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50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon
50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon is an extensively researched book chronicling the first half-century of interactive fiction: video games made from words. Covering one text game released in each year from 1971 to 2020, in-depth chapters dive into classics like Zork, Trade Wars, and Hitchhiker's Guide; beloved fan games like Galatea and Photopia; wild experiments from Dwarf Fortress to Howling Dogs; and breakout hits like 80 Days, Fallen London, and Lifeline. Over 600 pages of coverage and dozens of original maps and flowcharts help explain the structure and design of each game included.
620 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2023
57 people are currently reading
294 people want to read
About the author
Aaron A. Reed
12 books81 followersAaron A. Reed is a writer and game designer focused on the intersection of prose and play and finding new ways for people to tell stories together. His fiction, games, and playable artworks have won recognition from a broad range of storytelling communities, including the Independent Games Festival (video games), the ENnie Awards (tabletop roleplaying), and Kirkus Reviews (traditional publishing). Aaron is a multi-time IndieCade and IGF finalist, and his work has also been shown at South by Southwest, Slamdance, and GaymerX; he has spoken about digital storytelling at PAX and PAX East, Google, WorldCon, NarraScope, and the Game Developer Conference. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 30, 2023
Nerd alert (in the best possible way)! Do you remember those old-school text adventure games, aka interactive fiction?
> GO EAST
You enter Jerzy's office. You see an accordion and some junk mail here.
> TAKE ACCORDION
Taken.
> PLAY ACCORDION
You don't know any tunes on the accordion.
...and so on? Well, this book is a delightful romp through the past 50 years of such games, one game per year. It starts with the original version of Oregon Trail; covers classics like Adventure and Zork; includes related works like Choose Your Own Adventure books; and continues on to modern games experimenting with these forms. The author, Aaron Reed, talks about each game's influence on the genre, its historical context, and some of his favorite puzzles or other moments in the game. Some articles also have a nifty overview of how the technology of the time either enabled or restricted some of the designer's creative choices.
As Reed notes, this is not the "best" or "most important" 50 text games---just 50 games he thought he could tell an interesting story about, and furthermore limited to one per year (so for example for 1980 he couldn't write about both MUD and Rogue even though both were foundational games with interesting stories). Frankly I like this constraint---it allows Reed to avoid dry academic rigor ("Here is my rigid definition of text games, and the corollaries that follow from it") and makes the book a fun tour instead ("Have I told you about the time that...").
Reed also makes an effort to highlight game creators who are not just the young straight white men that we think of as "typical" gamers. Sure, Zork and several other games here were written by classic MIT hackers; but there are many games here by women, by a trans author, by an opera singer, by a blind gamer, by Czechoslovak political activists... It does a great job of demonstrating how text games have been made by a wide range of people for a broad swath of purposes. From my own vantage point, I can't help noticing the games written by parents: Will Crowther writing Adventure as a way to connect with his daughters during a difficult divorce; Alexis Adams writing Pirate Adventure while pregnant in an attempt to harness her husband's gaming addiction into an entrepreneurial direction that could feed their new family; Edward Packard writing the Choose Your Own Adventure books based on the ways his own daughters requested their bedtime stories... Although these games are rendered through the abstract and impersonal medium of text on (usually) a computer, Reed shows us the ways that such games are so often about humans trying to connect with each other.
Some of my favorite articles:
* Oregon Trail (1971) - the original version of my generation's favorite edutainment
* Plundered Hearts (1987) - a seriously well-written pirate romance adventure game, by one of the few women game designers of the time
* P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. (1988) - Eastern European geeks use games as a form of satire and dissent against Soviet occupation
* Silverwolf (1992) - Victorian-LARPing cultists start a successful software company??!?
* AI Dungeon (2019) - a pre-cursor to today's ChatGPT; the article has such a good discussion of the inherent limitations in modern "AI" systems that I've made it assigned reading for my statistical machine learning students
--------
One more note, about the physical book itself:
I got hooked on Reed's "50 Years of Text Games" blog before this became a book, so I had already read drafts of all 50 main chapters. Even so, the book itself is very much worth (re?)reading:
-- The game chapters have extra material. For instance, the author of the 2012 game "Howling Dogs" communicated with Reed in response to the blog version of that article, and this back-and-forth led to richer nuances in the book's revised version of that article. Other articles have additions such as maps of the game's locations, extended source code excerpts to illustrate how technical constraints/developments made the game work a certain way, etc.
-- There are additional brand-new chapters. One is on "Before the 70s," covering even earlier proto-games like HUTSPIEL, ELIZA, SHRDLU, etc. There are also chapters for each decade ("The 1970s," "The 1980s," etc) that do an *excellent* job at giving readers useful context, by summarizing key technological developments in that decade as well as some social ones that affected the viability of text games in those years. For example, the 1970s started with games being saved on fragile paper tape or distributed as printed source code in a magazine or a book, meaning that short programs could spread more easily than long ones; by the 1980s, software was shared on disks so commercial text games became more viable, but the reach of online gaming was still quite limited; by the 1990s, the vast mainstream of commercial games relied on computer graphics, but pure text games survived in nascent online communities; etc.
