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Infocom

Infocom was a Cambridge, Massachusetts based software company, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction, otherwise known as text adventure computer games. They also produced one notable business application, a relational database called Cornerstone. Infocom was founded on June 22 1979 by MIT staff and students led by Dave Lebling, Marc Blank, Al Vezza, and Joel Berez and lasted as an independent company until 1986 when it was bought by Activision. Activision finally shut down the Infocom division in 1989, although they released some titles in the 1990s under the Infocom Zork brand.

Table of contents
1 Overview
2 History
3 Titles & authors
4 Legacy
5 Notes
6 See also
7 External links

Overview

Infocom was well-known among game-players for their parser called ZIL (Zork Implementation Language or Zork Interactive Language--it was referred to as both) used in its witty, ambitious text adventures, which allowed the user to type complex instructions to the game. Unlike earlier works of interactive fiction, which only understood commands of the form 'verb noun' (e.g. "get apple"), Infocom's parser could understand commands like "get all apples except the green apple from the barrel." Infocom games were written using a programming language that ran on a standardized virtual machine called the Z-machine. As the games were text based and used variants of the same Z-machine interpreter, Infocom was able to release most of their games for most popular home computers of the day simultaneously—the Apple II family, Atari 800, IBM PC compatibles, Commodore 64, Commodore 128¹, the Mac, Atari ST, and the Commodore Amiga. The company was also known for shipping creative props, or "feelies" (and even "smellies"), with its games.\n

History

Inspired by Colossal Cave, Marc Blank and Dave Lebling created what was to become the first Infocom game Zork in 1977 at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science. The game was released originally for the TRS-80 in 1980 and eventually sold more than a million copies. Lebling and Blank each authored several more games and additional game writers were hired, including notably Steve Meretzky. Other popular and inventive titles included the rest of the Zork series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and A Mind Forever Voyaging. In its first few years of operation, text adventures proved to be a huge revenue stream for the company. Whereas most computer games of the era would achieve initial success and then significant drop-off in sales, Infocom titles continued to sell for years and years. One key employee said of their situation, "It was phenomenal—we had a basement that just printed money." Three key components proved key to their success: marketing strategy, rich storytelling and feelies. Whereas most game developers sold their games mainly in software stores, Infocom also distributed their games via bookstores. Since their games were text-based, patrons of bookstores were drawn to the Infocom games since they were already interested in reading. Next, Infocom titles featured strong storytelling and rich descriptions, eschewing the day's primitive graphic capabilities, allowing users to use their own imaginations for the lavish and exotic locations the games described. Third, the inclusion of "feelies"—imaginitive props and extras tied to the game's theme—provided some copy protection against pirating. Some games were unsolveable without the extra content provided with the boxed game. Many of the games' puzzles proved too difficult for some players. Infocom was regularly flooded with phone calls from customers pleading for hints to solving game puzzles. Due to this, Mike Dornbrook created the Zork User's Group (ZUG) to handle a typwritten "pay-per-hint" service. He also started Infocom's customer newsletter called The New Zork Times to discuss game hints and preview and showcase new products. The pay-per-hint service eventually led to the development of Invisiclues, books with hints, maps, clues and solutions for puzzles in the games. The answers to the puzzles were printed in invisible ink that only became visible with a special marker, provided with each book. Sales of Invisiclues proved incredibly lucrative: their sales consistantly topped computer book best seller lists until the list developers were forced to combine all Invisiclues sales into one number. In 1984 Infocom started putting resources into a new division to produce business products. In 1985 they released a database product, Cornerstone. Though this application was hailed upon its released for its ease of use, it sold only 10,000 copies, not enough to cover the development expenses. Whereas their games had benefitted significantly from the portability offered by running on top of a virtual machine, this strategy did not prove to be a significant advantage for Cornerstone. Most businesses were moving to the IBM PC platform by that time, so portability was no longer a significant differentiator. Infocom had sunk much of the money from games sales into Cornerstone and were left in significantly worse financial position. This led ultimately to the 1985 acquisition by Activision. This turned out to be the beginning of the end for Infocom. While relations were cordial between the two companies at first, the departure of James Levy from Activision left Bruce Davis in charge. Davis believed that his company had paid too much for Infocom and initiated a lawsuit against them to recoup some of the cost. Furthermore, he made a string of poor, heavy-handed decisions that made Infocom unprofitable. For example, he demanded they use Activision's packaging plant instead of their own in-house one, raising the cost of each package from $0.45 each to over $0.90 each. In addition, the Activision plant made numerous mistakes in packaging where the Infocom one almost never did. Infocom had a successful marketing approach that kept all their games in store inventories for years. Because of this, older titles sales often kept pace with sales of newer games. For example, because Zork was available for years after its initial release in 1980, it continued to top charts in sales well into the mid-1980s. Activision preferred to market Infocom's games the way they marketed their other titles: replacing older titles with newer ones. While this made sense for the graphically intensive games that made up the rest of Activision's catalog, since Infocom games were text based, it didn't make sense--the newer games didn't have improved text. This marketing approach cut off revenue for Infocom of numerous past titles that still brought in money every year. Another decision that Davis forced on the struggling developer was the mandate that they must produce eight titles a year, whereas they were used to producing about four, and that with more staff than they currently had. Davis pushed Infocom to release more graphical games as well, but the one they did release bombed. Rising costs and falling profits due to these changes and other botched ventures finally caused Activision to pull the plug on Infocom in 1989.

Titles & authors

Legacy

With the exception of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Shogun, the copyrights to the Infocom games are believed to be still held by Activision. 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, but in violation of the copyright in most other cases. They are available as Z-machine story files and require a Z-machine interpreter to play. Interpreters are available for most computer platforms, the most widely used being the Frotz, Zip and Nitfol interpreters.

Notes

\n# Infocom was actually one of the very few companies (if not the only one) to release game software for the C128's native mode, contrary to most software houses' practice of only catering for the combined C64/128 market (as the C128 was compatible with the C64)

See also

  • 69,105, a number commonly found as an in-joke in many Infocom titles.

External links

Category:Interactive fiction\nCategory:Computer and video game companies\nCategory:Defunct companies

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