• Home
  • Archives
  • Profile
  • Subscribe

Z-Machine Matter

All about noir fiction, interactive fiction and more.

Home Archives Profile Subscribe

Finding IF Games

Infocom_boxes
 

While Infocom created 30 some games during the golden age of Interactive Fiction in the 1980s, there are now thousands of Interactive Fiction titles available on the web at IFDB and elsewhere. Some are written in the traditional "old school" style, some push the boundaries of what Interactive Fiction is all about and no doubt some are complete crap. But there are some real gems among these, especially the games which place highly in the annual IF Competition. 

If you've got old Infocom games, you can copy the Z-Machine data files (typically ending in .Z5 or similar) from old disks and run them with a new interpreter. You can also occasionally find old Infocom games for sale on Amazon and eBay. The best value is the "Lost Treasures of Infocom" or "Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces" CD ROM issued by Activision in the 1990s. If you're an advanced user, you can find these collections or similar bootlegs using Bit Torrent. (Just sayin'.)

Most Infocom sites do not publish the games, though they often have replicas of the boxes and supplemental materials. However, Activision did make the original Zork titles available for download and there is also a re-write of Deadline in Inform available on the IFDB.  

I highly recommend using the IFDB as a way to find games that you might like. You can search using keyword tags, for example by different genres (horror, mystery, murder, sf, comedy etc). You can also browse by title, author, ratings and so on. Once you find something in a style you like, you may be surprised at just how many games there are!

  • Wikipedia:Infocom, Zork, Interactive Fiction, Lost Treasues of Infocom
  • Infocom Gallery: Main Site, Grey Box Releases
  • IFDB: Main site, Deadline, Zork I, II, III
  • Inform: Introduction to IF (PDF), Recommended Games, Interpreters
  • iFiction: Online Infocom Games, Scott Adams Games, Adventure

January 2023

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31        

Articles

  • Getting Started
  • Playing Interactive Fiction (IF)
  • Finding IF Games
  • Progamming IF
  • Introduction
  • Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
  • Game Status

Categories

  • Books, Films, Radio etc (66)
  • Games (33)
  • History (28)
  • Infocom (29)
  • Programming (25)
  • Reviews (19)
See More

Recent Posts

  • First AI-Generated Graphic Novel?
  • Audiobook Now Available
  • 50 Years of Text Games
  • Eaten By A Grue
  • #TechForUkraine
  • James Kestrel's Five Decembers
  • The Reincarnationist Papers
  • Len Deighton's Game, Set, Match
  • The Whisperer in Darkness Podcast
  • Dark Adventure Radio Theater

Archives

  • January 2023
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • March 2022
  • November 2021
  • July 2021
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • June 2019
  • May 2019

About

Subscribe to this blog's feed

Interpreters

  • iPad / iPhone Frotz
  • Windows Frotz
  • Linux Zoom
  • Mac Zoom

IF Links

  • Aaron Reed Blog
  • Brass Lantern
  • Emily Short Blog
  • Get Lamp Blog
  • Get Lamp DVD
  • IFDB
  • IFWiki
  • Infocom Docs
  • Infocom Gallery
  • Infocom Home
  • Infocom IF
  • Intfiction Forum
  • Matt Wigdahl Blog
  • Planet IF
  • Scott Adams Games
  • SPAG

Programming IF

  • Adrift
  • Alan
  • Cloak of Darkness
  • Creating IF with Inform 7
  • Hugo
  • IF Comp
  • Inform 7
  • Inform 7 News
  • Intro Comp
  • Rec.arts.int-fiction
  • TADS 3

Other Media

  • Propnomicon
  • Johnny Dollar Archive
  • Old Time Radio
  • OTR Fan
  • Hardcase Crime
  • Abandonia
  • Dennis Wheatley
  • Wheatley Crime Dossiers

Other Blogs

  • GuitarVibe
  • The Yak Whisperer
  • The Open Force
  • Tuesdays With Mary
  • Valley of the Geeks
  • Z-Machine Matter
  • Z-Machine Matter •
  • Powered by Typepad
Top