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I think a complete list of all of Infocom's title would be too long, but dates with the ones listed would be nice. - Frecklefoot
On examining internet sources in general, some (e.g. Adventureland list Ballyhoo as being written in 1985, rather than 1986 as listed here. The majority of sources (that I found) DO say 1986, but can we verify that this information is correct somehow? -- HappyDog 21:03, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Last I checked, this is an article about the history and impact of a computer software company specializing in games. As such, it relates the founding of the company, notable concepts and games introduced by the company, people who shaped the company, and the factors that led to its demise. Whether the protagonist of any given game or group of games was referred to as male or female does not in any way advance the "story" of Infocom that this article is relating to the reader. The information is irrelevant and does not belong. I challenge the anon who continues to add this to give a valid reason for including this information here or the continued adding of this section to the article must be considered vandalism. Indrian 13:25, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Please stop saying the "I" word! That thing is supposed to belong there, so that people can know what sex their character is! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.76.162.34 ( talk • contribs) .
Well, here's my real reason for adding that sex section. In [3], there are two false things. The first is that whoever wrote the page that this links to thinks that your character in the Enchanter trilogy and Zork Zero can be either sex, but in actuality, your character in those games is always male. To prove that your character in Zork Zero is always male, play Zork III (the Dungeon Master is the grown-up version of the character in Zork Zero). And to prove that your character in the Enchanter trilogy is always male, die in Enchanter (unless it's your fourth death), or go to the coal mine in Sorcerer (the old man there is your character's grown-up version). The second false thing is the way that guy spelt "Nord and Bert". It's "Nord and Bert", not "Nord and Burt". So to prove that guy wrong, I need that sex section! Well, actually, there are three reasons for adding the sex section. The third is that another title name is spelt wrong. "Hollywood Hijinx" is misspelled as "Hollywood Hijink"! And there's a possible fourth reason. That page says that Infocom made 33 games, when it actually made 35 (38 if you count Return to Zork, Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 and Quarterstaff as Infocom games). Since there are two games which that guy probably doesn't know about, any two games out of the 10 or so not mentioned could be the missing ones! P. S. In Nord and Bert, do you actually play as Nord and/or Bert? (This paragraph added by 58.170.197.216 ( talk) in several edits from 02:14-02:35, August 2, 2006 without attribution.)
Well, it doesn't end there. Could you tell me what you have to say about all those reasons? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.181.139.197 ( talk • contribs) 17:37, January 25, 2007.
Okay, I'm going to sign now. Now please tell me, what do you have to say about my reasons for having the sex section? 124.181.200.175 04:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
Even if that is the case, I still need to know what you have to say about my reasons for having the sex section! You can clearly see what I mean! So could you please tell me now? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.181.200.175 ( talk • contribs) 21:47, January 29, 2007.
Okay, I'll be more specific. I want to know what you have to say about those reasons. 124.181.200.175 00:11, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
I'll be more specific now. I want to know what you have to say about those reasons. Please tell me. 124.176.135.5 08:24, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
Hello! Can you please answer? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.180.242.85 ( talk • contribs) 16:01, March 3, 2007.
The reason sex is important in discussion of Infocom games is that, told from the second person, most of the games are gender-neutral, though some small clues may point to male in some. It is NOT true that the games were meant to be told from the male perspective, with some exceptions. It is also important to note that in "Leather Goddesses of Phobos" sex plays a vital role, so much so that you choose your sex when you begin playing, and situations differ for each sex. This would make one of the earliest games to give the player the choice to play male or female. This in itself is important enough to mention sexual roles in playing Infocom games. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.19.217.23 ( talk) 20:05, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
I hadn't seen anything of the like, so I created an Infocom userbox. It can be seen on
my userpage. The code to include it on a userpage is:
{{User:DynSkeet/Userbox/Infocom}}
Feel free to use it. -
DynSkeet (
Talk)
19:58, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
Apart from xs4all, where on the Internet can I play Infocom games? And where can I found out how many copies each Infocom game sold? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.180.242.85 ( talk • contribs) 16:01, March 3, 2007.
Could you just give me an answer? 124.176.134.126 08:42, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Is the Bruce Davis linked in the article the same on who lead Activision shortly after the Infocom takeover? His article lists him as a 1979 NFL draft pick who had an 11 season career. While it's not impossible it seems unlikley that a pro athlete would be a corporate executive at the same time. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 204.97.253.244 ( talk • contribs) 08:49, April 20, 2007.
