Unquiet Desperation

Let’s have a little fun. What should the caption of this photo be? Come now, be creative.

photo credit: daniel.julia

Often called a dead genre, interactive fiction continues to flourish long after reaching the end of its commercial lifespan. In the decades since whiz-bang graphics drew away the attention of the masses, hundreds of games have continued to evolve the genre — to the point where it can be a little intimidating to approach cold. If you’ve never experienced interactive fiction, or haven’t returned to it since its commercial decline, maybe we can offer a little direction. Here are five of our favorite titles from the last decade to ease you into things.

from Top 5 Introductory Interactive Fiction Games from 1UP.com

I’ve been a fan of Interactive Fiction since playing Zork on my Commodore 64. It was the main reason I got into playing on MUSHes, which lead to meeting some incredible folks, many of which I’m still friends with to this day. I’m been having a great time since rediscovering the genre.

Additionally, I’m participating in a project to write a collaborative IF game. Started by the folks at the Guardian UK’s Gamesblog, we’re desigining the game Spaceship! on a wiki. Come in and see how the sausage is being made.

If you enjoy reading, you need to be playing interactive fiction.

If you enjoy writing, you should sit down, play, then try your hand at writing one. It’s a fabulous exercise in dealing with point of view, puzzles, and planning.

Here are some great links to get you started:

• The Interactive Fiction Database – find all sorts of free games here
• Planet-IF – A river view of many of the top blogs/sites on Interactive Fiction.
• The IF Reviews at PlayThisThing.com
• Inform – one of the languages available for creating your own games.
• IF-wiki – A wiki for learning, playing, and improving interactive fiction

And some of my favorite games. You’ll need an interpretor to play these:

• Anchorhead – Anchorhead takes place in a New England town by the same name that bears a resemblance to Innsmouth, Arkham, and other fictional towns created by H.P. Lovecraft.
• Lost Pig
  – Grunk stuck. Grunk must find lost pig. Grunk none too bright. Very funny game.
• Infocom: The Zork Archive – download the original Zork games for free
• Babel – You wake up with amnesia in an abandoned research station in the Arctic. As you explore, psychometric visions give you glimpses of the lives of four scientists and the tragedy that befell them. Before you can escape, you’ll have to learn your own history.

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photo credit: S.C. Axman

Chris Moody has just posted my interview for his PodioMedia Chat podcast. If you’ve ever wanted to know what goes on under the hood of Podiobooks.com, this is the show for you.



I’ve also put it in my own podcast feed. Listen below, or visit the PodioMedia Chat website for more information.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers’ eyes. It’s the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait.

And because the species in question is a bacterium, scientists have been able to replay history to show how this evolutionary novelty grew from the accumulation of unpredictable, chance events.

Twenty years ago, evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski of Michigan State University in East Lansing, US, took a single Escherichia coli bacterium and used its descendants to found 12 laboratory populations.

The 12 have been growing ever since, gradually accumulating mutations and evolving for more than 44,000 generations, while Lenski watches what happens.

read more in Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab – life – 09 June 2008 – New Scientist

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