Text Adventures - Lost Treasures of Infocom 

Man, it is great to see the PC side of your gaming room! I knew you had some great titles, hehe. Yeah, these Infocom collections are fantastic to own aren't they? What great games, with great feelies. And I love how heavy those compilation boxes are!

I was a HUGE Infocom fan back in the early 80s in my high school years. My C64 and I were partners on many adventures.

Playing some of these for the first time on Frotz and wow, the parsers are so good. It amazes me how complex these kind of games can be

Infocom crafted some of the best stories and characters in their 80s text adventures. I talk about two compilation sets that hold over 30+ games plus Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

Can we please talk about how this guy has an almost flawlessly real looking green screen effect, but chooses to simulate the effect OF BEING IN HIS ROOM. ?!

Thanks! As much as I love console games...I was a Commodore 64 kid growing up...and then later working at Sierra in the 90s, I played PC games almost exclusively. So many great memories!

Whoa so great to hear that they reissued a bunch of the games for tablets. The text game "Adventure!" I think was the first dungeon crawl game I played, just before Ataris "Adventure" for 2600. It was weird though that in my area there was hardly anyplace that sold rpg books, but I did buy classic DnD at a kaybee toys around '83 ,but none of my friends wanted to get into it, so I just returned it.lol I wished I had just kept it for using for helping me develop my own games as I had several boardgame ideas I wanted to do back in mid 80s but never got time, but as time went on into the 90s and 2000s others implemented the same ideas I had and were able to create and market actual games in the style I wanted to be able to way back. As it made me mad at myself for not taking time to work on developing my game ideas as I had card mechanics and a miniatures utilization and a multiple level terrain board idea, but then later I found others did it before I could. Lol So I just gave up on it. I still want to create a working prototype though, even if it is just for my own satisfaction.

I wish I grew up with games like this, so cool that they came with actual physical maps and stuff

thanks for everything. You do more for us than you realize :) cheers from Spain

Zork I was my very first Commodore 64 game. My second game was Impossible Mission which is as far from a text adventure you could get.

All of this boxes was amazing for PC Games,something was i never see

i never played the old school text adventure games except for zork. the ones i really got into were the text adventure games with graphics like from legend (the spellcasting series). that was my first experience with a game that reminds you that your score went up everytime you did a score rising task. so when i tried out wishbringer from infocom yesterday i was shocked to see that it had that your score as gone up message in it. i didn't know that was in games from infocom series (at least games later than zork 1).

I always regretted not having a PC back then. So many awesome games came out that I never got to play.

Today I received the floppy version of The Lost Treasures of Infocom. The box is actually a bit too small for everything as there are five 3.5" floppies inside as well as ten 5.25" floppies!

More like "do people on TV Tropes know of Infocom games", since the company called them Feelies years before the site even existed :)

Totally agree on Planetfall. I couldn't believe that a text adventure game could actually evoke such emotion (again, no spoilers). Floyd rocked it as a companion. Very well written game.

Is that Darkseed in the background? What a game, I wish H.R. Giger did more art for point and click games.

You'd have to ask yourself: Do you like to read books? If not, then they probably aren't the games for you. However, because they were so descriptive... they can hold up today if you can get over the difficulty and learning curve.

I used to be REALLY into text adventures back in my Commodore 64 days. I've just started going through Wishbringer to get back into it.

Deadline and Suspect were my favourites. They had a great parser. But I love Trillium Graphic Adventures too!

I have the CD collection Classic Text Adventures Masterpieces of Infocom which does have Leather Goddesses of Phobos... but lacks the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I was a kid in the 80s, played all of these. Infocom ALWAYS put out a quality product.

It's not on Netflix, but I found it on RU-vid! I'll be watching it using my RU-vid app on my 360. Thanks for the tip!

Infocom made words on your computer heaps fun to play

Those games definitely bring back memories! I was a huge fan of the Zork series. I would have to say my all time favorite Infocom game was Ballyhoo. I will definitely have to look into getting that app.

