Infocom Marathon – The Retro Gaming Treasury

Missed Classic: Moonmist – Representation Blues

On June 30, 2020June 30, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich I intended to wrap up Moonmist this week by closing out on the three remaining cases then moving quickly to the final rating. I did not make it. When playing and reviewing, I try to come to these games as unspoiled as I can. I learn […]

Missed Classic: Moonmist – Getting a Clue (Won! Once!)

On June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Welcome back to Moonmist, the Nancy Drew mystery with a bit less Nancy Drew and a bit more Clue. The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that Galley and Lawrence were inspired by the 1985 film starring Tim Curry and based on […]

Missed Classic 86: Moonmist (1986) – Introduction

On June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich As we close on Infocom’s final release of 1986, we turn the page on a new era. As best as I have been able to determine, Moonmist is the final game that was deep under development prior to the purchase by Activision, or at least the […]

Infocom Marathon: Leather Goddesses of Phobos – Part Two

On June 7, 2020June 7, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich My six-year old has recently become very interested in space. In the way that six-year olds can pick odd topics to be obsessed with (er… that apple didn’t fall far from the tree), he’s talked so much about Phobos and Deimos lately that I could probably […]

Infocom Marathon: Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986) – Part One

On May 25, 2020May 25, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Sex sells, but few things market a product better than controversy. Throughout much of the 20th century, it was an adage that a book or a play “Banned in Boston” was guaranteed to sell well elsewhere. Oscar Wilde once said that, “The only thing worse than […]

Zork Marathon: Selling the House that Zork Built

On September 26, 2019September 26, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich On June 13, 1986, Infocom ended, but our story does not. That is the day that Activision officially acquired Infocom. The team had fun with the event, even hosting a mock (Jewish!) wedding for Activision CEO Jim Levy and Infocom CEO Joel Berez. This was 18 […]

Missed Classic: Ballyhoo – Won! And Final Rating

On May 26, 2019May 26, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich From 1980 to 1986, Infocom charmed the gaming world with their text adventures. I’ve just defeated Ballyhoo, their 19th and final independently-released game. It’s a moment that I want to savor, even as we have a whole bunch more games to go before we get to […]

Missed Classic: Ballyhoo – Circus Minimus

On May 15, 2019May 15, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Welcome back! Last time out, we started into Infocom’s fourth mystery game, Ballyhoo. Unlike our previous mysteries, this one is not (yet!) a murder. Instead, we have a kidnapping… at a circus! We will have to use all of our investigative skills to find out who […]

Missed Classic 67: Ballyhoo (1986) – Introduction

On May 1, 2019May 1, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Infocom careened into 1986 on the backs of two contradictory pieces of information. Sales had been up in 1985 for an all-time high of $11.5 million, and yet the company was falling apart. The Cornerstone flop was a distant memory, but the winter layoffs that followed […]

Missed Classic: Spellbreaker – Won! And Final Rating

On April 16, 2019April 16, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Spellbreaker started as a chase, then it became a hunt for macguffin cubes, now we are finally closing out through some of the most devious puzzles every created for adventure games. We’ve just about reached the end the last original “Zork” game. This has been a […]

Missed Classic: Spellbreaker – The Chase

On April 9, 2019April 9, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich You’ve heard the classic story: boy meets girl, girl meets boy, boy and girl happen to be levitating rocks on a Tron-esque grid? It’s classic. If I have to say one thing about Spellbreaker, it is not afraid to have interesting and difficult puzzles. And despite […]

Missed Classic: Spellbreaker – The Incredible Shrinking Man

On March 21, 2019March 21, 2019 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Joe Pranevich Welcome back! Last week, I was able to puzzle my way past a splash-down with a hungry fish, bring a statue to life just long enough to steal something from its mouth, shrink a snake, and insult The Phantom Menace. As I have mentioned before, the […]

Interview with Brian Cody, Co-Creator of Fooblitzky

On January 30, 2019 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

By Joe Pranevich From time to time, it has been our pleasure to not only play and explore the classic games, but to discuss them with their creators. We’ve spoken to game designers and game illustrators, but I am pleased to have been able to spend some virtual time with […]

Infocom Marathon: Fooblitzky (1985)

On January 22, 2019January 22, 2019 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Joe Pranevich When it came to text adventures, Infocom appeared to have the golden touch. And yet, there were dark clouds looming if you knew where to look. The earliest “Zork” games still sold like hotcakes, regularly appearing on top sales charts, while newer releases packed a punch […]

Missed Classic: A Mind Forever Voyaging – Jewel of the Quad-State Area

On November 27, 2018November 27, 2018 By TBD

Written by Joe Pranevich A Mind Forever Voyaging isn’t like any game that I have played before. It takes its time introducing you to the characters and the plot, encouraging you to explore rather than setting out a stream of puzzles for you to solve. It is content to follow […]

Missed Classic: Wishbringer – Now With More Evil

On November 11, 2018November 11, 2018 By TBD

Written by Joe Pranevich Bring out the goatees! You can say this about Infocom games: they sure have a diverse set of goals. Whether it is to discover a treasure, solve a mystery, escape a planet, defeat a wizard, or explore a ruin, we have done it all. And in […]

Missed Classic 61: Wishbringer (1985) – Introduction

On November 3, 2018November 3, 2018 By TBD

Written by Joe Pranevich When Wishbringer launched, the writing was already on the wall for Infocom. Cornerstone had been thrashing in the marketplace for five months and a successful game launch– or two or three– was the injection the company needed to keep its feet on the ground and its […]

Infocom Marathon: Cornerstone (1985)

On October 11, 2018October 11, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Joe Pranevich One of the sad truths about our beloved genre is that nothing is forever. Some of the greatest names in adventure games– Sierra, Adventure International, and even LucasArts– saw their day in the sun only to fall leaving behind unfinished games and frustrated fans. By 1992, […]

Zork Marathon: A Rush to Uniformity – 1984 Books & Wrap-up

On October 1, 2018October 1, 2018 By Ilmari Jauhiainen

Written by Joe Pranevich Sixteen games! It’s been another year both in real-time and in Infocom-time as we have reached the end of 1984 in our misnamed “Zork Marathon”. I’m still having a ton of fun, but as I mentioned in my last post, we need a bit of a […]

Missed Classic: Hitchhiker’s Guide – Won! And Final Rating

On September 13, 2018September 14, 2018 By TBD

Written by Joe Pranevich I did it! With your help, I conquered The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! This has been my fifteenth Infocom adventure and certainly one of the tougher ones, but thankfully Voltgloss and some Invisiclues were around to put me back on track. I leave this game […]