50 Years of Text Games

50 Years of Text Games

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1992: Silverwolf
In 1985, a mysterious group of women calling themselves the "Games Mistresses" released the first of a series of text adventure games. The story behind…
Jun 3, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
When the best-loved makers of text adventures met the best-loved sci-fi satirist of the decade, the result was an unforgettable classic of interactive…
Apr 8, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
1982: The Hobbit
Veronika Megler just wanted a part-time job while she finished her college degree. She didn't realize it would end with her writing one of the first…
Mar 25, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
1977: Zork
When four MIT hackers decide they can make a better Adventure, they start building a game that will still be topping bestseller charts eight years…
Feb 18, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
50 Years of Text Games
A 2021 Journey from Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon
Jan 1, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
2006: Dwarf Fortress
The text of Dwarf Fortress and procedural tales so expansive no human could ever explore them all.
Sep 23, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
1983: Suspended
A young writer crosses paths with the designer of Zork, sparking a surprisingly experimental game where you experience reality from six unique…
Apr 1, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
2017: Universal Paperclips
The dawn of incremental games: how some of the most virally addictive games of the 2010s were nothing but text and numbers going up.
Dec 9, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
1988: P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A.
In communist Czechoslovakia, a network of teenage hackers discovers that text games are a completely uncensored medium.
May 6, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
1979: The Cave of Time
A middle-aged lawyer lets his kids Choose Their Own Adventure for their bedtime story, planting the seeds for a publishing phenomenon “as contagious as…
Mar 4, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
1980: MUD
The story of how dozens of British college students would stay up all night to adventure together in the game that would spawn a thousand sequels.
Mar 11, 2021 • Aaron A. Reed
Business Wargames: Early Complex Text Games
The quest for the earliest transcript of a computer game uncovers a surprisingly complex computer strategy game from the 1950s.
May 10, 2022 • Aaron A. Reed
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