Competition logo
Jason Melancon
I forgot to ask in the other post: If anyone has the software for it
and the inclination, it would be nice to have some sort of banner
graphic or logo representative of the contest. Ideally, it could be
reduced to button size for others to use in linking to the contest
website. Donors will receive a genuine, non-exchangeable, hearty
thank-you.
Jason Melancon
Cardinal Teulbachs
34...@gte.net (Jason Melancon) made so bold as to state:
Woo woo! This has logo contest written all over it! Will there be a
two-hour time limit?
--Cardinal T
I mean, what the hell kind of villain thwarts the hero's
progress with soup cans in the kitchen pantry?
--Russ Bryan
Are there any text games prominently featuring dinosaurs?
If not, does anyone besides me think it would be cool?
--Matthew Amster-Burton
"Hey! *I* wanted to be Envy!"
--joe dot mason
"Bathroom? Yeah. Go through that door, on the end
of the hall, on your left." "Pardon?" "South twice,
than east." "Ah."
--Clyde "Fred" Sloniker
Adam Cadre
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Jason Melancon wrote:
>
> I forgot to ask in the other post: If anyone has the software for it
> and the inclination, it would be nice to have some sort of banner
> graphic or logo representative of the contest. Ideally, it could be
> reduced to button size for others to use in linking to the contest
> website. Donors will receive a genuine, non-exchangeable, hearty
> thank-you.
>
> Jason Melancon
I really shouldn't have this much time on my hands, but I actually
went ahead and designed one of these. The theory's pretty simple:
virtually all IF revolves around the ">" prompt, so that's the symbol.
This is the third competition, so there's three of 'em. Have a look:
-----
Adam Cadre, Durham, NC
http://www.duke.edu/~adamc
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Matthew Amster-Burton
Adam Cadre <ad...@acpub.duke.edu> wrote:
>I really shouldn't have this much time on my hands, but I actually
>went ahead and designed one of these. The theory's pretty simple:
>virtually all IF revolves around the ">" prompt, so that's the symbol.
>This is the third competition, so there's three of 'em. Have a look:
That's a cool idea, but I don't know if it'll "Say IF" to even an
experienced player. In fact, I looked at the picture before I read
your post, and I didn't get it.
Also, I think a symbol that we can reuse each year without major
modification would be better.
Uh, they call me Mr. Negative. Today. Have I mentioned lately how
much I enjoyed I-0?
Matthew
Branko Collin
Cardinal Teulbachs (card...@earthlink.net) wrote:
: 34...@gte.net (Jason Melancon) made so bold as to state:
: >I forgot to ask in the other post: If anyone has the software for it
: >and the inclination, it would be nice to have some sort of banner
: >graphic or logo representative of the contest. Ideally, it could be
: >reduced to button size for others to use in linking to the contest
: >website. Donors will receive a genuine, non-exchangeable, hearty
: >thank-you.
: Woo woo! This has logo contest written all over it! Will there be a
: two-hour time limit?
You mean two hours to figure out what the logo means?
-----
Branko Collin http://www.xs4all.nl/~collin
col...@xs4all.nl http://www.kun.nl/undans/members/branko.htm
"Erm... Erm... should I say something interesting now?"
- Branko Collin -
Wallace and Gromit
col...@xs2.xs4all.nl (Branko Collin) writes:
>Cardinal Teulbachs (card...@earthlink.net) wrote:
>: Woo woo! This has logo contest written all over it! Will there be a
>: two-hour time limit?
>You mean two hours to figure out what the logo means?
Or make it...
Fredrik Ramsberg
Matthew Amster-Burton wrote:
>
> Adam Cadre <ad...@acpub.duke.edu> wrote:
>
> >I really shouldn't have this much time on my hands, but I actually
> >went ahead and designed one of these. The theory's pretty simple:
> >virtually all IF revolves around the ">" prompt, so that's the symbol.
> >This is the third competition, so there's three of 'em. Have a look:
>
> That's a cool idea, but I don't know if it'll "Say IF" to even an
> experienced player. In fact, I looked at the picture before I read
> your post, and I didn't get it.
I have to admit I think it's a bit far-fetched as well. On the other
hand, it's simple, which a logo should be.
> Also, I think a symbol that we can reuse each year without major
> modification would be better.
How about a troll killing a dragon with a sword inside a time machine,
with the 7 wonders and a mainframe computer standing next to it, perhaps
with
some more, rather fuzzy people, whose activities are free for
interpretation? Perhaps they are getting married or investigating the
killing going on, who knows? That should cover most of the games
produced...
Or, if we _do_ want something less complicated than that, how about a
compass rose of some sort? Andrew Plotkin used one for MaxZip, I think
it was, and it struck me as one of the most central concepts in IF
gaming. Particularly, it is a concept that sets it apart from both the
real world and other kinds of games; not many people except IF
players/authors consider the toilet to be the third door to the east.
The other people who do probably need help to get out of the strait
jacket before they go to the loo anyway.
/Fredrik
--
Fredrik Ramsberg, d91f...@und.ida.liu.se,
http://www-und.ida.liu.se/~d91frera
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Macintosh - 0.4% Actual Users!
Admiral Jota
Fredrik Ramsberg <Spect...@Earthling.net> writes:
[snip]
>Or, if we _do_ want something less complicated than that, how about a
>compass rose of some sort? Andrew Plotkin used one for MaxZip, I think
>it was, and it struck me as one of the most central concepts in IF
>gaming.
How about something like this...?
<> ,^. <>
<>\,' `./<> The Third Annual
/\ /\
,-' \N/ `-.
-._ W*E _,- Text Adventure
` /S\ '
\/ \/
<>/` '\<> Authorship Competition
<> `v' <>
Or perhaps they're looking for something more... *graphical* ;)
>Particularly, it is a concept that sets it apart from both the
>real world and other kinds of games; not many people except IF
>players/authors consider the toilet to be the third door to the east.
>The other people who do probably need help to get out of the strait
>jacket before they go to the loo anyway.
So what is it exactly that sets us apart from *them*?
--
/<-= Admiral Jota =->\
-< <-= jo...@tiac.net =-> >-
\<-=- -= -=- -= -=->/
Fredrik Ramsberg
Admiral Jota wrote:
(Good suggestion snipped! Me likes it!)
> Or perhaps they're looking for something more... *graphical* ;)
We can of course release a demo featuring a raytraced 3D-image of the
logo that you can shoot at with the joystick or mouse, like a game. All
accompanied by some heavy techno beat...
> >Particularly, it is a concept that sets it apart from both the
> >real world and other kinds of games; not many people except IF
> >players/authors consider the toilet to be the third door to the east.
> >The other people who do probably need help to get out of the strait
> >jacket before they go to the loo anyway.
>
> So what is it exactly that sets us apart from *them*?
I never did figure that out. Any time I start to think about it I get
all excited and start jumping up and down and then the nurse comes and
gives me the injection I should have in the evening even if it's only
morning and I know it's good for me and all but I get so _tired_ and I
can't get out in the sunshine and take my morning walk along the wall
because I get so _tired_ that I fall over sometimes I am happy though
when she has given me that injection because I don't worry so much and
she says I can finish my game tomorrow I don't need to release it now
because many of my friends here never release their games at all or at
least it takes a while and I'm so _tired_ just want to sleep...
/Fredrik - aren't we all a bit - Ramberg
--
Fredrik
Ramsberg,d91f...@und.ida.liu.se,http://www-und.ida.liu.se/~d91frera
Gerry Kevin Wilson
I have a thought. For the logo, I'd like to have, in large,
easily readable, rendered (Hey, it's easy to do with the right program
okay, so sue me.) 3D, blocky, green, Apple IIe-ish letters the following
on a black background:
> HELLO AGAIN, SAILOR
That oughta be simple enough for even the most graphic-phobic among youse
guys. It ties in with Infocom, and the feel of old, SLLOOOOWW computers
(just kidding apple fans) as well as bringing home the idea that we're
reviving text adventures.
Plus, it's instantly recognizable to any Infocom fan (warning, warning,
you have made a generalization on the internet, prepare to be
corrected....repeat, prepare to be corrected...)
I would say "What do you guys think?" but I know you'll all tell me
irregardless, so it's a waste of breath. ;)
[By the way, if I were to have my choice of angles on the logo, the
'camera' would be above and to the right just enough to capture the 3D
effect of the letters.]
There, see how easy it is to start a bloodthirsty fight on the internet?
For my next trick, I will get a TADS advocate and an Inform advocate into
a verbal fight.
"Just like shooting fish in a barrel."
--
Losing the war against dirty laundry...
Mark Bijster
In <5h93jq$e6$1...@news0.xs4all.nl> col...@xs2.xs4all.nl (Branko Collin) writes:
>Cardinal Teulbachs (card...@earthlink.net) wrote:
[SNIP & SNAP]
>: >website. Donors will receive a genuine, non-exchangeable, hearty
>: >thank-you.
>: Woo woo! This has logo contest written all over it! Will there be a
>: two-hour time limit?
>You mean two hours to figure out what the logo means?
> SHOW THE LOGO
Everyone looks at the logo, trying to perceive it's meaning.
After two hours they give up.
> GIVE THE LOGO TO EVERYONE
Suddenly every computer in the near vicinity is occupied as everyone
starts to draw a logo, based on the one you provided.
> YELL
Too late. Your logo isn't yours anymore.
--
Mark Bijster 'No-one is perfect in this unperfect world'
ma...@sci.kun.nl -Ziggy Marley-
University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
http://www.sci.kun.nl/cgi-bin-thalia/smoelfind?1990/markb.html
Graham Nelson
In article <5hamqe$7...@agate.berkeley.edu>, Gerry Kevin Wilson
<URL:mailto:whiz...@uclink.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>
>
> I have a thought. For the logo, I'd like to have, in large,
> easily readable, rendered (Hey, it's easy to do with the right program
> okay, so sue me.) 3D, blocky, green, Apple IIe-ish letters the following
> on a black background:
>
>
>
> > HELLO AGAIN, SAILOR
Perhaps it's just me who thinks this sounds a little... tacky?
