Comments on: Recommend a few good text adventure games!

Question: Recommend a few good text adventure games!

warble — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:48:59 -0800

Recommend a few good text adventure games!

Lately I've had the urge to play text adventure games, but I'm not sure what to play. I've been googling, but I'm overwhelmed by the variety of games available and can't seem to find a useful review site.

So... what should I play? Recommendations that are clever, whimsical, literate, funny, atmospheric and captivating are a plus. I'm interested in classics of the genre as well as little known gems.

(Just so you know, I've played two text-based games before, The Golden Wombat of Destiny -wonderful!- and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was great but followed a touch too close to the books for me to really enjoy as original.)

By: spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:53:24 -0800

Kingdom of Loathing

By: mrbill

mrbill — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:53:33 -0800

Why not the granddaddy of them all? Colossal Cave / Adventure / ADVENT

By: inkyz

inkyz — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:56:50 -0800

When it comes to the modern hobbyist stuff, you want the IF Scoreboard, the IF Wiki, and the list of interpreters for different platforms.

By: lalex

lalex — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:01:34 -0800

Seconding Kingdom of Loathing.

By: redfoxtail

redfoxtail — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:03:22 -0800

I've been googling, but I'm overwhelmed by the variety of games available and can't seem to find a useful review site.

You've linked to the IF Archive yourself, there, but it is fairly useful -- take a look at the games with five stars and read the quick reviews to see what appeals to you. There are often links to longer reviews, as well.

By: redfoxtail

redfoxtail — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:04:09 -0800

Kingdom of Loathing is delightful, but it's not a text adventure game/IF.

By: Lentrohamsanin

Lentrohamsanin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:06:14 -0800

Trinity. Absolutely my favorite of all the Infocom games that I played.

By: Inkoate

Inkoate — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:06:54 -0800

While KoL is a fun web game and all, I'm not sure it qualifies as a text adventure, although I don't know what I would call it.

As far as fun text adventures go, Slouching Toward Bedlam was fun for me, and very well regarded. Really, I'd just pick names from the yearly IF competition and play them.

Enjoy!

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:09:38 -0800

Spider & Web (available at the IF archive) was fantastic.

By: majick

majick — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:16:58 -0800

Some of the best works are from Adam Cadre, most notably the excellent Interstate Zero and Photopia.

By: herichon

herichon — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:20:37 -0800

I've been out of the Inform scene for a while, but I can highly recommend anything by Adam Cadre or Andrew Plotkin. In particular Adam's Photopia blew my mind, it should be required reading (playing? experiencing?) for anyone who's interested in interactive fiction.

On preview - what majick said :)

By: shadow vector

shadow vector — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:24:57 -0800

Start with the Infocom games. They're the archetypes of the genre and the obvious place to start before you get into contemporary IF. I'd start with the Zork/Enchanter games, and maybe toss Planetfall in there for a change of pace. That should last you a while. Also, don't overlook the handful of games made by Legend Entertainment. They have graphics to complement the text. Particularly good are the two Gateway games, based on Frederick Pohl books.

When you get into the newer stuff, a good resource for finding games is the XYZZY awards. There are also links to reviews for a lot of the games listed there.

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:27:37 -0800

If you want classics of the genre, you should check out the Zork Trilogy and the Enchanter trilogy. I spent a lot of time with those in the mid-late 80's. I bet they would still be fun to play through if you haven't seen them before.

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:32:24 -0800

Are the Zork games online anywhere? I can't really search them out from work, but I had a lot more fun with them than with HHGTTG.

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:32:51 -0800

Ah, I mean: What Pater Aletheias said.

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:52:12 -0800

Plotkin and Cadre're great, but I also like Emily Short's work. Oh, and Anchorhead, although I haven't beaten it. Still.

By: symphonik

symphonik — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:05:34 -0800

There's no alternative: Leather Goddesses of Phobos was fucking awesome.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:13:22 -0800

Here to rep for Adam Cadre, especially Photopia.

What's also worth considering is playing on a Palm. There are interpreters for it which make it *much* easier -- instead of typing "open the green door" you click on "green door" and choose "open" from the pop-up. Sounds small, is ace.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:18:50 -0800

Trinity from Infocom for sure, and absolutely top marks for Graham Nelson's Curses — I got so immersed in that it meddled with my dreams. Christminster is a good one, one of the very few good games with a school/university setting (better than Infocom's Lurking Horror, I think). One of the coolest atmosphere pieces from Infocom and a very underrated title was Border Zone, if you like a grim cold war ambience. All of those are pretty well balanced between puzzle-solving, plot, and atmosphere/exploration, but who knows which direction your tastes lean? Drop me an email.

