text adventure discussion thread

Ah man, I used to be super into text adventures around when I was 13-14, I'd even write my own up sometimes too lol. There used to be a site where you could make your own and share them with others, and I remember playing this one (unfortunately I don't remember the name) which started out as a simple escape-room setting, but then you start quickly learning that the world around you has long since been dead and I remember the ending where you ended up discovering that you were a robot the whole time who thought you were a human trapped in some kind of 40s style world.

Honestly I should get back into text adventures, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

There are these... like... "Choice Of" games that are sort of like hybrid text adventure/sim/choose your own adventure book that my friend got me to try that I really enjoyed. There was one about wrestling which I liked, and one about being a lawyer that I liked, and one about being Guinevere, which I liked but is still apparently a work in progress. Do those count as text adventures?

While I love oldschool games, I don't think I've played any other text based adventures in a long time, but I have fond memories of, like, trying desperately to get anything useful done in Hitchhiker's Guide or Zork. The ones you've recommended, I've never heard of, but they look really cool!

@catnap: that sounds cool! was the website iplayif? i remember trying things on there in my youth.

@magic mirror: there’s a taxonomic debate we could have here to rival the ongoing “roguelike / roguelite” skirmish, but that’s unproductive and boring. the umbrella term i’d use is “interactive fiction”, encompassing what i’d call “text adventures” (i.e., things with parsers like zork & hitchhiker’s guide & counterfeit monkey) and ”hypertext fiction” (i.e., things where you’re given a set of choices like the choice of games & choose your own adventure books & twine games). as thread creator i decree all interactive fiction discussion to be on-topic. [bangs gavel]

anyway, that aside. i remember playing choice of dragon & choice of zombies & that one about being in a noble court when i was younger. it’s a cool format! and the way they use stats is a good way to make choices meaningful without combinatorial explosion. i never played zork & never got very far in hitchhikers, though i’m familiar enough with both to be conversant about them. as a kid i played a good deal of colossal cave (though never finished it..) which zork is riffing on.

i’ve also been reading a lot of posts from jason dyer’s ”all the adventures“ project, which is really fun. i’m learning a lot about the early 1980s state of the art. so many treasure hunts..

type help!!! its a mystery where you uncover files on an old computer involved in a murder investigation. it was published this year on itch.io and its amazing. its very clue inspired.

i also like a game called 16 ways to kill a vampire at mcdonalds.. which is about exactly what it sounds like. the creator of that one, abigail corfman, has a longer game called open sorcery, but i havent played because it isnt free :'( it seems like in that game you play as a wizard programmer...