TADS, the Text Adventure Development System
duke.edu
Manuals, packages and interpreters for TADS and HTML TADS.
Infocom Authors: Dave Lebling
infocom-if.org
Biography over Infocom's Dave Lebling.
OnyxRing: An Inform Developer's Guide
onyxring.com
Coding articles, tutorials, and library extensions.
Creating Adventure Games On Your Computer
atariarchives.org
The full book by Tim Hartnell.
The Graphic Adventure Creator
geocities.com
Has the ZX Spectrum version as SNA files. Also scans of the box and manual.
Adventure Collective Interview
adventurecollective.com
Steve talks about his career and the adventure game industry.
Crash: Adventure writing utilities
crashonline.org.uk
Article on GAC and PAW from Crash magazine, March 1988.
Interactive Fiction According to Fredrik
geocities.com
Information on getting started with IF as well as two games for download.
Adventure Collective Interview: Bob Bates
adventurecollective.com
Subjects include how he got started, founding Legend, inspirations, people he has collaborated with, and the future of the adventure genre.
GAMEZ.com
gamez.com
Link to cheats and walkthrough for the game.
Adventureland: Weinstein, Jacob
if-legends.org
Information on the TADS text adventures he published.
Graeme Yeandle's Text Adventure Page
yeandle.plus.com
The story of The Quill and PAW. Downloads of adventures and his updated version of PAW.
Brass Lantern: Brian Moriarty Interview
brasslantern.org
Brian Moriarty talks about designing online MUDs for Skotos, and his thoughts on interactive fiction.
Baf's Guide to the IF Archive: Christminster
wurb.com
Capsule review and downloads.
Elv's Inform Repository
elvwood.org
Includes Platypus documentation, the Alice tutorial part 3, and Inform syntax highlighting code.
Nick Montfort - Interactive Fiction
nickm.com
Author of Ad Verbum, Winchester's Nightmare, and critical writing about interactive fiction.
Exposition in Interactive Fiction
jerz.setonhill.edu
This document introduces the concept of exposition in interactive fiction, and offers three versions of the same brief interactive fiction text, so that you may experience interactive exposition for yourself.
Bates, Bob
bobbates.com
Home page of the designer of such games as Sherlock, Arthur, Timequest, and Eric the Unready.
The Adventures of Philip Mitchell
waddington.fslife.co.uk
A personal view by Richard Hewison.
Quest
axeuk.com
A system for authoring multimedia text adventures/RPGs in Windows.
Gull
adamcadre.ac
A package designed to enable people to familiarize themselves with Glulx Inform.
Inform Platypus
homepage.ntlworld.com
Documentation of complete replacement of the distributed Inform library. Features include fine layers of reaction properties, improved world model, adjectives, and "go to" and "exits" verbs.
Interview with Stephen Granade
bioc.rice.edu
An online interview done as part of the IF Bookclub.
SAGE (Scripted Adventure Game Engine) Home Page
prowler-pro.com
Mark Prowler's site about the SAGE project.
The Garden of Life
geocities.com
Downloads and walkthroughs of Renata Burianova's ADRIFT games.
Adventure Collective Interview
adventurecollective.com
Lebling speaks of his days at Infocom, his reflections on writing interactive fiction, and his present work.
Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT)
markwelch.com
Official site by Mark J. Welch.
XYZZYnews: So you want to write a text adventuring authoring system...
xyzzynews.com
Author Alan Conroy discusses how he developed an adventure authoring system named Adventure Builder and the issues involved with writing your own.
Guess the Verb
crummy.com
Humorous text adventure by Crummycom.
ADRIFT Topic Tutorial System
thephurroughs.com
A tutorial system providing more in-depth tutorials covering specific topics on the ADRIFT System.
Inform Explorer
logicshopltd.co.uk
Text editor for 32 bit-windows to develop Inform story source files. Features include color syntax highlighting, class/object/location hierarchy display, and integrated compiliation window.
MobyGames - Mindwheel
mobygames.com
Summary, credit list, screenshots and technical specs of this game.
Hugo
generalcoffee.com
Multimedia interactive fiction engine.
>verbose
ucsu.colorado.edu
Paul O'Brian's Interactive Fiction page, featuring the games and reviews he's written, information about the webzine he edits, and lots of nifty IF stuff.
