I greatly enjoyed #50YearsOfTextGames by @aaronareed.

I especially appreciated his curation of titles that are not necessarily well-known, but that showcase the wonderful diversity of games in which text takes center stage.

The 50 games he covers in detail include an auditory first-person shooter, a story told through a database, and a text adventure that seeks to convey the experience of a hike on a section of the Appalachian trail.

Here's my full review:

https://lib.reviews/review/34c65d06-d17e-4a2a-bbfd-25b4271e83fe

Almost at the end of #50YearsOfTextGames by @aaronareed and the chapter about "Choices: The Freshman" is a good reminder about what I so appreciate about his research and approach.

(The game is part of an interactive fiction franchise with an audience of millions that's been largely ignored by gaming media because it primarily targets women & is played on mobile devices.)

For those who don't have the book, you can read an earlier version of the chapter here:

https://if50.substack.com/p/2016-the-freshman

I keep going back and poking around at the #50YearsOfTextGames portal while reading the book.

And today it led me to flip through the Oregon Trail source (BASIC, 1975 edition). Noticed a bunch of GOTOs and idly wondered "what percentage of these lines are GOTOs?"

@visidata says ~15%, 98 lines. It feels particularly appropriate to use a terminal tool to run stats on text game source code 😁

https://if50.textories.com/portal/

Yippeee it finally showed up! Right in time for my birthday!! Very excited to read and reread this one till the pages fall off 😁

@aaronareed #50YearsOfTextGames #InteractiveFiction #TextGames #TextAdventures

The Oregon Trail’s original hunting mechanic was a tiny typing game.

Had not seen this mechanic before. It’s from the original Oregon Trail written in BASIC, which despite a great local reception in 1971 was almost lost to the wind. #50YearsOfTextGames