Infocom facts for kids
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| Industry | Entertainment/Business software |
|---|---|
| Founded | June 22, 1979 by MIT |
| Defunct | May 5, 1989 |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
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Key people
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Dave Lebling Marc Blank Albert Vezza Joel Berez Steve Meretzky |
| Products | Zork series Planetfall series Leather Goddesses of Phobos series Deadline Z-machine Cornerstone Computer game version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy See products listing |
| Parent | Activision |
Infocom was a software company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced one notable business application, a relational database called Cornerstone. It is also credited for creating the DOS game series Zork. The company bought by Activision in 1986.
Titles and authors
Interactive fiction
- The Zork series:
- The original Zork Trilogy (Marc Blank & Dave Lebling):
- The Enchanter Trilogy:
- Enchanter (1983, Marc Blank and Dave Lebling)
- Sorcerer (1984, Steve Meretzky)
- Spellbreaker (1985, Dave Lebling)
- Mini Zork I: The Great Underground Empire (1987, Marc Blank & Dave Lebling, free cut-down, single load tape version of game, covermounted on UK's ZZAP!64 magazine)
- Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor (1987, Brian Moriarty)
- Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz (1988, Steve Meretzky)
- Zork: The Undiscovered Underground (1997, Michael Berlyn and Marc Blank)
- The Planetfall series:
- Planetfall (1983, Steve Meretzky)
- Stationfall (1987, Steve Meretzky)
- Deadline (1982, Marc Blank)
- Starcross (1982, Dave Lebling)
- Suspended: A Cryogenic Nightmare (1983, Michael Berlyn)
- Infidel (1983, Michael Berlyn)
- The Witness (1983, Stu Galley)
- Cutthroats (1984, Michael Berlyn & Jerry Wolper)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1984, Steve Meretzky & Douglas Adams)
- Seastalker (1984, Stu Galley & Jim Lawrence)
- Suspect (1984, Dave Lebling)
- A Mind Forever Voyaging (1985, Steve Meretzky)
- Wishbringer: The Magick Stone of Dreams (1985, Brian Moriarty)
- Ballyhoo (1986, Jeff O'Neill)
- Hollywood Hijinx (1986, "Hollywood" Dave Anderson)
- Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986, Steve Meretzky)
- Moonmist (1986, Stu Galley & Jim Lawrence)
- Trinity (1986, Brian Moriarty)
- Border Zone (1987, Marc Blank)
- Bureaucracy (1987, Infocom & Douglas Adams)
- The Lurking Horror (1987, Dave Lebling)
- Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It (1987, Jeff O'Neill)
- Plundered Hearts (1987, Amy Briggs)
- Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels (1988, Bob Bates)
- Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur (1989, Bob Bates)
- James Clavell's Shogun (1989, Dave Lebling)
- Journey (1989, Marc Blank)
Other titles
- Graphic Adventures
- Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2: Gas Pump Girls Meet the Pulsating Inconvenience from Planet X! (1992, Steve Meretzky)
- Return to Zork (1993, Doug Barnett)
- Zork: Nemesis (1996)
- Zork Grand Inquisitor (1997)
- BattleTech Games
- BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception (1988, developed by Westwood Studios)
- BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge (1991, developed by Westwood Studios)
- Other Games
- Fooblitzky (1985, Marc Blank, Mike Berlyn, Poh Lim & Paula Maxwell)
- Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth (1988, Scott Schmitz, Ken Updike & Amy Briggs)
- Mines of Titan (1988, Louis Castle & Brett Sperry)
- Tombs & Treasure (1989, developed by Nihon Falcom)
- Circuit's Edge (1989, developed by Westwood Studios)
- Infocomics
- Lane Mastodon vs. the Blubbermen (1988, Steve Meretzky)
- Gamma Force in Pit of a Thousand Screams (1988, Amy Briggs)
- ZorkQuest: Assault on Egreth Castle (1988, Elizabeth Langosy)
- ZorkQuest II: The Crystal of Doom (1988, Elizabeth Langosy)
Collections
- The Zork Trilogy (1986; contained Zork I, Zork II & Zork III)
- The Enchanter Trilogy (1986; contained Enchanter, Sorcerer & Spellbreaker)
- The Lost Treasures of Infocom (1991; contained 20 of Infocom's interactive fiction games)
- The Lost Treasures of Infocom II (1992; contained 11 interactive fiction games)
- The Zork Anthology (1994; contained Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork & Zork Zero)
- The Mystery Collection (1995; contained Deadline, Lurking Horror, Moonmist, Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels, Suspect and The Witness. Zork Zero and Planetfall were a bonus in some packages)
- The Adventure Collection (1995; contained Border Zone, Plundered Hearts, Cutthroats, Trinity and Infidel)
- The Comedy Collection (1995; contained Bureaucracy, Hollywood Hijinx and Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It)
- The Fantasy Collection (1995; contained Spellbreaker, Enchanter, Sorcerer, Seastalker and Wishbringer)
- The Science Fiction Collection (1995; contained Suspended, A Mind Forever Voyaging, Starcross, Stationfall and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
- Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom (1996; contained 33 Infocom games plus six winners of the SPAG Interactive Fiction Contest not affiliated with Infocom)
- Zork Special Edition (1997; contained Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, Return to Zork, Zork: Nemesis, and Planetfall)
- Zork Classics: Interactive Fiction (2000)
- The Zork Legacy Collection (2002; contained The Zork Anthology, Return to Zork, and Zork Nemesis)
Images for kids
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Zork I was Infocom's first product. This screenshot of Zork I is representative of the sort of interaction a player has with Infocom's interactive fiction titles. Here it is depicted running on a modern Z-machine interpreter.
See also
In Spanish: Infocom para niños
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Infocom Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.