Emily Short gave a really interesting talk about collaborative, storytelling games.[1] Anyone interested in gaming who isn't aware of these kinds of games should really check it out.
She also recently gave a talk on IF's past, present, and future.[2]
I had played various Infocom games as a kid, simply amazing. Then recently "discovered" that there is this exciting corner of the Multiverse know as Interactive Fiction, which has been flourishing quite well for a long time. Just finished "Beautiful Dreamer" by Woodson, enjoyed that very much.
These histories (the maher link above, the getlamp doc, etc) bring back a lot of great memories.
EDIT: the youtube link above looks like it's actually the getlamp movie being shown at a google event, with an audience (audience sounds in there now and then).
There are two "official" versions of the documentary. One is a general documentary on interactive text adventures and then there's one that's cut to be more specifically about Infocom. (The latter was particularly interesting to me because I knew a lot of the people involved then and now and actually did some game testing at one point.)
Not a lot to relate. I wasn't an official tester. I just knew a number of the guys--including one of their main designers--from undergrad. So he would sometimes send me a pre-release disk and I'd make notes about things I found confusing or where I got stuck. (And would call him for hints now and then.)
I think I was officially credited as a beta tester for Legend later on but that was just the same sort of thing.
As much as I loved text adventures back in the day, I've found the real-life version of interactive fiction -- "immersive" fiction -- more intoxicating and memorable. I still think about "The Jejune Institute" in San Francisco frequently, and that ended years ago.
Some years ago I spent a good amount of hours playing "A Mind Forever Voyaging" with Dave Brubeck's "Jazz Impressions of New York" running on infinite repeat in the background.
I had a big IF phase back in high school. I still don't think anything has topped Curses for me. There's still tons of good content coming out of that community but they seem to have shifted away from the puzzle-heavy paradigm, which I find a little disappointing. I still enjoy the Photopia-type games, but big sprawling puzzlers like Curses or The Muldoon Legacy are tops for me.
i really wish i had a reason to spend some time programming in inform7. That language is so much like nothing else out there, too bad there seems to be no uses of it outside of IF, yet. Just imagine:
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 74.0 ms ] threadShe also recently gave a talk on IF's past, present, and future.[2]
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xefWN5qEY3A
[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx5ZLGBZAWs
I'm absolutely terrible at real, game-like IF with puzzles etc. Not sure what mindset you need to solve them.
http://www.ifarchive.org/
[1] - https://www.meetup.com/sf-bay-area-interactive-fiction/
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IfMUD
These histories (the maher link above, the getlamp doc, etc) bring back a lot of great memories.
EDIT: the youtube link above looks like it's actually the getlamp movie being shown at a google event, with an audience (audience sounds in there now and then).
I think I was officially credited as a beta tester for Legend later on but that was just the same sort of thing.
WTF am I going to do with DVDs?
http://www.getlamp.com/order/
Highly recommended combination.