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To most people who've heard of it, the entry for "interactive fiction" in their mental dictionaries goes something like this: "Interactive fiction, noun. A fancy name for text adventures, a type of computer game popular in the early 1980s despite having no graphics. Usually involved wandering around in caves solving complicated puzzles, and became completely obsolete around the time Reagan left office, as graphics became less crappy." The problem with this definition is that the medium of interactive fiction is no more a relic of the 1980s than the novel is a relic of the 17th century. If you've never encountered it before, it works like this: you start up the program and it prints out the first paragraph or two (or, um, nine) of a story. Then suddenly there's an angle bracket and a blinking cursor: it's your turn to type. For in interactive fiction (IF for short), you don't just read the story — you get to shape it. Usually you'll be typing instructions for one of the characters to follow — and unlike in a "choose your own adventure" story, you're not just picking from a menu, but can type anything you can think of. (Though it's good to have an idea of what the program will be able to understand: here's an introduction I wrote a few years back.) Now, it's true, a lot of IF works (even today) are games, and you have to solve puzzles in order to "win." Even a few of mine are like that (and I've identified how gamelike each one is in the list that follows). But they don't have to be, and most of mine aren't. They're stories, like the more traditional ones you'll find on other pages of my site — with the twist that you get to participate in the telling. Many of the titles below have Windows packages available: just download, open the package, and click on the file that says "play." They also work on other platforms, with a little extra work: you can get a Z-code interpreter for the Z-code files, and a Glulx interpreter for the Glulx ones, for just about any machine you can think of at the IF archive. And I've finally come to grips with the bitter realization that the '90s are over and added links for the download-averse that allow online play, though in some cases this is suboptimal (tiny fonts, mismatches with the programs' expectations, etc.) (Whereas if you'd prefer to learn about Glulx Inform, which I've been using to create these things, check out Gull.)
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Game or story? Story; almost no gamelike elements.
(Current version: 1.07) |
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Winner of four Xyzzy Awards, including Best Game of 1999. "It's like juggling 24 things, eight of them being axes, and eight being live kittens."—Jennifer Earl You are Primo Varicella, Palace Minister at the Palazzo del Piemonte. This title is unlikely to impress anyone. Piedmont is the laughingstock of the Carolingian League, and the Palace Ministry has devolved into little more than a glorified (and not even especially glorified) butlership: your duties include organizing banquets, overseeing the servants, and greeting visitors. It is safe to assume that the War Minister and the Coffers Minister lose little sleep over your presence in the King's Cabinet. But Charles Martel was a Palace Minister, and he turned back the Moors at Tours lo these many years ago. His son Pepin was a Palace Minister, and he became King of the Franks. It is not unprecedented for Palace Ministers to make something of themselves. One might even say it is tradition. All you need is an opportunity. And that opportunity is now. King Charles was not an old king. Indeed, he had a good forty years left in him. Perhaps even fifty. But an assassin's bullet or a well-placed icepick can steal fifty years in less time than it takes to say the words. And a sudden illness? An illness such as the one King Charles contracted two days ago? Perhaps not as quick, but just as effective. For if this letter you've just received is correct, just such a disease has claimed the life of the King. This leaves the principality in the hands of his son, Prince Charles. Prince Charles is five years old. Piedmont, it seems, will be requiring the services of a regent for the foreseeable future. And you can think of no better candidate than yourself. Of course, you shall scarcely be alone in seeking the position. The King's Cabinet is not a small body. And your fellow ministers will no doubt try all sorts of unseemly tactics in their quest for the throne. Some will try bribery. Others will employ treachery. A few may even resort to brute force. But would Primo Varicella stoop to using one of these methods? Perish the thought! You're better than that. You shall employ all three. It will be an uphill struggle, to say the least. Of those soon to be clamoring for the regency, you are among the lowest in rank. But you are not without a number of advantages. The drama to unfold will play out in the palace — your palace. Time is also on your side: at present, only you and the Queen know of the King's demise. And you've known of his illness for a couple of days now, days in which you've hatched a flawless plan. There should be little to stand in the way of your ascent to power so long as you put your plan into action immediately. Or at least as soon as this manicure is finished. One must have one's priorities.
Game or story? Elements of both.
(Current version: 1.14) |
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1st Place, 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition
Game or story? Story; almost no gamelike elements.
(Current version: Glulx, 2.01; Z-code, 1.22) |
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Winner of three Xyzzy Awards, including Best Puzzle of 2002. You are locked in a cell. This in and of itself is not a new thing: spending a little time behind bars every now and again is one of the hazards of the job. But up until now it's been for little 50-crown and 100-crown jobs out in the countryside, and you've ended up in decrepit little gaols that managed to hold you for, what, a minute? Possibly two? This, though, this is different. You thought you'd try one last job, land one big score: five thousand crowns. And now you're the newest resident of King Tyrak II's deepest, darkest dungeon. Scream all you like: no one will be coming to rescue you. No one will even be coming to feed you. If you ever want to see the sun again, you will have to pull off an audacious escape — and soon.
Game or story? Game, with some story elements.
(Current version: 1.12) |
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Stand steady at the tee... head down... slow backswing. Now, drive your tee shot 220 yards down the fairway, splitting a pair of sandtraps. Loft a five iron onto the green. And sink a twenty foot putt for a birdie! You control the swing and aim throughout 9 championship quality holes. The fairways and greens are beautifully manicured, but the sand traps are deep... and the rough is... rough!
Game or story? Game, with a few story elements.
(Current version: 1.01) |
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Xyzzy winner, Best Use of Medium 2000
Game or story? Story; almost no gamelike elements.
(Current version: 1.01) |
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9:05
The phone rings. Oh, no — how long have you been asleep? Sure, it was a tough night, but— This is bad. This is very bad. The phone rings.
Game or story? Story.
(Current version: 1.01) |
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I-0 (Interstate Zero)
Winner of two Xyzzy Awards, including Best Game of 1997. You're Tracy Valencia, first-year student at the reasonably prestigious University of Dorado. Sure, it's not Berkeley — hell, it isn't even Stanford — but it's light-years better than Dorado State, where your older brother Trevor goes. Dorado State's just a party school. Trevor makes a point of rubbing this in every time he calls. He'll be able to rub it in in person soon enough: it's Thanksgiving Day, and you're driving home. Daddy was perfectly willing to buy you a plane ticket, but like you told him on the phone, there are much better things to spend the money on. Birthday presents, for instance — you turn eighteen tomorrow. Besides, it's only a four-hour drive. Two and a half hours into said drive, the car starts making a noise no piece of machinery should ever make. It's the sort of sound a rhesus monkey might make being forced down a garbage disposal. Now, Dorado is nothing but scorching desert from the time you cross the coastal mountains until you reach the river; true, it's the scorching desert in which you grew up, but sentimentality aside, it's not exactly the best place in the world to find yourself stranded. But you've got to do something about this noise, if only because it's drowning out the stereo. So you pull over. You're just about to switch off the ignition when the car goes dead of its own accord. You try to start it up again, but absolutely nothing happens. Guess what, Tracy? You're stuck on the loneliest stretch of Interstate Zero miles away from the last sign of civilization. It's twenty minutes to noon and the temperature's well over a hundred and twenty. You already miss the air conditioning. It's beginning to look like Ed and Sandy Valencia's only daughter might not make it for Thanksgiving dinner...
Game or story? Story, with some gamelike elements.
(Current version: 1.21) |
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