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Ron Martinez, our guest from Episode 11, returns! This is actually a holdover from the 2025 Year-End Chatisode sessions, but it really stands alone as an exploration of Ron's recent work in narrative design involving generative AI, large language models, and other 21st century interactive storytelling techniques. Joining us on the call are regular Retro Adventurers Jason and Nick, along with This Week in Retro's Dave "Velociraptor" (Episode 29). And it's a big day for Nabokov fans as both Pale Fire and his lecture on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are invoked. Hidden Agenda 2026 preview Hidden Agenda 2026 landing page Invention Arts Headcanon

It's the Infocom classic Zork, but in two unusual formats! First Nick and Jason explore the unusual covertape edition of Mini-Zork I, a stripped-down, memory-resident version of the original Great Underground Empire created in 1987 and later provided free to readers of the November 1990 issue of ZZap 64 magazine for the Commodore 64. It's a bold undertaking, but is it art? Indeed, does it even work at all? Then the Retro Adventurers take on Zork-285, a reconstruction "of the very first MDL version of Zork from June 14, 1977" as provided by Henrik Åsman. Only available to play by a small cadre of MIT insiders, this version has the bones of what would later become the full-fledged Dungeon game before being carved up for Infocom's commercial products Zork I, II, and III. It's full of pitfalls but notably empty of grues. Cover image from David Ardito's 1981 Zork poster, sourced from zarfhome.com Mini-Zork I on IFDB Zork 285 on IFDB The Newton (excerpt from The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, performed by Jason)  

Holiday merriment with many past guests and minimal editing! Retro Adventurers Jason and Nick chat about the year that was including recent developments in classic adventure open source, plans for 2026, and more with many of our past participants: Robin Raymond, author of Kingdom of the Seven Stones (Episode 9) Tim Gilberts of Gilsoft (Episodes 5, 13, 17, 25) Scott Adams of Adventure International (Episodes 3, 13) Andrew Plotkin (Inhumane covered in Episode 27 and interviewed in Episode 28) Dave "Velociraptor" of This Week in Retro (Episode 29) Christian Neuhaus, co-writer of You've Ruined a Perfectly Good Mystery! (Episode 23) Iain Lee, game show pilot host and media icon (Episode 18) A separate chat with Ron Martinez (Episode 11) will be published in a later episode. Parsely tabletop game Nick's unfinished PunyInform book

Nick and Jason deliver holiday cheer straight from Santa's Grotto in the form of two 1980s Christmas classics. First up is the bite-sized Quill adventure A Spell Of Christmas Ice by Mike Turner, originally published on the tape-based 16/48 Magazine for ZX Spectrum users. For the main course, enjoy Brian Howarth's very British adaptation of the very American monster mayhem classic Gremlins. Curl up by the fire with your favorite picturebook adaptation of a Hollywood blockbuster, listen, and enjoy the season! 16/48 Magazine Issue 12 A Spell Of Christmas Ice, stand-alone tape image Mike E. Turner (IFDB) Gremlins: The Adventure (IFDB) Gremlins: The Adventure (MOCAGH) Level 9 Archive (Github) Andrew Plotkin's analysis of Zork I-III becoming open source Original cover photo by Gy21dds

No one has reviewed more text adventures and works of interactive fiction over the past decade than MathBrush. A self-described newcomer to the scene he has nonetheless posted over 3,600 reviews and counting of games old and new, along with creating or collaborating with others to create 30 games of his own. MathBrush's thousands of reviews MathBrush's IFDB profile MathBrush's games Intfiction.org profile

Get ready to type out every letter in "dodecahedron"! Nick, Jason, and Ben play two games steeped in math, science, and trippy physics in this episode. Beyond the Tesseract by David Lo is the appetizer course, a game originally designed in TRS-80 Level II BASIC, then ported to C and published on a variety of platforms before later being reimplemented in Inform 6 by Andrew Plotkin. A self-professed "abstract adventure", you'll have a better time with it if you paid attention in school. The main course was published in 1984 for the BBC Micro by the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (UK) and goes by L: A Mathemagical Adventure. It's a core memory for many who were young and remember their school experiences with BBC Micros, but does the plot to rescue the fair maid Runia from the Drogos hold up today? Beyond the Tesseract (IFDB, includes playable link) L: A Mathemagical Adventure (IFDB) L: A Mathemagical Adventure (playable online, BBC) Beatle Quest for BBC Micro Shawn McClure's How To Design Adventure Games (IntFiction.org)

WE'VE GOT TEXT ADVENTURE SIGN!! Ben, Jason, and Nick stooge their way through two comedy games. First up is the 1993 Matt Barringer "classic" Detective as put (unofficially) through the wringer of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew by CE Forman and a collection of subsequent riffers. One player was (and remains) completely baffled by this format in which a man and two robots are forced to watch a bad movie (slash play a bad game) for the entertainment of two mad scientists, against a backdrop of scenery bought for peanuts. Then they take on Delta 4's treatment of Terry Pratchett's Discword in The Colour of Magic, a waiting simulator disguised as a four-part comedy adventure. Watch out for the end of the world! The Colour of Magic (IFDB) MST3K: Detective (IFDB) Detective, author's original version (IFDB) Discworld on Page and Screen, Part 2 (The Digital Antiquarian) Review of Detective (SPAG #5) MST3K Satellite News Discworld Emporium  

Ben, Jason, and Nick set sail for adventures new and old on this episode, starting with 10 CAVE ADVENTURE, so named for the number of BASIC lines making up its entire codebase. They then head to the Commodore VIC-20 for a crack at Young Arthur's Quest before journeying to the not-so-long-ago 2021 release Captain Cutter's Treasure, a neo-retro style adventure created in the PunyInform system. Captain Cutter's Treasure (IFDB) Young Arthur's Quest (Renga in Blue) Young Arthur's Quest (MobyGames) 10 Cave Adventure (Spectrum Computing) 8-Bit Show and Tell's breakdown of 10 CAVE