Quite apart from having a certain kind of Liza Minelli campness.
Anyway, though, can't we give ourselves a name which isn't a
shadow of one of Infocom's jokes?
I would have thought
"The Third Annual Interactive Fiction Competition"
had the right sort of ring to it. For a logo, how about
[Big italicised If]
subscript 97
...?
--
Graham Nelson | gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk | Oxford, United Kingdom
Julian Arnold
In article <3338B305...@Earthling.net>, Fredrik Ramsberg
<URL:mailto:Spect...@Earthling.net> wrote:
>
> [...]
> Or, if we _do_ want something less complicated than that, how about a
> compass rose of some sort? Andrew Plotkin used one for MaxZip, I think
> it was, and it struck me as one of the most central concepts in IF
> real world and other kinds of games; not many people except IF
> players/authors consider the toilet to be the third door to the east.
> The other people who do probably need help to get out of the strait
> jacket before they go to the loo anyway.
I thought a red circular button, with the words "3rd Annual" curved
around the top, and the words "Interactive Fiction Competition" curved
around the bottom (similar to a coin, a British one anyway). The logo
in the center would be a compass rose, which, as Fredrik points out, is
a pretty universal and easily recognizable emblem of text adventures.
The lettering and the logo could be, say, burnished gold.
Unfortunately I don't have the software to do a good job of creating
this (oh, or the skill). Still, simple and attractive. And a golden
compass rose (well brass anyway) would make a nice trophy.
Jools
--
"For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand
ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me
from ever completing anything." -- Herman Melville, "Moby Dick"
Cardinal Teulbachs
Julian Arnold <jo...@arnod.demon.co.uk> made so bold as to state:
>I thought a red circular button, with the words "3rd Annual" curved
>around the top, and the words "Interactive Fiction Competition" curved
>around the bottom (similar to a coin, a British one anyway). The logo
>in the center would be a compass rose, which, as Fredrik points out, is
>a pretty universal and easily recognizable emblem of text adventures.
>The lettering and the logo could be, say, burnished gold.
I like it, except that the red button should be blue, with scallops
(or whatever those things are called--bring on the fish jokes) around
the circle and a short run of blue ribbon trailing away to either side
of it. IOW, it should not be a coin, but a--hold onto your seats--blue
ribbon like at the county fair.
It should only be a coin if it can somehow be made clear that the coin
is a zorkmid. Otherwise, the connection to i-f is too tenuous. Or so
it seems to me.
John Holder
I whipped out POVRay last nite and produced a few images, both of the
whizzard and gnelson suggestions. I'll upload the results tonight,
and after about 10:00pm MST (5:00am GMT) they will appear on my
web page, at
http://www.frii.com/if/logos.html
--
John Holder (jho...@frii.com) /\ http://www.frii.com/~jholder/
UNIX Specialist, Paranet Inc. <--> Raytracing|Fractals|Interactive Fiction
http://www.paranet.com/ \/ Homebrewing|Strange Attractors
Kayrun
This thread made me laugh out loud more than any I've read yet! I like
all the ideas here---I think! Thanks to all for making my day :)
Julian Arnold
In article <5hctr3$e...@chile.earthlink.net>, Cardinal Teulbachs
<URL:mailto:card...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Julian Arnold <jo...@arnod.demon.co.uk> made so bold as to state:
>
> >I thought a red circular button, with the words "3rd Annual" curved
> >around the top, and the words "Interactive Fiction Competition" curved
> >around the bottom (similar to a coin, a British one anyway). The logo
> >in the center would be a compass rose, which, as Fredrik points out, is
> >a pretty universal and easily recognizable emblem of text adventures.
> >The lettering and the logo could be, say, burnished gold.
>
> I like it, except that the red button should be blue, with scallops
> (or whatever those things are called--bring on the fish jokes) around
> the circle and a short run of blue ribbon trailing away to either side
> of it. IOW, it should not be a coin, but a--hold onto your seats--blue
> ribbon like at the county fair.
>
> It should only be a coin if it can somehow be made clear that the coin
> is a zorkmid. Otherwise, the connection to i-f is too tenuous. Or so
> it seems to me.
Good plan. I didn't mean it should be a coin as such, just a red
(red=important, right?) button with some coin-like features. A blue
rosette is maybe better though.
Cardinal Teulbachs
jho...@deimos.frii.com (John Holder) made so bold as to state:
>I whipped out POVRay last nite and produced a few images, both of the
>whizzard and gnelson suggestions. I'll upload the results tonight,
>and after about 10:00pm MST (5:00am GMT) they will appear on my
>web page, at
I did a POVRay logo, too, but it really requires viewing at hi-res so
I think it's not finally suitable. It looks pretty cool, though. It's
a crystal ball in a brass holder floating against a
blue-sky-with-clouds background. The ball has a brass N-S/E-W
axis-thingy embedded in it, turned up at about a thirty degree angle
around X. A single point light--the sun--is shining down through it at
a steep angle from the left, giving it a nice little phong reflection.
And of course, since the ball is glass, the cloudy sky is reflected as
well. The viewer's eye is positioned slightly above and to the left of
center for depth.
As if you wanted to know. It looks cool, though, and somewhat i-f'ish.
If I were to finish it, I'd add "N", "S", "E", and "W" letters to the
ends of the axes just to make clear what they are (as part of the
rendered image, that is, using the text function in POVRay), and then
import it into another program to add the title verbage.
Russell Glasser
Cardinal Teulbachs wrote:
>
> 34...@gte.net (Jason Melancon) made so bold as to state:
>
> >I forgot to ask in the other post: If anyone has the software for it
> >and the inclination, it would be nice to have some sort of banner
> >graphic or logo representative of the contest. Ideally, it could be
> >reduced to button size for others to use in linking to the contest
> >thank-you.
>
> Woo woo! This has logo contest written all over it! Will there be a
> two-hour time limit?
>
(Cardinal's infamous and obscenely long .sig file snipped)
Yes, but if we did that, wouldn't we need to have a contest to
design a logo for the logo contest?
--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man."
-- George Bernard Shaw
Russell can be heckled at
http://sdcc8.ucsd.edu/~rglasser
John Francis
In article <33356ee5....@news.gte.net>,
Jason Melancon <34...@gte.net> wrote:
>
>I forgot to ask in the other post: If anyone has the software for it
>and the inclination, it would be nice to have some sort of banner
>graphic or logo representative of the contest. Ideally, it could be
>reduced to button size for others to use in linking to the contest
>website. Donors will receive a genuine, non-exchangeable, hearty
>thank-you.
>
I don't believe how much time a text-adventure newsgroup is spending
discussing a graphical button!
My suggestion:
_______
/ \
/ \
| ___ |
| (___) |
<--)___(-->
/ / \ \
/ / \ \
|-|---------|-|
| | \ _ / | |
| | --(_)-- | |
| | /| |\ | |
|-|---|_|---|-|
\ \__/_\__/ /
_/_______\_
| f.m.i.c. |
-------------
--
John Francis jfra...@engr.sgi.com Silicon Graphics, Inc.
(415)933-8295 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd. MS 02U-923
(415)933-4692 (Fax) Mountain View, CA 94043-1389
Unsolicited electronic mail will be subject to a $100 handling fee.
Andrew Plotkin
John Holder (jho...@deimos.frii.com) wrote:
> I whipped out POVRay last nite and produced a few images, both of the
> whizzard and gnelson suggestions. I'll upload the results tonight,
> and after about 10:00pm MST (5:00am GMT) they will appear on my
> web page, at
> http://www.frii.com/if/logos.html
Did this get working?
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
they got purple; purple's a fruit
Blah blah blah, John Francis, <jfra...@dungeon.engr.sgi.com>, blah:
>
> I don't believe how much time a text-adventure newsgroup is spending
> discussing a graphical button!
> My suggestion:
> _______
> / \
> / \
> | ___ |
> | (___) |
> <--)___(-->
> / / \ \
> / / \ \
> |-|---------|-|
> | | \ _ / | |
> | | --(_)-- | |
> | | /| |\ | |
> |-|---|_|---|-|
> \ \__/_\__/ /
> _/_______\_
> | f.m.i.c. |
> -------------
Well, allow me to take that a little further...
> EXAMINE LOGO
Which do you mean, the Competition Logo, the Award Logo, or the Honorable
Mention Logo?
> EXAMINE COMPETITION LOGO
The 97 Competition Logo is a masterpiece of a logo, tastefully
rendered in full color, utilizing all the proper elements of logo design -
eye-catching yet not too overly garish, effective and to-the-point,
simple, yet it works on so many levels. Easily portable to any graphical
format in amazingly compressed size, the logo rather appropriately
reflects the grandeur, the fun, and the spirit of friendly competition
that the rec.arts.interactive-fiction competition has come to represent.
> EXAMINE AWARD LOGO
A fitting award, properly encased in precious metals and mounted on an
ornate base. The winner would no doubt be very proud to mount this on his
or her mantle, or perhaps just mount it as a disk drive.
> EXAMINE HONORABLE MENTION LOGO
Not a logo per se, it's actually a small, ill-fitting shortsleeved
shirt with the, erm, logo on it.
> READ HONORABLE MENTION LOGO
"I entered my game in the 1997 rec.arts.interactive-fiction Competition
and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."
- spatch, it's an honor just to be nominated, or something -
--
Spatch conducts top-secret experiments at http://error.net/~spatula
remove the X from my email address when replying. gads, i'm trendy.
"Do you find my method acting unsound?" "I see no acting at all."
mstie#43790
Eric Rossing
On Fri, 28 Mar 1997 10:59:14 -0800, Russell Glasser
<rgla...@penning.lanl.gov> wrote:
>Cardinal Teulbachs wrote:
>>
>> Woo woo! This has logo contest written all over it! Will there be a
>> two-hour time limit?