XYZZYnews: Interview with Michael Kinyon
xyzzynews.com
Interview with a Player Extraordinaire.
Choosing a Text Adventure Language
brasslantern.org
Some handy tips about picking which language to use when writing a text adventure.
Scott Adams on "Storytelling in Computer Games"
jerz.setonhill.edu
Scott Adams, creator of the classic computer game "Adventureland," visited the University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire on 03 May 2001. This website offers full-text transcripts and audio downloads of a 2-hr panel.
Guide to Inform Library Contributions
emshort.home.mindspring.com
Categorized and reviewed Inform library contributions available from the IF Archive and the Web.
Plugh! A GUI based TADS development tool
plugh.info
A GUI based tool for designing interactive fiction which will auto-generate TADS code. Support for map design, object creation, class tree and property development, and vocabulary expansion.
Inform Programming
doggysoft.co.uk
Information about writing games with Inform
Prof. Dennis G. Jerz: Interactive Fiction
jerz.setonhill.edu
A collection of articles about interactive fiction.
Graham Nelson
gnelson.demon.co.uk
Graham Nelson's home page, including his anthology of poems and the Inform home page.
rec.arts.int-fiction Frequently Asked Questions
plover.net
General information for people new to interactive fiction.
Don Woods
icynic.com
Personal page of this co-author of the original 1976 text adventure, Adventure.
Interactive Fiction Ratings
carouselchain.com
Public ratings and comments of Interactive Fiction games.
GAC - Graphic Adventure Creator
gac.interface1.net
An adventure writing system from by Incentive Software Ltd that was quite popular among the 8-bit systems. This page offers the version for ZX Spectrum for download, with or without the quickstart data.
PDD's Adventure Page
if-legends.org
The page for classic text adventure afficionados. Covers Scott Adams, Brian Howarth, Infocom, Level 9, and Magnetic Scrolls.
Archetype
ifarchive.org
Short description, some sample code and possibility to download the package. For DOS.
Rising From Time's Ashes: The Best Free Interactive Fiction Of The Century
bioc.rice.edu
Michael Feir's collection of what he feels is the best freely available interactive fiction with reviews for each game.
>verbose
ucsu.colorado.edu
Paul O'Brian's Interactive Fiction page, featuring the games and reviews he's written, information about the webzine he edits, and lots of nifty IF stuff.
Glas
helsinki.fi
A Glulx assembler written on OCaml.
IF Literacy
emshort.home.mindspring.com
Recommended playing list for interactive fiction, compiled by Emily Short.
SUDS
btinternet.com
Windows-based adventure game system for creating entirely mouse-driven text games without programming. Gameplay features include conversation trees and automatic mapping.
Adventure Builder
conroyhome.net
Freeware/shareware text adventure game authoring system for DOS and Windows.
Breathing life into fantasy
sincuser.f9.co.uk
A feature on adventure aids from Sinclair User, December 1984.
Interactive Fiction Art Show
members.aol.com
Annual competition for games which exclude traditional "game elements" from entries, and also try to lift any plot as much as possible.
M.A.C. - Mystery Adventure Creator
paololucchesi.it
A tool to write classic styled illustrated adventure games. Available in English and Italian.
Glulx
eblong.com
A 32-bit virtual machine for IF.
The IF Beta Site Info Page
plover.net
Offers a place where testers and authors can meet each other.
Fantastic landscapes
sincuser.f9.co.uk
"Quill liberates the imagination of adventurers. Richard Price meets its master" A feature on adventures from Sinclair User, April 1985.
Annotated Bibliography of Interactive Fiction Scholarship
uwec.edu
Ranked and annotated items, covering academic articles, fan or community web sites, influential amateur articles, and references to text adventures in mainstream literature. Focuses on the cultural and literary significance of text adventures.
List of IF Editors
firthworks.com
Text editors and IDEs which are helpful to use when creating IF.
StoryHarp Audioventure Interactive Fiction
kurtz-fernhout.com
Voice-operated interactive fiction including text-to-speech, sounds and music.
Christminster
doggysoft.co.uk
Author Gareth Rees's official page, with download and sample transcript.
Inform for Windows CE
progsoc.uts.edu.au
Ported to Windows CE by David Batterham.