-- If you'd actually like to *play* these games, Reed has added a game portal with links to where most of them can be played. Unfortunately a few can't be played any longer---they were based around a one-time event, or they were multi-player games and the company has gone out of business, or (in the very sad case of Versu games) the game's license was acquired by another company and shelved before the game could be widely released.
If you're inspired to play *other* games like these, the Interactive Fiction Database hosts many of them, and most are free to play in the browser (choose a game and click "Play On-line" in top right corner):
https://ifdb.org/
> GO EAST
You enter Jerzy's office. You see an accordion and some junk mail here.
> TAKE ACCORDION
Taken.
> PLAY ACCORDION
You don't know any tunes on the accordion.
...and so on? Well, this book is a delightful romp through the past 50 years of such games, one game per year. It starts with the original version of Oregon Trail; covers classics like Adventure and Zork; includes related works like Choose Your Own Adventure books; and continues on to modern games experimenting with these forms. The author, Aaron Reed, talks about each game's influence on the genre, its historical context, and some of his favorite puzzles or other moments in the game. Some articles also have a nifty overview of how the technology of the time either enabled or restricted some of the designer's creative choices.
As Reed notes, this is not the "best" or "most important" 50 text games---just 50 games he thought he could tell an interesting story about, and furthermore limited to one per year (so for example for 1980 he couldn't write about both MUD and Rogue even though both were foundational games with interesting stories). Frankly I like this constraint---it allows Reed to avoid dry academic rigor ("Here is my rigid definition of text games, and the corollaries that follow from it") and makes the book a fun tour instead ("Have I told you about the time that...").
Reed also makes an effort to highlight game creators who are not just the young straight white men that we think of as "typical" gamers. Sure, Zork and several other games here were written by classic MIT hackers; but there are many games here by women, by a trans author, by an opera singer, by a blind gamer, by Czechoslovak political activists... It does a great job of demonstrating how text games have been made by a wide range of people for a broad swath of purposes. From my own vantage point, I can't help noticing the games written by parents: Will Crowther writing Adventure as a way to connect with his daughters during a difficult divorce; Alexis Adams writing Pirate Adventure while pregnant in an attempt to harness her husband's gaming addiction into an entrepreneurial direction that could feed their new family; Edward Packard writing the Choose Your Own Adventure books based on the ways his own daughters requested their bedtime stories... Although these games are rendered through the abstract and impersonal medium of text on (usually) a computer, Reed shows us the ways that such games are so often about humans trying to connect with each other.
Some of my favorite articles:
* Oregon Trail (1971) - the original version of my generation's favorite edutainment
* Plundered Hearts (1987) - a seriously well-written pirate romance adventure game, by one of the few women game designers of the time
* P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. (1988) - Eastern European geeks use games as a form of satire and dissent against Soviet occupation
* Silverwolf (1992) - Victorian-LARPing cultists start a successful software company??!?
* AI Dungeon (2019) - a pre-cursor to today's ChatGPT; the article has such a good discussion of the inherent limitations in modern "AI" systems that I've made it assigned reading for my statistical machine learning students
--------
One more note, about the physical book itself:
I got hooked on Reed's "50 Years of Text Games" blog before this became a book, so I had already read drafts of all 50 main chapters. Even so, the book itself is very much worth (re?)reading:
-- The game chapters have extra material. For instance, the author of the 2012 game "Howling Dogs" communicated with Reed in response to the blog version of that article, and this back-and-forth led to richer nuances in the book's revised version of that article. Other articles have additions such as maps of the game's locations, extended source code excerpts to illustrate how technical constraints/developments made the game work a certain way, etc.
-- There are additional brand-new chapters. One is on "Before the 70s," covering even earlier proto-games like HUTSPIEL, ELIZA, SHRDLU, etc. There are also chapters for each decade ("The 1970s," "The 1980s," etc) that do an *excellent* job at giving readers useful context, by summarizing key technological developments in that decade as well as some social ones that affected the viability of text games in those years. For example, the 1970s started with games being saved on fragile paper tape or distributed as printed source code in a magazine or a book, meaning that short programs could spread more easily than long ones; by the 1980s, software was shared on disks so commercial text games became more viable, but the reach of online gaming was still quite limited; by the 1990s, the vast mainstream of commercial games relied on computer graphics, but pure text games survived in nascent online communities; etc.
-- If you'd actually like to *play* these games, Reed has added a game portal with links to where most of them can be played. Unfortunately a few can't be played any longer---they were based around a one-time event, or they were multi-player games and the company has gone out of business, or (in the very sad case of Versu games) the game's license was acquired by another company and shelved before the game could be widely released.