>>
>> --Cardinal T
>
> (Cardinal's infamous and obscenely long .sig file snipped)
> Yes, but if we did that, wouldn't we need to have a contest to
>design a logo for the logo contest?
Yes, and a contest to design a logo for the logo contest's logo contest!
And a
STACK OVERFLOW! JOKE HALTED!
Well, never mind, then... :)
Eric Rossing
ros...@iname.com
http://home.msen.com/~rossing
PGP Public key available on my WWW page
Erik Max Francis
John Francis wrote:
> I don't believe how much time a text-adventure newsgroup is spending
> discussing a graphical button!
I like the idea of a banner with a one-time animating "> HELLO SAILOR" (in
bright green, of course), character by character, with "Third Annual
Interactive Fiction Competition" appearing in the corner.
I'll whip it up if anyone's interested.
--
Erik Max Francis, &tSftDotIotE / email: m...@alcyone.com
Alcyone Systems / web: http://www.alcyone.com/max/
San Jose, California, United States / icbm: 37 20 07 N 121 53 38 W
\
"I am become death, / destroyer of worlds."
/ J. Robert Oppenheimer (quoting legend)
John Holder
John Holder (jho...@deimos.frii.com) wrote:
: I whipped out POVRay last nite and produced a few images, both of the
: whizzard and gnelson suggestions. I'll upload the results tonight,
: and after about 10:00pm MST (5:00am GMT) they will appear on my
: web page, at
: http://www.frii.com/if/logos.html
The page above now exists. See what you think... Making the logos
animated is a possibility...
athol-brose
In article <erkyrathE...@netcom.com>,
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@netcom.com> wrote:
>> http://www.frii.com/if/logos.html
>Did this get working?
try http://www.frii.com/~jholder/if/logos.html
--
athol-brose // cinn...@one.net // http://w3.one.net/~cinnamon
still, it's just noise
Cardinal Teulbachs
Erik Max Francis <m...@alcyone.com> made so bold as to state:
>I like the idea of a banner with a one-time animating "> HELLO SAILOR" (in
>bright green, of course), character by character, with "Third Annual
>Interactive Fiction Competition" appearing in the corner.
>I'll whip it up if anyone's interested.
How about:
------------begin "logo"
>help, I'm bored
A help nymph appears on your keyboard, wagging a finger at you. "Then
become a part of the Third Annual Interactive Fiction Competition
today!" With a wink, she is gone.
------------end "logo"
Not very logoish, but maybe that's a Good Thing, given the subject
matter. Anyway, just a thought...
Liza Daly
Fredrik Ramsberg (Spect...@Earthling.net) wrote:
: Or, if we _do_ want something less complicated than that, how about a
: compass rose of some sort?
Okey-dokey, here's mine. I did it a few days ago, posted from another
server, and never saw my own post. So if it appears that I'm
advertising this repeatedly, my apologies.
http://fovea.retina.net/~gecko/foobar.html
As I say in my original post, the nice thing about a compass rose
is that it can be easily scaled small. This is a big, complicated,
probably-too-fluffy version.
--Liza
--
"Why should we endeavour to make the web exciting, interesting,
interactive and aesthetically pleasing?" - The House of Erotic Massage
March edition
ge...@retina.net http://fovea.retina.net/~gecko/
jho...@frii.com
In article <5hkcb7$i...@news.one.net>,
cinn...@shell.one.net (athol-brose) wrote:
>
> In article <erkyrathE...@netcom.com>,
> Andrew Plotkin <erky...@netcom.com> wrote:
> >> http://www.frii.com/if/logos.html
> >Did this get working?
>
> try http://www.frii.com/~jholder/if/logos.html
>
Yeah, what he said. I've tried to post three corrections now, but News
out of my ISP ain't working, apparently. So, here's the same from
DejaNews. Any Comments?
Yesterday I added an animated logo...
--
John Holder (jho...@frii.com) http://www.frii.com/~jholder
Buenos Nachos - los Habernero de Fiero es comida de los dios.
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Adam Cadre
Gerry Kevin Wilson wrote:
>
> I have a thought. For the logo, I'd like to have, in large, easily
> readable, rendered (Hey, it's easy to do with the right program okay,
> so sue me.) 3D, blocky, green, Apple IIe-ish letters the following
> on a black background:
>
> > HELLO AGAIN, SAILOR
>
> youse guys. It ties in with Infocom, and the feel of old, SLLOOOOWW
> computers (just kidding apple fans) as well as bringing home the idea
> that we're reviving text adventures.
>
> Plus, it's instantly recognizable to any Infocom fan (warning,
> warning, you have made a generalization on the internet, prepare to
> be corrected....repeat, prepare to be corrected...)
>
> I would say "What do you guys think?" but I know you'll all tell me
> irregardless, so it's a waste of breath. ;)
Hurm.
I'd vote against this, mainly because I think we're not doing ourselves
any favors by making IF stand for Infocom Fan instead of Interactive
Fiction. A group of thirty-odd 10-to-20-year-old games can only ever
have so much appeal, no matter how good said games are -- especially
if what we're appealing to is not the intrinsic quality of said games
but the nostalgia value. (I mean, we want people who don't remember
Apple ][s to get hooked on IF, right?)
Besides... I may be an anomaly, but while I've played more Infocom
games than the average human -- though far fewer than the average
r.*.if resident, I suspect -- the ZORK and ENCHANTER series never did
anything for me. And of course, my wants and needs are all that's
important, right?
-----
Adam Cadre, Durham, NC
http://www.duke.edu/~adamc
David Glasser
> > I don't believe how much time a text-adventure newsgroup is spending
> > discussing a graphical button!
Huh? I love some of the graphics on IF sites. My favorite one is on
Graham Nelson's site; It has the word 'inform' and the opening lines from
Zork and Jigsaw circling through it...or something like that.
> > My suggestion:
> > _______
> > / \
> > / \
> > | ___ |
> > | (___) |
> > <--)___(-->
> > / / \ \
> > / / \ \
> > |-|---------|-|
> > | | \ _ / | |
> > | | --(_)-- | |
> > | | /| |\ | |
> > |-|---|_|---|-|
> > \ \__/_\__/ /
> > _/_______\_
> > | f.m.i.c. |
> > -------------
David Glasser, who recomends never to change the name of your IF in the middle
dsgl...@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/6028/
John Holder
John Holder (jho...@deimos.frii.com) wrote:
: I whipped out POVRay last nite and produced a few images, both of the
: whizzard and gnelson suggestions. I'll upload the results tonight,
: and after about 10:00pm MST (5:00am GMT) they will appear on my
: web page, at
: http://www.frii.com/if/logos.html
Bad URL! Bad! The _real_ URL is:
http://www.frii.com/~jholder/if/logos.html
^^^^^^^^^
Sorry, sorry. (ducks and runs)
Adam Cadre
I done writed something to the effect of:
> I don't think we're doing ourselves any favors by making IF stand for
> Infocom Fan instead of Interactive Fiction.
Bonni Mierzejewska replied:
> But how much non-Infocom IF is there, excepting for what's already in
> the GMD archive? Most folks who play IF are already at least
> *acquainted* with the name of Infocom, don't you think? It's not so
> much that IF stands for Infocom Fan, it's that Infocom is a sort of
> rallying point for interactive fiction fans.
The IF community may currently be composed primarily of Infocom
fans. Infocom not having released a game in about ten years, this
is not a segment of the population likely to experience dramatic
growth any time soon. If we want the IF community to expand,
clinging to Infocom isn't the answer.
I didn't get into IF out of love for Infocom, myself; I'd played a
handful of Infocom games, loved some (AMFV) and not cared for others
(Zork), but what really got me excited about it was running across
the competition games and discovering that there were tools that
would allow one person to write a professional-quality text adventure,
and an audience that one could reach without having one's project
green-lighted by someone in the marketing department. The r.*.if
community has produced more IF than Infocom by a comfortable margin,
and unlike Infocom, we're still around. And it's much more appealing
to be present at the very beginning of a genre, where virtually every
new release breaks some kind of new ground, than hanging around ten
years after the end, reminiscing about Zork easter eggs.
Phoebe M. Fuentes
Cyber-Babushka wrote:
>
> On Sun, 30 Mar 1997, Adam Cadre wrote:
>
> >I'd vote against this, mainly because I think we're not doing ourselves
> >any favors by making IF stand for Infocom Fan instead of Interactive
> >Fiction.
>
> GMD archive? Most folks who play IF are already at least *acquainted*
> with the name of Infocom, don't you think? It's not so much that IF
> stands for Infocom Fan, it's that Infocom is a sort of rallying point for
> interactive fiction fans.
Not to knock, Cyber-Babushka, but I would have to agree with Adam. I'm
pretty new to IF and I love it, but I don't even know what the heck
"Hello again, sailor" means. Most of the games I have played have come
from GMD but have only played one Infocom game so far (The Witness).
Not having had much history playing Infocom games, I honestly don't
think Infocom is a rallying point -- I'd rather think GMD is. But all
the same, the competition logo should represent Interactive Fiction
itself. The compass rose sounds good. How else can anyone ever get
around? Or even Adam's prompt logo (although I would jazz it up a bit,
because I didn't even understand it until he explained what it was).
--
************************************************************************
Phoebe M. Fuentes pho...@earthlink.net
************************************************************************
Dans ce miroir /\ rorrim siht nI
Je suis enclos vivant et vrai / \ laer dna evila desolcne ma I
Comme on imagine les anges \ / slegna senigami eno sA
Et non comme sont les reflets \/ snoitcelfer sa ton dnA
- Guillaume Apollinaire
************************************************************************
Fredrik Ramsberg
Cyber-Babushka wrote:
>
> On Sun, 30 Mar 1997, Adam Cadre wrote:
>
> >>
> >> I have a thought. For the logo, I'd like to have, in large, easily
> >> readable, rendered (Hey, it's easy to do with the right program okay,
> >> so sue me.) 3D, blocky, green, Apple IIe-ish letters the following
> >> on a black background:
> >
> >
> >I'd vote against this, mainly because I think we're not doing ourselves
> >any favors by making IF stand for Infocom Fan instead of Interactive
> >Fiction.
