Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the form of interactive narratives or interactive narrations. These works can also be understood as a form of video game, either in the form of an adventure game or role-playing game. In common usage, the term refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game where the entire interface can be "text-only", however, graphical text adventures still fall under the text adventure category if the main way to interact with the game is by typing text. Some users of the term distinguish between interactive fiction, known as "Puzzle-free", that focuses on narrative, and "text adventures" that focus on puzzles.
Zork is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and split the game into three titles—Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz, and Zork III: The Dungeon Master—which were released commercially for a range of personal computers beginning in 1980. In Zork, the player explores the abandoned Great Underground Empire in search of treasure. The player moves between the game's hundreds of locations and interacts with objects by typing commands in natural language that the game interprets. The program acts as a narrator, describing the player's location and the results of the player's commands. It has been described as the most famous piece of interactive fiction.
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions.
The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity tools. Its titles included the flagship series Reader Rabbit, for preschoolers through second graders, and The ClueFinders, for more advanced students. The company was also known for publishing licensed educational titles featuring characters such as Arthur, Scooby-Doo, Zoboomafoo, and Caillou.
ClueFinders is an educational software series aimed at children aged between 8 and 12, that features a group of mystery-solving teenagers. The series was created by The Learning Company as a counterpart to their Reader Rabbit series for older, elementary-aged students. The series has received praise for its balance of education and entertainment, resulting in numerous awards.
The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres.
Robot Odyssey is a puzzle video game developed by Mike Wallace, Dr. Leslie Grimm and published by The Learning Company in December 1984. It was released for the Apple II, TRS-80 Color Computer, and DOS. Most players have found it incredibly challenging. The player is readying for bed when, suddenly, they fall through the floor into an underground city of robots, Robotropolis. The player begins in the sewers of the city with three programmable robots, and must make their way to the top of the city to try to find their way home again.
Level 9 was a British developer of computer software, active between 1981 and 1991. Founded by Mike, Nicholas and Pete Austin, the company produced software for the BBC Micro, Nascom, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Oric, Atari, Lynx 48k, RML 380Z, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Amiga, Apple II, Memotech MTX, and Enterprise platforms and is best known for its successful text adventure games until a general decline in the text adventure market forced their closure in June 1991.
A programming game is a video game that incorporates elements of computer programming, enabling the player to direct otherwise autonomous units within the game to follow commands in a domain-specific programming language, often represented as a visual language to simplify the programming metaphor. Programming games broadly fall into two areas: single-player games where the programming elements either make up part of or the whole of a puzzle game, and multiplayer games where the player's automated program is pitted against other players' programs.
Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the latter. Strategy guides are often published in print, both in book form and also as articles within video game magazines. In cases of exceptionally popular game titles, guides may be sold through more mainstream publication channels, such as bookstores or even newsstands. Some publishers also sell E-Book versions on their websites.
Rocky's Boots is an educational logic puzzle game by Warren Robinett and Leslie Grimm, published by The Learning Company in 1982. It was released for the Apple II, CoCo, Commodore 64, IBM PC and the IBM PCjr. It was followed by a more difficult sequel, Robot Odyssey. It won Software of the Year awards from Learning Magazine (1983), Parent's Choice magazine (1983), and Infoworld, and received the Gold Award from the Software Publishers Association. It was one of the first educational software products for personal computers to successfully use an interactive graphical simulation as a learning environment.
Ravensburger AG is a German game and toy company, publishing house and market leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market.
Gertrude's Secrets is a 1984 children's edutainment video game by The Learning Company.
Super Solvers: Gizmos & Gadgets is an educational science video game designed by The Learning Company. It is intended to teach children between the ages of 7 and 12 introductory mechanics, namely simple machines, magnets, basic electronics, and forms of energy. The original game is compatible with computers running DOS 3.3 or higher and a later CD release added Windows 95 and Macintosh compatibility. A popular game through 1997, The Learning Company, then incorporated with Broderbund, discontinued Gizmos & Gadgets in 1998. Riverdeep eventually obtained the rights and re-released it in some of the "Adventure Workshop" collections.
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge is a point-and-click adventure game in the Carmen Sandiego franchise, released in 2001. For its title, the game does not use the long-standing formula of the previous Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? titles. Instead, the game seems to be based on the structure of the newest version of Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, which The Learning Company retitled Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time.
Non-games are a class of software on the border between video games and toys. The term "non-game game" was coined by late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who describes it as "a form of entertainment that really doesn't have a winner, or even a real conclusion". Will Wright had previously used the term "software toy" for the same purpose. The main difference between non-games and traditional video games is the lack of structured goals, objectives, and challenges. This allows the player a greater degree of self-expression through freeform play, since they can set up their own goals to achieve. Some genres that have been considered non-games include language-learning software, digital tabletop games, puzzle games, simulation games, and art games.
In video gaming, an achievement is a meta-goal defined outside a game's parameters. Unlike the in-game systems of quests, tasks, and/or levels that usually define the goals of a video game and have a direct effect on further gameplay, the management of achievements usually takes place outside the confines of the game environment and architecture. Meeting the fulfillment conditions, and receiving recognition of fulfillment by the game, is referred to as unlocking the achievement.
Secrets of Rætikon is an action-adventure open world video game developed and published by Broken Rules. The player controls a bird and must explore the environment of Rætikon to find its secrets. Game elements include animals with specific behaviors and ancient puzzles. Development began in 2011 and the game was formally announced in July 2013 and followed by alpha and Steam Early Access releases. Secrets of Rætikon was released on April 17, 2014 for Windows, OS X, and Linux platforms. It received mixed reviews from reviewers, who praised its artwork and movement physics, but criticized its inconsistency, lack of cohesion, and technical issues.
Bad Rats: The Rats' Revenge is a 2009 puzzle video game developed by Invent4 Entertainment. Over a string of levels, the player places a set of rats and static objects to guide a ball towards a trap that kills a cat. Bad Rats was released as Invent4 Entertainment's debut game on 20 July 2009 via Steam, followed by releases on other services in 2010. While it received no reviews at release, retrospective pieces criticised the game's graphics, puzzles, and physics. Bad Rats is considered an oddity for being released on Steam while the platform's catalogue was still hand-curated. It became a popular gag gift on Steam, leading to more than 400,000 owners by 2018. A sequel, Bad Rats Show, was released on the seventh anniversary of Bad Rats in 2016.
The Company of Myself is a 2009 Flash platformer by Eli Piilonen featuring a hermit as the protagonist whose depressed inner thoughts appears as writing on the "walls" of the game. Piilonen has stated that the "core intent [of the game] is to be half puzzle game and half character study". It's been frequently cited as an early example of an art game and has received praise for how it deals with issues of mental health. Tom Fronczak of Destructoid called the game "brilliant". It was included in Michael Rose's 2014 book "250 Indie Games You Must Play" and has been frequently cited in video games research. Piilonen later released a prequel for the game called Fixation.
