I Read Books: 50 Years Of Text Games

 

50 Years Of Text Games

Subtitled From Oregon Trail to AI Dungeon this books picks one text game – by which they mean a game that is mostly about the written word – from each year from 1971 to 2020 (and one more for the epilogue). This occasionally has odd choices – to investigate a particular creator or sub-genre it may not be their most interesting, influential, or well known game. Yet each is defensible, as even the slightest of chapters tells us something about what, how and why these games came to be.

Having played some, heard of others and been completely ignorant of many this was of interest. Working on interactive art (the book was recommended to me) I found some of the discussion of techniques and design were excellent. And if I can’t match those ideas, that so many work through straightforward use of clever tricks of the writing is heartening.

Some of the roads not taken or abandoned have interesting concepts – failing because the technology or market changed, or because the people or company making it change direction. From more than one defining genre of computer games (and others! The Choose Your Own Adventure books get a look in) to a niche amateur project and back to mainstream if minor acceptance it’s a good story with many fascinating sidenotes.

Read This: Fascinating history of a sometimes overlooked set of games
Don’t Read This: Just play the games (if you can)