>
> But how much non-Infocom IF is there, excepting for what's already in the
> GMD archive? Most folks who play IF are already at least *acquainted*
> with the name of Infocom, don't you think? It's not so much that IF
> stands for Infocom Fan, it's that Infocom is a sort of rallying point for
> interactive fiction fans.
>
Unless you have a really narrow definition of IF, there is lots of other
IF than Infocom. There were hundreds or thousands of adventure games
available in the eighties, and I would not be surprised if some people
got rather hooked without even having heard of Infocom.
I agree with Adam here (as if I hadn't made that clear already...). We
are not Infocom. We are not the Infocom Fanclub. We are not trying to
copy Infocom. We are trying to do something more, something better. An
Infocom-related logo suggests, to me, that we are merely striving to
reach the standards of Infocom. I dare say several authors on this group
have reached the Infocom standards, and continued beyond them. Let's not
waste that.
Just my $.04. ( Yeah-I've tried a humility course, but it didn't
help...)
/Fredrik
--
Fredrik Ramsberg, Spect...@Earthling.net
http://www-und.ida.liu.se/~d91frera
Macintosh - 0.4% Actual Users!
Magnus Olsson
In article <Pine.LNX.3.95.970402102504.230B-100000@seraphim>,
Cyber-Babushka <u6...@wvnvm.wvnet.edu> wrote:
>On Sun, 30 Mar 1997, Adam Cadre wrote:
>
>>Gerry Kevin Wilson wrote:
>>>
>>> I have a thought. For the logo, I'd like to have, in large, easily
>>> readable, rendered (Hey, it's easy to do with the right program okay,
>>> so sue me.) 3D, blocky, green, Apple IIe-ish letters the following
>>> on a black background:
>>
>>Hurm.
>>
>>I'd vote against this, mainly because I think we're not doing ourselves
>>any favors by making IF stand for Infocom Fan instead of Interactive
>>Fiction.
>
>But how much non-Infocom IF is there, excepting for what's already in the
>GMD archive? Most folks who play IF are already at least *acquainted*
>with the name of Infocom, don't you think? It's not so much that IF
>stands for Infocom Fan, it's that Infocom is a sort of rallying point for
>interactive fiction fans.
My primary objection to the "Hello Again, Sailor" proposal is not that
it's incomprehensible to non Infocommers (though perhaps it could give
those unfortunate people the wrong associations?), but that it's too
long - a logo should be eye-catching, visually effective, not a
sentence extending across the entire screen or page.
The various "IF-subscript-97" logos are more like it, but a trifle
nerdy, perhaps, though that may not be a disadvantage in this context.
I like Adam Cadre's proposal the best of the ones I've seen so far:
it's elegant, catching and looks very professional. The disadvantage
is that it's pretty non-specific; it could be the logo for basically
any conference.
All this IMHO, of course.
--
Magnus Olsson (m...@df.lth.se, zeb...@pobox.com)
--- Not affiliated to Lund University or LTH ---
James Cole
[....everything sniped...]
I totally agree with the sentiment.
I've got so much to say along these lines, and I've actually been planning to
do a sort of in-depth post about it for a while now. It'll be appearing
(fairly) soon.
---------------
James Cole
jrc...@ozemail.com.au
Jason Compton
Adam Cadre (ad...@acpub.duke.edu) wrote:
: The IF community may currently be composed primarily of Infocom
: fans. Infocom not having released a game in about ten years, this
: is not a segment of the population likely to experience dramatic
: growth any time soon. If we want the IF community to expand,
: clinging to Infocom isn't the answer.
Debating the merits and demerits of "classics" is not a bad thing.
: green-lighted by someone in the marketing department. The r.*.if
: community has produced more IF than Infocom by a comfortable margin,
Very true.
: and unlike Infocom, we're still around. And it's much more appealing
: to be present at the very beginning of a genre, where virtually every
: new release breaks some kind of new ground, than hanging around ten
: years after the end, reminiscing about Zork easter eggs.
I don't see how the two are in conflict. Talking about debug commands in
Witness doesn't keep me from enjoying A Change in the Weather, and I don't
think discussions of either should be discouraged.
Despite the age of Infocom games, somehow they seem to keep being new
products, meaning that Activision IS making some money selling them again
and again and again and again. So there ARE people who are being
introduced to IF through Infocom.
--
Jason Compton jcom...@xnet.com
Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine (847) 741-0689 FAX
AR on Aminet - docs/mags/ar???.lha WWW - http://www.cucug.org/ar/
The sands of time were eroded by... the river of constant change.
John Holder
Magnus Olsson (m...@bartlet.df.lth.se) wrote:
: My primary objection to the "Hello Again, Sailor" proposal is not that
: it's incomprehensible to non Infocommers (though perhaps it could give
: those unfortunate people the wrong associations?), but that it's too
: long - a logo should be eye-catching, visually effective, not a
: sentence extending across the entire screen or page.
: The various "IF-subscript-97" logos are more like it, but a trifle
: nerdy, perhaps, though that may not be a disadvantage in this context.
: I like Adam Cadre's proposal the best of the ones I've seen so far:
: it's elegant, catching and looks very professional. The disadvantage
: is that it's pretty non-specific; it could be the logo for basically
Despite the fact I created some of the images, my favorites are Liza's
compass rose and the logo by Alan Monroe.
I've received a .psd of Liza's compass rose and am working on another raytrace.
My proposal: We let people keep on creating logs for April, and in May
I'll modify the form to accept votes and we can select a logo by
popular acclaim. Sound okay?
Julian Arnold
In article <5hvmot$p...@bartlet.df.lth.se>, Magnus Olsson
<URL:mailto:m...@bartlet.df.lth.se> wrote:
>
> My primary objection to the "Hello Again, Sailor" proposal is not that
> it's incomprehensible to non Infocommers (though perhaps it could give
> those unfortunate people the wrong associations?), but that it's too
> long - a logo should be eye-catching, visually effective, not a
> sentence extending across the entire screen or page.
>
> The various "IF-subscript-97" logos are more like it, but a trifle
> nerdy, perhaps, though that may not be a disadvantage in this context.
>
> I like Adam Cadre's proposal the best of the ones I've seen so far:
> it's elegant, catching and looks very professional. The disadvantage
> is that it's pretty non-specific; it could be the logo for basically
>
> All this IMHO, of course.
I'm confused about what the graphic is actually for.
Is it a button for web pages to link to the competition page (hence my
suggestion of a compass rose in a button), or a banner for the
competition page (in which case something more of the dimensions of the
"Hello Again, Sailor" logos John Holder has created would be more
suitable)?
Julian Arnold
In article <Pine.LNX.3.95.970402102504.230B-100000@seraphim>, Cyber-Babushka
>
> On Sun, 30 Mar 1997, Adam Cadre wrote:
>
> >Gerry Kevin Wilson wrote:
> >>
> >> I have a thought. For the logo, I'd like to have, in large, easily
> >> readable, rendered (Hey, it's easy to do with the right program okay,
> >> so sue me.) 3D, blocky, green, Apple IIe-ish letters the following
> >> on a black background:
> >
> >Hurm.
> >
> >I'd vote against this, mainly because I think we're not doing ourselves
> >any favors by making IF stand for Infocom Fan instead of Interactive
> >Fiction.
>
> But how much non-Infocom IF is there, excepting for what's already in the
> GMD archive?
There are hundreds of examples. For instance, people in the UK who went
to school in the early to mid 1980's probably used BBC micros (certainly
at that time Acorn was the biggest name in UK educational computing).
Like me, these people probably played Acornsoft games (such as
"Acheton," "Countdown to Doom," "Philosopher's Quest," and the supremely
wonderful "Gateway to Karos") as their first IF's. Then there are games
from companies such as Melbourne House, Level 9, and Robico. There were
no BBC Infocom games. In fact, aside from a few brief plays of HHGTTG
and a friends C64 version of "Sherlock" I had no experience of Infocom
until '94.
Then there are the Scott Adams-type games which must have appeared on
more and smaller computers than the Infocom ones, and all The Quill
games, and so on.
> Most folks who play IF are already at least *acquainted*
> with the name of Infocom, don't you think?
Yes.
> It's not so much that IF
> stands for Infocom Fan, it's that Infocom is a sort of rallying point for
> interactive fiction fans.
Perhaps, but as Adam Cadre said, we won't do ourselves any favours by
perpetuating this.
Onward. Look to the future. :)
Wallace and Gromit
anti...@bu.edu (Liza Daly) writes:
>Fredrik Ramsberg (Spect...@Earthling.net) wrote:
>As I say in my original post, the nice thing about a compass rose
>is that it can be easily scaled small. This is a big, complicated,
>probably-too-fluffy version.
I like it, but you should probably put IF contest or something
underneath or on it.
Don't like the implication that every IF game uses those directions, though :)
Liza Daly
Wallace and Gromit (edh...@eden.rutgers.edu) wrote:
: anti...@bu.edu (Liza Daly) writes:
: >As I say in my original post, the nice thing about a compass rose
: >is that it can be easily scaled small. This is a big, complicated,
: >probably-too-fluffy version.
: Don't like the implication that every IF game uses those directions,
: though :)
Understood, but an n-dimensional version that included "up", "down",
"in", "out", "starboard", "aft", "port", "fore", "left", "right",
and every location in "In the End" is beyond my Photoshop skills. :)
James Cole
jcom...@typhoon.xnet.com (Jason Compton) wrote:
>Adam Cadre (ad...@acpub.duke.edu) wrote:
>: The IF community may currently be composed primarily of Infocom
>: fans. Infocom not having released a game in about ten years, this
>: is not a segment of the population likely to experience dramatic
>: growth any time soon. If we want the IF community to expand,
>: clinging to Infocom isn't the answer.