Image:Infocom logo.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot 08:20, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
The tone of this article needs fixing in places, including (but not limited to) the following examples:
These are a few of my concerns. The Standing out from the competition section needs to be rewritten almost completely in my opinion as that's where most of the tone and npov problems are. Also another hugely important thing is references and sources as this article is seriously lacking which makes it seem like the POV is coming from the editor rather than a reviewer or critic. Apologies for not leaving my concerns on this talk page sooner after I added the tag. ● BillPP ( talk| contribs) 13:34, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
For anyone else looking for possible sources for citations " Down From the Top of Its Game: The Story of Infocom, Inc." has three pages of references. — Alan De Smet | Talk 05:46, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
I asked one of the Implementors, Brian Moriarty, about this, especially the quote about the basement printing money. Here's what he said:
"What the article says is mostly true. For a few years, pretty much all of the titles generally made their money back the day they shipped. Everything after that was gravy. I don't know who, if anyone, said that quote, though."
Frotz 20:28, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
In reference to following statement: "Davis pushed Infocom to release more graphical games, but the one they did release bombed. This was, in part, due to Infocom's long-standing rule of maximum portability; a game that could display graphics on a number of different systems couldn't take advantage of the strengths of any of them." - Rather than "the one they did release" could we have the actual title? Pieterkonink 11:14, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
I have removed the second half of this sentence, from the article:
Many Infocom titles can be downloaded via the Internet, legally in the case of the Zork trilogy and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I do not believe that any of the Zork games or The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy are legally available to download, currently.
The first three Zork games were made available, along with the specially made Zork: The Undiscovered Underground as part of promotions surrounding the release of Zork: Nemesis (1996) and Zork Grand Inquisitor (1997). However, those promotions are long since over and Activision no longer distribute any of the games - the Zork Wikipedia page specifically claims that Activision has stated that they must NOT be re-distributed or made available for download.
Similarly, the The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy has never been explicitly available as a free download from Activision, The Digital Village ( Douglas Adams' company) or Adams himself. The Digital Village did produce a Java applet version which is now permanently resident on douglasadams.com and requires them to host the original Z-Machine story file - which can be accessed if you craft the appropriate URL. This can hardly be considered legal permission to distribute, however as the game is clearly intended to be played online.
To make amends for removing this line, I've added some information relating to Dungeon, which is the original mainframe version of Zork and generally considered to be in the public domain and not considered to be explicitly illegal to download, along with the four Infocom sampler & demos available from the IF archive.
Samwiseuk ( talk) 18:16, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
I have had email communications with a few of the Implementors. If I were to ask them where they got the idea for the scratch and sniff card in Leather Goddesses, would that be considered Original Research? Frotz ( talk) 19:17, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
It seems the Infocom story might not yet be over. According to http://www.trademork.com/infocom/ someone is trying to renew the trademark (Activision cancelled it in 2002, I believe). http://www.infocom-fiction.com/ is their site (not much there yet). A metatag on the site reads "The official site of (the all new) Infocom". Could get interesting. Sslaxx ( talk) 12:14, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
How do you get eaten by a Grue? Just curious. June 22, 1979 ( talk) 22:08, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
Is this the official Infocom website? http://www.infocom-if.org/ -- 190.221.111.247 ( talk) 01:29, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
The article seems biased, and the Activision takeover section seems especially biased; it sounds like someone who is just angry that Activision bought Infocom. As there are also no sources cited, it seems like that section should be re-written for a more neutral stance. 76.23.212.191 ( talk) 09:59, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
The article references choose-your-own-adventure style books produced by Infocom in the story lines of some of their games. This block has no references, and I don't believe it is accurate. Infocom released a number or regular novels (Wishbringer comes to mind) expanding on the universes/story lines of their games, but these were traditional, linear novels. Is there any reference to the type of novels mentioned in the article? I don't want to remove/change it without being sure. 67.79.182.218 ( talk) 16:47, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
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I was doing some research for Infocom for the Legend Entertainment article. Figured it would be relevant here.