If you're inspired to play *other* games like these, the Interactive Fiction Database hosts many of them, and most are free to play in the browser (choose a game and click "Play On-line" in top right corner):
https://ifdb.org/
September 28, 2023
This is a well-written, meticulously footnoted text that marries academic rigor with accessible writing to provide an informative, context-rich survey of a beloved but often overlooked genre. Fitting, for a genre that covers everything from frustrating logic puzzles to mathematical tricks to interactive poetry to AI experiments.
It's hard to rate a book when you are clearly the niche target market. If you're interested in the subject, it's a must-read text.
If you aren't, there are still fascinating chapters; sometimes the game itself is almost incidental to the social context or the story behind it, such as Silverwolf and St. Bride's, or political protest game P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. You might also be surprised by how literary and experimental some authors became, especially as tools for writing interactive literature became accessible for nontechnical users. A casual reader might still enjoy skimming and only reading select chapters carefully.
Unfortunately, because it's a niche title that targets an academic market as much as a casual one, you're unlikely to find this at your library; the one limited print run (which I kickstarted) is currently sold out. Fortunately, the book was very much written with e-readers in mind. I'm not sure if a casual reader is going to like this enough to buy it, but..., if you're on the fence, know that this is good. Really good. It's clearly written for passion first, profit second.
It's hard to rate a book when you are clearly the niche target market. If you're interested in the subject, it's a must-read text.
If you aren't, there are still fascinating chapters; sometimes the game itself is almost incidental to the social context or the story behind it, such as Silverwolf and St. Bride's, or political protest game P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. You might also be surprised by how literary and experimental some authors became, especially as tools for writing interactive literature became accessible for nontechnical users. A casual reader might still enjoy skimming and only reading select chapters carefully.
Unfortunately, because it's a niche title that targets an academic market as much as a casual one, you're unlikely to find this at your library; the one limited print run (which I kickstarted) is currently sold out. Fortunately, the book was very much written with e-readers in mind. I'm not sure if a casual reader is going to like this enough to buy it, but..., if you're on the fence, know that this is good. Really good. It's clearly written for passion first, profit second.
November 10, 2025
I got this what feels like a million years ago. I dove into it immediately, got about halfway through....and hit a wall. We moved to this house and I just stopped reading physical books for a while during the transition.
The biggest flaw with this is it's by its very nature kind of dry. I started to care less as the years marking the chapters got larger, so coming back from that hiatus was a struggle.
But it's detailed, it's interesting, it's worth reading. I just don't advise pausing at any point, nor having like 7 books open at once like I tend to.
The biggest flaw with this is it's by its very nature kind of dry. I started to care less as the years marking the chapters got larger, so coming back from that hiatus was a struggle.
But it's detailed, it's interesting, it's worth reading. I just don't advise pausing at any point, nor having like 7 books open at once like I tend to.
December 28, 2023
