[HN Gopher] The Obsessively Complete Infocom Catalog
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The Obsessively Complete Infocom Catalog
Author : exvi
Score : 122 points
Date : 2025-09-26 23:43 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (eblong.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (eblong.com)
| WantonQuantum wrote:
| This is amazing! I remember playing some of these in the 90s.
| Fond memories.
|
| BTW, this site is likely not set up to handle a HN hug of death
| of downloads so consider throttling your downloads if you can.
| LexiMax wrote:
| A Mind Forever Voyaging was the first time I ever realized that
| video games could aspire to more than just being a fun pastime
| or distraction.
| ghaff wrote:
| I really liked AMFV, probably because I was never great at
| the puzzles. I don't think it was a super-popular game
| because a lot of the fam base probably largely played the
| games _for_ the puzzles. But one of my favorites and actually
| completed it without help.
| jhbadger wrote:
| In many ways it was a forerunner of the sort of adventure
| game today that is called (originally as an insult, but the
| genre has later embraced the term) "walking simulators", in
| which the player simply explores an environment without
| solving puzzles or fighting monsters (or at least not very
| often).
| glimshe wrote:
| Very few companies in gaming have Infocom's enduring power. I
| wonder if it will still be remembered 100 years from now.
| mmcgaha wrote:
| I just wish someone would make a first person version of AMFV.
| It would need to be a really different game to stay true to
| AMFV but I think it could revolve around not getting shut down
| by the bureaucrats.
| ilaksh wrote:
| LLMs have an obvious application of removing the command
| limitations. https://github.com/UlfarErl/lampgpt
|
| "FYI, it is now possible to play all of the Infocom games with a
| phenomenal parser using LampGPT, with just ./lampgpt.py -O
| gamename."
| vunderba wrote:
| I do see a lot of potential application for LLMs around having
| a natural dialogue with an NPC in future games. Also LLMs to
| well-defined structured parser instructions might finally
| enable Strongbad to "get ye flask".
| mikepurvis wrote:
| Ugh, I'm so glad this exists; I tried some text adventures a
| few years ago and struggled to get into them due in part to
| having to cooperate with a rather baroque user interface.
|
| I feel like this could really open them up to a new generation.
| jhbadger wrote:
| I guess I never had a problem with the Infocom parser -- it
| seemed already so much more advanced than other adventure games
| that generally only understood two word commands like "GET
| KEY". In Infocom games you could say things like "get the key
| and put it in the bag".
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| Hm. I have to challenge a list that doesn't include George Alec
| Effinger's _Circuit's Edge_. I get that it was written after the
| hayday of Infocom, but it was completely within the spirit and
| craft.
| thristian wrote:
| It isn't really related to the Infocom that released the Zork
| games, except in a legal sense. Infocom was sold to Activision
| in 1986, and shut down as a studio in 1989. Circuit's Edge was
| published in 1990, labelled "Infocom" but just because that's
| the brand Activision chose to market it under.
| caminanteblanco wrote:
| This is without a doubt the best podcast for all things infocom:
| https://monsterfeet.com/grue/
| wood_spirit wrote:
| Next weekend is the next Ludum Dare https://ldjam.com game making
| contest. Perhaps we need more text adventures?
|
| These days you can probably vibe code an engine using SpaCy for
| commands and some kind of word salad LLM or something to make the
| output more flowery
| jank199x wrote:
| There's quite a lot of pure interactive fiction comps, and a
| lot of viable authoring systems: https://www.ifwiki.org
| kqr wrote:
| Advice fror people trying to get into text adventures: do not
| start with infocom games. Start with something like Glowgrass,
| Violet, The Dreamhold, Plundered Hearts*, or Lost Pig. They'pe
| friendlier to the player.
|
| I get that the interface is a little fiddly at first, but it is
| highly conventional. Once you have spent a few minutes learning
| it, you unlock all other text adventures, of which there are many
| amazing ones.
|
| I see many suggestions for using LLMs to improve the experience.
| I have tried that myself[2] and played others' attempts[3], and
| LLMs' world modeling abilities are currently insufficient for
| that[4]. They invent details that don't exist, they assume things
| have effects they don't, etc. They add more frustration than they
| remove.
|
| Text adventures are often puzzle-paced, meaning they tell their
| story in drips separated by puzzles. These puzzles can be
| difficult. Best is to play with a friend -- you might get ideas
| from each other. If you have no interested friend, don't feel
| shame over looking at hints, or outright looking the solution up.
| But do let the puzzle simmer for a day first to make sure you've
| tried everything you can think of.
|
| [1]: An Infocom game but rather different from the others.
|
| [2]: https://entropicthoughts.com/evaluating-llms-playing-text-
| ad...
|
| [3]: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=6nn0ihhejq2hrvh2&review=86904
|
| [4]: More systematic paper on arXiv I've lost the link to but
| will post when I find it.
| lyu07282 wrote:
| > do not start with infocom games
|
| Generally yes, however Hitchhiker is the one huge exception to
| that. Its very accessible, well written and the BBC released a
| version for the web:
|
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN...
