Text adventures: Which ones to play and how to play them?

[BoneSnapDeez]

https://www.gog.com/game/the_zork_anthology

I also enjoy the Scott Adams games, though most of those will require an old computer or emulation.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Bogus, do you dabble much in the contemporary IF scene?

I do dabble, not as much as I would like. I have played games like, The Warblers Nest and some others. It is tough because there actually is a TON of interactive fiction and a lot of it is not good.

[TSTR]

My whole life is an interactive fiction.

[BogusMeatFactory]

My whole life is an interactive fiction.

Open door
Enter room
Get ax
Use ax on man
get arm
put arm on stove
turn on stove
get cooked arm
eat arm

[TSTR]

fairly accurate, imo

[Erik_Twice]

Use that mapping utility. It's essentially an implementation of Visio that's optimized for mapping fiction. I used that to get through the first three Zork games. I'm also part of the way through Planetfall before I got distracted and wandered off.

Thanks! But what are the befits of using that mapping tool over pen and paper?

Also, do the text adventures I've listed require mapping in a strict sense (Eg. Mazes) or is it just a general good idea to list what each room is and where it is in relation to others?

If you hate yourself and want to hate Douglas Adams then play Hitchhiker's Guide.

I've read a playthrough and I already got enough murderous urges to last me a lifetime

Look, Zork is pretty much a requirement. You want to play text adventures, you need to play Zork.

I've actually played a bit of Zork, though not in a serious manner. However, it doesn't really seem the best text adventure or the most accessible one so I decided to try out Wishbringer instead.

Text Adventures can be very daunting for some. My suggestion is to [...]

Very nice tips, thanks!

The one I recommend most though is, A Mind Forever Voyaging, again written by Steve Meretzky. The game offers minimal puzzles and focuses heavily on world exploration to offer an open-ended narrative. Also the content is highly relevant to the current events in the United States.

Being honest, I'm not sure I would be fond of that game. Showing a post-apocalyptic United States where a religious chaste keeps people under slavery, zoos hold public torture sessions and walking in the street causes feral dogs to eat you alive as a result of Reagan's policies seems, well, dumb.

Don't get me wrong, the concept intrigues me and actually reading about it is one of the reasons I've decided to check text adventures. But it sounds really, really dumb, and I'm shocked it has such a good reputation.

But if you really recommend it despite that, I'll check it out. It's not very long, is it?

[BogusMeatFactory]

It can be as long or as short as you like. If you follow the tasks listed for each time period it would be short, but there details throughout the world you van experience that deviate from the tasks at hand.

[Ack]

Yeah, I don't mean to say that Zork is a great place to start. I just think that, if you do decide to get heavily into text adventures, it's something that you should at least look at for historical relevance.

I wrote a text adventure once. It was an incredibly simple game, in which you had to climb out of a tree house by solving a few puzzles to go down various levels. It really wasn't any good, and I no longer have a copy of it, but it certainly gave me an appreciation for the genre.

[MrPopo]

Use that mapping utility. It's essentially an implementation of Visio that's optimized for mapping fiction. I used that to get through the first three Zork games. I'm also part of the way through Planetfall before I got distracted and wandered off.

Thanks! But what are the befits of using that mapping tool over pen and paper?

Also, do the text adventures I've listed require mapping in a strict sense (Eg. Mazes) or is it just a general good idea to list what each room is and where it is in relation to others?

Most text adventures are pretty sprawling. Paths can open up that didn't exist before, and the relationship between rooms isn't always a one-to-one match (e.g. go north from room A gets you to room B, but to get back to room A you need to go SE). So that's the main case for making a map at all. Using a digital tool instead of pen and paper is handy because you will find you need to move stuff around as you explore more and realize you need to adjust where things are to get a map that's coherent. Sure, you can do it with pen and paper and just have really squiggly lines all over the place, but good luck following it.

As an example of how complicated the maps can get, check out this map for Zork II (I'd give you Zork I but no one writes it up as a single map, but three sub maps because of how complicated it is).

http://www.lafn.org/webconnect/mentor/z ... mplete.gif

[Erik_Twice]

Paths can open up that didn't exist before, and the relationship between rooms isn't always a one-to-one match (e.g. go north from room A gets you to room B, but to get back to room A you need to go SE)[/quote[
Oh yeah, I forgot we were talking about the wonderful world of adventure game design. Totally makes sense to take notes then, yes:lol:

As an example of how complicated the maps can get, check out this map for Zork II (I'd give you Zork I but no one writes it up as a single map, but three sub maps because of how complicated it is).

http://www.lafn.org/webconnect/mentor/z ... mplete.gif

I'm told the Carrousel Room moves and sends you in random directions every time you exit it

Yeah, I don't mean to say that Zork is a great place to start. I just think that, if you do decide to get heavily into text adventures, it's something that you should at least look at for historical relevance.

I agree. Though I regret those articles now, it was on my list of "Games critics should play".

I wrote a text adventure once. It was an incredibly simple game, in which you had to climb out of a tree house by solving a few puzzles to go down various levels. It really wasn't any good, and I no longer have a copy of it, but it certainly gave me an appreciation for the genre.

As long as it was fun to create, it was worth it