50 Years of Text Games

Since a winter morning in 1971 when a teacher wheeled a teletype into his classroom to debut a game about the Oregon Trail, people have been telling interactive stories on digital platforms. From text adventures to VR poetry, MUDS to mobile romance sims, and chatbots to roguelikes, these games without graphics have pioneered new techniques for interactive storytelling, engaged imaginations with clever engines and beautiful prose, and explored the new terrain of fiction you can play.

50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to AI Dungeon picks one text-based game from each year between 1971 and 2020 and studies how it works, what it’s about, why it’s special, and its lasting legacy. In-depth chapters dive into classics like Zork, Trade Wars, and Hitchhiker’s Guide; beloved fan games like Galatea and Photopia; wild experiments from Dwarf Fortress to Howling Dogs; and breakout hits like 80 Days, Fallen London, and Lifeline. From personal stories to million-word epics, from games printed by teletypes to games downloaded on smart watches, this is the fascinating story of interactive fiction’s first half-century.

The book includes 620 pages of in-depth coverage, including original maps and diagrams to reveal each game’s structure; excerpts of text and source code to highlight the writing and design of each game; extensive version and release histories for each covered game; and a full index and research bibliography. An extensive chapter on the pre-history of interactive text games along with overview of each decade bring together major trends in the evolution of interactive fiction, and capsule summaries of nearly five hundred other noteworthy text games from the last half-century further broaden the context.