Before there was Doom or Grand Theft Auto, there was a computer adventure game called Zork.
Released by Infocom in 1980 to huge success, it had no motion-captured
action figures and no fully rendered 3-D environments. In fact, it had
no graphics at all; it was simply text.
These text-adventure games became known as interactive fiction (IF),
drawing record numbers of readers and pushing sales figures for Infocom
into the millions.
Die-hard fans compared Zork to reading Tolkien's
"Lord of the Rings" for the first time, with a twist. You could be
transported to a mystical world and caught up in a powerful and
addictive story with one key difference: you were the main character
and you controlled the story.
Now, 25 years after Zork first
appeared, one entrepreneur is using today's technology to reinvent the
unique genre of interactive fiction.
An original Zork fan, Howard Sherman founded Malinche Entertainment in
2002 with the goal of introducing interactive fiction to a new
generation of fans.
Sherman's first three interactive fiction
titles have sold more than 100,000 copies and he anticipates that sales
of his latest horror fiction title, "The First Mile" (Malinche
Entertainment, July 2005, $9.95-$29.95), will exceed all three previous
titles for one important reason: on July 15, "The First Mile" is
available for download by anyone with an iPod. Readers can also access
Malinche titles with a personal computer, laptop, PocketPC or PalmOS
handheld, and selected cell phone models.
"Infocom delivered the
very best interactive fiction possible back in its heyday and Malinche
Entertainment is continuing that tradition in ways we couldn't have
imagined," said Marc Blank, co-creator of Zork and former vice
president of Infocom. "Modern implementor Howard Sherman has performed
an almost magical feat in bringing interactive fiction to people of the
21st century and made it more captivating than ever thanks to his
relentless devotion."
One thing that hasn't changed is the game
interface. Readers are still faced with a computer screen, a winking
cursor and their imagination. There aren't many games like that today,
which are mostly simulations of real-life situations or gory bloodfests
requiring mastery of a mouse.
"Whether today's graphics-based
games are more entertaining is really debatable," argued Sherman. "Like
any good book, interactive fiction unfolds before you in a compelling
narrative with plot twists and turns. Instead of being passively
entertained by a traditional print novel, the reader is literally
inside the story where their problem-solving and logic skills are
constantly challenged."
Interactive fiction has gained increasing
media attention in 2005. The IF version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy won a BAFTA in March 2005 for Best Online Entertainment.
Malinche titles are available for purchase on Amazon.com and Yahoo!
Shopping. Visit www.malinche.net to learn more.
