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They only have a few flavours at my local store, but they're all good!

You'll always be in my caramel milk, though, Ponch.

Except, perhaps, in the case of Don Woods and Colossal Cave Adventure, in which case he totally completed it.

I should clarify that of the games mentioned/linked to there, only A Mind Forever Voyaging is by Infocom - I threw in titles by other folks to show that it wasn't just one group that thought this way, it was an element seen in numerous works by numerous people. But yeah, if you missed out on that era, there's plenty of wealth to be found in the works of the time.

[Edit:]

It seems to me to be a recent development that games exist as delivery mechanisms for stories.  It's telling there are adventure games nowadays that get labeled, by both creators and players, as "interactive novels", "visual novels" or "interactive fiction".  Point-And-Click Adventures PERIOD.  Dropping the "game".  This wasn't a thing 20, 30 years ago, as far as I know.

You may be interested to hear about some of the stuff happening back in the 80s that mirrors some of the "modern" notions we're so enamored with today. Infocom was particularly focused on the narrative aspect of computer games; see The Implementor's Creed written by Stu Galley back in 1985 and see how lofty his goals are there. See Portal: A Computer Novel which was released the very next year for a project which is literally a novel that you "play" (for a certain definition of the term). I finished it earlier this year and can promise you it's more like a "virtual novel" than I'd ever imagined would come out of 1986 - in fact it's so much like a novel that Rob Swigart would later convert the entire game into book form. See Alter Ego for another 1986 title that steps beyond being "A game" and becomes a simulation of the narrative of a person's lifetime, with outcomes entirely decided as consequences driven by player choices. We talk about choice and consequence all the time, but rarely do you see a game so purely driven by these considerations as Alter Ego is.

So, yes, while some of these developments are "fresh" in feeling, there was incredible levels of focus on this sort of thing 30 years ago - it's just that sometimes we don't hear so much about them. Definitely worth looking at to be inspired by just how ambitious some of these designers were before I was even born.

Edit: Also, while Infocom definitely had a range of descriptions for their products, including "Computerized Fantasy Simulations" and "Prose Adventure", they were also using the term "Interactive Fiction" back in the 1980s.

To be fair, it was an incredibly odd (and dishonest, heh) method of getting them! But it seemed to have worked. I wonder what the hell a themed restaurant adapted from that IP would even be like...

Maybe I did! Who can tell what I say with that accent?

Also it makes me sad when people try to put games/art into boxes. Just let stuff stand on it's own you know?

The intent is not really compartmentalization, more the grouping of like pieces in order to analyze and compare different approaches to the medium, and also differences within similar takes on an approach.

[TAKE THAT MOTHERFUCKER I LOVE BEING RIGHT ABOUT THINGS]

hey kids don't read this next bit it's gonna have a rude word

TAKE THAT MOTHERFUCKER I LOVE BEING RIGHT ABOUT THINGS

okay you can keep reading now

Logging in from the remote area in Shark Bay to post:

Episode 71

Thanks to AnasAbdin for the topic suggestion!

You played your part in this too. Don't forget that.

Oh yes, the egg came after we'd finished doing the chicken and poor Ponch was heartbroken. This was our way of easing the pain.

If you're interested in more Spaceman in Space adventures, you can play the fully interactive spin-off game!

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=47030.0

I'm more excited about the fact that they released Outlaws on their store, I always enjoyed that game.

Cool info on the Yahtzee playthrough, thanks!

As for the Prof. Moriarty thing, I don't think anybody knows what it means at this point.

I just want to animate Sue...

Interesting that you should ask this, as the answer to your query is contained in the latest thrilling episode of the BlueCupTools Podcast!

Actually I was just discussing the creation of adventure game trailers and how very different they are with someone who was cutting a trailer for a game the other day. Thanks for the suggestion (and nice words!), we'll be sure to discuss it!