Implementer (video games)

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''.

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

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 (programming language), 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".

With the Z-machine, Infocom was able to release most of their games for most popular home computers simultaneously: Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, IBM PC compatibles, Amstrad CPC/ PCW (one disc worked on both machines), Commodore 64, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore 128, Kaypro CP/M, TI-99/4A, Macintosh, Atari ST, Amiga, TRS-80, and TRS-80 Color Computer.

History

Foundation and Zork

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''. 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. Inspired by ''Colossal Cave Adventure'', the developers aspired to improve on the formula with a more robust text parser and more logical puzzles. 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. This community interacted with the developers as they created the game, playtesting additions and submitting bug reports.

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. By the end of the year, the core ''Zork'' game was complete, and Berez was elected the company's president. 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. 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.

Following its 1980 release, ''Zork I'' became a bestseller from 1983 through 1985. 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. Reviewers hailed ''Zork'' as the best adventure game to date, with later critics regarding it as one of the greatest games of all time. Historians noted the game as a foundation for the adventure game genre, as well as influencing the MUD and massively multiplayer online role-playing game genres.

Expansion

Lebling and Blank each authored several more games, and additional game writers (or "Implementers") were hired, notably including Steve Meretzky