Twisty Little Passages An Approach to Interactive Fiction Hardcover - 2003

From the publisher

Interactive fiction - the best-known form of which is the text game or text adventure - has not recieved as much critical attention as have other forms of electronic literature such as hypertext fiction and the conversational programmes known as chatterbots. This book examines this genre from a gaming and literary perspective. The author offers both aficionados and first-time users a way to approach interactive fiction that should lead to a more pleasurable and meaningful experience of it. literary ancestor, the riddle. Montfort then discusses Adventure and its precursors (including the I Ching and Dungeons and Dragons), and follows this with an examination of mainframe text games developed in response, focusing on the most influential work of the era, Zork. He then considers the introduction of commercial interactive fiction for home computers, particularly that produced by Infocom. Commercial work inspired an independent reaction, and Montfort describes the emergence of independent creators and the development of an interactive fiction on other literary and gaming forms. Finally, he considers the influence of interactive fiction on other literary and gaming forms. With this book Montfort places interactive fiction in its computational and literary contexts, opening up this still-developing form to new consideration.