Interactive Fiction

which is to say, "Text Adventures"

No, really, some of us are still writing them.

The great archive of IF is at the brand-new (-ish) machine www.ifarchive.org. However, this is my page so I can hype my own games. They're all freeware, so have fun.

These games cover the gamut from serious to silly to zen.

All these games are provided as portable Z-code game files. To play them, you will need a Z-code interpreter. Conveniently, I've written a couple:

If you have some other heathen system (or you want a different Mac or Unix interpreter), take your pick from the Z-code interpreters on the IF Archive Frotz comes highly recommended for DOS/Windows, I'm told. For the PalmPilot, there's PalmFrotz. (There's also ZIP for the PalmPilot, which is also good, but has the drawback that it's shareware. (Nothing wrong with shareware, but it's a little odd for playing free games.))

(Z-code game files must be downloaded using a binary or raw-data transfer mode. If you get these files and they refuse to run, your web browser may be corrupting them. Try a standard FTP client.)

Note that I have now included Java versions of these games. If your browser supports Java, you can play them straight off my Web page. Due to Java security restrictions, you can't save or load games, and it's kind of slow, and the interface is rather mundane. You'll want a dedicated interpreter if you want to play for any length of time. (Thanks to Matt Russotto for his ZPlet interpreter for Java.)

All these games were created using Inform, Graham Nelson's free compiler for Z-code games. Most of them are in Inform 6; but I am starting to use Inform 7, which is an entirely new language and pretty frighteningly cool.

Delightful Wallpaper

A cozy mansion mystery in the making.

My entry in the 2006 Interactive Fiction Contest. It came in 6th of 43 entries. It also won the Miss Congeniality (authors' choice) award.

(Winner of the XYZZYnews Awards for Best Writing, Best Puzzles, Best Individual Puzzle, and Best PC of 2006.)

The Dreamhold

The Dreamhold is my interactive fiction tutorial game. It's designed for people who have never played IF before. It introduces the common commands and mindset of text adventures, one step at a time. There's an extensive help system describing standard IF commands, as well as dynamic hints which pop up whenever you seem to be stuck.

Of course, you can turn off the hints and the tutorials, and play The Dreamhold as a real game. The puzzles are not extremely difficult, but they should offer some challenge to both experienced players and newcomers. (If the challenge is insufficient, there's an "expert" mode which makes some of the puzzles harder.) There are also many optional bits to explore beyond the main storyline.

I've tried to create a game which rewards many species of adventurer: the inexperienced newcomer, the puzzle-hurdler, the casual tourist, the meticulous explorer, the wild experimenter, the seeker after nuances and implications.

(Winner of the XYZZYnews Awards for Best Puzzles and Best Use of Medium of 2004.)

(Bonus fan art by Kristyn Martin. Thank you! Contains plot spoiler.)

Shade

A one-room game set in your apartment.

My entry in the 2000 Interactive Fiction Contest. It came in 10th of 53 entries. (Against very strong competition; I'm not disappointed.) It also tied for third place for the Miss Congeniality award. Also won the XYZZYnews Award for Best Setting of 2000.

Hunter, in Darkness

An interactive cave crawl.

My entry in the 1999 Interactive Fiction Contest. It came in 8th of 37 entries. (Not as high as I'd hoped; but I've tried to alleviate the worst flaws in this version.) On the other hand, it tied for second place for the Miss Congeniality award. Also won the XYZZYnews Award for Best Setting and Best Individual Puzzle of 1999.

Spider And Web

A vacation in our lovely country! See the ethnic charms of the countryside, the historic grandeur of the capital city. Taste our traditional cuisine; smell the flowers of the Old Tree. And all without leaving your own armchair!

(Winner of the XYZZYnews Award for Best IF Game of 1998; also Best Use of Medium, Best Individual NPC, Best Puzzles, and Best Individual Puzzle.)

A Change in the Weather

A short story. Winner of the 1995 Interactive Fiction Contest (Inform division.)

So Far

Perhaps you would enjoy a play?

(Winner of the XYZZYnews Award for Best IF Game of 1996; also Best Writing, Best Puzzles, and Best Individual Puzzle. Also was two of the four runners-up for Best Individual Puzzle.)

A Handy Kit

This is a programming exercise -- I reimplemented the toolcase from Spider And Web in Inform 7. This inevitably contains some spoilers for the early part of that game.

Lists and Lists

A programming tutorial. No, really! My entry in the 1996 Interactive Fiction Contest. It came in 11th of 27 entries -- I regard that as pretty good for an entry which was not "fiction" at all.

Inhumane

A weird little thing that I wrote in Applesoft BASIC at the age of 15. I rewrote it in Inform, for reasons even I do not fully understand.

Freefall

An extremely simple game. Try it and see.

The Space Under the Window

An extremely small game. Not standard interactive fiction. Try it and see.

The Space Under the Window is part of a collaborative art project invented by Kristin Looney, called The Space Under the Window.

Praser 5

The Fifth Praser Maze was a sort of logic-puzzle, word-puzzle... thing that I created in 1989. It has existed in many forms. Now it's a Z-code file.

Not standard interactive fiction. Try it and see.

Lighan ses Lion

This is not a game, but an entry in Emily Short's Walkthrough Competition. The challenge was to take a list of player commands (see the above link) and write a transcript of a game (or even a complete game) that made use of those commands.

I had some fun with the concept.

(Winner of the Special Award for Causing Emily Short the Most Grief.)

Icebreaker

The lost Zarf game. I wrote this as an exercise, just after Weather. It was an IF-style re-interpretation of Andy Looney's arcade game Icebreaker, which I was porting to the Mac at that time.

I brought it in to the office and showed it around, and everyone thought it was cute enough to include on the final Icebreaker CD. (Both Mac and PC versions, I believe. But not the 3DO version; that came much earlier.)

That was pretty cool. (My first IF publication!) However, Icebreaker was an impressive flop; barely anyone has a copy. And since my IF version was based on the arcade game, which is owned by Magnet Interactive Studios, I can't distribute it.

So if you see a copy of Icebreaker sitting in a bargain bin somewhere, pick it up. It's a treasure and a rarity. Or something. Plus it's got this pyramid-shooting arcade game on the CD, as a sort of bonus find, and that's pretty entertaining too. :-)

If you liked these games...

You may want to try some of the other IF works in the archive. Or related sites. Or whatever.
Last updated August 13, 2007.

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