50 Years of Text Games
"Since a winter morning in 1971 when a teacher wheeled a teletype into his classroom to debut a game about the Oregon Trail, people have been telling interactive stories on digital platforms. From text adventures to VR poetry, MUDS to mobile romance sims, and chatbots to roguelikes, these games without graphics have pioneered new techniques for interactive storytelling, engaged imaginations with clever engines and beautiful prose, and explored the new terrain of fiction you can play. "50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to AI Dungeon" picks one text-based game from each year between 1971 and 2020 and studies how it works, what it's about, why it's special, and its lasting legacy. From famous classics to overlooked gems, from personal stories to million-word epics, and from games printed by teletypes to games downloaded on smart watches, this is the fascinating story of interactive fiction's first half-century"-- Provided by publisher.
Stats for nerds
13recommend
18mentions
14people
2021–2026years
89% recommend11% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- also of note: the "fifty years of interactive fiction" post series: https://if50.substack.com/archive?sort=top (much discussed on hn)
or in book form: https://if50.textories.com/
- This is probably a good place to mention a cool book, "50 Years of Text Games", at https://if50.textories.com/. Based on a blog series as I recall, but essentially takes a game from each year or so, to look at in detail for what was interesting at that time.
- Aaron Reed's 50 Years of Text Games[1][2] is a fantastic journey into the history and the possibilities of text-based games. I got the physical book and was surprised to find it as engaging as a novel. Each chapter takes one year between 1971 and 2020 and picks a game from that year to discuss in depth. While it might not help with the writing per se, you might good ideas there (several of the games discussed are in the "Adventure" lineage).
- Have the printed version of the CRPG book. It's great.
https://if50.textories.com/ is another really good one that dives into the early days of game design. The story around The Hobbit is a great example of emergent gameplay.
- 50 Years of Text Games is an excellent book
- I was introduced to this game, as well as many others, in the excellent book "50 years of text games": https://if50.textories.com/
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