XYZZYnews Interview with Judith Pintar
xyzzynews.com
The author of CosmoServe discusses artificial intelligence and defends AGT.
The Official YS Beginners Guide To Adventures
ysrnry.co.uk
How to play an adventure, how to know which commands to type in, and all those little bits and pieces that'll help you get past the first post.
Interactive Fiction - Joe DeRouen's Home Page
sparkynet.com
Collection of game reviews he wrote for Computer Currents magazine, and selected links to IF resources.
XYZZYnews Talks to the Bearded Oracle of Yonkers
xyzzynews.com
An interview with Infocom legend Steve Meretzky by Matt Newsome.
ridiculopathy.com: Scott Adams Adventures
ridiculopathy.com
The adventures, playable in a browser.
Emily Short's Interactive Fiction Page
emshort.home.mindspring.com
Home page with essays about the crafting of interactive fiction and what she has tried to do in her works.
Game Wizard (G-Wiz)
soft-wiz.bizhosting.com
A tool for designing and playing text adventure and role-playing games. G-Wiz games can make use of text, sound, graphics, video, and audio.
A TADS Tip Sheet
tela.bc.ca
Some tips on TADS programming.
TADS: The Text Adventure Development System
tads.org
The official TADS site with information, screenshots, downloads and links.
Crash: Franco Frey exchanges The Quill for a brush...
crashonline.org.uk
"It provides a very easy means of creating graphics and combined with the excellent Quill enables a lot of people to design outstanding adventures without too much technical knowledge." Review of The Illustrator (an addon to add pictures to The Quill) from Crash Magazine.
Informary: What's Happening in Inform
firthworks.com
Focal point for news about Inform.
GamesOver: Mindwheel
gamesover.com
Plain text walkthrough of the game.
XYZZYnews Review
xyzzynews.com
Review by Eileen Mullin. "'Christminster' joins the crowded field of IF games with a collegiate setting, but this one comes in at or near the head of the class."
The S.U. Guide To Playing And Writing Adventure Games
sincuser.f9.co.uk
A guide to writing adventures with PAW from Sinclair User.
Yonk
ravenna.com
Open source visual Inform editor for MacOS. Features include hierarchical object and map windows.
RadDial.com
raddial.com
Offers background on the genre, downloads of games, reviews, and articles.
Brass Lantern Interactive Fiction Theory
brasslantern.org
The theory of adventure game and interactive fiction design, from elements such as puzzles to game analysis.
TADS Author's Manual, The
tela.bc.ca
Tela design's HTML version of the TADS manual.
Unofficial Eamon Home Page
lysator.liu.se
Eamon is a text adventure system with strong RPG elements, originally created for the Apple II. More than 200 games have been created for it.
Interactive Fiction and the Future of the Novel
atariarchives.org
An article by Michael Berlyn and Marc Blank.
Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online
eamonag.org
A comprehensive information source and archive for all things Eamon, including newsletters, reviews, design tips, maps, and DSK images.
AmigaWorld: The Wizard of Wishbringer
csd.uwo.ca
"A totally objective, highly critical and unbiased interview with Infocom game designer Brian Moriarty, by Brian Moriarty."
Marc Blank: The Programmer Behind Zork
csd.uwo.ca
A 1983 interview from COMPUTE!'s Gazette.
C=64 GAC
softwolves.pp.se
Manual for the C64 version of GAC.
Roger Firth's home page
homepages.tesco.net
Includes Inform patch list, overviews of Inform compilation, NPCs, objects, and writing bi-platform Inform/Glulx games.
Gamasutra: Brian Moriarty on Text RPGs and Skotos Tech
gamasutra.com
Ernest Adams interviews Brian Moriarty about text RPGs and MUDs.
GAC Programming Clinic
stuartwhyte.btinternet.co.uk
Hints and tips regarding adventure writing using GAC for the Amstrad CPC.
ADRIFT
adrift.org.uk
Official homepage of the shareware Windows application for creating text adventures without programming.
John Ingold: Text Based Games
ingold.fsnet.co.uk
Author's site includes downloads and blurbs about his works.
Interactive Fiction
bioc.rice.edu
IF stuff in general.
