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, graphic 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.
Rendezvous with Rama is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1973. Set in the 2130s, the story involves a 50-by-20-kilometre cylindrical alien starship that enters the Solar System. The story is told from the point of view of a group of human explorers who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlock its mysteries. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards upon its release, and is regarded as one of the cornerstones in Clarke's bibliography. The concept was later extended with several sequels, written by Clarke and Gentry Lee.
Rama II is a science fiction novel by Gentry Lee and Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1989. It recounts humankind's further interaction with the Ramans, first introduced in Rendezvous with Rama. Written primarily by Lee, Rama II has a distinctly different writing style than the original, with a more character-driven narrative and a closer-to-contemporary mindset, ambience and human relations than the first novel's more futuristic tones. Rama II is the first novel of the "new" Rama series, as Rendezvous with Rama is not always counted as part of it. The Rama series includes two more sequels: The Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed.
Frederik Pohl's Gateway is a 1992 interactive fiction video game released by Legend Entertainment, and written by Glen Dahlgren and Mike Verdu. It is based on Frederik Pohl's Heechee universe. It was followed by a sequel Gateway II: Homeworld, in 1993.
Spinnaker Software Corporation was a software company founded in 1982 known primarily for its line of non-curriculum based educational software, which was a major seller during the 1980s. It was founded by chairman Bill Bowman and president C. David Seuss.
Rama is a first-person adventure game developed and published by Sierra On-Line in 1996. The game is based on Arthur C. Clarke's books Rendezvous with Rama (1973) and Rama II (1989) and supports both DOS and Microsoft Windows. In 1998, a PlayStation version was released in Japan. It is the second Rama game to be produced. The interactive fiction game Rendezvous with Rama was released in 1984 by Telarium.
The Hammer of God is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke originally published in 1993. Set in the year 2109, it deals with the discovery of an asteroid to be on course to collide with Earth and depicts the mission for deflecting the asteroid by using fusion thermal rockets.
Bert Gentry Lee is an American scientist, space engineer, and science fiction author. He is currently chief engineer for the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Fahrenheit 451 is an interactive fiction game released in 1984 and based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury. Originally released by software company Trillium, it was re-released in 1985 under the company's new name Telarium.
The following is a list of works by Arthur C. Clarke.
Gateway II: Homeworld is a 1993 interactive fiction video game developed and published by Legend Entertainment. The sequel to Gateway (1992), it is set in Frederik Pohl's Heechee universe.
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, such as literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of genres. Most adventure games are designed for a single player, since the emphasis on story and character makes multiplayer design difficult. Colossal Cave Adventure is identified as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include Zork, King's Quest, Monkey Island, Syberia, and Myst.
Amazon is an interactive fiction graphic adventure game. The game was published by Telarium in 1984 and written by Michael Crichton.
Dragonworld is an interactive fiction game with graphics. The game was published by Telarium, a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, in the year 1984. The game was based on the novel written in 1979 by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves; text for the game was written by J. Brynne Stephens.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Mandarin Murder is an interactive fiction computer game with graphics. The game was published by Telarium, a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, in 1985.
Nine Princes in Amber is an interactive fiction video game with graphics. The game was published by Telarium, a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, in 1985. The game is based upon the fantasy novels Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny.
Shadowkeep is a first person role-playing video game and interactive fiction video game with graphics. The game was published by Telarium, a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, in the year 1984. It was the first computer game to be novelised.
Telarium Corporation was a brand owned by Spinnaker Software. The brand was launched in 1984 and Spinnaker was sold in 1994. The headquarters were located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The President of Telarium was C. David Seuss, the founder and CEO of Spinnaker Software.
Windham Classics Corporation was a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software. The corporation was founded in 1984 and went defunct circa 1985/86 or later. The headquarters were in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
In his lifetime Arthur C. Clarke participated in film, television, radio and other media in a number of different ways.