Ben, Jason, and special guest Dave "Velociraptor" of This Week in Retro take on a double dose of robot-themed games. First up is Souls of Darkon by Andy Walker, published by Taskset and Bug-Byte for Amstrad CPC, Spectrum, and Commodore 64. The robot "Komputa" aids the player on their quest to combat a variety of dread evil forces. For the main course we take on Epyx's text adventure adaptation of Isaac Asimov's novel The Robots of Dawn, written by Jon Leupp. The team note the substantial departure from the book's plotlines, the surplus of empty offices, and some inconsistencies between the Apple II and Commodore 64 versions. Ben solves a decades-long gaming mystery, plus there's a cat and a mouse and only one of them survives to the end of the episode! Souls of Darkon (MobyGames) Souls of Darkon (MOCAGH) The Robots of Dawn (MobyGames) The Robots of Dawn (MOCAGH) The Robots of Dawn (playable online, C64) The Robots of Dawn (playable online, Apple)  The Robots of Dawn by Asimov (novel, Wikipedia)

Creator of games including Hadean Lands, Spider and Web, and Shade, as well as a long-time maintainer of Inform and participant in Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF) leadership, Andrew "Zarf" Plotkin was also a teenager once. And back then he wrote Inhumane, as covered in Episode 27. Jason and Nick welcome him to the program discuss the creation of Inhumane, the evolution of his work as a participant in the modern interactive fiction community, and the prospects for another "Infobom" title in that parody vein. Zarfhome (personal homepage and contact info) IFDB credits IFTF A Change in the Weather Praser 5 Grimtooth's Traps Episode image from The Book of Adventure Games II

All the way back in Episode 1 we promised to play Level 9's Knight Orc. Ben and Jason chip away at that obligation by playing... the first of three independent-load sections of the game. (We're working on it!) They do their best to navigate the aptly-named "KAOS" engine and assemble rope. (So much rope.) But first, a clearout of news and listener mail, and a visit to the wry parody of Infidel, Andrew Plotkin's Inhumane. The game is loaded with death traps and unlicensed appearances by famous characters, including a cameo from the villain of Episode 20's Mask of the Sun. Knight Orc (IFDB) Knight Orc (playable online, BBC version) Inhumane (IFDB) Inhumane (playable online) Retro Gaming Books collection How to program a text adventure in C Dog Star Adventure (IFDB) Evertop PC Mystery of Arkham Manor (Spectrum Computing) Mystery of Markham Manor (IFDB) Rick Hanson (IFDB)  

Ben and Jason take on the text adventure distillations of two uniquely British phenomena. First up is the "prolific musical innovator" genre with Number 9 Software's Beatle Quest, a psychedelic trip into lots and lots of Beatle song concepts and name-checking. For the main course, the duo explore the "slobs in space" phenomenon through the storytelling of shareware highlight Jacaranda Jim by modern-day InfoSec celebrity Graham Cluley. It's one of Ben's all-time games, but can he convert his American collaborator? Beatle Quest by Garry Marsh (IFDB) Beatle Quest (playable online, ZX Spectrum) Jacaranda Jim by Graham Cluley (IFDB) Jacaranda Jim (play online or download) Christopher Drum's Infocom Zork on Cosmopolitan  Graham Cluley's computer security news (YouTube)   Cover photo CC-BY 2.0 khakidoggy

Tim Gilberts is back for another rummage through the magazine rack, this time with Jason and Dave. We pull a corporate newsletter and three full-length issues, all from the 1982-1984 period. We look at the first (and only?) newsletter put out by Spinnaker sub-brand Trillium (later Telarium), browse through the general-interest UK mag Personal Computer Games and compare it to a similar American counterpart, Computer Gaming World, before finishing up in the Sierra On-Line sponsored Softline, with none other than Tron on the cover. Trillium Newsletter v1n1 (1984) Personal Computer Games #6 (May 1984) Computer Gaming World Mar/Apr 1983 Softline May 1982 Bill Bowman, CEO of Spinnaker Software (ANTIC Interview #278) David Seuss, co-founder of Spinnaker Software (ANTIC Interview #305) Telarium Corp (Mobygames) Galactic Adventures (The CRPG Addict) Patricia Mitchell, Thorn EMI (ANTIC Interview #302) Chris James, Thorn EMI (ANTIC Interview #326) Journey to the Planet Pincus (Renga in Blue)  

Peter Golden, author of Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow and a key figure in Bantam Software's Living Literature series joins us for a conversation about his work in text adventures and subsequent work as a novelist. PeterGolden.com Bantam Software's Living Literature

For this roundup of Sherlock Holmes adventures from the 1980s, Ben and Jason call in an expert: Sherlockian playwright Christian Neuhaus, co-creator of You've Ruined a Perfectly Good Mystery. The trio of amateur sleuths take on the three major commercial releases in chronological order. First up is Sherlock from Melbourne House, written in the same "Inglish" system that powered The Hobbit... and with many of the same strengths and liabilities. Written by Philip Mitchell, whose Australian take on 19th century London doesn't fool Ben for a second. Next it's the smorgasbord of shipboard mayhem Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow. Author Peter Golden will join us on a future episode to talk about how this Bantam Software release came to be. Finally we take on Infocom's final all-text creation, Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels by Bob Bates. Does it send the legendary series and unparalleled investigative team out on a triumphant note by putting the player in Watson's shoes? Sherlock by Melbourne House (IFDB) Sherlock (playable online, ZX Spectrum) Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow (IFDB) Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow (playable online, DOS) Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels (IFDB) Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels (playable online) Peter Golden's fiction