>
>Debating the merits and demerits of "classics" is not a bad thing.
Yes, but there is much more to the "Infocomness" of this group than that.
[...]
>
>: and unlike Infocom, we're still around. And it's much more appealing
>: to be present at the very beginning of a genre, where virtually every
>: new release breaks some kind of new ground, than hanging around ten
>: years after the end, reminiscing about Zork easter eggs.
>
>I don't see how the two are in conflict. Talking about debug commands in
>Witness doesn't keep me from enjoying A Change in the Weather, and I don't
>think discussions of either should be discouraged.
It is not as simple as this.
>Despite the age of Infocom games, somehow they seem to keep being new
>products, meaning that Activision IS making some money selling them again
>and again and again and again. So there ARE people who are being
>introduced to IF through Infocom.
I'd be interested in seeing background data on the people who have purchased
these re-releases. I would think that most of these people would had already
been introduced to Infocom, or IF, in one way or another. Most likely they
were Infocom fans who wanted to get copies of games they didn't originally
have, or had lost their copies of, or even people introduced to IF by this
group.
What is the situation of the people in this newsgroup who have bought any of
these re-releases?
>--
>Jason Compton jcom...@xnet.com
>Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine (847) 741-0689 FAX
>AR on Aminet - docs/mags/ar???.lha WWW - http://www.cucug.org/ar/
>The sands of time were eroded by... the river of constant change.
---------------
James Cole
jrc...@ozemail.com.au
Admiral Jota
jrc...@ozemail.com.au (James Cole) writes:
>jcom...@typhoon.xnet.com (Jason Compton) wrote:
>>Despite the age of Infocom games, somehow they seem to keep being new
>>products, meaning that Activision IS making some money selling them again
>>and again and again and again. So there ARE people who are being
>>introduced to IF through Infocom.
>I'd be interested in seeing background data on the people who have purchased
>these re-releases. I would think that most of these people would had already
>been introduced to Infocom, or IF, in one way or another. Most likely they
>were Infocom fans who wanted to get copies of games they didn't originally
>have, or had lost their copies of, or even people introduced to IF by this
>group.
I was original introduced to IF by a game called 'Star Trek: The
Promethean Prophecy'. It was by Simon and Schuster, and it had a
full-sentence parser, good writing, logical, enjoyable puzzles, and a
decent plot. This was back around 1990 or so, and I had never heard of
infocom. I liked the game, but I didn't really know much about IF, and I
didn't know where to obtain similar games. Over the next few years, I
played some of Sierra's early text/graphic hybrid games (like the first
three Space Quest games, or the first four King's Quest games). I liked
these, and I sorta forgot about text adventures. In 1995, I discovered
Zork I, and I loved it. Later that year, I discovered the Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy and this newsgroup, and at point I was hooked on IF.
It was through this newsgroup that I learned about all the other games
that Infocom produced, and where I learned about the LToI and (later)
Masterpieces, which I purchased.
So really, I had only played two Infocom games before finding this
newsgroup, but they were what made me come looking for it.
--
/<-= Admiral Jota =->\
-< <-= jo...@tiac.net =-> >-
\<-=- -= -=- -= -=->/
Adam Dawes
Hi Adam!
AC> but what really got me excited about it was running across the
AC> competition games and discovering that there were tools that would allow
AC> one person to write a professional-quality text adventure
Definitely. The fact that tools like Inform exist at all is fantastic. The fact
that they run over all platforms makes it even better. And best of all, they're
all absolutely free.
So many people have nostalgic memories of adventure games, be it Infocom,
mainframe text adventures or more obscure 8-bit games. I suspect that the
*vast* majority of those people have forgotten that these games exist, and are
completely unaware that they're still actively enjoyed and developed. That was
certainly the case for me, until I read an article in Jason Compton's Amiga
Report which sparked my interest once again (so thanks to Jason and to Simon
Dainty for sparking my memory!)
.\dam. [Team AMIGA] //\ Ad...@darkside.demon.co.uk \//
> http://www.rdainfotec.demon.co.uk/adam/
> http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1225/
John Holder
James Cole (jrc...@ozemail.com.au) wrote:
: What is the situation of the people in this newsgroup who have bought any of
: these re-releases?
Played a few of the games way back, and when LTOI 1 came out, I decided
I needed them. Same for LTOI 2.
Skip forward a few years. LTOI 1 & 2 disks are getting a little worn.
Perhaps too worn. Out come Masterpieces on CD. Hey! a much more permanant
format! Cool! So, I bought em again.
Other than those first coupla games, I was reintroduced to IF when I discovered
this group and TADS 1.2 / ditch day drifter back in - oh, I think it was
1989 or 1990.
So, Infocom is to blame for me.
JID
In article <5i5m5q$ske$1...@europa.frii.com>, jho...@deimos.frii.com (John
Holder) wrote:
>James Cole (jrc...@ozemail.com.au) wrote:
>: What is the situation of the people in this newsgroup who have bought any of
>: these re-releases?
>
>Played a few of the games way back, and when LTOI 1 came out, I decided
>I needed them. Same for LTOI 2.
>
>Skip forward a few years. LTOI 1 & 2 disks are getting a little worn.
>Perhaps too worn. Out come Masterpieces on CD. Hey! a much more permanant
>format! Cool! So, I bought em again.
That's exactly my situation. I'm not a programmer (I did once write a game
in BASIC wayyyy back when, heavily Zork-influenced) but just a raving
Infocom fan, and I found the r.*.if newsgroups by accident and never
looked back.
Joey
****************************************************
American Gothic fanatic or just a tourist in Trinity?
Read The Trinity Guardian: http://www.best.com/~owls/AG/
****************************************************
Guildenstern: He's -- melancholy.
Player: Melancholy?
Rosencrantz: Mad.
Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you can't help that, we're all mad here.
(From "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern in Wonderland")
****************************************************
Johanna "Joey" Drasner: owls @ best . com (San Francisco)
****************************************************
Dylan O'Donnell
In article <3345fa99...@news.netspace.net.au>,
James Cole <jrc...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>I'd be interested in seeing background data on the people who have purchased
>these re-releases. I would think that most of these people would had already
>been introduced to Infocom, or IF, in one way or another. Most likely they
>were Infocom fans who wanted to get copies of games they didn't originally
>have, or had lost their copies of, or even people introduced to IF by this
>group.
>
>these re-releases?
You asked :-)
I'd been playing text adventures for six or seven years before I
played my first Infocom game (Zork Zero); I'd known about the
existence of Zork in a general sort of way, but never played the games.
The games I was playing were... hmm... The Hobbit and the Lord of the
Rings games (Melbourne House) on the Spectrum, as well as some others
(Terrormolinos, I recall, and several Quilled adventures; I owned a
copy of PAW, never got round to finishing a game in it. Not a lot
changes :-). Adventure and an educational maths thing (L?) on the BBC
Micro; Corruption and Wonderland (Magnetic Scrolls) on the Amiga. I'd
only played three Infocom games (ZZ, Zork I, Planetfall (unfinished))
before I bought Masterpieces last year - I'm still only halfway through
working my way through it (all you brilliant people releasing great games
to gmd aren't helping ;-). Certainly, I didn't see Infocom as any
way "special" or more worthy of worship than MH or MS - I still don't.
All three companies produced some excellent games, and each was perfectly
capable of releasing a duffer. (LOTR2, Fish!, Infidel - my opinion, of
course).
I probably wouldn't have bought Masterpieces if I hadn't heard about
it in these group, and heard you lot rave about the Infocom games; there
was a definite lacuna of several years between giving up on Planetfall
and discovering Curses, gmd, and r*if (in that order).
Does that help?
--
Dylan O'Donnell
http://www.fysh.org/~psmith/
Jason Compton
James Cole (jrc...@ozemail.com.au) wrote:
: I'd be interested in seeing background data on the people who have purchased
: these re-releases. I would think that most of these people would had already
: been introduced to Infocom, or IF, in one way or another. Most likely they
: were Infocom fans who wanted to get copies of games they didn't originally
: have, or had lost their copies of, or even people introduced to IF by this
: group.
I'm sure many of the purchasers are RAIFers, but a company like Activision
couldn't justify a single product, let alone at least three series of
products (Lost Treasures, the themed collections, and Masterpieces) on
sales to RAIF.
Joe Frank
dyl...@demon.net (Dylan O'Donnell) wrote:
>In article <3345fa99...@news.netspace.net.au>,
>James Cole <jrc...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
>>I'd be interested in seeing background data on the people who have purchased
>>these re-releases. I would think that most of these people would had already
>>been introduced to Infocom, or IF, in one way or another. Most likely they
>>were Infocom fans who wanted to get copies of games they didn't originally
>>have, or had lost their copies of, or even people introduced to IF by this
>>group.
>>
>>What is the situation of the people in this newsgroup who have bought any of
>>these re-releases?
Well since you asked...
I started my I-F adventures in the early '80's. I had a magazine that
came with games. I spent all weekend typing in a game called "Crash
Dive" by a guy name Brian Moriarty (it was in hexedecimal) and it took
me a week to finish it. I LOVED IT!! Then I started playing Infocom,
Magnetic Scrolls, etc. I got out of it when infocom dropped their
support for the Atari-ST. I rediscovered it a few years back when I
got RTZ for my birthday, along with the Zork Anthology.
I found this newsgroup and ftp.gmd.de from the readme file in
Curses... Thanks Graham... I bought Masterpieces because I always
wanted to play ALL the Infocom games.
Well so much for my life story
TTFN
Joe Frank
jdf...@fls.infi.net
Mary K. Kuhner
I played IF games as a teenager--discovered Adventure on the
university's brand-new mainframe, then Zork and a couple of Scott
Adams games on my Commodore. I lost interest, though, partly
due to frustrating experiences with Planetfall and Hitchhikers.
