Infocom’s text adventures profoundly influenced my gaming style ever since my introduction to the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy game. Even now, I have trouble with limited savegames because I spent so much time playing Cruel Unwinnable Spellcasting games. It took me a long time to get used to the crazy concept of NOT stealing objects that weren’t nailed down when I first played Morrowind.

As you can imagine, I was fascinated when I found that a blogger had got his hands on the drive holding emails, design docs and code for the never-completed sequel to the HHGTTG. There’s some really interesting stuff published, including a number of programmers outlining the conditions under which they would or wouldn’t work on the game. Clearly there was no controlling pointy-haired-boss culture at Infocom.

“I’ve found myself in possession of the “Infocom Drive” — a complete backup of Infocom’s shared network drive from 1989. This is one of the most amazing archives I’ve ever seen, a treasure chest documenting the rise and fall of the legendary interactive fiction game company. Among the assets included: design documents, email archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made.”

There’s also some remarkably civilised internet drama, for those who like that sort of thing. The staff involved weren’t contacted before their emails were published, and have turned up in the comments. Pop over to Waxy.org to see the whole thing. Milliways: Infocom’s Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [via Neil Gaiman’s Journal]

I did find one gem in the comments that I couldn’t put better myself.

I’d like to let all the Infocom people here know that, despite the obvious drama, anger, and disappointment that seems to have gone on with at least some aspects of the job, your output caused many *many* people to laugh, think, and eventually create.

Just for one aspect, I suspect you’ve singlehandedly raised the problem-solving techniques and skills of a whole generation of us. Thank you for that.

- Dave Rutledge

Problem-solving seems to have largely disappeared from gaming, except where the problem can be solved by using a large weapon or a suspiciously shiny object from the next room. I miss having to think during my games.

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Lack of choice is boring. It’s obvious, but still true. You can make up for it by pumping up the adrenaline levels, but that’s a work-around, not a solution and it only appeals to a small demographic of the population. Most games out there give you very little leeway to choose your path. You’re shoehorned into fixed cinematic after fixed cinematic and the most complex option you have is which weapon you use to kill the next slathering blood-covered monster.

Okay, that’s not true at all, but even in the most progressive of RPGs you generally have one major plot arc that drives the game and forces you one way through the story.

There are really only three levels of choice available in games at the moment. Continue Reading

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