Which Infocom text adventures have you actually finished?

[gilsaluki]

None, can't get through a single one the text adventures.  Too much effort, too many dead ends.  I wish I could.  Then again, I never played D&Ds or other board-type games except Monopoly and Life.  Oh, Mouse Trap when I was a young one. 

[Goochman]

I believe I finished Zork I with my neighbors help - it was a PIA so no interest in the rest.  I think my neighbor and a few other friends finished Zork II with help from a magazine BITD.  Zork III no one finished.

 

I got a walkthrough so I can finish all 3 - there is 0% chance anyone finished Zork II or III without some sort of hint/help.  Some puzzles were so obscure, esp when you just had text to figure out what was going on.

[jacobus]

Zork I,II,III

Deadline

Starcross (with a friend - we spent an entire weekend hammering at it)

The Witness (the first one I solved)

Planetfall (my favourite - somewhere I have a printed walkthrough of the entire game)

Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker

Infidel (a close second favourite)

Seastalker 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (with help (lots) from the Invisiclues)

Cutthroats

Hollywood Hijinx

The Lurking Horror (on the ST)

...all back in the day

 

I played RTZ to about the halfway point, but just couldn't finish - even getting that far was a grind

 

 

I tried to interest my kids in playing - even the avid readers weren't interested.  Has anyone's offspring enjoyed them?

 

[zzip]

Hitchhikers

 

Maybe Zork?   I don't remember if I finished it

[atarialoha]

6 hours ago, Rybags said:

Although I had a reasonble percentage of what they released (at least 5 or 6) I only really played Zork I and Hitchiker's Guide very much.

 

I think I finished those - I seem to remember seeing walkthroughs somewhere, possibly from a BBS or something.

Played the other Zorks though not sure how far.

 

But all up, adventure games got a very small proportion of my time.  The arcade types were usually the favourite but in terms of overall hours put in on a single game, Alternate Reality:  The City would be the overall leader probably by multiples vs the next one.

Thanks for the mention of that game. I have never heard of it. Will check it out.

[atarialoha]

2 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Heh. 

 

 

Soooo nice! By the way what are they supposed to smell like?

[+DrVenkman]

1 minute ago, atarialoha said:

Soooo nice! By the way what are they supposed to smell like?

Well, these are like 35 years old so they don’t smell like anything anymore, lol. 

[gollumer]

Completed:
 

* Deadline
* Suspended

[atarialoha]

1 hour ago, Goochman said:

I believe I finished Zork I with my neighbors help - it was a PIA so no interest in the rest.  I think my neighbor and a few other friends finished Zork II with help from a magazine BITD.  Zork III no one finished.

 

I got a walkthrough so I can finish all 3 - there is 0% chance anyone finished Zork II or III without some sort of hint/help.  Some puzzles were so obscure, esp when you just had text to figure out what was going on.

I agree they can be super obscure. Maybe this is why I managed to finish the murder mystery ones instead, as you at least knew you were restricted in options to what might happen in the real world.

 

Actually, The Witness is quite good, and not as difficult as Deadline. I highly recommend anyone who never got around to solving it, to give it another shot. You do have to expect to spend possibly WEEKS (maybe even months) mulling over what you might try. It is something to just keep hacking at, until you solve it. It's a different experience. You get the huge thrill of emotional reward to make progress each time. This kind of interactive entertainment is quite rare nowadays, what with superb graphics and sound and even VR in some cases.

[atarialoha]

45 minutes ago, jacobus said:

Zork I,II,III

Deadline

Starcross (with a friend - we spent an entire weekend hammering at it)

The Witness (the first one I solved)

Planetfall (my favourite - somewhere I have a printed walkthrough of the entire game)

Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker

Infidel (a close second favourite)

Seastalker 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (with help (lots) from the Invisiclues)

Cutthroats

Hollywood Hijinx

The Lurking Horror (on the ST)

...all back in the day

 

I played RTZ to about the halfway point, but just couldn't finish - even getting that far was a grind

 

 

I tried to interest my kids in playing - even the avid readers weren't interested.  Has anyone's offspring enjoyed them?

 

I have heard Starcross is super difficult?

 

I might give Infidel a shot, since you rate it so highly. But first I want to try solving Deadline all over again.

 

The Witness was also the first one I solved.

[20ohm20]

Zork I

Zork II

Planetfall

Infidel

 

I recently retrieved all of my old boxed C64 software, including Zork III and Suspended, which I never finished BITD.  I'd like to finally finish them sometime this summer.

 

[jacobus]

26 minutes ago, atarialoha said:

I have heard Starcross is super difficult?

 

I might give Infidel a shot, since you rate it so highly. But first I want to try solving Deadline all over again.

 

The Witness was also the first one I solved.

I found it quite challenging!  It's one of the only four Infocom games that can fit the entire program and data onto a single side of an Atari disk, so while the game is a bit short, the puzzles more than make up for it.  Also, possibly the first of their games where the Feelies acted as copy protection - you will need the star map to progress past the first few moves.  (feelies are also needed for Infidel - both at the beginning and throughout the game)

[Dinadan67]

4 hours ago, atarialoha said:

Soooo nice! By the way what are they supposed to smell like?

If i remember correctly, the first spot smelled like thrown up pizza ?