I found raif via a discussion of Black's gender on a roleplaying
newsgroup, and was mildly intrigued, mainly by the idea that people
were *writing* games and discussing them. (It had always been
a pretty solitary hobby for me). So I downloaded Sherbet and
Jigsaw, and then got bitten by the idea of writing a game, and
things just went on from there. I bought _Masterpieces_ when I
couldn't stand not being able to follow the discussions of Infocom
games, but I can't say I had particularly warmer memories of Infocom
than of Scott Adams. My favorite game as a teenager was definitely
_The Count_, Scott's vampire game, for its dream sequences and
tight, cohesive setting.
Working on Trinity now and enjoying it a lot, though of course I have
the wrong-headed and unfair impression that it's mildly derivative of
Jigsaw....
Mary Kuhner mkku...@genetics.washington.edu
James Cole
jcom...@typhoon.xnet.com (Jason Compton) wrote:
>James Cole (jrc...@ozemail.com.au) wrote:
>: I'd be interested in seeing background data on the people who have purchased
>: these re-releases. I would think that most of these people would had already
>: been introduced to Infocom, or IF, in one way or another. Most likely they
>: were Infocom fans who wanted to get copies of games they didn't originally
>: have, or had lost their copies of, or even people introduced to IF by this
>: group.
>
>I'm sure many of the purchasers are RAIFers, but a company like Activision
>couldn't justify a single product, let alone at least three series of
>products (Lost Treasures, the themed collections, and Masterpieces) on
>sales to RAIF.
Yes that's true. But if you read my post I didn't imply anything about those
people all being RAIFers. I would suspect that there are more Infocom fans
out there who have never even seen this group, than there are here.
>--
>Jason Compton jcom...@xnet.com
>Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine (847) 741-0689 FAX
>AR on Aminet - docs/mags/ar???.lha WWW - http://www.cucug.org/ar/
>The sands of time were eroded by... the river of constant change.
---------------
James Cole
jrc...@ozemail.com.au
Daniel R. Lackey
Mary K. Kuhner wrote:
> Working on Trinity now and enjoying it a lot, though of course I have
> the wrong-headed and unfair impression that it's mildly derivative of
> Jigsaw....
That's not neccesarily the wrong impression... I rather suspect Brian Moriarty
got himself a time machine, went back to 1985 and ripped Graham off before
poor Mr. Nelson could even get started. =)
--
daniel r. lackey standing in government denies knowledge
jmdre...@earthlink.net the shadows XVI. the tower
===============================================================================
"God is dead." -- F.W. Nietzsche
"He's not dead, he's... pining for the fjords!" -- M. Palin
Wallace and Gromit
anti...@bu.edu (Liza Daly) writes:
>Understood, but an n-dimensional version that included "up", "down",
>"in", "out", "starboard", "aft", "port", "fore", "left", "right",
>and every location in "In the End" is beyond my Photoshop skills. :)
I just got the oddest idea of making the logo interactive. (ie holographic
or a computer program). Just a vague whim, though :)
NW N NE
\ | /
W - - E
/ | \
SW S SE
>change
F
|
L -- -- R
|
B
:)
Edan
Up *WAY* too late
Magnus Olsson
In article <ant070708d07M+4%@gnelson.demon.co.uk>,
Graham Nelson <gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Seriously, Infocom did not invent the "segmented" style of game:
>they merely did it rather well.
Just out of curiosity: if Infocom didn't, who did?
--
Magnus Olsson (m...@df.lth.se, zeb...@pobox.com)
------ http://www.pobox.com/~zebulon ------
Neither a student nor an employee at LU or LTH
Graham Nelson
In article <3347D4...@earthlink.net>, Daniel R. Lackey
<URL:mailto:jmdre...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Mary K. Kuhner wrote:
> > Working on Trinity now and enjoying it a lot, though of course I have
> > the wrong-headed and unfair impression that it's mildly derivative of
> > Jigsaw....
>
> That's not neccesarily the wrong impression... I rather suspect Brian Moriarty
> got himself a time machine, went back to 1985 and ripped Graham off before
> poor Mr. Nelson could even get started. =)
I like to think that I ripped off Mr Lebling, actually. And I think
Mr H. G. Wells might also have a case.
Seriously, Infocom did not invent the "segmented" style of game:
they merely did it rather well.
--
Graham Nelson | gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk | Oxford, United Kingdom
Andrew Plotkin
Magnus Olsson (m...@bartlet.df.lth.se) wrote:
> In article <ant070708d07M+4%@gnelson.demon.co.uk>,
> Graham Nelson <gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >they merely did it rather well.
> Just out of curiosity: if Infocom didn't, who did?
When did the Sierra game _Time Zone_ come out? Before _Trinity_ and
_Spellbreaker_, I'm sure.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
Daryl McCullough
Excuse me, but what does "segmented style of game" mean? Is
it necessary to play Jigsaw or Trinity to understand what that
means?
Daryl McCullough
CoGenTex, Inc.
Ithaca, NY
John Holder
: : these re-releases?
: Played a few of the games way back, and when LTOI 1 came out, I decided
: I needed them. Same for LTOI 2.
Actually, i lied. My first expoeriece with computers at all was when my dad
took me into his workplace (Los Alamos National Labs) and sat me down in
front of a terminal of a PDP 11 and fired up Adventure in 1978. I was so
excited about this cool phenomenon that I knew I had to learn how to program
these machines.
So, as a tiny fifth grader, I enrolled in a programming course at the local
high school. I was their mascot, and i daresay I could program as well as
most of them with one or two exceptions. Then I had to get an 8-bit the
next year so i could program at home, and I hold Crowther & Woods personally
responsible for my near 20 year experience with computers.
Mary K. Kuhner
In article <5ibjev$i...@bartlet.df.lth.se> m...@bartlet.df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
>Graham Nelson <gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>Seriously, Infocom did not invent the "segmented" style of game:
>>they merely did it rather well.
>Just out of curiosity: if Infocom didn't, who did?
(I believe what's meant by "segmented" here is that the game has
several distinct parts which need not be done in order, each with
its own terrain. This contrasts with the more standard games like
Zork which are either all one big region, or a series of beginning-
middle-endgame that have to be done in that order.)
I'll go out on a limb and say that the roleplaying game company TSR
might be a contender. It's quite a common form for pre-written
roleplaying adventures, and this usage goes back to the '70's.
Mary Kuhner mkku...@genetics.washington.edu
Giles Boutel
Daryl McCullough <da...@cogentex.com> wrote in article
<334970...@cogentex.com>...
> Excuse me, but what does "segmented style of game" mean? Is
> it necessary to play Jigsaw or Trinity to understand what that
> means?
>
A segmented game is one with distinct, unconnected areas, although objects
from one area might be used in another. One type of this game (such as
Trinity) uses a particular area as a jumping point to several
geographically separate, though thematically linked environments. The
different areas could be different dimensions, different time zones,
different people (as in Hitchhiker's guide), or just different areas of the
same land (eg spellbreaker). One advantage they have over other styles is
the sub-areas generally require little mapping because they're really
smaller sub-games and easy to keep in your head.
My guess as to the earliest game in this genre is Scott Adams Strange
Odyssey.
-Giles
Magnus Olsson
In article <5ic3n5$h...@nntp5.u.washington.edu>,
But I meant "who invented the segmented style of computer
text-adventure game". RPG adventures are a different genre. Sorry if I
didn't make that clear.
Julian Arnold
In article <erkyrathE...@netcom.com>, Andrew Plotkin
<URL:mailto:erky...@netcom.com> wrote:
>
> Magnus Olsson (m...@bartlet.df.lth.se) wrote:
> > In article <ant070708d07M+4%@gnelson.demon.co.uk>,
> > >Seriously, Infocom did not invent the "segmented" style of game:
> > >they merely did it rather well.
>
> > Just out of curiosity: if Infocom didn't, who did?
>
> _Spellbreaker_, I'm sure.
How about Level 9's "Lords of Time"?
John Francis
In article <3345fa99...@news.netspace.net.au>,
>
>What is the situation of the people in this newsgroup who have bought any of
>these re-releases?
>
I bought an Atari 800 just so I could play Enchanter/Sorcerer,
but I also bought Zork I-III.
Later on I got an Atari ST, so of course I had to buy new versions.
I bought the Enchanter/Sorcerer/Spellbreaker boxed set, and the
reboxed Zork Trilogy (which also got me the Zorkmid).
Eventually I got a PC. I did buy a few games for the PC platform,
but the ST could write PC disks, so I could copy the game files
to the PC and use one or more of the early freeware interpreters.
(I initially started writing my own interpreter, but eventually
decided to avail myself of the good work done by Mark Howell et al.
Maybe one of these days I'll get round to fitting some of my own
features to Frotz or Jzip - I had some useful game debugging stuff).
I believe Zork Zero was the only game that I had just for the PC.
Then the "Lost Treasures" collections came out, so I bought them.
This meant I had three copies of IZ1-5, two copies of several
other games, and one copy of all the rest. Yippee! I now had
a complete set of Infocom games for the PC. (I already had LGOP,
once for the Atari ST, and the "Solid Gold" version for the PC).
I bought the CD version of LTII, even though I didn't have a CD
drive, to get the three additional titles.
I think I have the Zork Anthology collection somewhere, as well -
I seem to remember it was bundled with RTZ as a promotional deal.
I still haven't bought Zork Nemesis, but when I do it will probably
be in the bundled package. After all, if I've already bought four
copies of some of the games, why not buy a fifth?
>
> ---------------
> James Cole
> jrc...@ozemail.com.au
--
John Francis jfra...@engr.sgi.com Silicon Graphics, Inc.
(415)933-8295 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd. MS 02U-923
(415)933-4692 (Fax) Mountain View, CA 94043-1389
Unsolicited electronic mail will be subject to a $100 handling fee.