| kqr wrote:
| This must be a different version than the original, then. The
| original was exceedingly cruel, as Douglas Adams wanted to
| play practical jokes riffing on genre conventions.
| lyu07282 wrote:
| I always liked it for the same reason you disliked it, but
| having read the book and the added room visuals in the BBC
| version might make it easier too. Liking Douglas Adams
| humor is also a big factor I imagine, I thought it was very
| funny.
| jfultz wrote:
| I remembered a comic panel that I'd seen in the New Zork
| Times back in the day, and I just found it...page 7 of
| this:
|
| https://infodoc.plover.net/nzt/NZT4.4.pdf
|
| The comic pokes fun at the ridiculously cruel babelfish
| puzzle. Which, I'm proud to say, I solved back in the day
| without assistance, after a full day's worth of effort, and
| requiring at one point to completely restart the game
| because of an apparently useless item I didn't pick up at
| the very beginning of the game (if you've solved it, you'll
| know the item I'm referring to).
|
| But...while that was a nice achievement, I still got stuck
| later in the game, trying to fix the Nutrimatic.
| qmr wrote:
| I solved it as well.
|
| ... but I'm pretty sure my game copy had "Invisiclues" or
| whatever installed.
|
| I'm curious why some of the games in the 90s re-releases
| had this and some did not.
| ghaff wrote:
| I'm not aware of Invisiclues ever having been
| "installed." I'm only familiar with them as booklets with
| "invisible" ink. And, at least initially, they were
| created at least quasi-independently of Infocom by
| someone who later joined Infocom.
| qmr wrote:
| Oh yea! There was something in the manual, or in the
| installed hints about that invisible ink thing. Before my
| time.
|
| The re releases I played they were under "hint" or
| "hints" or "help" or something.
|
| There was an are you sure / really sure admonishment,
| then breadcrumb bit by bit hints towards solution.
| ghaff wrote:
| May have been re-releases. I had a lot of the original
| games with feelies and (effectively) anti-pirating code
| wheels and the like. I think I have one of the CD re-
| releases and I play for a bit now and then with a Z
| interpreter.
| qmr wrote:
| Yes rereleases as I stated above. ( or meant to ) I
| recall my father being quite excited when he saw them.
| Not sure what games he played first on the Commodore, if
| any.
|
| They amused me for a time at 9-10, then later at maybe
| 14-15 or so I got into them again playing on a Palm VIIx
| with a folding Stowaway keyboard. I also read through
| HHGTTG on that same device.
|
| https://archive.org/details/sci-fi-collection-the-usa/
| and the like.
| 3036e4 wrote:
| I have fond memories of some z-machine interpreter on the
| Palm that I found easier to play with than anything on my
| desktop computer. There were lots of shortcut buttons and
| thanks to the stylus it was still easy to use those (vs a
| touchscreen using ony fingers where you need huge buttons
| to hit). You could also tap any word in the output to
| bring up a context menu of actions (e.g. to examine or
| pick up objects mentioned in room descriptions) and that
| list of actions was a combination of a configurable
| global list and a game-specific list you could add
| actions to. Could play through entire games and barely
| ever have to type anything. Had a folding keyboard, but
| no memory of using that for interactive fiction.
| kqr wrote:
| That sounds like an amazing interface. Would love that on
| my touchscreen device.
| dfabulich wrote:
| I help run the Interactive Fiction Database at
| https://ifdb.org.
|
| You really can't go wrong browsing our list of the best games
| of all time. https://ifdb.org/search?browse
|
| All of the top-rated games have walkthroughs or other hints for
| when you get stuck. My top advice for new players: use the
| hints.
| kqr wrote:
| This is a good point! I have personally decided to save some
| of the all-time greatest games until I am better at text
| adventures and can enjoy them with fewer hints.
| ghaff wrote:
| I started playing Infocom games before there were online
| hints or even Invisiclues. I knew one of the authors quite
| well and resorted to (literally) calling him from time to
| time :-)
| copx wrote:
| >You really can't go wrong browsing our list of the best
| games of all time. https://ifdb.org/search?browse
|
| You can, because those games are the best according to the
| preferences of interactive fiction connaisseurs, and the
| preferences of connaisseurs never match those of the masses.
|
| E.g. beer connaisseurs love IPAs, while most people find them
| way too bitter.
| pessimizer wrote:
| Beer connoisseurs don't love IPAs. Modern IPAs are the most
| like Budweiser rice beers that you can get in the fancy
| beer world, so that's what people who aspire to _look like_
| connoisseurs prefer. They prefer them to be very bitter,
| and /or flavored with exotic fruits, because they can't
| judge quality and rely on distinctness.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| The number one game on the list is a word game not a text
| adventure game.
|
| If I played that as my first text adventure I'd think text
| adventures with like advanced scrabble or wordle.
| Slothrop99 wrote:
| IMO everyone should at least try Zork I. It was the first and
| the greatest, there's plenty of places to go, and much of it is
| pretty easy. Plus all these games constantly reference it in
| oblique ways. You should at least try your hand at Zork first.
|
| > do not start with infocom games
|
| Yeah, the filfre.net historian described how most Infocom games
| sold in tiny numbers to their fanbase. They are text adventures
| for the hard-core text-adventure enthusiast. (And that includes
| Zork II and III.)
