what non-Infocom Text Adventures are worth checking out?

[Edmond Dantes]

I own both the Lost Treasures of Infocom volumes so I have all their games except Leather Goddesses of Phobos. Infocom is great, but I want to know: Did anyone other than Infocom produce worthwhile text adventures?

[Mayhem]

There were two notable adventure publishers here in the UK during the 80s that could rival Infocom: Magnetic Scrolls and Level 9. The former was responsible for The Pawn, Guild of Thieves, Fish and others. The latter published such classics as Snowball, Knight Orc, Gnome Ranger, Scapeghost, and Red Moon. After that point, there are a TON of other adventure games out there, published by smaller companies or self published. You have hundreds to go through on the C64 alone.

[Flojomojo]

There's way more to "interactive fiction" than 30-year-old Infocom games. Check out http://www.ifarchive.org

[Wookie]

The Scott Adams / Adventure International games were very popular back in the 8-bit days.

[macdude22]

The Scott Adams / Adventure International games were very popular back in the 8-bit days.

Oh man, I have some signed Scott Adams floppies somewhere. I should dig them out. He lives in Platteville WI, I lived there for a few years. A friends dad worked with him at AVISTA. Neat guy, though I got the impression he's moved past the old days and would love to not have nerdz like me tracking him down to sign floppy disks.

[Edmond Dantes]

I just read on both his web site and Wikipedia that Scott Adams released a new text adventure just last year, so he might not be as "beyond the old days" as you think.

And yeah, I'm aware there's still an active indie community, its just not fun to wade thru titles and reviews, and I'm also wondering what non-Infocom stuff I missed out on (and whether or not its available in neat compilations).

Since it's about to be October, methinks I shall be looking at something for the Halloween season.

[macdude22]

I just read on both his web site and Wikipedia that Scott Adams released a new text adventure just last year, so he might not be as "beyond the old days" as you think.

Well, this was back in 2005 (moved from Platteville in 2006) so maybe something over the past decade he's rekindled his interest. Or maybe he just decided to go with the flow of hobo nerds showing up on his doorstep.

[Edmond Dantes]

Who knows. The game in question seems to be a sequel to one of his earlier games. Maybe he just got nostalgic?

So... what adventure games have you guys had the most fun with?

[Edmond Dantes]

... Nobody knows another good horror text adventure besides The Lurking Fear and Moonmist?

I mean yeah I could just dig through IFarchive but a list of names which may or may not have a review attached isn't as helpful or as fun as discussing it with people.

(Incidentally, tried playing Lurking Horror today and it revealed what an idiot I am.... I had trouble with the copy protection question because I didn't know what the Login name was supposed to be, but when I looked it up I was like *facepalm* "OF COURSE")

(Maybe I should stick to Zork. First *text* adventure I ever solved without a walkthru.. altho also the first I played all the way thru, period)

[Jorpho]

You finished the original Zork without a walkthrough!? How? It's so completely unintuitive. Why would you even begin to put the treasures in the Trophy Case, for instance?

One of my all-time favorite games, period, is Rematch. It's not a long game, and it really amounts to a single, intricate puzzle – but what a puzzle!

Adam Cadre is very well-regarded, particularly Photopia, but the only one of his games I got around to was Lock & Key, which was still quite enjoyable, and 9:05, which is more of a brief satire piece.
http://adamcadre.ac/if.html

I-0 also springs to mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-0

[Edmond Dantes]

You finished the original Zork without a walkthrough!? How? It's so completely unintuitive. Why would you even begin to put the treasures in the Trophy Case, for instance?

Sometimes stuff just clicks, sometimes it doesn't. In that particular instance tho I could swear something in the game explicitly tells you to put stuff on the case. If not, I probably just made the connection "trophy case, its empty, put stuff there" in conjunction with how your inventory space is limited anyway.

I *may* have used a walkthru to figure out how to open the jeweled egg, or else I figured it out by accident.

[tom]

Activision did some great stuff, Mindshadow, Borrowed Time.
Synapse did the excellent series Mindwheel, Essex, Breakers, Brimstone

Well worth checking out and here's a list:

http://adventure.if-legends.org/names.html

[Edmond Dantes]

isn't Mindshadow by Interplay? It's in Interplay's 10th Anniversary Archive (which I own).

Also, playing Wishbringer and.. really hoping there's a thing I can do with the cute mailbox (seriously that's the most adorable thing ever) that doesn't result in its death. Anyone who knows that game will know what I mean. It's damn adorable. (And yes, I've found the other mailbox and seen what happens when they meet... I just hope that's not the intended progression)

[Mayhem]

Yes, Mindshadow, Borrowed Time, and Tass Times in Tone Town were all Interplay, before they started self publishing.

[Edmond Dantes]

Ah, I see.

Tass Times is also in the 10th Anniversary set, but Borrowed Time unfortunately is not.

So, I just beat Wishbringer. Trying to decide what to tackle next. I had thought about getting in-spirit of the season and tackling either Moonmist or Lurking Horror but to be honest I really am not all that interested in horror right now. Maybe I'll do the Enchanter trilogy....

[Jorpho]

I hear Trinity is magnificent – not necessarily as a game, but as an art piece. I'd like to play that some day.

[Edmond Dantes]

I've read the documentation for Trinity and its certainly shaping up to be an... unusual experience. It and A Mind Forever Voyaging are apparently more literary than typical adventure games.

I'm currently considering tackling the original Colossal Cave Adventure, the only question is "which version?" There's one that runs on Z-Machine Interpreters which, consequently, updates the parser so you aren't limited to two-word commands, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't go for a more purist experience and if so, which of the three MS-DOS executables on the official downloads page is closest to it.

The Don Eckman one seems the closest, even keeping the ALL CAPS TEXT, but he never programmed saving your game into it. One of the other two versions (I think the Kenneth Black version) seemed to have an addition to the opening text--in addition to seeing the small building, you also see a white tower in the distance. Not sure what the deal with that is, and to me that indicates it might have other additions and thus not be "pure." Then again, what is pure when it comes to this game anyway....

Oh well. If you want to, throw a recommendation at me.

[tom]

Years ago I played Amnesia from EA, I think on C64 (or PC?). It's worth checking out.

[tom]

I've read the documentation for Trinity and its certainly shaping up to be an... unusual experience. It and A Mind Forever Voyaging are apparently more literary than typical adventure games.

I'm currently considering tackling the original Colossal Cave Adventure, the only question is "which version?" There's one that runs on Z-Machine Interpreters which, consequently, updates the parser so you aren't limited to two-word commands, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't go for a more purist experience and if so, which of the three MS-DOS executables on the official downloads page is closest to it.

The Don Eckman one seems the closest, even keeping the ALL CAPS TEXT, but he never programmed saving your game into it. One of the other two versions (I think the Kenneth Black version) seemed to have an addition to the opening text--in addition to seeing the small building, you also see a white tower in the distance. Not sure what the deal with that is, and to me that indicates it might have other additions and thus not be "pure." Then again, what is pure when it comes to this game anyway....

Oh well. If you want to, throw a recommendation at me.

I got the British version from Level 9, very enjoyable

[Edmond Dantes]

Years ago I played Amnesia from EA, I think on C64 (or PC?). It's worth checking out.

You got a link? As you can imagine, in this day and age trying to google a game named "Amnesia" usually results in Dark Descents and Machines for Pigs.

Also, I'm pretty sure the Colossal Adventure included in Jewels of Darkness is a remake of some sort and probably wouldn't be "purist enough" for me, altho I wouldn't mind picking it up someday just for the two pseudo-sequels.