Reading all the nostalgia already presented, three companies springs to mind. Infocom, Magnetic Fields and Level 9 (from memory and didn't bother to check), of these, Infocom got me first... and after sweating through the first trilogy, once finished, I had used so much paper drawing maps and notes that my mother asked me to stop, but I couldn't care less, I was sooo proud of myself - and so Infocom was the one that got me for keeps, I can't say how many times I've bought Zork I-II-III, having even multiple revisions of the z-code files for all three in my monstrous text-adventure archive. Still I simply could not help it and they're firmly planted among the other zork games on my G.O.G. shelf. So, what is it with these games? How did they manage to entangle my entire life? The answer is simple: There never was room for any graphics on them old 5 1/4" floppy disks, but Zork still managed to paint every scene in greater detail than any graphics card can handle today, tomorrow, forever. They did so by using the Direct-Brain technique, a very dangerous technique that infects the unsuspecting gamer with a lifelong decease and I got hit hard. No matter how many years go by or how old I become, I will still see the pathways, forests, cabins and not only that, I belong to the scenes painted and will forever be scared to death by even the slightest thought of the likeliness of being eaten by a Grue. The elements of the technique cannot be described i greater detail but consists of unknown amounts of surrealistic storylines, "just enough" description of environments, humor and sheer craziness. Mix that with a 15 year old boy (at the time) and his entire timeline from start to wits end and the final destination as the dungeon master ghost was instantly burned in his brainwaves. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to, once again, pack my brass lantern and "GO NORTH", maybe we'll meet again at the rainbow bridge in another lifetime, I don't know. Fare well adventurer. :-D