หนังสือเกี่ยวกับเกมที่เจ๋งที่สุดเล่มหนึ่งในประวัติศาสตร์เกม รวบรวมและอัพเดทจากข้อเขียนในบล็อกของ Aaron Reed ซึ่งเขียนถึงเกมไร้ภาพ (text games ซึ่งเกมที่ใช้ ASCII art ก็นับรวมในนี้ด้วย) สัปดาห์ละเกม ในปี 2021 (ปัจจุบันฉบับรวมเล่มขาดตลาดไปแล้ว อ่านข้อเขียนดั้งเดิมได้จากบล็อก https://if50.substack.com/archive) โดยเลือก 1 เกมที่ออกในแต่ละปีระหว่าง 1971 (เกม Oregon Trail) ถึง 2020 (เกม Scents & Semiosis) มาเขียนเป็น 1 บทความ รวมเป็น 50 เกมที่สะท้อน 50 ปีของ text games
หนังสือเล่มนี้เป็น labor of love ของผู้เขียนอย่างแท้จริง (เขาก็เป็นนักออกแบบเกมคนหนึ่งที่ออกแบบ text games สนุก ๆ มากมาย) และเป็น “จดหมายรัก” ถึง text games ทั้งวงการ นอกจากจะเต็มไปด้วยประวัติศาสตร์และเกร็ดสนุก ๆ เกี่ยวกับเกมที่น่าสนใจในแต่ละปีแล้ว ถ้าอ่านจนจบเล่มยังได้ภาพประวัติศาสตร์ของคอมพิวเตอร์และโปรแกรมพัฒนาเกม นวัตกรรมในเกม (ลองคิดดูว่า การออกแบบเกมให้สนุกโดยไม่มีกราฟิกเลยนั้นต้องอาศัยอะไรบ้าง) รวมถึงประวัติศาสตร์สภาพแวดล้อมด้านเทคโนโลยีและสังคมในแต่ละช่วงเวลาด้วย
ตัวอย่างบทความที่ส่วนตัวชอบมากคือ Plundered Hearts เกมรักโรแมนติกโดยนักออกแบบสตรี (ยังเป็นคนส่วนน้อยของวงการในปี 1987 ที่เกมนี้ออก), P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. เกมจิกกัดเสียดสีทางการเมืองในปี 1988 โดยกลุ่มกี๊กผู้กล้าจากยุโรปตะวันออกที่อยากแสดงออกว่าต่อต้านการยึดกุมประเทศโดยสหภาพโซเวียต และ A.I. Dungeon (2019) เกมแรก ๆ ที่ใช้ AI อย่างจริงจัง บทความตอนนี้อธิบายข้อจำกัดของระบบ AI สมัยใหม่ได้ดีเลยในระหว่างการอธิบายเกม
ผู้เขียนย้ำว่า วัตถุประสงค์ของเขาในการเขียนหนังสือเล่มนี้ไม่ได้อยู่ที่การเลือก text games ที่ “ดีที่สุด” 50 เกมในประวัติศาสตร์ แต่เลือกเฉพาะเกมที่เขาคิดว่ามีมุมที่น่าสนใจและอยากเขียนถึง ซึ่งผลลัพธ์ก็คือความหลากหลายที่น่าประทับใจ เขาไม่ได้เขียนถึงแต่เกมที่สร้างโดยกี๊ก แฮ็กเกอร์จาก MIT หรือ Stanford เท่านั้น แต่ยังเขียนถึงเกมจำนวนมากที่ออกแบบโดยผู้หญิง คนข้ามเพศ นักร้องโอเปรา คอเกมตาบอด พ่อที่อยากเขียนเกมสนุก ๆ ให้ลูกเล่น สามีที่อยากทำเกมเป็นของขวัญภรรยา เป็นต้น ซึ่งก็สะท้อน “ความเป็นประชาธิปไตย” ของเครื่องมือสร้างเกมยุคปัจจุบันอย่าง Twine ซึ่งใช้ง่ายกว่าในอดีตมาก ช่วยให้คนทำเกมได้โดยไม่ต้องมีความรู้ใด ๆ เกี่ยวกับการเขียนโปรแกรม ส่งผลให้เกมวันนี้หลากหลายมากกว่าในอดีตมาก
ใครที่ได้อ่านหนังสือเล่มนี้น่าจะได้ค้นพบเกมดี ๆ มากกว่าหนึ่งเกม ระหว่างรู้สึกทึ่งกับข้อเท็จจริงที่ว่า เกมที่ไม่มีกราฟิกแม้แต่น้อย ใช้เพียงตัวหนังสือและ ASCII art ก็สามารถสร้างประสบการณ์ที่กระทบใจเราได้นานแสนนาน
หนังสือเล่มนี้เป็น labor of love ของผู้เขียนอย่างแท้จริง (เขาก็เป็นนักออกแบบเกมคนหนึ่งที่ออกแบบ text games สนุก ๆ มากมาย) และเป็น “จดหมายรัก” ถึง text games ทั้งวงการ นอกจากจะเต็มไปด้วยประวัติศาสตร์และเกร็ดสนุก ๆ เกี่ยวกับเกมที่น่าสนใจในแต่ละปีแล้ว ถ้าอ่านจนจบเล่มยังได้ภาพประวัติศาสตร์ของคอมพิวเตอร์และโปรแกรมพัฒนาเกม นวัตกรรมในเกม (ลองคิดดูว่า การออกแบบเกมให้สนุกโดยไม่มีกราฟิกเลยนั้นต้องอาศัยอะไรบ้าง) รวมถึงประวัติศาสตร์สภาพแวดล้อมด้านเทคโนโลยีและสังคมในแต่ละช่วงเวลาด้วย
ตัวอย่างบทความที่ส่วนตัวชอบมากคือ Plundered Hearts เกมรักโรแมนติกโดยนักออกแบบสตรี (ยังเป็นคนส่วนน้อยของวงการในปี 1987 ที่เกมนี้ออก), P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. เกมจิกกัดเสียดสีทางการเมืองในปี 1988 โดยกลุ่มกี๊กผู้กล้าจากยุโรปตะวันออกที่อยากแสดงออกว่าต่อต้านการยึดกุมประเทศโดยสหภาพโซเวียต และ A.I. Dungeon (2019) เกมแรก ๆ ที่ใช้ AI อย่างจริงจัง บทความตอนนี้อธิบายข้อจำกัดของระบบ AI สมัยใหม่ได้ดีเลยในระหว่างการอธิบายเกม
ผู้เขียนย้ำว่า วัตถุประสงค์ของเขาในการเขียนหนังสือเล่มนี้ไม่ได้อยู่ที่การเลือก text games ที่ “ดีที่สุด” 50 เกมในประวัติศาสตร์ แต่เลือกเฉพาะเกมที่เขาคิดว่ามีมุมที่น่าสนใจและอยากเขียนถึง ซึ่งผลลัพธ์ก็คือความหลากหลายที่น่าประทับใจ เขาไม่ได้เขียนถึงแต่เกมที่สร้างโดยกี๊ก แฮ็กเกอร์จาก MIT หรือ Stanford เท่านั้น แต่ยังเขียนถึงเกมจำนวนมากที่ออกแบบโดยผู้หญิง คนข้ามเพศ นักร้องโอเปรา คอเกมตาบอด พ่อที่อยากเขียนเกมสนุก ๆ ให้ลูกเล่น สามีที่อยากทำเกมเป็นของขวัญภรรยา เป็นต้น ซึ่งก็สะท้อน “ความเป็นประชาธิปไตย” ของเครื่องมือสร้างเกมยุคปัจจุบันอย่าง Twine ซึ่งใช้ง่ายกว่าในอดีตมาก ช่วยให้คนทำเกมได้โดยไม่ต้องมีความรู้ใด ๆ เกี่ยวกับการเขียนโปรแกรม ส่งผลให้เกมวันนี้หลากหลายมากกว่าในอดีตมาก
