Down From the Top of Its Game: The Story of Infocom, Inc (2000) [pdf]

Post by logfromblammo » Mon, Sep 14, 2015, 10:17 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #15

logfromblammo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of the relevant copy protection information has been merged with information from the Encyclopedia Frobozzica (included as a printed feelie with Return to Zork) and replicated to various sites in wiki form. For instance, the infotater from Sorcerer had a color code mapped to various creatures that was required to progress past the intro area of the game. The copy-protection sewer map for Leather Goddesses of Pho…

>But now you can get Lost Treasures of Infocom as a free iOS app. That apparently just includes Zork but you can buy the rest of the Z-Code games (except for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--I assume for rights reasons related to Douglas Adam's estate) for just $9.99 which is still quite a deal. I'd have to try it out and see how playable it is without a keyboard though.

Post by ghaff » Mon, Sep 14, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

myth_buster wrote: post #21

at-fates-hands wrote: post #18

Some things that jumped out at me while reading this article: Stata offered to secure a $2 million three-year subordinated loan from the Bank of Boston in exchange for options to buy $2 million in stock and a position on the Board.52 In 1983 2 million was a shit ton of money. By comparison, in 2015, it would be around 5 million. Infocom hired three product managers, who each had assistants and secretaries under them…

In 1983 2 million was a shit ton of money. By comparison, in 2015, it would be around 5 million I expected a difference of an order of magnitude or more...

Post by sehugg » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 12:11 AM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #5

http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2000/infocom/csdemo/index.h... has screenshots and a downloadable copy of the 'infamous' Cornerstone database that Infocom built. It looks quality for the era it was built in.

Post by sehugg » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 12:48 AM UTC

david-given wrote: post #13

ghaff wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also not that hard to get your hands on the Z-Code files of Infocom games and run them in a Z-Code interpreter. (Note, however, that they are still under copyright. Also, for some games, you'll also need a copy of the original docs or other material from the packaging as Infocom sometimes used info in the docs, decoder wheels, etc. as a low-grade anti-piracy technique.) Agree that Planetfall is one of the better…

...and if you're interested in doing more than playing games, there's assorted abusive things you can do with the Z-Machine. Here's an ANS Forth: https://code.google.com/p/zmforth/ Here's Andrew Plotkin's infamous Lisp tutorial (complete with Lisp implementation for the Z-machine): http://www.eblong.com/zarf/zweb/lists/ I ported a C compiler to it, poorly, and made it play chess: http://cowlark.com/vbcc-z-compiler/ A…

Post by Agustus » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 1:33 AM UTC

myth_buster wrote: post #21

at-fates-hands wrote: post #18

Some things that jumped out at me while reading this article: Stata offered to secure a $2 million three-year subordinated loan from the Bank of Boston in exchange for options to buy $2 million in stock and a position on the Board.52 In 1983 2 million was a shit ton of money. By comparison, in 2015, it would be around 5 million. Infocom hired three product managers, who each had assistants and secretaries under them…

In 1983 2 million was a shit ton of money. By comparison, in 2015, it would be around 5 million I expected a difference of an order of magnitude or more...

  $4,750,000.00  using the  Consumer Price Index  
  $4,060,000.00  using the  GDP deflator  
  $4,660,000.00  using the  unskilled wage  
  $5,240,000.00  using the  Production Worker Compensation  
  $7,000,000.00  using the  nominal GDP per capita  
  $9,540,000.00  using the  relative share of GDP