Graham Nelson
In article <5icsvu$q...@bartlet.df.lth.se>, Magnus Olsson
<URL:mailto:m...@bartlet.df.lth.se> wrote:
>
> In article <5ic3n5$h...@nntp5.u.washington.edu>,
> Mary K. Kuhner <mkku...@phylo.genetics.washington.edu> wrote:
> >In article <5ibjev$i...@bartlet.df.lth.se> m...@bartlet.df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) write
> s:
> >>>Seriously, Infocom did not invent the "segmented" style of game:
> >>>they merely did it rather well.
> >
> >>Just out of curiosity: if Infocom didn't, who did?
My personal view is that it's inherent in the structure of
early dungeon-based adventure games, in that the segmentation
of the map follows from the basic collection-puzzle which makes
the game. Thus: "Advent", "Zork", "Adventureland" and "Acheton"
all show the rudimentary signs of a modular structure, based
on the idea of regions which can't be entered until certain
puzzles are solved, each with their own treasure and key-object.
Later dungeon games invented systems to move rapidly across
the map (a la XYZZY, but more flexibly) and this too tended
to divide maps into regions. Just my view, of course -- one day
somebody ought to write a critical history of adventure games.
Perhaps when the corpus of worthwhile works is a little larger.
Den of Iniquity
On Sun, 30 Mar 1997, David Glasser wrote:
>> > I don't believe how much time a text-adventure newsgroup is spending
>> > discussing a graphical button!
>
>Huh? I love some of the graphics on IF sites. My favorite one is on
>Graham Nelson's site; It has the word 'inform' and the opening lines from
>Zork and Jigsaw circling through it...or something like that.
I just had a look at it and I'm very impressed. Also, I noticed that I was
the 3000th visitor* to the page (since February 5th 1997). Do I win some
sort of prize?
--
Den Spambots please insert '.ignore.this.bit' after my address.
* And, incidentally, 3003rd as well, just to check the counter worked.
Eric Rossing
On Mon, 07 Apr 1997 18:08:19 -0400, Daryl McCullough <da...@cogentex.com>
wrote:
: Excuse me, but what does "segmented style of game" mean? Is
: it necessary to play Jigsaw or Trinity to understand what that
: means?
It refers to a game whose setting is broken into several, not normally
connected, pieces.
** Warning! Small spoiler for Jigsaw/Trinity **
In both of these games, for example, you hop through time fixing things.
Eric Rossing
ros...@iname.com
http://home.msen.com/~rossing
PGP Public key available on my WWW page
Ian Kendall
Greetings,
On the subject on who bought the Activision box sets. Just over
three years ago I went to Australia for a bit with my new Atari
Portfolio. On one of the shareware disks I got for the Port was a file
on how to configure the LTOI one games for the machine. I had played a
lot of text adventures on 8-bit machines (Scott Adams, Mysterious
Adventures, Level 9 and the like) but had never actually got hold of an
infocom game. In a store in Melbourne I found LTOI and bought it (for
about 100 dollars, if I remember). I then had a most enjoyable time
playing through the games. The first day back in Scotland I got LTOI 2
and about a month after that, LGOP. Then I discovered the archive, and
the rest is a blur...
Still haven't got round to finishing Zork I yet...
Take care, Ian
--
Ian Kendall
Julian Arnold
In article <ant0817210b0M+4%@gnelson.demon.co.uk>, Graham Nelson
<URL:mailto:gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> In article <5icsvu$q...@bartlet.df.lth.se>, Magnus Olsson
> <URL:mailto:m...@bartlet.df.lth.se> wrote:
> >
> > In article <5ic3n5$h...@nntp5.u.washington.edu>,
> > Mary K. Kuhner <mkku...@phylo.genetics.washington.edu> wrote:
> > >In article <5ibjev$i...@bartlet.df.lth.se> m...@bartlet.df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) wri
> te
> > s:
> > >>Graham Nelson <gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> > >>>Seriously, Infocom did not invent the "segmented" style of game:
> > >>>they merely did it rather well.
> > >
> > >>Just out of curiosity: if Infocom didn't, who did?
>
> My personal view is that it's inherent in the structure of
> early dungeon-based adventure games, in that the segmentation
> of the map follows from the basic collection-puzzle which makes
> the game. Thus: "Advent", "Zork", "Adventureland" and "Acheton"
> all show the rudimentary signs of a modular structure, based
> on the idea of regions which can't be entered until certain
> puzzles are solved, each with their own treasure and key-object.
Hm, I see, and largely agree with, your point about segmentation of the
map being a by-product of the "treasure hunt" genre. But, I would draw
a distinction between, for want of better terms, a segmented plot, and
one with a segmented map.
A segmented plot is where the player must acquire certain objects, or
solve certain puzzles, before he can progress to the next segment.
A segmented map is found in games which have distinct geographical
areas, usually very different from one another stylistically,
temporally, and/or etc.
Usually the two are found together, as the one tends to imply the other.
For instance, in games such as "Jigsaw", "Curses", "Spellbreaker", and
"Trinity". Games such as "So Far" and "Lord of Time" are heavy on the
segmented map, but lighter on the segmented plot (although overall they,
too, combine the two). Almost all games have a segmented plot to some
degree.
Kory Heath
Julian Arnold wrote:
> Usually the two are found together, as the one tends to imply the other.
> For instance, in games such as "Jigsaw", "Curses", "Spellbreaker", and
> "Trinity". Games such as "So Far" and "Lord of Time" are heavy on the
> segmented map, but lighter on the segmented plot
I'd put Trinity more in the camp of So Far and Lord Of Time; IIRC,
Trinity was relatively (but not totally) open-ended in the mid-game
regarding the order in which you should enter the "segments".
Also, since this thread does indeed shade into "The History of Major
Segmented IF", we probably ought to toss Shades Of Grey into the mix.
And I'm sure it's only a matter of time until some brave soul shoulders
the burden of mentioning (in a whisper) the "M" word.
--
Kory Heath
khe...@1connect.com
Ken Balakrishnan
Magnus Olsson (m...@bartlet.df.lth.se) wrote:
: Mary K. Kuhner <mkku...@phylo.genetics.washington.edu> wrote:
: >m...@bartlet.df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
: >>Graham Nelson <gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk> wrote:
: >>>Seriously, Infocom did not invent the "segmented" style of game:
: >>>they merely did it rather well.
: >
: >>Just out of curiosity: if Infocom didn't, who did?
: >(I believe what's meant by "segmented" here is that the game has
: >several distinct parts which need not be done in order, each with
: >its own terrain. This contrasts with the more standard games like
: >Zork which are either all one big region, or a series of beginning-
: >middle-endgame that have to be done in that order.)
Personally, I would apply the term "segmented" to a game like Jigsaw, but
not to one like Spellbreaker. In Jigsaw, each module is completely
independent of the others -- everything necessary to solve that module is
found within it (with one exception) (that I know of, anyway, since I
never finished the game). In Spellbreaker, on the other hand, all the
areas are interrelated, and in some instances they are physically
contiguous as well. If you think of the cubes as simply a different way to
travel, there's really not much difference between Spellbreaker and its
predecessors. I haven't played any of the other games that people have
mentioned -- are any of them strictly modular like Jigsaw?
Ken
Julian Arnold
In article <334C15...@1connect.com>, Kory Heath
<URL:mailto:khe...@1connect.com> wrote:
>
> Julian Arnold wrote:
> > Usually the two are found together, as the one tends to imply the other.
> > For instance, in games such as "Jigsaw", "Curses", "Spellbreaker", and
> > "Trinity". Games such as "So Far" and "Lord of Time" are heavy on the
> > segmented map, but lighter on the segmented plot
>
> I'd put Trinity more in the camp of So Far and Lord Of Time; IIRC,
> Trinity was relatively (but not totally) open-ended in the mid-game
> regarding the order in which you should enter the "segments".
Yeah, and "Curses", and to a lesser extent "Jigsaw". Oh bum.
> Also, since this thread does indeed shade into "The History of Major
> Segmented IF", we probably ought to toss Shades Of Grey into the mix.
Not forgetting the rai-f silly game, "Something that Happened".
> And I'm sure it's only a matter of time until some brave soul shoulders
> the burden of mentioning (in a whisper) the "M" word.
You've got me. What's the "M" word?
Carl Muckenhoupt
Kory Heath <khe...@1connect.com> writes:
>Also, since this thread does indeed shade into "The History of Major
>Segmented IF", we probably ought to toss Shades Of Grey into the mix.
>And I'm sure it's only a matter of time until some brave soul shoulders
>the burden of mentioning (in a whisper) the "M" word.
Hmmm? What word's that then?
--
Carl Muckenhoupt | Text Adventures are not dead!
b...@tiac.net | Read rec.[arts|games].int-fiction to see
http://www.tiac.net/users/baf | what you're missing!
Jon Petersen
Graham Nelson wrote:
>
> In article <3347D4...@earthlink.net>, Daniel R. Lackey
> <URL:mailto:jmdre...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> >
> > Mary K. Kuhner wrote:
> > > Working on Trinity now and enjoying it a lot, though of course I have
> > > the wrong-headed and unfair impression that it's mildly derivative of
> > > Jigsaw....
> >
> > That's not neccesarily the wrong impression... I rather suspect Brian Moriarty
> > got himself a time machine, went back to 1985 and ripped Graham off before
> > poor Mr. Nelson could even get started. =)
>
> I like to think that I ripped off Mr Lebling, actually. And I think
> Mr H. G. Wells might also have a case.
>
Besides the segmented plot and "fix-it" aspect of both Trinity and
Jigsaw, the
writing style you adopted for Jigsaw reminds me much more of Moriarty's
style
than of the earlier Infocom games. I'd say Moriarty's games were the
only Infocom
games written with a style *immediately* distinctive from other Infocom
games.
That style has influenced much of the higher-quality IF, IMHO. Jon
> Seriously, Infocom did not invent the "segmented" style of game:
> they merely did it rather well.
>
Kory Heath
Julian Arnold wrote:
> In article <334C15...@1connect.com>, Kory Heath
> <URL:mailto:khe...@1connect.com> wrote:
> >
> > the burden of mentioning (in a whisper) the "M" word.