By: L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg

L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:06:44 -0800

If you liked Hitchhiker's, you must play Bureaucracy, which is written by Douglas Adams, is hilarious, and doesn't follow the plot of any book.

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:17:46 -0800

Just got home and looked through all the IF games I've accumulated; I'd add expand my recommendations to include Edifice (just for one stellar puzzle) and Rematch.

By: aparrish

aparrish — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:31:31 -0800

I second Spider and Web - the central puzzle is so, so good, you'll feel absolutely brilliant when you solve it.

As far as Infocom games go, I recommend Planetfall. Lots of atmosphere, clever but not impossible puzzles.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:42:05 -0800

Planetfall is good and holds a really special place in a lot of people's hearts (for one reason above all: the greatest NPC ever). In terms of satisfying puzzles and tense gameplay, the sequel Stationfall was even better.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:05:19 -0800

It's not that kind of seal.

By: Lentrohamsanin

Lentrohamsanin — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:07:42 -0800

One of the coolest atmosphere pieces from Infocom and a very underrated title was Border Zone, if you like a grim cold war ambience.

Was that the one with the real time clock? I was always too scared to try it (I type and think slow).

By: wile e

wile e — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:20:32 -0800

So glad to see Zork made the list. Wasted many a night in the eighties with that game. One of the definite classics.

By: fleacircus

fleacircus — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:30:10 -0800

There's no alternative: Leather Goddesses of Phobos was fucking awesome.

Well yeah, if you played it in lewd mode.

[to others] KoL is a web-based BBS game, mkay?

By: flibbertigibbet

flibbertigibbet — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:16:26 -0800

Try Galatea. It's not an 'adventure' game persay, but it is clever, whimsical, literate, atmospheric, and captivating. It has about 15 different possible endings -- some of these will take you 5 minutes, others... well, others will take longer. (There's a way you can find all of the endings online, but I'm not gonna help you out with that -- you need to play it at least once on your own.)

You really just need to try it. You can play it online here, although I personally dislike that interface. Instead, I'd recommend downloading Gargoyle, the classiest IF player I've ever found. If you do that, here's a link to it, and other of Short's works. It's at the bottom.

By: neuron

neuron — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:26:39 -0800

You can play Zork through AIM occasionally, although "he" hasn't been online lately.

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 22:34:49 -0800

The aforementioned Anchorhead is probably the best text adventure I have ever played ... and I've played quite a bit.

By: cosmicbandito

cosmicbandito — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 22:39:52 -0800

For a completely difference experience, try to find a copy of "Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head of Tails of It". It's a series of mini-games based on language tricks like puns, homonyms, idioms, and spoonerisms. HIGHLY recommended.

By: paduasoy

paduasoy — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:03:53 -0800

You might find Baf's Guide useful for reviews and scoring. Seconding Graham Nelson and Emily Short. For a much simpler and easier game, I enjoyed The Horror of Rylvania.

By: JJ86

JJ86 — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:57:09 -0800

If you search Ebay, you may be able to find the Infocom Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces which is a collection of all of their text adventures. I have had the CD for about ten years and get it out to play every once in awhile.

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:58:33 -0800

neuron: AOL's been kicking infocombot off the AIM network for years. I don't know why.

By: warble

warble — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:10:50 -0800

Wow, lots of great suggestions here. I'm looking through all the links and this looks awesome. Thanks everybody! The games which were rec'ed multiple times I will especially check out.

This question has been pushed off the front page now, but I'll keep an eye on this thread so if anybody has any further suggestions...

By: pharm

pharm — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:54:07 -0800

Note that some of the Infocom originals are *hard*. For that matter, so are some of the more recent classics.

If you want to try some shorter games, then you can't go far wrong in trying out the highly placed games in the annual IF competition. Failing that, Andrew Plotkin's games are usually of a very high standard indeed, although they can be both difficult and cruel to the player...Spider and Web is perhaps his most accessible game, and even that has it's clever twists.

Read baf's guide to the if-archive for further ideas...

By: cosmicbandito

cosmicbandito — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:08:07 -0800

If you're short on time, I reccomend Pick up the Phone Booth and Die. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes to play.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:49:47 -0800

Note that some of the Infocom originals are *hard*.

If warble can handle the babel fish puzzle in hitchhiker's guide, the his/her difficulty tolerance is probably sufficient.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:50:05 -0800

the-->then

By: 912 Greens

912 Greens — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:41:58 -0800

The Hamlet text adventure game