Since my second real job, where a co-worker introduced me to the all-text game
"
Adventure" on a PDP-11,
I have been fond of what have come to be known as Adventure Games
(
Wikipedia article on Adventure game).
This genre includes text adventures
(a.k.a.
interactive fiction or
IF),
and
graphic adventures.
Debate about whether the genre is moribund or even dead waxes and wanes in the press, but none can really argue that the heyday of adventure games isn't past, even though good new titles continue to be published.
Be that as it may, there is a large community of people who share a nostalgia for the adventure game - and there are some great websites out there:
I and many others reserve a place in our hearts for the (sadly, defunct) company
Infocom and its pioneering games that set a gold standard never really equalled since.
I bought most of the Infocom games in boxes that included various baubles. At the time I had an Atari ST system.
Here is my Infocom collection for the Atari ST computer:
- A Mind Forever Voyaging
- Ballyhoo
- Beyond Zork
- Bureaucracy
- Cutthroats
- Deadline
- Enchanter
- Hitchhiker's Guide
- Hollywood Hijinx
- Infidel
|
- Leather Goddesses of Phobos
- The Lurking Horror
- Moonmist
- Nord and Bert
- Planetfall
- Plundered Hearts
- Seastalker
- Sorcerer
- Spellbreaker
- Starcross
|
- Stationfall
- Suspect
- Suspended
- Trinity
- Wishbringer
- Witness
- Zork Zero
- Zork 1
- Zork 2
- Zork 3
|
There are some websites devoted to
"
abandonware" - i.e. copies of games that are no longer actively published. The legal status of this varies - some copyright owners have actively released their old games for free.
Nowadays commercial adventure games
(see
Dreamcatcher for a current publisher)
are graphical and mouse-driven, but there exists a vibrant community of enthusiasts who continue to create text adventures, now known as
"
Interactive Fiction"
or IF for short, using a variety of tools.
Here are instructions on using the if-archive.
To play the games from the archive, you'll need a copy of the game file, and a corresponding
interpreter program.
To author games, you'll need a compiler and associated libraries.
There are two main authoring systems: Inform and TADS.
Inform is the system compatible with the original Infocom zcode game files.
Inform
Click here to find zcode games.
Here is a listing of IF Competition winners.
Here is a listing of XYZZY Award winners.
Click here to find frotz interpreters for Inform games.
Here are some PalmOS interpreters - the best seems to be
Frobnitz.
Here is Kronos for PalmOS, to play Magnetic Scrolls games.
TADS
Click here to find TADS games.
Click here to find TADS interpreters.
My Collection of Adventure Games
I amassed a fairly extensive collection of adventure games over the years, starting with some Commodore Vic-20 cartridges of Scott Adams games, then Infocom games and others for the Atari ST platform, and later for the PC, with a side trip onto the
Palm handheld.
Below is a list of Adventure Games and a few Action Adventure Games in my collection, most for the PC, some for the Atari ST,
indexed alphabetically by name.
Games I've played (with my kids) are in red.
Games I have completed are in bold.
Games I started but never finished due either to a bug or losing interest are in italics.
A|
B|
C|
D|
E|
F|
G|
H|
I|
J|
K|
L|
M|
N|
O|
P|
Q|
R|
S|
T|
U|
V|
W|
X|
Y|
Z
Notes on games to try (last updated Jan 29 2011):
- Next Big Thing
- Machinarium
- Drawn 1,2
- Lost Horizon
- Gray Matter
- Black Mirror 1,2
- The Lost Crown
- Dark Star
- Rhem 4
- Slip Space (MYST meets Obsidian)
- The Filmmaker
- Eye of Providence
- The Last Window
- 999
- Sherlock Holmes Awakened
- Alter Ego
- Fahrenheit
- Penumbra
- Azada
- Runaway 1,2,3
- Samorost 2
- FATALE
- Post Mortem
- Chronicles of Mystery series - The Tree of Life
- Mysterious Journey 2
- Darkfall: Lost Souls
- Five Days a Stranger
- Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures
- The Whispered World
- Still Life
- Amertis