QTads
qtads.sourceforge.net
A GUI interpreter for text-only Tads games running under i386 Unix/X11 systems.
the TADS Page
tela.bc.ca
Unofficial page about the freeware Text Adventure Development System, a very popular text adventure development system.
Adventureland: Howarth, Brian
if-legends.org
Short information and a detailed list of the adventures he have published.
Suite101.com: Interactive Fiction
suite101.com
Articles, discussion and links.
Infocom
infocom-if.org
Brief biography of Stu Galley, author of The Witness, Seastalker, and Moonmist
WinPAW
winpaw.com
Home of the Windows version of the Professional Writer (PAW).
8-bit Adventure World, The
8bit.microheaven.com
A database of adventures for 8-bit computers.
Amiga Inform
missingpiece.com
Homepage of the Amiga port of Inform.
Crash: Professional Adventure Writer
crashonline.org.uk
Review from Crash magazine.
InsideADRIFT newsletter
insideadrift.org.uk
Newsletter for the ADRIFT community. A monthly PDF format newsletter filled with news, announcements, competitions and articles.
Inform 6: A Design System for Interactive Fiction
inform-fiction.org
A wealth of information about Inform, a free compiler for Infocom-type Z-machine games. Learn how to build your own games or just find some to play. Graham Nelson's own site.
Magnus' Interactive Fiction Page
df.lth.se
Site dedictated to reviews, webmasters own works and how to write you own.
Crash - The Quill
crashonline.org.uk
A review of The Quill and some Quilled adventures.
Adventureland: O'Shea, Kevin
if-legends.org
Information about him and his Spectrum text adventures.
Your Spectrum: Thrills From The Quill
users.globalnet.co.uk
"After all those hours spent playing other people's adventures, the time has come to create some of your own. Thomas Green takes a look at the do-it-yourself package from Gilsoft."
Interactive Fiction by Stephen Granade
phy.duke.edu
Interactive fiction (which is to say, text adventure games) by Stephen Granade. The games include Losing Your Grip, Arrival, and Common Ground.
XYZZYnews Interview: Graham Nelson
xyzzynews.com
Eileen Mullin asks Graham Nelson about the development of Inform and Curses
Feelies.org
feelies.org
Company dedicated to distributing feelies for shareware and freeware interactive fiction.
XYZZYnews: Scissors, Pants, Glasses, and Yahoos
xyzzynews.com
How to implement plural-singular objects in TADS.
Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe
if-legends.org
Lots of classic 1980s computer software for sale/trade, specializing in Infocom text adventures. Monthly collector's column, waiting list, links to other software collectors' pages.
OnyxRing
onyxring.com
Covers topics from interactive fiction design to Inform implementation.
Author Index, Baf's Guide to the IF Archive
wurb.com
Provides pages listing the work of all IF authors who have games in the IF Archive. Pseudonyms are also listed.
A TADS Tutorial
users.abac.com
An online programming class by Mark Engelberg.
Interactive Fiction Review Conspiracy
plover.net
A place for authors and reviwers to meet.
V6Lib Homepage
jczorkmid.net
Class library to write graphical version 6 Z-machine games in Inform
NPC Characterization
emshort.home.mindspring.com
A guide on how to create believable NPCs.
Inform Library Patch Site, The
adamcadre.ac
Catalog of bugs and patches for the Inform library
Interactive Fiction Basement
geocities.com
Information and tutorials.
Shadow Vault
shadowvault.net
David Whyld's personal ADRIFT site, with game reviews.
Inform Designer's Manual, The
inform-fiction.org
3rd edition of the official manual for programming games in Inform, with examples and exercises.
Doe's Inform Primer
members.aol.com
Focusing on the tricky parts.
The Infocom Authors
infocom-if.org
The people behind Infocom (1979-1989), the influential U.S. text adventure company.
ADRIFT Forum
adrift.org.uk
Official ADRIFT forum. The place to go to discuss ideas, exchange tips and make new friends.
Adventureland: Atkins, Robert Wayne
if-legends.org
Information on the PC text adventures he published.
Interactive Fiction Page
cs.cmu.edu
Information on playing and developing interactive fiction.
ifMUD: A MUD Forever Voyaging
ifmud.port4000.com
A MUD for text adventure enthusiasts.