Infocom
Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called Cornerstone.[3]
This article is about the software company. For the web hosting service company, see InfoCom Corporation. For the field of information and communications technology, see Infocommunications. For the conference, see Conference on Computer Communications.Industry
June 22, 1979
- Tim Anderson
- Joel Berez
- Marc Blank
- Mike Broos
- Scott Cutler
- Stu Galley
- Dave Lebling
- J. C. R. Licklider
- Chris Reeve
- Al Vezza
Closed on May 5, 1989[1]
Merged into Activision on 13 June 1986[2]
Infocom was founded on June 22, 1979, by staff and students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and lasted as an independent company until 1986, when it was bought by Activision. Activision shut down the Infocom division in 1989, although they released some titles in the 1990s under the Infocom Zork brand. Activision abandoned the Infocom trademark in 2002.
Overview[edit]
Infocom games are text adventures where users direct the action by entering short strings of words to give commands when prompted. Generally the program will respond by describing the results of the action, often the contents of a room if the player has moved within the virtual world. The user reads this information, decides what to do, and enters another short series of words. Examples include "go west" or "take flashlight".
Infocom games were written using a programming language called ZIL (Zork Implementation Language), itself derived directly from MDL, that compiled into a bytecode able to run on a standardized virtual machine called the Z-machine. As the games were text based and used variants of the same Z-machine interpreter, the interpreter had to be ported to new computer architectures only once per architecture, rather than once per game. Each game file included a sophisticated parser which allowed the user to type complex instructions to the game. Unlike earlier works of interactive fiction which only understood commands of the form 'verb noun', Infocom's parser could understand a wider variety of sentences. For instance one might type "open the large door, then go west", or "go to festeron".[4]
With the Z-machine, Infocom was able to release most of their games for most popular home computers simultaneously: Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers, IBM PC compatibles, Amstrad CPC/PCW (one disc worked on both machines), Commodore 64, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore 128,[5] Kaypro CP/M, TI-99/4A, Macintosh, Atari ST, Amiga, TRS-80, and TRS-80 Color Computer.
History[edit]
Foundation and Zork[edit]
Infocom began as a collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty and alumni, some of whom had previously worked a text-based adventure game called Zork.[6] Development of Zork began in 1977 at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, with an initial team including Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, and Dave Lebling, as well as Bruce Daniels.[7] Inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure,[8] the developers aspired to improve on the formula with a more robust text parser and more logical puzzles.[9] They did not announce their game while it was in development, but a lack of security on the MIT systems meant that anyone who could access the PDP-10 computer over the ARPANET could see what programs were being run. As a result, a small community of people discovered the new "Zork" adventure game and spread word of it under that name.[7][10] This community interacted with the developers as they created the game, playtesting additions and submitting bug reports.[10][11]
Infocom was officially founded as a software company on June 22, 1979, with founding members Tim Anderson, Joel Berez, Marc Blank, Mike Broos, Scott Cutler, Stu Galley, Dave Lebling, J. C. R. Licklider, Chris Reeve, and Al Vezza.[12] By the end of the year, the core Zork game was complete, and Berez was elected the company's president.[13] The studio began seeking a professional publisher with store and distributor connections. After Microsoft passed on the project due to competition with their own Microsoft Adventure (1979), Infocom negotiated a publishing agreement with Personal Software, one of the first professional software publishing companies.[13][14] However, Infocom grew wary of the publisher's lack of advertising for Zork I, and lack of enthusiasm for additional episodes and games. The developer decided to self-publish their games from that moment forward, buying out Personal Software's remaining inventory of Zork games.[13]
Following its 1980 release, Zork I became a bestseller from 1983 through 1985.[15][16][17][18][19] By 1986, the game had sold 380,000 copies, with 680,000 sales for the trilogy overall, comprising one-third of Infocom's two million game sales.[20] Reviewers hailed Zork as the best adventure game to date,[21][22] with later critics regarding it as one of the greatest games of all time.[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] Historians noted the game as a foundation for the adventure game genre,[37] as well as influencing the MUD and massively multiplayer online role-playing game genres.[38]
Legacy[edit]
With the exception of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Shogun, the copyrights to the Infocom games are believed to be still held by Activision. Dungeon, the mainframe precursor to the commercial Zork trilogy, is believed to be free for non-commercial use.[60] but prohibited for commercial use.[61] It was this copy that the popular Fortran mainframe version was based on.[62] The C version was based on the Fortran version.[63] and is available from The Interactive Fiction Archive as original FORTRAN source code, a Z-machine story file and as various native source ports. Many Infocom titles can be downloaded via the Internet, but only in violation of the copyright. Activision did at one point release the original trilogy for free-of-charge download as a promotion[64] but prohibited redistribution[65] and have since discontinued this.[66] There are currently at least four Infocom sampler and demos available from the IF Archive as Z-machine story files which require a Z-machine interpreter to play. Interpreters are available for most computer platforms, the most widely used being the Frotz, Zip, and Nitfol interpreters.
Five games (Zork I, Planetfall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Wishbringer and Leather Goddesses of Phobos) were re-released in Solid Gold format. The Solid Gold versions of those games include a built-in InvisiClues hint system.
In 2012, Activision released Lost Treasures of Infocom for iOS devices. In-app purchases provide access for 27 of the titles. It also lacks Shogun and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well as Beyond Zork, Zork Zero and Nord and Bert.
Efforts have been made to make the Infocom games source code available for preservation. In 2008, Jason Scott, a video game preservationist contributing towards the Internet Archive, received the so-called "Infocom Drive", a large archive of the entire contents of Infocom's main server made during the last few days before the company was relocated to California; besides source code for all of Infocom's games (including unreleased ones), it also contained the software manuals, design documents and other essential content alongside Infocom's business documentation.[67][68] Scott later published all of the source files in their original Z-engine format to GitHub in 2019.[69]
Zork made a cameo appearance as an easter egg in Activision and Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops. It can be accessed from the main menu.