ใครที่ได้อ่านหนังสือเล่มนี้น่าจะได้ค้นพบเกมดี ๆ มากกว่าหนึ่งเกม ระหว่างรู้สึกทึ่งกับข้อเท็จจริงที่ว่า เกมที่ไม่มีกราฟิกแม้แต่น้อย ใช้เพียงตัวหนังสือและ ASCII art ก็สามารถสร้างประสบการณ์ที่กระทบใจเราได้นานแสนนาน
August 7, 2023
Very enjoyable. This historical overview shares stories that are sometimes funny, surprising, empowering, frustrating, tragic, stressful (oh my god all the delayed graduations/dissertations), just-plain-neat, and consistently informative. It broadened my definition of text games and gave me a long list of new/very old pieces to spend time with, along with a few to return to with greater affection.
Less important to this review but deeply important to me: I had to pause my reading early into things to research PLATO terminals. I would give it 5 stars for introducing me to that glorious station wagon of a machine alone. Thankfully, the rest of the book is pretty good, too.
Less important to this review but deeply important to me: I had to pause my reading early into things to research PLATO terminals. I would give it 5 stars for introducing me to that glorious station wagon of a machine alone. Thankfully, the rest of the book is pretty good, too.
November 13, 2023
Outstanding from multiple angles
This book is simultaneously:
- A well-researched tour through a curated, representative list of text games
- A history of text game development tools and techniques
- A story of the tech and social environment that spawned these games
- A shopping list for games a lover of words might find interesting
I paused reading this book on multiple occasions to play through games it discussed. And despite being heavily into some classes of text games, I found whole categories that were new to me.
What a fabulous read. (The accompanying online resources are also a treasure!)
This book is simultaneously:
- A well-researched tour through a curated, representative list of text games
- A history of text game development tools and techniques
- A story of the tech and social environment that spawned these games
- A shopping list for games a lover of words might find interesting
I paused reading this book on multiple occasions to play through games it discussed. And despite being heavily into some classes of text games, I found whole categories that were new to me.
What a fabulous read. (The accompanying online resources are also a treasure!)
July 18, 2023
Ohh die Nostalgie. Jedesmal, wenn ich ein Kapitel gelesen habe, finde ich mich dabei, im Netz nach einer Kopie des besprochenen Spieles zu suchen und zu bestellen... leider ist das aber inzwischen of Abandonware bzw. ungeklärt wem das Spiel gehört und dann nur über Emulatoren spielbar, deren ROM's irgendwoher besorgt werden müssen.
Aber: ein umfangreicher Rückblick in die Anfangszeit der Computerspiel. Ob jemand daran gefallen finden wird, der das nicht selbst durchlebt hat, bleibt dahingestellt. Ich hab's genossen und schau immer mal wieder rein.
Aber: ein umfangreicher Rückblick in die Anfangszeit der Computerspiel. Ob jemand daran gefallen finden wird, der das nicht selbst durchlebt hat, bleibt dahingestellt. Ich hab's genossen und schau immer mal wieder rein.
November 15, 2023
truly eye opening, a book that shows both a deep affection for text games of the past and the belief in the future of the form. gave me many new games to look forward to playing ...
July 26, 2023
What makes this book truly exceptional is the fact that it's not just discussing individual games - it's creating a narrative that connects them all in a clear linear direction. Computer game history is also one of my niche interests, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Want to read
June 23, 2023
March 23, 2024
I’m not done with this book yet but it is already one of the most comprehensive, thoughtful, well-researched books I have ever read for any reason. If you even have a small inkling of interest: read it. Do not hesitate. You’ll be eaten by a grue if you don’t.
