New Infocom Website - Interactive Fiction revisited.

[Oliver]

Take a look: http://www.infocom-fiction.com/

[S. John Ross]

> Take a look

... at an Infocom logo and a placeholder "coming soon" graphic.

[S. John Ross]

[S. John Ross]

[shakes fist at Google]

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 02/20/2010 08:45 PM, S. John Ross wrote:
>
>> Take a look
>
> ... at an Infocom logo and a placeholder "coming soon" graphic.

The description (the meta tag in the HTML) says:

"The official site of (the all new) Infocom"

I guess it's just someone's joke :P

[Stuart Moore]

This is not a joke. Someone brought the Infocom trademark.

[Stuart Moore]

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_thread/thread/c70919cfe9bb8e8f#

[Edwin]

Here's the whois info

Domain Name: infocom-fiction.com

Registrar: CRONON AG BERLIN, NIEDERLASSUNG REGENSBURG
Whois Server: whois.tmagnic.net
Referral URL: http://nsi-robo.tmag.de
Status: OK

Expiration Date: 2010-06-24
Creation Date: 2007-06-24
Last Update Date: 2009-06-25

Name Servers:
docks18.rzone.de
shades02.rzone.de
See infocom-fiction.com DNS Records

Information Updated: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:24:22 UTC

[Oliver]

Hm. Their 'new release' (whoever 'they' may be) seems to be called
'Triumvirate' and might be some kind of a sequel to 'Trinity'. Hmmm,
lots of 'may be'.

[S. John Ross]

> This is not a joke. Someone brought the Infocom trademark.

That's definitely not funny.

In a world of lame-ass reboots, re-imaginings, and purchased
resurrections of brands by people with no claim to them apart from
money spent ... that's the last one I care to suffer through :(

[Otto Grimwald]

On 20/02/2010 21:33, S. John Ross wrote:

> In a world of lame-ass reboots, re-imaginings, and purchased
> resurrections of brands by people with no claim to them apart from
> money spent ... that's the last one I care to suffer through :(
>

at least they use the name for interactive fictions. With a name such as
"Infocom", they could have been selling mobile phones or computers...

[Stuart Moore]

What, like they did with the Commodore brand? My, that was whored out on
all kinds of shit the past few years. Same with Microprose, though at
least that one died quick.

Also, this website is at least a couple of years old without change, so
I doubt we'll be seeing anything from these guys any time soon.

[Stuart Moore]

The website has been unchanged for quite a while, so I'd not bet on
seeing anything any time soon.

[Jim Aikin]

At least it's not Howard Sherman. Thank God for that.

--JA

[Mike Tarbert]

Jim Aikin wrote:
> ... Thank God for that.
>

Er, who? ;)

Skinny Mike

[namekuseijin]

I see Zork running on Cryengine soon. Blast away those pesky thieves
and dwarves in spanking-realistic 3D graphics while collecting more
ammo and treasures.

[vaporware]

Someone already ported the "it is pitch dark" segment to the Doom 3
engine.

They called it Doom 3.

vw

[namekuseijin]

ah yes. The grues were truly gruesome. :)

[Stuart Moore]

Jim Aikin wrote:
> At least it's not Howard Sherman. Thank God for that.

Is the one who lives on Folsom Street, the other applicant the
trademork.com article talks about? He may be an arsehole, but at least
he'd do more with the mark than stick it on a holding page for three
years...

[Otto Grimwald]

On 21/02/2010 14:01, Stuart Moore wrote:
> but at least
> he'd do more with the mark than stick it on a holding page for three
> years...

yep, Ballyhoo 4 and Zork 9 would already be implemented!

[Stuart Moore]

Hey, I didn't say it'd be *any good*...

[namekuseijin]

On 20 fev, 15:31, Oliver <ou...@gmx.de> wrote:
> Take a look:http://www.infocom-fiction.com/

BTW, zarf noticed something interesting:

"Not to be cynical, but HTTP says:

Last-Modified: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:19:58 GMT"

http://www.intfiction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=979

As they say, old news is good news... :P

[ChicagoDave]

The trademark is owned by a guy in California named Pete Hottelot. He
seems to be making real products from fake/Hollywood products like Tru
Blood. I pinged him about Infocom to see what he plans for it.

David C.
www.textfyre.com

[Stuart Moore]

I would imagine, if you get a reply, that you may well regret asking?

[DJ Hastings]

Otto Grimwald wrote:
>
> at least they use the name for interactive fictions. With a name such as
> "Infocom", they could have been selling mobile phones or computers...

Isn't there already an ISP in Africa named Infocom?

[Andrew Plotkin]

Here, Stuart Moore <N...@spam.please> wrote:
> Jim Aikin wrote:
> > At least it's not Howard Sherman. Thank God for that.
>
> Is the one who lives on Folsom Street, the other applicant the
> trademork.com article talks about?

Yes. At least, I'm pretty sure. Pete Hottelet is "Omni Consumer
Products", and the other trademark applicant (the one which actually
got completed) is by "Omni Consumer Products LLC".

I've summed up what we know (which is pretty much what's already been
posted in this thread -- thanks everybody) in a blog post. Feel free
to refer people to it.

http://gameshelf.jmac.org/2010/02/that-new-official-infocom-web.html

--Z

--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*