|
| > Plundered Hearts
|
| > Hitchhikers Guide
|
| Both these seemed super-linear. If you can't solve a puzzle,
| you are stuck and you die. Not recommended for newbies imo.
| (Plundered Hearts is a 'romance novel' rather than the usual
| d&d shit.)
| miohtama wrote:
| It is the first, but Zork as a game and quality of
| entertainment is pretty bad. If you do not have infinite time
| your time might be spent better elsewhere.
| jhbadger wrote:
| Courses for horses, I guess. I find spending the time to
| solve a text adventure (ideally without hints) to be more
| enjoyable than most forms of gaming, but then I like
| crossword puzzles too.
| qmr wrote:
| "put all into thing"
|
| "I got the Babel Fish T shirt"
|
| How did the infamous Babel fish puzzle originate?
|
| The basic idea was by Douglas, and I added some refinements
| (like the Upper-Half-Of-The-Room Cleaning Robot). More
| interesting is how close the puzzle came to being removed
| from the game; most of Infocom's testing group thought it was
| too hard. I was going into a meeting with them just as
| Douglas was leaving for the airport at the end of his final
| trip to Infocom, and I asked him, "What should I tell them
| about the Babel fish puzzle?" He said, "What should you tell
| them? Tell them to fuck off!" So the puzzle stayed... and its
| very hardness became a cult thing. Infocom even sold T-shirts
| that said "I got the Babel fish."
|
| -- Steve Meretzky
| drob518 wrote:
| Agree that everyone should play Zork to get an appreciation
| of the original genre and history. IIRC, the three Zorks were
| actually all part of the original Zork on the PDP and it had
| to be chopped into three parts to make it fit on the 8-bit
| micros of the 1970s-1980s.
| __david__ wrote:
| Yep, the original Zork was a big sprawling game. I
| originally played the (pirate?) pdp version when I was like
| 6 years old. A few years ago I took one of the c versions
| (this one one was run through f2c and then cleaned up by
| Ian Lance Taylor) and ported it to wasm. I also added in a
| mapping system using my favorite dungeon map. You can play
| it at https://dungeo.org/
| js8 wrote:
| How good are LLMs at actually playing the adventure games? Can
| they win?
| kqr wrote:
| Not really, no. They get stuck extremely easily. They can
| last longer with hand-holding but they still get stuck.
|
| Humans also get stuck, to be fair, but tend to be more
| inventive and methodical in trying to get unstuck, and more
| intelligent in what to pay attention to. LLMs play like a
| three year old with advanced vocabulary and infinite
| patience.
|
| LLMs also by nature don't learn from their experiences. Even
| within the same context window their past mistakes only
| increase the propensity of generating similar mistakes.
| lou1306 wrote:
| I don't know. Trinity might be a good starting point. Zork on
| the other hand is often suggested but I find it so annoying, if
| you don't solve a certain quest early you're automatically
| locked out of victory.
| qmr wrote:
| I would love to see pictures and unboxing of the feelies.
|
| Those were before my time. I played many of these as part of the
| "Comedy Collection", "Sci Fi Collection" etc re-releases when I
| was 9-10 or so. Later searching for free "games" for my Palm
| VIIx, I found a Z machine interpreter and played a few of them on
| my PDA. Comment from a few days ago pasted below.
|
| ---
|
| First time (only time?) a game made me cry, Floyd's death. 13-15
| or so, Up way too late, hiding under my blanket to muffle the
| noise from the folding Stowaway keyboard, playing on a glowing
| green 160x160 LCD display on a Palm VIIx running a Z machine
| interpreter.
|
| Apparently the author still gets emails now and then to this day
| about how Floyd's death affected players. He used to have a
| personal site but I can't find it now. A lot of players have
| written about this moment.
|
| I think the other one I beat was Bureaucracy, by Douglas Adams.
| Got somewhat deep in Beyond Zork and HHGTTG, but don't think I
| completed them.
|
| I remember my father getting excited when he saw those Infocom
| compilations on Walmart store shelves.
|
| I've also considered introducing those to my son. He's 5 now.
| Lately having him play Mario RPG, Zelda, and Final Fantasy to
| practice reading.
|
| ---
|
| "Perhaps the most amazing thing about the creation of Floyd was
| how easy it was. The entire code and text for the character, if
| printed out, would perhaps run to ten pages. What's amazing is
| not that I was able to create a computer game character that
| touched people so deeply, but how infrequently the same thing has
| been accomplished in the intervening two decades."
|
| Steve Meretzky
| qmr wrote:
| It is Pitch Black
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nigRT2KmCE
| palad1n wrote:
| IF: yeah I'm a fan and once started to teach myself Inform 6, way
| back when. My greatest accomplishment was translating a random
| haiku generator in Inform 6. I sort of lost interest as Inform 7
| was coming on the scene.
| greesil wrote:
| No BattleTech?
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleTech:_The_Crescent_Haw...
| M95D wrote:
| How do I play/run these games?
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(page generated 2025-09-27 23:01 UTC)