December 22, 2023
Probablemente el mejor ensayo sobre videojuegos que he leído. En realidad va más allá porque como su título indica habla de 'juegos de texto' y si bien muchos de ellos entran dentro del límite de los videojuegos el autor va más allá en su análisis e incluye, por ejemplo, los librojuegos de 'Elige tu propia aventura'.
Para escribir esta obra ha dividido en décadas los 50 años escribiendo una introducción inicial para esa década en la que se incluye un listado de los juegos más destacados bajo la percepción del autor. De esos juegos hay uno de cada año que se analiza a fondo: su contenido, estructura, impacto en entorno de los juegos de texto, importancia comparativa, historia de sus autores... Y ahí es donde este libro deslumbra por lo bien escrito que está. No solo porque esté documentado exhaustivamente y que las propias referencias bibliográficas sean, en sí mismas, verdaderas joyas para alguien a quien le guste el género, sino por lo amena que se hace su lectura. Cada capítulo se las ingenia para explicar en detalle los entresijos del juego elegido mezclando biografía del autor, anécdotas sobre la confección del juego, mecánicas utilizadas, esquemas...
También me ha parecido especialmente interesante la explicación de que pretendían cada autor con sus creaciones. Porque no todo en el libro es 'vamos a hacer una aventura conversacional'. En realidad casi nada de lo que se muestra es tan sencillo. En cada capítulo escogido hay una motivación de llegar más allá: técnicamente al principio, artísticamente en los capítulos finales.
Lo recomiendo para cualquiera al que le gusten las aventuras conversacionales, los librojuegos o la ficción interactiva. En realidad más que recomendarlo me parece una lectura imprescindible para conocer el género y saber de donde viene todo... e incluso hacia donde puede ir. Porque sinceramente he visto un montón de 'senderos perdidos' sobre los cuales en su momento no se continuó desarrollando la idea por la irrupción temprana de los videojuegos 'visuales' pero que ahora, con tiempo, perspectiva y nuevas herramientas pueden descubrir reinos ocultos que explorar, lo cual puede ser una aventura en si misma...
Para escribir esta obra ha dividido en décadas los 50 años escribiendo una introducción inicial para esa década en la que se incluye un listado de los juegos más destacados bajo la percepción del autor. De esos juegos hay uno de cada año que se analiza a fondo: su contenido, estructura, impacto en entorno de los juegos de texto, importancia comparativa, historia de sus autores... Y ahí es donde este libro deslumbra por lo bien escrito que está. No solo porque esté documentado exhaustivamente y que las propias referencias bibliográficas sean, en sí mismas, verdaderas joyas para alguien a quien le guste el género, sino por lo amena que se hace su lectura. Cada capítulo se las ingenia para explicar en detalle los entresijos del juego elegido mezclando biografía del autor, anécdotas sobre la confección del juego, mecánicas utilizadas, esquemas...
También me ha parecido especialmente interesante la explicación de que pretendían cada autor con sus creaciones. Porque no todo en el libro es 'vamos a hacer una aventura conversacional'. En realidad casi nada de lo que se muestra es tan sencillo. En cada capítulo escogido hay una motivación de llegar más allá: técnicamente al principio, artísticamente en los capítulos finales.
Lo recomiendo para cualquiera al que le gusten las aventuras conversacionales, los librojuegos o la ficción interactiva. En realidad más que recomendarlo me parece una lectura imprescindible para conocer el género y saber de donde viene todo... e incluso hacia donde puede ir. Porque sinceramente he visto un montón de 'senderos perdidos' sobre los cuales en su momento no se continuó desarrollando la idea por la irrupción temprana de los videojuegos 'visuales' pero que ahora, con tiempo, perspectiva y nuevas herramientas pueden descubrir reinos ocultos que explorar, lo cual puede ser una aventura en si misma...
May 14, 2024
This book was delightful! It took me a long time to read, but not because it wasn't interesting, but because it's a hefty book. I backed the Kickstarter for the hardcover edition, and let me tell you, it could rival some college textbooks. But way more enjoyable to read.
The creativity of the text game scene is fascinating. I especially loved the early history in the book. I wasn't around for those days so it was interesting to learn about what computers were like back then and what game creators were able to accomplish in spite of (or perhaps because of) those early technological constraints. But the later stuff was interesting too. People continued, and still continue, to push the boundaries of what text-centric games can do. They're certainly not dead. For example, I've been playing Roadwarden recently. It was released in 2022 so it's outside the scope of this book, but I bet it would be in a sequel.
I'd recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of computer games. Even if you've never seen a text game, you'll probably find this interesting. It's well researched, engaging, and pretty thorough. The author even made a website with links to every discussed game that's still playable—and a surprising number of them are!
