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2006: Dwarf Fortress
The text of Dwarf Fortress and procedural tales so expansive no human could ever explore them all.
Aaron A. Reed
A deep dive into text game history, from The Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon, now in book form! Click "No thanks" below to skip the subscribe box; the top story has details on how to get your own copy. Click to read 50 Years of Text Games, by Aaron A. Reed, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
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Visit if50.substack.com → RSS feedOn Hacker News Jan 2021 – May 2022
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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 later.
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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.
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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 fiction.
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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 computer game blockbusters.
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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.
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50 Years of Text Games – A 2021 Journey from Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon
A 2021 Journey from Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon
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1983: Suspended
A young writer crosses paths with the designer of Zork, sparking a surprisingly experimental game where you experience reality from six unique perspectives.
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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.
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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.
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50 Years of Text Games: The End of a Journey
Some final thoughts on this epic expedition.