Infocom, Hitchhikers, and Text Adventures

Okay, so I snuck a look in at /. and came across something wonderful: Playable versions of the sequel to Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were found on a hard drive backup and given to a blogger. He, naturally, blogged about them and made available the two version for download as well as making one playable via an applet.

The comments following the article include some from Infocom people themselves, such as Steve Meretzky and Marc Blank! A very interesting read.

The other thing I found from reading the comments is that a documentary about text adventurs and Infocom entitled "Get Lamp" is in the works. Infocom is one of the main reasons why I got interested in programming in the first place and I like to think of many of the puzzle hunts I've participated in as "real" interactive fiction. Growing up, I didn't want to be a fireman, an astronaut, a doctor or a lawyer: I wanted to work for Infocom.



Of course, that's impossible now. I did end up writing an IF game, but never completing it to my satisfaction. Something about being a stay-at-home father kind of sucks up your time. :)