>
Myst. :) I was just worried that I'd get lynched for mentioning it in
the same breath as Trinity, Curses, and So Far...
--
Kory Heath
khe...@1connect.com
Roger Giner-Sorolla
On 10 Apr 1997, Carl Muckenhoupt wrote:
> Kory Heath <khe...@1connect.com> writes:
>
> >Also, since this thread does indeed shade into "The History of Major
> >Segmented IF", we probably ought to toss Shades Of Grey into the mix.
>
> >And I'm sure it's only a matter of time until some brave soul shoulders
> >the burden of mentioning (in a whisper) the "M" word.
>
> Hmmm? What word's that then?
The "M" word is: M-**ACK**URK**UUUNHHHH....
Roger Giner-Sorolla University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
rs...@virginia.edu Dept. of Psychology (Social)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Please, your Majesty," said the Knave, "I didn't write it, and they can't
prove I did: there's no name signed at the end."
"If you didn't sign it," said the King, "that only makes the matter worse.
You /must/ have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your name
like an honest man." -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Admiral Jota
Kory Heath <khe...@1connect.com> writes:
>Julian Arnold wrote:
>> You've got me. What's the "M" word?
>Myst. :) I was just worried that I'd get lynched for mentioning it in
>the same breath as Trinity, Curses, and So Far...
>INVENTORY
You are are carrying a long rope.
>TIE ROPE INTO NOOSE
You fumbled with the rope for a few minutes, but eventually you're holding
a usable noose.
>TIE ROPE TO TREE
Due to massive deforestation, there are no trees remaining in this game.
Looks like you lucked out there!
--
/<-= Admiral Jota =->\
-< <-= jo...@tiac.net =-> >-
\<-=- -= -=- -= -=->/
Graham Nelson
In article <334D14...@ucla.edu>, Jon Petersen
<URL:mailto:en...@ucla.edu> wrote:
>
> Besides the segmented plot and "fix-it" aspect of both Trinity and
> Jigsaw, the writing style you adopted for Jigsaw reminds me much
> more of Moriarty's style than of the earlier Infocom games. I'd say
> Moriarty's games were the only Infocom games written with a style
> *immediately* distinctive from other Infocom games.
Authors tend not to be the best judges of their own influences and
plagiarisms. But I think it's not so much that my writing is
similar to Mr Moriarty's (indeed I think we have quite different
styles) as that room descriptions in both Trinity and Jigsaw are
trying to cram historically accurate detail into a pretty short
space. For many locations, it really is true that the room
description could be twice as long without running out of
inspiration; both games have been, in effect, summarised.
Mark J Musante
Graham Nelson (gra...@gnelson.demon.co.uk) wrote:
> Authors tend not to be the best judges of their own influences and
> plagiarisms. But I think it's not so much that my writing is
> similar to Mr Moriarty's (indeed I think we have quite different
> styles) as that room descriptions in both Trinity and Jigsaw are
> trying to cram historically accurate detail into a pretty short
> space. For many locations, it really is true that the room
> description could be twice as long without running out of
> inspiration; both games have been, in effect, summarised.
Sounds like it's time for "Jigsaw: The Director's Cut". Or, perhaps,
in the style of a recently-re-released film: "The Jigsaw Special Edition".
All new footage! Previously unreleased scenes! Updated special effects!
With a 1,000 elephants!
- Mark
(with apologies to T. Pratchett)
Kory Heath
Carl Muckenhoupt wrote:
>
> Kory Heath <khe...@1connect.com> writes:
> >
> >And I'm sure it's only a matter of time until some brave soul shoulders
> >the burden of mentioning (in a whisper) the "M" word.
>
> Hmmm? What word's that then?
Geez, you guys really want to see me hang, don't you? I'm not saying it
again, even if it *was* a surrealistic adventure and even if it *did*
become my world.
--
Kory Heath - Public Scapegoat #1
khe...@1connect.com
Brad O`Donnell
Kory Heath wrote:
>
> Julian Arnold wrote:
> > In article <334C15...@1connect.com>, Kory Heath
> > <URL:mailto:khe...@1connect.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > the burden of mentioning (in a whisper) the "M" word.
> >
>
> Myst. :) I was just worried that I'd get lynched for mentioning it in
> the same breath as Trinity, Curses, and So Far...
I thought that "mimesis" was the "M" word...
...and what *is* mimesis, again?
--
Brad O'Donnell
"A story is a string of moments, held together by memory."
Julian Arnold
In article <334FEB...@romulus.sun.csd.unb.ca>, Brad O`Donnell
<URL:mailto:s7...@romulus.sun.csd.unb.ca> wrote:
>
> Kory Heath wrote:
> >
> > Julian Arnold wrote:
> > > In article <334C15...@1connect.com>, Kory Heath
> > > <URL:mailto:khe...@1connect.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > And I'm sure it's only a matter of time until some brave soul shoulders
> > > > the burden of mentioning (in a whisper) the "M" word.
> > >
> > > You've got me. What's the "M" word?
> >
> > Myst. :) I was just worried that I'd get lynched for mentioning it in
> > the same breath as Trinity, Curses, and So Far...
>
>
> I thought that "mimesis" was the "M" word...
>
> ...and what *is* mimesis, again?
<whisper> I don't really know, I just know it's desirable, that's all.
Bruce
TomC
> The IF community may currently be composed primarily of Infocom
> fans. Infocom not having released a game in about ten years, this
> is not a segment of the population likely to experience dramatic
> growth any time soon. If we want the IF community to expand,
> clinging to Infocom isn't the answer.
>
Recently I purchased Masterpieces. Having played Infocom games on my
Apple II+ in the early 80's I purchased this collection for a chance to
re-visit some of the games I played and even more for the opportunity to
play some games that didn't fit the budget of a college student at the
time. Anyway, after loading the CD on my laptop, I was playing around
with it and popped in to Zork for a look around. My nephew who had just
walked into the kitchen glanced over my shoulder and exclaimed, "Hey
that's Zork, we played that at school." Needless to say I was surprised
that an 18 year old would even know what IF was, much less having played
and enjoyed it. Strange but true.
TomC
--
Tom Calhoun - The Adventure Team Page
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bink/at.htm
Andrew Clover
Den of Iniquity (dms...@york.ac.uk) wrote:
>> Huh? I love some of the graphics on IF sites. My favorite one is on
>> Graham Nelson's site; It has the word 'inform' and the opening lines from
>> Zork and Jigsaw circling through it...or something like that.
> I just had a look at it and I'm very impressed.
Oo eck. That were my idea. :-) I drew it for my own Inform things and stuff
page, which due to extreme laziness(*) is still unfinished, which is
why I'm not taking the opportunity to quote the URL at everyone. The graphics
are just about the only finished bit. I am bad.
BCNU, AjC
e...@uclink4.berkeley.edu
TomC (adventu...@juno.com) wrote:
: Recently I purchased Masterpieces. Having played Infocom games on my
: Apple II+ in the early 80's I purchased this collection for a chance to
: re-visit some of the games I played and even more for the opportunity to
: play some games that didn't fit the budget of a college student at the
: time. Anyway, after loading the CD on my laptop, I was playing around
: with it and popped in to Zork for a look around. My nephew who had just
: walked into the kitchen glanced over my shoulder and exclaimed, "Hey
: that's Zork, we played that at school." Needless to say I was surprised
: that an 18 year old would even know what IF was, much less having played
: and enjoyed it. Strange but true.
Not only strange and true, but there's more of us than you might
expect. :) Some of us even make half-hearted attempts to write the
stuff, though we're really better at playing.
Hey, this speaking for `my whole generation' stuff is pretty easy! I
ought to get in on the racket. :)
--
Erik Hetzner <e...@uclink4.berkeley.edu>
Jon Petersen
TomC wrote:
>
> >
> Needless to say I was surprised
> that an 18 year old would even know what IF was, much less having played
> and enjoyed it. Strange but true.
I'm 21. I got into Infocom games in 3rd grade, when my family went to
buy an Apple IIc and they were running Zork I as a demo. I managed to
move the rug and kill the troll. We got the game too.
Jon
Phase
I'm only a month away from 21, and I'm familiar with and
enjoy IF (though I always called them text adventures).
I was introduced to Zork and Lone Wolf books before the
computer games however.
--
PHASEFX @ VM.SC.EDU - http://www.cs.sc.edu/~jason-e
Justin
In article <5j42jf$gbi$1...@agate.berkeley.edu>, e...@uclink4.berkeley.edu says...
>
>TomC (adventu...@juno.com) wrote:
>: Recently I purchased Masterpieces. Having played Infocom games on my
>: Apple II+ in the early 80's I purchased this collection for a chance to
>: re-visit some of the games I played and even more for the opportunity to
>: play some games that didn't fit the budget of a college student at the
>: time. Anyway, after loading the CD on my laptop, I was playing around
>: with it and popped in to Zork for a look around. My nephew who had just
>: walked into the kitchen glanced over my shoulder and exclaimed, "Hey
>: that's Zork, we played that at school." Needless to say I was surprised
>: that an 18 year old would even know what IF was, much less having played
>: and enjoyed it. Strange but true.
>
>Not only strange and true, but there's more of us than you might
>expect. :) Some of us even make half-hearted attempts to write the
>stuff, though we're really better at playing.
>
>Hey, this speaking for `my whole generation' stuff is pretty easy! I
>ought to get in on the racket. :)
>--
>Erik Hetzner <e...@uclink4.berkeley.edu>
Actually, there are a few people younger than that who play IF. I started
playing it when I was around 12 years old (I'm 14 now) and my friend (16)
playes it some too, though he doesn't like it as much as I do. I actually
started playing a pseudo-if game (Space Quest 3 has graphics and you moved
the character around of the screen with the keyboard, but you typed in and
read the responces, so it was sortof a text adventure, but not really) when
I was somewhere between 4 and 6 (I learned how to read well on it, before I
could only sorta read).