Daily Archives: January 14, 2009

Interactive Fiction

It is times when I think about how games were better, “in the old days,” when I realize just well, how old video games are.

When I started playing video games, there were no three dimensional graphics.  There was a command line and a green squiggle that may have been a character, I don’t know.  I had to use my imagination.  (“Why, back in my day, we had to load games from a cassette tape!  Both sides!  And we liked it!  And there were multiple floppies!  And code wheels!”)

Then there were text adventures.

You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
>

I was really into interactive fiction.  I actually had a couple of boxed INFOCOM games, I’ll have to dig them out from somewhere.  I just remember that the games came with such great swag.Wishbringer: The Magick Stone of Dreams, was about a wishing stone.

Inside the box, there was a map and a letter you had to deliver, and a descriptive leaflet about the origins of the stone, but best of all, there was a small plastic replica of the stone that glowed in the dark.

I just thought that was awesome.

I held on to that stone for years.  I think it was still on my bookshelf when I left home to go to college.

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