Total Amnesia: The Complete Text and Programming Notes of the World's Most Famous Lost Computer Game

by Thomas M. Disch, Sarah Smith (Editor), John Crowley (Introduction)

The world's most famous lost computer game, by one of the world's most famous science fiction authors, disappeared when the publisher lost the uncompiled version. Now, through the efforts of people all across the United States, the game has been restored (it's available at amnesia-restored.com) and the complete text and programming notes are available here. Included are appreciations and essays by John Crowley, Jimmy Maher (the Digital Antiquarian), Gregory Feeley, prizewinning game designer Aaron Reed, hypertext guru Mark Bernstein, Sarah Smith, and Dene Grigar of the Electronic Literature Lab.

587 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 12, 2021

About the author

Thomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction writer and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book—previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book"—in 1999. He had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, a Rhysling Award, and two Seiun Awards, among others.

His writing includes substantial periodical work, such as regular book and theater reviews for The Nation, The Weekly Standard, Harper's, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Times Literary Supplement, and Entertainment Weekly.

As a fiction writer and a poet, Disch felt typecast by his science fiction roots. "I have a class theory of literature. I come from the wrong neighborhood to sell to The New Yorker. No matter how good I am as an artist, they always can smell where I come from".

Following an extended period of depression after the death in 2005 of his life-partner, Charles Naylor, Disch stopped writing almost entirely, except for poetry and blog entries, although he did produce two novellas. Disch fatally shot himself on July 4, 2008, in his Manhatten (NYC) apartment.

Naylor and Disch are buried alongside each other at Saint Johns Episcopal Church Columbarium, Dubuque, Iowa. His last book, The Word of God, which was written shortly before Naylor died, was published a few days before Disch's death.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this compelling on two different levels. First, it's just enjoyable to read the overall story of Amnesia, not just because it was ill-served by its publisher and hard to find very quickly (it's a shame it wasn't at a company like Infocom), but because even if I hadn't missed out on it I think it's an excellent work of interactive fiction. Second, seeing behind the scenes on the construction of it -- especially how it handled moving through a huge swathe of New York City -- is something that was honestly slightly ahead of its time, the text version of an open world sandbox game once you get out into the streets. A real joy to read.