Some of these may or may not be reliable sources, but there's some good research in here somewhere. Shooterwalker ( talk) 14:17, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
![]() | 69,105 was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 17 July 2020 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Infocom. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here. |
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Infocom article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
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I think a complete list of all of Infocom's title would be too long, but dates with the ones listed would be nice. - Frecklefoot
On examining internet sources in general, some (e.g. Adventureland list Ballyhoo as being written in 1985, rather than 1986 as listed here. The majority of sources (that I found) DO say 1986, but can we verify that this information is correct somehow? -- HappyDog 21:03, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Last I checked, this is an article about the history and impact of a computer software company specializing in games. As such, it relates the founding of the company, notable concepts and games introduced by the company, people who shaped the company, and the factors that led to its demise. Whether the protagonist of any given game or group of games was referred to as male or female does not in any way advance the "story" of Infocom that this article is relating to the reader. The information is irrelevant and does not belong. I challenge the anon who continues to add this to give a valid reason for including this information here or the continued adding of this section to the article must be considered vandalism. Indrian 13:25, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Please stop saying the "I" word! That thing is supposed to belong there, so that people can know what sex their character is! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.76.162.34 ( talk • contribs) .
Well, here's my real reason for adding that sex section. In [3], there are two false things. The first is that whoever wrote the page that this links to thinks that your character in the Enchanter trilogy and Zork Zero can be either sex, but in actuality, your character in those games is always male. To prove that your character in Zork Zero is always male, play Zork III (the Dungeon Master is the grown-up version of the character in Zork Zero). And to prove that your character in the Enchanter trilogy is always male, die in Enchanter (unless it's your fourth death), or go to the coal mine in Sorcerer (the old man there is your character's grown-up version). The second false thing is the way that guy spelt "Nord and Bert". It's "Nord and Bert", not "Nord and Burt". So to prove that guy wrong, I need that sex section! Well, actually, there are three reasons for adding the sex section. The third is that another title name is spelt wrong. "Hollywood Hijinx" is misspelled as "Hollywood Hijink"! And there's a possible fourth reason. That page says that Infocom made 33 games, when it actually made 35 (38 if you count Return to Zork, Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 and Quarterstaff as Infocom games). Since there are two games which that guy probably doesn't know about, any two games out of the 10 or so not mentioned could be the missing ones! P. S. In Nord and Bert, do you actually play as Nord and/or Bert? (This paragraph added by 58.170.197.216 ( talk) in several edits from 02:14-02:35, August 2, 2006 without attribution.)
Well, it doesn't end there. Could you tell me what you have to say about all those reasons? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.181.139.197 ( talk • contribs) 17:37, January 25, 2007.
Okay, I'm going to sign now. Now please tell me, what do you have to say about my reasons for having the sex section? 124.181.200.175 04:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
Even if that is the case, I still need to know what you have to say about my reasons for having the sex section! You can clearly see what I mean! So could you please tell me now? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.181.200.175 ( talk • contribs) 21:47, January 29, 2007.
Okay, I'll be more specific. I want to know what you have to say about those reasons. 124.181.200.175 00:11, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
I'll be more specific now. I want to know what you have to say about those reasons. Please tell me. 124.176.135.5 08:24, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
Hello! Can you please answer? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.180.242.85 ( talk • contribs) 16:01, March 3, 2007.
The reason sex is important in discussion of Infocom games is that, told from the second person, most of the games are gender-neutral, though some small clues may point to male in some. It is NOT true that the games were meant to be told from the male perspective, with some exceptions. It is also important to note that in "Leather Goddesses of Phobos" sex plays a vital role, so much so that you choose your sex when you begin playing, and situations differ for each sex. This would make one of the earliest games to give the player the choice to play male or female. This in itself is important enough to mention sexual roles in playing Infocom games. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.19.217.23 ( talk) 20:05, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
I hadn't seen anything of the like, so I created an Infocom userbox. It can be seen on
my userpage. The code to include it on a userpage is:
{{User:DynSkeet/Userbox/Infocom}}
Feel free to use it. -
DynSkeet (
Talk)
19:58, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
Apart from xs4all, where on the Internet can I play Infocom games? And where can I found out how many copies each Infocom game sold? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.180.242.85 ( talk • contribs) 16:01, March 3, 2007.
Could you just give me an answer? 124.176.134.126 08:42, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Is the Bruce Davis linked in the article the same on who lead Activision shortly after the Infocom takeover? His article lists him as a 1979 NFL draft pick who had an 11 season career. While it's not impossible it seems unlikley that a pro athlete would be a corporate executive at the same time. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 204.97.253.244 ( talk • contribs) 08:49, April 20, 2007.