The text forces you to use your imagination. Indeed much like reading a book. No PS4 or Xboxwhatever can beat that. They keep on bashing each other with 1080p and a gazillion colors and gigaHerz and so on, and then suddenly Infocom changes the rules. They changed them 34 years ago. And as far as I can judge, they are still winning. Great vid, MJ. One of the best so far.

one of my favorite classic games this guy should know a little bit about for multiple reasons......shivers 2

The music at the end of he video reminded me of Spyro, such a blast of nostagia.

Infocom games were great, their packaging was out of this world too.

Did you see the Get Lamp & Infocom documentary. Made by Jason Scott over at Archive.org. Great both of them. He also made a great DVD about BBS culture and phenomena.

Show more Infocom games! Love this shit!

Great video. I love old text adventures, and still play a shorter one from time to time.

I love these games, there's a brilliant documentary called "Get Lamp" about these games, but I'm sure you know that!

great stuff, as I was a kid who didn't speak english I never played text adventures, but I think I will give them a try some time in the future, also these boxes are pretty sweet, with all that stuff inside. They really dedicate a lot to make text adventures more than that!

Planetfall is probably my favorite game of all time. There are great games, but Planetfall was so special.

Just wanted to congratulate you on how much your channel has grown MJR!!! Keep up the great work!

Great video. I wish I had a pristine 486 running to play these great games and have fun with.

I have fond memories of the many text adventures on my old PC. Half the fun for me as a 7 or 8 year old was guessing the commands. I’ve been looking for two of them for years: are you familiar with Mission to Mars? There’s also one based in the Wild West where you’re searching for gold. I know this is an old video but I just stumbled upon it!

That big box showoff at the end. Great taste, man.

As soon as I saw the box art for the infocom games like enchanter and wishmaster. I need to get them emulated. I'm too young for infocom but it still psyches me up

Never played any of these games but I love the history of old video games. I am a collector my self. One of my dreams is to become a video game historian. Just not sure how to make that happen.

I absolutely love this box set (I have it for the Amiga), even though not all of the disks work anymore (I can get around that with ADF) all of the materials in the box is fantastic. I don't know how many hours I spent playing these games back in the day! I played Zork I on a mainframe terminal originally. Most of these early ones were also available on CPM so I probably played most of them on that. I even made a heavily inspired game based on Planet Fall for the original Spectravideo & MSX.

I loved these games on my Apple //c. You're correct, the writing was great!

I loved the Lurking Horror. If you're a fan of text adventures and a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, you would love The Lurking Horror as the game is loosely based on his work

Planetfall! One of the very first games I ever played. Love it.

What a great vid MJR! Old school PC adventure games (in general) just don't get covered enough on YT so it's awesome you're filling that gap. More please. : )

the "grue" lol...i was eaten many times by grues but funnily enough I can't remember what it looked like

spot on regarding Planetfall That one moment in particular was very emotional

thanks GREAT video!!! i use to play zork at my friends house on his computer (way back in the day)... loved it!!!

They released '"Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom" in '96, it was a single CD with 33 games and TLGOP included. It was cross Platform, with all the documentation and game paraphernalia in PDF format.

Our basement is about 900 sq ft... and half of that is dedicated to video games and playing music. Well...maybe a bit more when you count the storage area too :)

super cool stuff! my mind immediately went to what one of those scratch and sniff's might/should smell like. insert bevis laugh here. also i said insert! i played a few of these games back in those days but was unaware of most of what the company was making. i wish more of the the special editions of modern games had the same aesthetic's that these old pc games did.

the only one I have seen mention the second volume. Good luck finding it these days

Infocom! Takes me back to my 486 basic programming days. Thanks for this video, I really enjoyed these games back in the day.

MJR, love your video when you show old classic PC games! Need more!

Super cool!

I have so many fond memories of text adventures on my Commodore 64.

