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Post Infocom: Boffo Games

Author: homarp

Score: 53

Comments: 10

Date: 2021-12-01 18:44:30

Web Link

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ghaff wrote at 2021-12-01 19:13:20:

Well, that's a blast from the past. I knew a bunch of the folks involved from undergrad and did some mostly informal beta testing of Steve's games from Infocom and Legend. As I recall, I also provided some long-ago tech advice for Boffo in exchange for some pizza.

My favorite game of Steve's was actually one of Infocom's only modestly successful titles: A Mind Forever Voyaging. It was more truly interactive fiction than a puzzle game which probably explains both why I really liked it and why it was less popular. Planetfall was another Infocom favorite. (There's a very inside joke about me in it.)

(Steve also wrote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Douglas Adams.)

low_tech_love wrote at 2021-12-01 20:53:35:

AMFV was my introduction to Infocom and it remains my all-time favorite IF, even though I mostly play puzzle-heavy games (I guess it takes a brilliant master such as Steve Meretzky to make such a work). Can you share with us the inside joke in Planetfall? :) I’m currently playing Starcross but I’m not enjoying it that much and I might just start Planetfall again (never beat it).

ghaff wrote at 2021-12-01 21:08:18:

Not really :-) It's related to, as I recall, a character's name but that still doesn't really tell you much absent some context.

I'm not sure I ever played Lebling's Starcross. In general, I've never been very good about finishing videogames, text adventures or otherwise. And of course in the Infocom era, you couldn't just look up a walkthrough if you got frustrated. (And calling up the author which is what I did wasn't a very scalable solution--which is probably how I got through Planetfall.) And also why Mike did well with his clue booklets.

Leather Goddesses of Phobos was also pretty good; there was a later graphical version as well.

aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA wrote at 2021-12-01 23:08:32:

I think Meretzky discussed _A Mind Forever Voyaging_ during his interview for the documentary _Get Lamp_.

ghaff wrote at 2021-12-02 02:30:41:

It's been a while since I watched. I'll have to take a look. There was also a more Infocom-centric cut of _Get Lamp_ that Jason shipped with the initial documentary.

musicale wrote at 2021-12-01 22:37:19:

I always think of game designers as Steve Meretzky in this video:

MC Frontalot - It is Pitch Dark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nigRT2KmCE

WorldMaker wrote at 2021-12-02 00:41:30:

I still have fond memories of Hodj'n'Podj. It was a perfectly serviceable "Mario Party"-like (3 years before the first Mario Party) that was better in some ways (the deduction mechanics made the overall board more Clue than Sorry; the minigames emphasized a little more brain than brawns) and deficient in others (the replayability of the deduction mechanics was not quite to Clue-levels of playtesting honed shuffle-ability; the lack of support for more players than just two to make it truly a party game; the Mario Kart inspired anyone can have a "come from behind" win for silly reasons/odd macguffins that makes Mario Party's entirely randomization focused boards tolerable and likely the biggest key to the franchise's success).

I'd almost curious to see if there was a world out there where such games were called Hodj'n'Podj-likes [after Hodj'n'Podj got a ton more polish, or a sequel and it became a perennial franchise] and there had been a little bit more focus on smarts over complete randomness. (Though that is Jackbox Games' niche today so it's not entirely underserved in this world.)

I've had friends that absolutely adored The Space Bar and it has been on my "maybe I'll get around to it one day" list for decades. It definitely has a very mixed reputation as both the absolute best and absolute worst of graphical adventure game design.

squirrel wrote at 2021-12-01 21:43:39:

Interesting to see Steve Blank of Lean Startup and Four Steps to the Epiphany described (before any of that work) as "a fast-talking showman fond of broad comparisons".

homarp wrote at 2021-12-01 22:21:28:

https://steveblank.com/category/rocket-science-games/

describes the "Rocket Science" saga

WorldMaker wrote at 2021-12-01 22:51:00:

It will be interesting to see what words spill out when/if The Digital Antiquarian gets directly to "Rocket Science".