People's Republic of Interactive Fiction - Apollo 18+20

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:43:11 +0000

So, a bunch of us made some interactive fiction games, one game per track on the album Apollo 18 by They Might Be Giants. The regular tracks are generally short games. The Fingertips tracks are one-move games (however the authors interpreted that). Here’s They Might Be Giants. They have lots of great albums besides this one, and you should go buy them all. Here’s the original post about the tribute, and here are the games. You can play them online via the links below, or you can download them to play offline (updated March 26, 2012, 1337 EDT). See “How Do I Play?” at the left if you’re unsure what to do.

Tags: #apollo18 #culture #gaming #ifiction #imported:pinboard #tmbg #to:fb

The People's Republic of Interactive Fiction - Apollo 18+20

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:43:11 +0000

Tags: #apollo18 #culture #gaming #ifiction #tmbg #to:fb

Tourney | Auch on Water

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:06:29 +0000

“Tourney” is a game that barely exists. It’s the shadow of an idea that slipped into the world last week during a free-wheeling conversation about design, agency, failure, and whether games can make meaningful statements about the nature of tragedy. To help the discussion along we invented a few imaginary games that could serve as stable reference points in unfamiliar terrain. One of the things we dreamed up is Tourney, a game about maintaining one’s integrity in the face of inevitable decline.

Tags: #gaming #if #ifiction #imported:pinboard #nostalgia #tragedy

Tourney | Auch on Water

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:06:29 +0000

Tags: #gaming #if #ifiction #nostalgia #tragedy

Introducing Playfic - Waxy.org

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:55:01 +0000

Playfic is a community for writing, sharing, and playing interactive fiction games (aka "text adventures") entirely from your browser, using a "natural language"-inspired language called Inform 7.

Tags: #gaming #ifiction #imported:pinboard #inform #inform7 #nifty #playfic #to:fb #writing

Introducing Playfic - Waxy.org

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:55:01 +0000

Playfic is a community for writing, sharing, and playing interactive fiction games (aka "text adventures") entirely from your browser, using a "natural language"-inspired language called Inform 7.

Tags: #gaming #ifiction #inform #inform7 #nifty #playfic #to:fb #writing

Arcade Improv: Humans Pretending to Be Videogames | Epicenter | Wired.com

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:50:58 +0000

Instead of asking a question, he bellowed, “Welcome to ACTION CASTLE! You are in a small cottage. There is a fishing pole here. Exits are out.”

Tags: #funny #gaming #ifiction