Infocom

Table of contents

1 Overview 2 History 3 Titles & authors 4 Legacy 5 Notes 6 See also 7 External links

Overview

Infocom was well-known among game-players for the parser used in its witty, ambitious text adventures, which allowed the user to type complex instructions to the game. Unlike earlier works of interactive fiction, which only understood commands of the form 'verb noun' (e.g. "get apple"), Infocom's parser could understand commands like "get all apples except the green apple from the barrel." Infocom games were written using a programming language that ran on a standardized virtual machine called the Z-machine. As the games were text based and used variants of the same Z-machine interpreter, Infocom was able to release most of their games for most popular home/personal computers of the day—the Apple II family, Atari 800, IBM PC compatibles, Commodore 64, Commodore 128¹, the Mac, Atari ST, and the Commodore Amiga . The company was also known for shipping creative props, or "feelies" (and even "smellies"), with its games.

History

Inspired by Colossal Cave, Marc Blank and Dave Lebling created what was to become the first Infocom game Zork in 1977 at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science. The game was released in 1980 and eventually sold more than a million copies. Lebling and Blank each authored several more games and additional game writers were hired, including notably Steve Meretzky. Other popular and inventive titles included the rest of the Zork series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and A Mind Forever Voyaging.

In 1984 Infocom started putting resources into a new division to produce business products. In 1985 they released a database product, Cornerstone. Unfortunately this product sold only 10,000 copies, not enough to cover the development expenses. Whereas their games had benefitted significantly from the portability offered by running on top of a virtual machine, this strategy did not prove to be a significant advantage for Cornerstone. Most businesses were moving to the IBM PC platform by that time, so portability was no longer a significant differentiator. Infocom had sunk much of the money from games sales into Cornerstone and were left in significantly worse financial position. This led ultimately to the acquisition by Activision.

Titles & authors

• The Zork series:
  • The original Zork Trilogy: Zork I (1980), Zork II (1981), Zork III (1982) (Marc Blank & Dave Lebling)
  • The Enchanter Trilogy: Enchanter (1983, Marc Blank), Sorcerer (1984, Steve Meretzky) and Spellbreaker (1985, Dave Lebling)
  • Beyond Zork (1987, Brian Moriarty)
  • Zork Zero (1988, Steve Meretzky)
• Deadline (1982, Marc Blank)
• Starcross (1982, Dave Lebling)
• Suspended (1983, Michael Berlyn)
• Infidel (1983, Michael Berlyn)
• Planetfall (1983, Steve Meretzky)
• The Witness (1983, Stu Galley)
• Cutthroats (1984, Michael Berlyn & Jerry Wolper)
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1984, Steve Meretzky & Douglas Adams)
• Seastalker (1984, Stu Galley & Jim Lawrence)
• Suspect (1984, Dave Lebling)
• A Mind Forever Voyaging (1985, Steve Meretzky)
• Wishbringer (1985, Brian Moriarty)
• Ballyhoo (1986, Jeff O'Neill)
• Hollywood Hijinx (1986, "Hollywood" Dave Anderson)
• Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986, Steve Meretzky)
• Moonmist (1986, Stu Galley)
• Trinity (1986, Brian Moriarty)
• Border Zone (1987, Marc Blank)
• Bureaucracy (1987, Infocom & Douglas Adams)
• The Lurking Horror (1987, Dave Lebling)
• Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It (1987, Jeff O'Neill)
• Plundered Hearts (1987, Amy Briggs)
• (1987, Bob Bates)
• Stationfall (1987, Steve Meretzky)
• (1989, Bob Bates)
• James Clavell's Shogun (1989, Dave Lebling)
• Journey (1989, Marc Blank)

With the exception of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Shogun, the copyrights to the Infocom games are believed to be still held by Activision. Many Infocom titles can be downloaded via the Internet, legally in the case of the Zork trilogy and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but in violation of the copyright in most other cases. They are available as Z-machine story files and require a Z-machine interpreter to play. Interpreters are available for most computer platforms, the most widely used being the Frotz, Zip and Nitfol interpreters.

Notes

1. Infocom was actually one of the very few companies (if not the only one) to release game software for the C128's native mode, contrary to most software houses' practice of only catering for the combined C64/128 market (as the C128 was compatible with the C64)

• 69,105, a number commonly found as an in-joke in many Infocom titles.

• Infocom's history, games and authors
• INFOCOM Homepage by Peter Scheyen—An enthusiast's home page, containing, among many other resources, a timeline of Infocom's founding, releases and eventual dissolution.
• Down From the Top of Its Game: The Story of Infocom, Inc.—A report from MIT which offers a very detailed examination of Infocom's creative successes and marketing failures.
• Numerous Infocom games in Java playable online
• A gallery of Infocom box art