Infocom Tease

[Feb 19, 2010, 10:39 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

The Infocom Interactive Fiction Website is online, adorned with the subtitle "Interactive Fiction revisited" (thanks Kxmode). Infocom produced some classic text based adventures in the 1980s, most notably Zork, eventually being acquired by Activision, who shut them down in 1989. The website has an image teasing what this is all about in the classic style of the old-school Infocom text adventures (except for the fact that it is a graphic, of course), reading:

>EXAMINE NEW RELEASE
IT READS: "COMING SOON"

We'd guess this has something to do with mobiles, except the lower left-hand corner of the image seems to say something about "Windows & Apple."

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24.

Re: Infocom Tease

Mar 8, 2010, 01:14

Total-Khaos

Sorry to post this late, but I have some additional information about this story. Turns out this website showing a teaser image, presumably for a Trinity sequel, has been up since July 2007. The teaser image is actually for a game called Triumvirate and it was indeed supposed to be a sequel to Trinity. Try right-clicking the teaser image and look at the name -- triumv.jpg, which is short for Triumvirate. Anyway, we know the Infocom trademark was picked up by Omni Consumer Products LLC -- the makers of Brawndo. Again, this teaser image has been frozen here since 2007, and I seriously doubt we will ever see the release of "Triumvirate" any time soon. This particular website is registered to Oliver Oliver Klaeffling, the guy who was in a legal battle over the Infocom trademark with Omni Consumer Products LLC. Hope this answers some questions.

23.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 21, 2010, 09:55

VogelAP

LittleMe wrote on Feb 19, 2010, 20:54:
I still have my microscopic space fleet and "Don't Panic!" button.

Yeah I had that for years until somehow the bag was opened and the fleet escaped and then proceeded to demolish several planets for a galactic bypass.

I hate when that happens.




-drew www.drewvogel.com

22.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 20, 2010, 19:42

The Magician

Atomic wrote on Feb 19, 2010, 11:47: Not sure it is the case here, but I think a text adventure via SMS might be kind of cool. Hmm. It would probably have to be relatively simple, as you'd be stuck to SMS limitations, but I don't think it would be terribly difficult to implementt...

21.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 20, 2010, 02:33

^Drag0n^

Infocom was the king of game inclusions long before "Collector's editions." I still have my Apple 2 H2G2. And what about those evidence dossiers in Witness and Deadline? Sadly the starcross Saucer suffered irreperable damage a few years ago :/

@PropheT: LOL...classic!

^D^




"Never start a fight, but always finish it."

20.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 20:54

LittleMe

I still have my microscopic space fleet and "Don't Panic!" button.

Yeah I had that for years until somehow the bag was opened and the fleet escaped and then proceeded to demolish several planets for a galactic bypass.




Political freedom can only be preceded by economic freedom which is preceded by monetary freedom.

19.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 20:00

Total-Khaos

If you right click the image, the name of the jpg is: triumv.jpg Maybe this is a play on words or something, or related to Trinity somehow. Triumv = Triumph? I dunno...

18.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 19:11

DedEye

"Want some rye? 'course you do..."

17.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 18:19

Sepharo

I still play a lot of text adventures.

I usually get back into them when the IF awards are going on.

http://www.ifcomp.org/comp09/download.html




[I'm not trolling I'm just] tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. -TrollinThundr

16.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 17:59

RCH

Fond memories indeed. I remember solving the Zork III moving wall puzzle using lego from my basement.

Some of the puzzles were pure genius, I think it was Sorcerer, in which there was a time paradox, involving your older/younger self.

Games my son, will perhaps never understand.




Comedy is Tragedy + Time.

15.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 16:59

VogelAP

I still have my microscopic space fleet and "Don't Panic!" button.




-drew www.drewvogel.com

14.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 16:49

Icewind

First Infocom game I played was "The Lurking Horror" for the C64. Me and my best friend worked on the game for months. Think it took us a four days of trial and error to figure out exactly how long to cook the chinese food for the hacker so we could get his maintenance keys. My C64 keyboard is still stained reddish/purple from the centipede that came packaged with it which I foolishly stuck it on. I recently ran some through it again in DOSbox and while it did bring back nostalgia, it ended when I was finished. If they are bringing them back, or making new ones, I'd like to try a few. Maybe for a couple of bucks.

13.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 16:37

PropheT

shuttleswo wrote on Feb 19, 2010, 10:15: I really fondly remember playing wishbringer and zork on my 8088 those games had some style; wishbringer came with a funny smelling glow in the dark 'rock' that i still have. I carried that Wishbringer rock around in my pocket for years when I was a kid

12.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 16:04

VogelAP

Dang, I loved Infocom games! I love many games created by Inform, which is a superlative interactive fiction development tool.

I hope the website mentioned in this article is worth getting excited about.




-drew www.drewvogel.com

11.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 13:59

Matchstick

This has nothing to do with the old Infocom games, let alone the old Infocom which hasn't been a company for a couple decades. It's some dude in Germany who wants to use the Infocom trademark for his own purposes. References: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/browse_frm/thread/c70919cfe9bb8e8f/fff05aa85f02d2be http://www.trademork.com/infocom/

10.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 13:18

^Drag0n^

I hope this means that they are releasing the classics for mobiles. I still have my original copy of Zork for the Apple 2....It was my very first game.

edit: Could it be a sequel to Trinity? The label that is obscured reminds me allot of the box art for said game...

^D^

This comment was edited on Feb 19, 2010, 13:23.




"Never start a fight, but always finish it."

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 13:07

Kxmode

You are inside a house. Obvious exits are North, South, East, and Dennis. > _

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 12:04

Hyatus

Microsoft and Apple both have mobile OS.

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 11:47

Atomic

Not sure it is the case here, but I think a text adventure via SMS might be kind of cool.




"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." -George Bernard Shaw

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 11:40

Bitterbug

If you're an Infocom fan, then check out Inform7, it's an engine for developing text adventures and it's amazing. All design is done by typing in plain English. If you have a container that holds inventory you just define it by typing "Cardboard box is a container." And then you can lock it down or make it carryable, etc. Now go forth and create!

Re: Infocom Tease

Feb 19, 2010, 10:22

MacLeod

Of course, the file name is triumv.jpg, so it might be called something else (Triumvirate?), but if that's the case, then someone at "new" Infocom clearly looked closely at "old" infocom's back-stock and hoped nobody noticed. :p

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