A network back up from the last days of Infocom has been uncovered and it contained playable versions of several unreleased games that would have been lost to history including a sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Unfortunately it’s in a barely playable state with only a handful of rooms and actions implemented in an interactive way. Still it’s a very interesting find for Infocom fans and the article that I linked to has quite a bit of behind the scenes information on its development history.
There’s a very interesting conversation in the comments section of that link, pulling in many of the old Infocom developers. Entertaining reading for anyone who remembers the old Infocom games fondly.
Wow, thanks very much for this!!!
I particularly like in the comments section, after Michael Bywater has chipped in with much displeasure at what he regards as a poorly researched piece, the following :
Brian Moriarty wrote:
>OPEN CAN OF WORMS
Opened.
Wow. The information in the original article is great but the discussion going on in the comments section is one of the most fascinating things I’ve seen in 30 years of Internet/Usenet/On-line service/BBS message board use. Can of worms opened is correct.
And I can’t think of any other discussion where I have seen that many names that I recognize involved. Are all of the old Infocom implementors in there? There are a couple of Magnetic Scrolls people too and several current IF writers. Fascinating…
It’s not every Imp, but it’s a majority of them and pretty much every big name.
I think I just spent the last hour reading that. Fascinating.
I used to work with one of the imps posting on that thread, about a decade after Infocom ended. I still remember the day I realized who he was. He seemed uncomfortable and embarassed when I charged into his cube and told him how much I loved the games, but he didn’t tell me to leave.