Image:Infocom logo.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot 08:20, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
The tone of this article needs fixing in places, including (but not limited to) the following examples:
These are a few of my concerns. The Standing out from the competition section needs to be rewritten almost completely in my opinion as that's where most of the tone and npov problems are. Also another hugely important thing is references and sources as this article is seriously lacking which makes it seem like the POV is coming from the editor rather than a reviewer or critic. Apologies for not leaving my concerns on this talk page sooner after I added the tag. ● BillPP ( talk| contribs) 13:34, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
For anyone else looking for possible sources for citations " Down From the Top of Its Game: The Story of Infocom, Inc." has three pages of references. — Alan De Smet | Talk 05:46, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
I asked one of the Implementors, Brian Moriarty, about this, especially the quote about the basement printing money. Here's what he said:
"What the article says is mostly true. For a few years, pretty much all of the titles generally made their money back the day they shipped. Everything after that was gravy. I don't know who, if anyone, said that quote, though."
Frotz 20:28, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
In reference to following statement: "Davis pushed Infocom to release more graphical games, but the one they did release bombed. This was, in part, due to Infocom's long-standing rule of maximum portability; a game that could display graphics on a number of different systems couldn't take advantage of the strengths of any of them." - Rather than "the one they did release" could we have the actual title? Pieterkonink 11:14, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
I have removed the second half of this sentence, from the article:
Many Infocom titles can be downloaded via the Internet, legally in the case of the Zork trilogy and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I do not believe that any of the Zork games or The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy are legally available to download, currently.
The first three Zork games were made available, along with the specially made Zork: The Undiscovered Underground as part of promotions surrounding the release of Zork: Nemesis (1996) and Zork Grand Inquisitor (1997). However, those promotions are long since over and Activision no longer distribute any of the games - the Zork Wikipedia page specifically claims that Activision has stated that they must NOT be re-distributed or made available for download.
Similarly, the The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy has never been explicitly available as a free download from Activision, The Digital Village ( Douglas Adams' company) or Adams himself. The Digital Village did produce a Java applet version which is now permanently resident on douglasadams.com and requires them to host the original Z-Machine story file - which can be accessed if you craft the appropriate URL. This can hardly be considered legal permission to distribute, however as the game is clearly intended to be played online.
To make amends for removing this line, I've added some information relating to Dungeon, which is the original mainframe version of Zork and generally considered to be in the public domain and not considered to be explicitly illegal to download, along with the four Infocom sampler & demos available from the IF archive.
Samwiseuk ( talk) 18:16, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
I have had email communications with a few of the Implementors. If I were to ask them where they got the idea for the scratch and sniff card in Leather Goddesses, would that be considered Original Research? Frotz ( talk) 19:17, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
It seems the Infocom story might not yet be over. According to http://www.trademork.com/infocom/ someone is trying to renew the trademark (Activision cancelled it in 2002, I believe). http://www.infocom-fiction.com/ is their site (not much there yet). A metatag on the site reads "The official site of (the all new) Infocom". Could get interesting. Sslaxx ( talk) 12:14, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
How do you get eaten by a Grue? Just curious. June 22, 1979 ( talk) 22:08, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
Is this the official Infocom website? http://www.infocom-if.org/ -- 190.221.111.247 ( talk) 01:29, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
The article seems biased, and the Activision takeover section seems especially biased; it sounds like someone who is just angry that Activision bought Infocom. As there are also no sources cited, it seems like that section should be re-written for a more neutral stance. 76.23.212.191 ( talk) 09:59, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
The article references choose-your-own-adventure style books produced by Infocom in the story lines of some of their games. This block has no references, and I don't believe it is accurate. Infocom released a number or regular novels (Wishbringer comes to mind) expanding on the universes/story lines of their games, but these were traditional, linear novels. Is there any reference to the type of novels mentioned in the article? I don't want to remove/change it without being sure. 67.79.182.218 ( talk) 16:47, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Infocom. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
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RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 20:14, 13 November 2017 (UTC)
I was doing some research for Infocom for the Legend Entertainment article. Figured it would be relevant here.
Some of these may or may not be reliable sources, but there's some good research in here somewhere. Shooterwalker ( talk) 14:17, 2 April 2021 (UTC)