Infocom co-founders Dave Lebling (left) and Marc Blank (right), pictured here in 1985 with former Infocom employee Pat Maroni, will be honored with the AIAS Pioneer Award in February.
In the days before graphics, computer games had to entice players with nothing more than a well-turned phrase.
Whether you prefer to call them "text adventures" or "interactive fiction," games played with nothing but writing and verbal commands were a significant part of the early days of interactive entertainment. At the forefront of the medium were the designers of Infocom, which created and published text games like Zork, Starcross and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that delighted players with clever writing and had them absolutely tearing their hair out with difficult puzzles.
Today, Wired can exclusively report that Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, two of the co-founders of Infocom and co-creators of Zork, will be honored with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Pioneer Award at the DICE Summit in February. The award is given to the gamemakers whose groundbreaking early work laid the foundations of the multi-billion-dollar videogame industry. Previous recipients include David Crane, creator of Pitfall!, and Asteroids designer Ed Logg.
Wired spoke to Dave Lebling, as well as another Infocom designer, for this story. But in honor of their achievements and their medium of choice, we've decided to present the results of our interviews in a text adventure of our own, below. You'll have to play to find out more.
Thanks to Playfic for the text adventure tech!