Infocom
| Infocom
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | June 22, 1979 |
| resolution | May 5th 1989 |
| Reason for dissolution | Closure by the parent company Mediagenic |
| Seat | Cambridge (United States) |
| management | Joel Berez |
| Branch | Software development |
Infocom was an American manufacturer of computer games . Most of them belong to the genre of text adventures , for which Infocom used the term Interactive Fiction . The company was founded on June 22, 1979. The company was based in Cambridge on the east coast of the United States.
history
The first (and very successful) game called Zork was written in 1977 as a leisure project for Unix systems at MIT within a laboratory at the university called LCS ("Laboratory for Computer Science"). Two years later, some of the authors were involved in founding the Infocom company, which came into being as an association of fellow students at the LCS. The goal of founding Infocom had never been to become an entertainment software company, but in order for Infocom to have a first product, the mainframe version of Zork was broken down into three parts for publication on home computers with lower capacity (1980–1982).
The further path of Infocom was thus mapped out, and other important titles were the other games in the Zork series, as well as, u. a., Planetfall (1983), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (based on the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ) (1984) and A Mind Forever Voyaging (1985).
Infocom released its games on as many platforms as possible, making many of the older games available for more than 10 different computer systems of the time. On the early home computers of the early 80s of the 20th century, with their limited floppy and storage capacities, and without a hard drive , it was hardly possible to pack both appealing graphics and appealing text into a single game. Infocom chose plain text. While spelling mistakes were not uncommon in other early computer games, Infocom's games were convincing with their lively descriptive, often laconic prose . Only shortly before the end of the company in 1989, a few adventures with graphics were published, but even in these the text dominated.
The attempt to establish itself in the market for business programs with the database software Cornerstone (1985) also failed. Competing products like dBASE were too powerful and Cornerstone was a failure, which led Infocom into great financial trouble. As a result, Infocom was taken over by the game manufacturer Activision in 1986 .
After a change in management at Activision, the remaining Infocom employees were dismissed in 1989 and operations were discontinued.
Development since 1989
From 1989 Activision used the name “Infocom” as a label for a few years and published the graphic adventures Return to Zork , Zork Nemesis and Zork: Grand Inquisitor developed by Activision . Some developers (including Steve Meretzky ) switched to Legend Entertainment , a company founded by Bob Bates , which refreshed the classic text adventure with graphic elements and which in turn had a number of notable titles.
The original mainframe version of Zork I was published as a public domain by Infocom . Activision has released several collections of the games on CD or floppy disks: "Lost Treasures of Infocom I & II" (both without Leather Goddesses of Phobos , which had to be purchased separately with an enclosed voucher) and "Masterpieces of Infocom" (without "Hitchhiker's Guide ”and“ Shogun ”, whose rights had reverted to the book authors). These are only available second-hand.
The core of all Infocom games (except Fooblitzky and Quarterstaff) is the so-called Z-machine game file, which is created with the help of a Z-machine emulator (also known as ZIP, i.e. Zork interpreter program , but which has nothing to do with the ZIP compression format) is played. This concept made it possible for Infocom to publish their games for the large number of home computer platforms and systems of the time, each with identical content.
Such interpreters are available today for many platforms and operating systems, from home computers of the 80s (such as Apple II , Commodore 64 , and Schneider / Amstrad CPC ) to modern Windows and Unix- based systems to various palmtops and organizers and handhelds , which means that the games can still be used on modern computers.
With Inform there is a programming language with libraries that makes it possible to write games for the Z-Machine yourself. The Inform language differs fundamentally from ZIL, but creates game files in the same or a slightly expanded format.
In 2008 an archive with all source texts of the Infocom computer games was discovered by an anonymous source and archived by the Internet Archive .
meaning
Contemporary text adventures like those of the companies Adventure International or On-Line Systems had a simple parser that only understood input of one or two words. In technical terms, the Infocom parser trumped the competition many times over: It understood multiple objects in one input, tried to find meaningful objects from several possible intended objects, was able to process prepositions and process chained commands. The game engine Z-machine on which the Infocom games are based also made it possible for the first time to create complex NPCs that lead a life of their own within the game world and to which commands could be given by the player. Infocom continued to be known for the high literary quality of its adventure games.
While computer games were previously pure entertainment software, Infocom was the first company to claim literary claims for their games and to develop their games in this regard. From the production of purely narrative games, however, the company kept the philosophy that puzzles were an elementary part of their games, which had a significant impact on the design process.
Another special feature of the Infocom games were the numerous elaborate package inserts such as newspaper clippings, business cards or matchbooks made especially for the game, with which the atmosphere of the respective game was haptically conveyed and which also served as copy protection , since information printed on these inserts is referenced in the game were. Infocom was one of the few publishers at that time to dispense with physically copy-protected diskettes.
Nick Montfort, professor of digital media at MIT , said Infocom had created "virtually all of the most popular interactive fiction titles in the history of the genre." He also showed, however, that the company's importance in markets such as Great Britain, where floppy disk drives were less common for reasons of cost, was significantly less. The computer scientist and journalist Simson Garfinkel sees Infocom as a technology pioneer whose achievements are still being researched 20 years later and whose Z-machine concept made programming languages such as Perl or Java possible in the first place.