The creativity of the text game scene is fascinating. I especially loved the early history in the book. I wasn't around for those days so it was interesting to learn about what computers were like back then and what game creators were able to accomplish in spite of (or perhaps because of) those early technological constraints. But the later stuff was interesting too. People continued, and still continue, to push the boundaries of what text-centric games can do. They're certainly not dead. For example, I've been playing Roadwarden recently. It was released in 2022 so it's outside the scope of this book, but I bet it would be in a sequel.
I'd recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of computer games. Even if you've never seen a text game, you'll probably find this interesting. It's well researched, engaging, and pretty thorough. The author even made a website with links to every discussed game that's still playable—and a surprising number of them are!
August 23, 2023
I have many fond memories playing text based games or "interactive fiction". Yes there were lots of times when just finding the right way of saying something was annoying. Yes it was annoying having to restart etc. but overall they were great.
This feels a bit like a guide of the edges. The approach of 5o years and one game a year runs into issues with there being about 5 years of commercial "heyday". Then on top of that many of the picks are not really within the genre e.g. Dwarf Fortress etc.
So we have basically nothing from Level 9, Magnetic Scrolls, budget adventure game labels etc.
Still what is here is often very interesting and there are quite a lot of great chapters e.g. on Adventure international. The maps, bits of code etc. were all nice touches.
So there is much to love here but I did find myself skimming some of the more tangential chapters. What is here is very well done though and the decade summary chapters do fill in some of the blanks that the format creates
This feels a bit like a guide of the edges. The approach of 5o years and one game a year runs into issues with there being about 5 years of commercial "heyday". Then on top of that many of the picks are not really within the genre e.g. Dwarf Fortress etc.
So we have basically nothing from Level 9, Magnetic Scrolls, budget adventure game labels etc.
Still what is here is often very interesting and there are quite a lot of great chapters e.g. on Adventure international. The maps, bits of code etc. were all nice touches.
So there is much to love here but I did find myself skimming some of the more tangential chapters. What is here is very well done though and the decade summary chapters do fill in some of the blanks that the format creates
January 15, 2025
I grew up with graphical text adventures (text parser on the bottom of the screen, rudimentary but charming graphics on the top), so I went into 50 YEARS OF TEXT GAMES with some knowledge of games like Zork and Adventure. That gave me a foundation for what 50 YEARS had in store, but the depth staggered me.
I had no idea text games were still around, much less thriving. Each chapter covers one game, with the book organized by decades to paint a clear picture of how the genre evolved. I particularly enjoyed how text games evolved from simple parsers that operated according to a VERB-NOUN structure with lots of (often arcane) puzzles to more narrative-focused games, which I feel is what text games do best: They work as interactive books, with an emphasis on interactivity to make each story your own.
The author assumes some knowledge of coding, and I found some chapters overly technical, but all told a great story.
I had no idea text games were still around, much less thriving. Each chapter covers one game, with the book organized by decades to paint a clear picture of how the genre evolved. I particularly enjoyed how text games evolved from simple parsers that operated according to a VERB-NOUN structure with lots of (often arcane) puzzles to more narrative-focused games, which I feel is what text games do best: They work as interactive books, with an emphasis on interactivity to make each story your own.
The author assumes some knowledge of coding, and I found some chapters overly technical, but all told a great story.
July 1, 2024
Perhaps the best history of video games I've ever read. By focusing on such a broad but still relatively niche genre, Aaron A. Reed explores some of the most interesting blendings of art and technology as both have developed side by side over the last half-century. It's incredible how far text games and interactive literature have come, but throughout the book, you keep getting reminded that this is probably just the beginning of a medium that is still quickly and excitingly developing. I learned of so many titles I had never heard of before and I definitely want to check out now, and still learned a lot about the titles that I was familiar with. It's a great read for anyone interested in a scholarly yet approachable resource on video game and IF history!
July 14, 2023
This book was such an incredible journey. I actually haven't played too many parsers -- though I have played two of the early classic text games listed in the book, Oregon Trail and Choose Your Own Adventure -- but this was absolutely riveting.
I loved the way it talked about history, design, business, and art. My favorite chapter was probably the one about Silverwolf. The game was released in 1992 by St. Bride's School, an Irish gaming studio shrouded in mystery.
Can't recommend this one highly enough.
(I actually stopped posting on Goodreads a while ago, but I had to come back for this book. One of the best books I've read in years, easily the best non-fiction book!!!)
I loved the way it talked about history, design, business, and art. My favorite chapter was probably the one about Silverwolf. The game was released in 1992 by St. Bride's School, an Irish gaming studio shrouded in mystery.
Can't recommend this one highly enough.
(I actually stopped posting on Goodreads a while ago, but I had to come back for this book. One of the best books I've read in years, easily the best non-fiction book!!!)