[atarialoha]

4 hours ago, 20ohm20 said:

Zork I

Zork II

Planetfall

Infidel

 

I recently retrieved all of my old boxed C64 software, including Zork III and Suspended, which I never finished BITD.  I'd like to finally finish them sometime this summer.

 

Suspended is infinitely replayable. It was designed as a kind of strategy game but using text only. Quite unique actually!

 

(I had never seen BITD as an abbreviation. Is it commonly understood? BITD™. This word has appeared in many recent discussion threads. LOL. I guess only OF™ (old farts) will get it. Yes, I guess I have finally achieved OF status now! Ha!)

Edited May 4, 2021 by atarialoha

[atarialoha]

3 hours ago, jacobus said:

I found it quite challenging!  It's one of the only four Infocom games that can fit the entire program and data onto a single side of an Atari disk, so while the game is a bit short, the puzzles more than make up for it.  Also, possibly the first of their games where the Feelies acted as copy protection - you will need the star map to progress past the first few moves.  (feelies are also needed for Infidel - both at the beginning and throughout the game)

Thankfully I have preserved my old iPad with Treasures of Infocom intact! Every few months someone asks me if they should tap to upgrade the iOS! And my answer is always 1) I thought I had hidden that iPad pretty well and 2) don't touch it!! LOL

Edited May 4, 2021 by atarialoha

[atarialoha]

36 minutes ago, Dinadan67 said:

If i remember correctly, the first spot smelled like thrown up pizza ?

Yikes! LOL

[gollumer]

My boxed copy of Suspended (one of only 2 that I actually finished). I don't have the box for Hitchhiker's Guide, but I still have the pack-ins. Not sure what ever happened to the box. Leather Goddesses is for PC, not A8.

[atarialoha]

Infocom really started going cheap when they stopped producing the original amazing boxed sets and made those flatpack boxes.

 

I think they didn't even include the feelies right?

Edited May 4, 2021 by atarialoha

[atarialoha]

17 minutes ago, gollumer said:

My boxed copy of Suspended (one of only 2 that I actually finished). I don't have the box for Hitchhiker's Guide, but I still have the pack-ins. Not sure what ever happened to the box. Leather Goddesses is for PC, not A8.

Saw your EPYX box. I guess it must be one of the Apshai ones. I played Star Warrior again recently and still remembered some of the commands after 40 years! And you have M.U.L.E. there too. Great! 

Edited May 4, 2021 by atarialoha

[gollumer]

9 minutes ago, atarialoha said:

Saw your EPYX box. I guess it must be one of the Apshai ones. I played Star Warrior again recently and still remembered some of the commands after 40 years! And you have M.U.L.E. there too. Great! 

Good catch. Yes, it's Temple of Apshai. And M.U.L.E. is my favorite game (hence my username and avatar...) Back in the very early days of the interwebs (we're talking geocities days) I had an Atari fan site called "Planet Irata", another nod to M.U.L.E. Good times, really bad web design (by today's standards...I was pretty proud of it then!)

[atarialoha]

7 minutes ago, gollumer said:

Good catch. Yes, it's Temple of Apshai. And M.U.L.E. is my favorite game (hence my username and avatar...) Back in the very early days of the interwebs (we're talking geocities days) I had an Atari fan site called "Planet Irata", another nod to M.U.L.E. Good times, really bad web design (by today's standards...I was pretty proud of it then!)

Haha awesome. For a few seconds I was perplexed because I kept thinking, Epyx is familiar but wasn't it Automated Simulations that produced all those games? And then later I remembered they changed company names. M.U.L.E. is Electronic Arts right?

[gollumer]

5 minutes ago, atarialoha said:

M.U.L.E. is Electronic Arts right?

Yep...

[drpeter]

10 hours ago, Goochman said:

there is 0% chance anyone finished Zork II or III without some sort of hint/help

Not so ?

[Asaki]

18 hours ago, gnusto said:

All of them actually - just not on the A8.

Yeah, my Atari 600XL has an awful keyboard, I would not want to play them there >_<

Tried playing Zork on Apple II, but the CAPSLOCK is a bit much, and the high res mode is a little hard to read on my color TV.

Heck, I've tried playing them on Game Boy and Nintendo DS before ;D

I think sticking with PC is probably fine.

  

18 hours ago, gnusto said:

In the 90's I was writing the first version of WinFrotz...

I love WinFrotz, but there are just too many options. I just can't keep one font face and/or color combination without changing it completely the next time I play

 

11 hours ago, Goochman said:

I got a walkthrough so I can finish all 3 - there is 0% chance anyone finished Zork II or III without some sort of hint/help.

Our copies are all from later collections, so most of the games came with the cheat maps...but I try not to look at them these days.

Was working on my own map for Zork I, and it's not too terrible looking (wherever the heck it is...)

[bfollowell]

19 hours ago, gnusto said:

All of them actually - just not on the A8. In the 90's I was writing the first version of WinFrotz, and as part of the testing for that I played through all of them at one point or another. No regrets.

 

I'd love to see a version of Frotz on the 8-bit. An interpreter that would let us load different or later versions of the games that were originally released on the 8-bit, as well as v4 & v5 games that never made it to the 8-bit, assuming the 8-bit in question has been expanded and has enough memory. I've thought for years that I'd like to teach myself enough 8-bit assembler to start such a project, but there's just never enough time, and now that grandkids have come along, what little time there is, is at even more of a premium.