If Zork means more to you than Fortnite ever will, if you know exactly which items to take with you in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in order to escape your about-to-be-bulldozed house, or if you have ever typed the words "SOUTH" and "HELP" into a white-on-black text box, then you may be interested in this book by writer and game designer Aaron A. Reed.
It's called 50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon, and it's a compilation of fifty text games from 1971 through to the modern day. The book covers games like 1985's A Mind Forever Voyaging alongside newer hits, like inkle's 80 Days, Failbetter's Fallen London, and the surprisingly unnerving A Dark Room, to explore what interactive fiction can do without images, and how IF has changed the face of gaming with just a few (hundred thousand) words.
The Kickstarter offers a fair few rewards to choose from as part of your pledge:
- Paperback and hardback editions
- A Collector's Edition with a custom slipcase and a 60-page addendum with even more fun facts about IF
- An Ultimate Collector's Edition with five "feelies", including a genuine 8-bit '70s punch tape and a poster print map (of your choice of Dwarf Fortress, room maps, or node maps)
- The opportunity to commission Aaron A. Reed to write a deep-dive on a narrative game of your choice
The Kickstarter campaign reached its $29,000 funding goal in under two hours, and you know what that means — it's time to bring back Zork.
[source kickstarter.com]
Comments 10
You are in a twisty maze of passageways, all alike.
I used to love text adventures. One sticks in my mind above all others... "Zzzzz" on the C64. I was absolutely tortured by that game! So hard, at the time. Not sure if I ever completed it.
This is something I'd totally be into, but the price is too steep. $45 for a softcover is over priced as is, but then it costs an additional $40 to add cardboard to the outside (hardcover)... $85? Eeep
I remember playing text-only game "Ship of Doom" which came as a bundle with my 48k Spectrum.
I didn't progress very far but apparently it was notorious for recognising swear words. Most other text adventure games like The Hobbit drew each scene at the top of the screen, but for me there was no interest in pure text adventure games.
I love these kinds of things, with all the extra endings and secrets to find (not saying linear text games are a bad thing)
I would really love this. But 45-85 dollars?? Why that much? It’s a shame.
@DestructoDisk this. It’s a total knock-off. Ridiculous.
This author just takes the games code and publishes it. For 45 to 300! Something? What an arsehole. The idea is good. It’s just extraordinary loads of dollars. What goes wrong that this gets support by games and / or Nintendo Life? It’s a total rip-off
Why’re you supporting this rip-off, Kate?
To make myself clear: I love text adventures to bits. That is why I’m so annoyed by the price. Sorry. Maybe I’m a bit too engaged.
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