April 13, 2024
A neat history of text-based computer games (well mostly -- the author discusses Choose Your Own Adventure-type books as well) over the decades by picking one prominent game from each year and going into its history, development, impact, etc. Most of the titles discussed are interactive fiction but we also learn about early MUDs, Dwarf Fortress and some of the earliest computer games (which had to be text-based because displays couldn't really do anything else)
It was a nice treat seeing Digital: A Love Story getting a chapter as Christine Love is someone I know from the Toronto NaNoWriMo community!
It was a nice treat seeing Digital: A Love Story getting a chapter as Christine Love is someone I know from the Toronto NaNoWriMo community!
August 12, 2025
Egészen hihetetlen kutatómunka áll emögött a vaskos kötet mögött. Kickstarteren támogatóként kerültem először kapcsolatba Aaron A. Reed munkásággával és egyáltalán nem bántam meg, hogy megrendeltem ezt a monumentális munkát.
A szerző olvasmányos stílusban mutatja be a szöveges kalandjátékok (és közvetve a teljes videójátékipar) fejldősést, számtalan játékot elemezve az elmúlt ötven évből.
Azoknak is bátran tudom ajánlani, akik nem értenek a technikai vagy programozói részekhez, a Reed nagyon jól értelmezhetően mutatja be, hogyan is lehet egy szöveges kalandjátékot készíteni.
5/5, alapmű, ha érdekelnek a klasszikus videójátékok.
A szerző olvasmányos stílusban mutatja be a szöveges kalandjátékok (és közvetve a teljes videójátékipar) fejldősést, számtalan játékot elemezve az elmúlt ötven évből.
Azoknak is bátran tudom ajánlani, akik nem értenek a technikai vagy programozói részekhez, a Reed nagyon jól értelmezhetően mutatja be, hogyan is lehet egy szöveges kalandjátékot készíteni.
5/5, alapmű, ha érdekelnek a klasszikus videójátékok.
January 25, 2024
I thought I knew one or two things about (text) games, I was wrong.
This book is an outstanding collection of the history of text games delivered in fifty texts about fifty games - one per year.
The book is a pure product of love - from the typography (that works superb as epub and as hard cover), the selection of titles, the rich source collection, the writing and everything!
Outstanding work for a non-fiction book - I am totally in love even more surprising as I never was fan of Interactive Fiction.
This book is an outstanding collection of the history of text games delivered in fifty texts about fifty games - one per year.
The book is a pure product of love - from the typography (that works superb as epub and as hard cover), the selection of titles, the rich source collection, the writing and everything!
Outstanding work for a non-fiction book - I am totally in love even more surprising as I never was fan of Interactive Fiction.
August 6, 2023
Equal parts nostalgia and futurism, the book is an excellent exploration of how we use words to create meaning, joy, love, despair, intrigue, discovery, beauty, power, mystery, competition, achievement and pretty much everything else you can think of.
I have been dabbling in ludifying my classroom and did a deep dive into game design. This book is another branch on the research tree that is bearing much fruit and many more branches.
my games so far.
www.deepmorgan.com
I have been dabbling in ludifying my classroom and did a deep dive into game design. This book is another branch on the research tree that is bearing much fruit and many more branches.
my games so far.
www.deepmorgan.com
August 27, 2024
This was an incredibly useful textbook for my grad class on IF, and also a fascinating and compelling read on its own. It’s so valuable to have serious, detailed research on these important and compelling works! The structural conceit of one game a year is also excellent for balancing technological change as an inevitable influence with the particular artistic aims of each piece. Highly recommended for personal or scholarly use.
July 25, 2023
An amazing and heavily researched journey through the history of text games. If you are interested in the genre at all, you will find this a great history. It limits itself to talking about a single game a year, but this seems to work in favor of making the book detailed but also accessible and limited enough to read.
August 5, 2025
I first read this book as a weekly substack: https://if50.substack.com/
The printed book is more of a keepsake because the substack has a lot of extra material, so I consider that my primary medium.
This was an amazing journey through history and time. I appreciate his attention to detail both in content and aesthetics in the book.
The printed book is more of a keepsake because the substack has a lot of extra material, so I consider that my primary medium.
This was an amazing journey through history and time. I appreciate his attention to detail both in content and aesthetics in the book.
August 6, 2023
Bravo! 6-stars.
September 4, 2023
An absolute masterpiece of a collection charting the history of text adventures, text games, interactive fiction, and all of its myriad forms. I only wish there was more.
January 5, 2024
Absolutley astounding work of curation and research.
December 1, 2024
This is just good. Very well written and interesting content. No slowdowns at all when combing through this tome.
August 30, 2025
i was only mildly curious about this topic, now i've made a huge list of games to play. not sure if i'll enjoy them as much i did reading about them, though!
March 9, 2024
Spanning from the original Oregon Trail to adjacent text-only works like Paperclips unlimited — a survey like no other. A fascinating review of the genre, masterfully laid out and typeset in a dynamic layout that keep your eyes busy despite the limited illustration the subject affords.
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