Publications
Text adventures
| year | title | author | genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Zork I: The Great Underground Empire | Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, Dave Lebling | Fantasy |
| 1981 | Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz | Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, Dave Lebling | Fantasy |
| 1982 | Deadline | Marc Blank | Thriller |
| 1982 | Zork III: The Dungeon Master | Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, Dave Lebling | Fantasy |
| 1982 | Starcross | Dave Lebling | Science fiction |
| 1983 | Suspended | Michael Berlyn | Thriller |
| 1983 | The Witness | Stuart Galley | Thriller |
| 1983 | Planetfall | Steve Meretzky | Science fiction |
| 1983 | Enchanter | Marc Blank, Dave Lebling | Fantasy |
| 1983 | Infidel | Michael Berlyn | adventure |
| 1984 | Sorcerer | Steve Meretzky | Fantasy |
| 1984 | Seastalker | Stuart Galley, Jim Lawrence | adventure |
| 1984 | Cutthroats | Michael Berlyn, Jerry Wolper | adventure |
| 1984 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams , Steve Meretzky | Science fiction |
| 1984 | Suspect | Dave Lebling | Thriller |
| 1985 | Wishbringer | Brian Moriarty | Fantasy |
| 1985 | A Mind Forever Voyaging | Steve Meretzky | Science fiction |
| 1985 | Spell breaker | Dave Lebling | Fantasy |
| 1986 | Ballyhoo | Jeff O'Neill | adventure |
| 1986 | Trinity | Brian Moriarty | Science fiction |
| 1986 | Leather Goddesses of Phobos | Steve Meretzky | Science fiction |
| 1986 | Moonmist | Stuart Galley, Jim Lawrence | Thriller |
| 1987 | Hollywood Hijinx | Dave Anderson, Liz Cyr-Jones | adventure |
| 1987 | Bureaucracy | Douglas Adams | Slice of Life |
| 1987 | Station case | Steve Meretzky | Science fiction |
| 1987 | The Lurking Horror | Dave Lebling | horror |
| 1987 | Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It | Jeff O'Neill | Pun |
| 1987 | Plundered Hearts | Amy Briggs | adventure |
| 1987 | Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor | Brian Moriarty | Fantasy |
| 1987 | Border zone | Marc Blank | espionage |
| 1987 | Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels | Bob Bates | Thriller |
| 1988 | Zork Zero | Steve Meretzky | Fantasy |
| 1989 | Shogun | Dave Lebling | adventure |
| 1989 | Journey | Marc Blank | Fantasy |
| 1989 | Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur | Bob Bates | adventure |
More games
- 1985: Fooblitzky (computer-aided board game)
- 1988: Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth (RPG)
- 1988: Lane Mastodon vs. the Blubbermen (Infocomic)
- 1988: Gamma Force in Pit of a Thousand Screams (Infocomic)
- 1988: ZorkQuest: Assault on Egreth Castle (Infocomic)
- 1988: ZorkQuest II: The Crystal of Doom (Infocomic)
Application programs
- 1985: Cornerstone (database)
Books
Novels
- 1988: Arthur Byron Cover : Planetfall . Avon Books, New York, ISBN 0-380-75384-7 .
- 1988: Craig Shaw Gardner : Wishbringer . Avon Books, New York, ISBN 0-380-75385-5 .
- 1989: Robin W. Bailey: Enchanter . Avon Books, New York, ISBN 0-380-75386-3 .
- 1989: Arthur Byron Cover: Station Case . Avon Books, New York, ISBN 0-380-75387-1 .
- 1990: George Alec Effinger : The Zork Chronicles . Avon Books, New York, ISBN 0-380-75388-X .
- 1991: Robin W. Bailey: The Lost City of Zork . Avon Books, New York, ISBN 0-380-75389-8 .
Game books
- 1983: Steve Meretzky : The Forces of Krill: Zork No 1 . Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-8125-7975-8 .
- 1983: Steve Meretzky: Malifestro Quest: Zork No 2 . Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-8125-7980-2 .
- 1983: Steve Meretzky: Cavern of Doom: Zork No 3 . Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-8125-7985-7 .
- 1984: Steve Meretzky: Conquest at Quendor: Zork No 4 . Tor Books, ISBN 978-0-8125-5989-7 .
literature
- Hector Briceño, Wesley Chao, Andrew Glenn u. a .: Down from the Top of IT Games. The Story of Infocom, Inc. , Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA 2000
- Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson: High score !: The illustrated History of Electronic Games , McGraw-Hill Professional, 2nd ed. 2004 ISBN 978-0-07-223172-4 (chapter Infocom , p. 114 ff.)
- Jimmy Maher: Let's Tell a Story Together. A History of Interactive Fiction . Senior Honor's Thesis, University of Texas, Dallas 2006 (Chapter 4 Infocom and Chapter 5 The Infocom Canon )
- Johnny Wilson: A History of Computer Games . In: Computer Gaming World . No. 88, November 1991, p. 16.
Web links
- Infocom at MobyGames (English)
- Infocom on the Adventureland website by Hans Persson and Stefan Meier (including Infocom fact sheet)
- Infocom on Howard Feldman's Museum of Computer Adventure Game History website
- History of Infocom on the website infocom-if.org
- The Infocom Gallery website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chris Kohler: 'Infocom Drive' Turns Up Long-Lost Hitchhiker Sequel . wired.com . April 18, 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2016: “ Remnants of the unreleased sequel to Infocom's text adventure version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy have been made available to the public by Waxy.org. Playable prototypes, design docs, source code and a string of e-mails between Infocom designers and management provide a fascinating look at the game's turbulent, if aborted, development process. Among the assets included: design documents, e-mail archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made. " "
- ↑ Nick Montfort: Twisty Little Passages - An Approach to Interactive Fiction . The MIT Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-262-13436-5 , pp. 108 .
- ↑ Nick Montfort: Twisty Little Passages - An Approach to Interactive Fiction . The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2003, ISBN 0-262-13436-5 , pp. 120 .
- ↑ Nick Montfort: Twisty Little Passages - An Approach to Interactive Fiction . The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2003, ISBN 0-262-13436-5 , pp. 119 .
- ^ Simson Garfinkel: Fountain of Ideas . In: Technology Review . May 1999, p. 82.