[HN Gopher] Post Infocom: Boffo Games
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Post Infocom: Boffo Games
Author : homarp
Score : 34 points
Date : 2021-12-01 18:44 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.filfre.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.filfre.net)
| musicale wrote:
| I always think of game designers as Steve Meretzky in this video:
|
| MC Frontalot - It is Pitch Dark
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nigRT2KmCE
| ghaff wrote:
| Well, that's a blast from the past. I knew a bunch of the folks
| involved from undergrad and did some mostly informal beta testing
| of Steve's games from Infocom and Legend. As I recall, I also
| provided some long-ago tech advice for Boffo in exchange for some
| pizza.
|
| My favorite game of Steve's was actually one of Infocom's only
| modestly successful titles: A Mind Forever Voyaging. It was more
| truly interactive fiction than a puzzle game which probably
| explains both why I really liked it and why it was less popular.
| Planetfall was another Infocom favorite. (There's a very inside
| joke about me in it.)
|
| (Steve also wrote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Douglas
| Adams.)
| low_tech_love wrote:
| AMFV was my introduction to Infocom and it remains my all-time
| favorite IF, even though I mostly play puzzle-heavy games (I
| guess it takes a brilliant master such as Steve Meretzky to
| make such a work). Can you share with us the inside joke in
| Planetfall? :) I'm currently playing Starcross but I'm not
| enjoying it that much and I might just start Planetfall again
| (never beat it).
| ghaff wrote:
| Not really :-) It's related to, as I recall, a character's
| name but that still doesn't really tell you much absent some
| context.
|
| I'm not sure I ever played Lebling's Starcross. In general,
| I've never been very good about finishing videogames, text
| adventures or otherwise. And of course in the Infocom era,
| you couldn't just look up a walkthrough if you got
| frustrated. (And calling up the author which is what I did
| wasn't a very scalable solution--which is probably how I got
| through Planetfall.) And also why Mike did well with his clue
| booklets.
|
| Leather Goddesses of Phobos was also pretty good; there was a
| later graphical version as well.
| squirrel wrote:
| Interesting to see Steve Blank of Lean Startup and Four Steps to
| the Epiphany described (before any of that work) as "a fast-
| talking showman fond of broad comparisons".
| homarp wrote:
| https://steveblank.com/category/rocket-science-games/ describes
| the "Rocket Science" saga
| WorldMaker wrote:
| It will be interesting to see what words spill out when/if
| The Digital Antiquarian gets directly to "Rocket Science".
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