Impossible Mission...so good! "Stay a while.... Stay FOREVER!"

very interessting! I've never played a pure text adventure and I never knew about this company and how much effort they put put in their games in the past. would love to see more!

thanks for sharing this jason. im not into text adventures, but props to you for showing your collection.

Great episode, thanks for working so hard to make these!

i've always loved text adventures, but i only played a couple back in the day on my Commodore 64, which were: Jack The Ripper Extricator (this one was my favourite) Bored of the Rings (a hilarious spoof of Lord of the Rings) Bram Stoker's Dracula

Pretty neat MetalJesus. I never heard of these games before and look pretty neat. Using your imagination really plays into them. If I get a ipad or tablet I will def check the app out. Thanks again

I only played a few text games back then. Couldn't afford them. Used to see the ads for Zork and want that so bad. The only game I remember beating was called Xenos. It was about aliens crashing near a small town. Great stuff!

Man, seriously, thanks for showing me these games. I would never find them on my own. Cheers

The Lost Treasures sets are a great way to get introduced to Infocom but there is no replacement for the grey box series I collected with the feelies like the glow in the dark Wish Stone, the Lucky Swizzle stick from Hollywood Hijinx, etc. They really knew how to package a game as well as writing amazing interactive fiction.

Just recently discovered your channel, Metal Jesus. Excellent stuff! Great to check out Commodore 64 videos (best computer, you know it) and it's always a pleasure to meet a fellow gamer who has the right taste. Infocom, System Shock, Ultimas ...I spot even Dark Seed in your shelf in this video. Hell yea! You got a new subscriber, rock on :)

Fantastic - I love when you do these old big box PC games.

When text-based games have better story are than most Netflix shows...

Really cool stuff they included in the game boxes back then. Miss those days... ;-)

Watch the end of the video. I show the iPad versions

Who said education wasn't fun ? That's was great to hear about Jason cheers pal ! :-)

You should of mentioned that Zork is in Call of Duty Black Ops. Yes, one of the best selling games of all time, has Zork as an easter egg.

Get Lamp is awesome, I'm sure you'll love it!

BEST. METALJESUS. EVER.

I didn't know about that documentary! **runs off to Netflix**

Awesome video! I had most of these as well, then bought the iPad version. Nowadays, the dang thing hasn’t been updated to 64-bit, so it won’t run on iOS 11.

I bet that there were CD and floppy releases for both volumes, probably also multiple different versions of each volume for various platforms as well.

I'm not sure if I like text adventures necessarily, but I definitely find them real interesting.

I REMEMBER THESE

WOOOOO METAL JESUS!

You should have mentioned Invisiclues. That would make the iOS app's hint system make sense. Hey, Activision. Make an Android version!

I love these games. Interactive fiction games are alive and well, by the way. The annual competition (the main one) has been around for nearly 20 years.

Zork, Beyond Zork, and Hitchhikers Guide were my favorites of the dark ages.

I don't know what phone you use, but iOS lets you control all of that under: Settings > Privacy and then just adjust the settings for each app. The more ya know!

Hey Metal Jesus, it was great to meet you and DMP at the expo. My friend was recording some footage when I ran into you, and I'd like to use it in a video, if that's ok with you? I would totally understand if you'd rather me not use it.

Would you believe I used the current iPad to shoot some of that footage? Looks great, right?

I want to grow old with Metal Jesus

MJR, if you ever move, you're going to be spending a ton of money on the movers, for sure! :)

Fun and informative vid, thanks for sharing. Love those old PC boxes. Cool that the games are on iPad as well.

Awesome video! Would love to see more of your PC games collection!

Thanks for the info MetalJesusRocks! I've always wanted to play some of text based adventures. What do you recommend for someone who has never played a text based game?

Hey metal Jesus great video. I have a question for you and anybody else. Did the writers and developers of Trinity and leather goddesses go on to produce any other can't miss video games (or other media)? I'll do some of my own research and post here if I find anything good, but thought you might know. I picked these games up in early nineties after they had been out long enough to be steeply discounted. As you said, they were extremely fun and well written.

Excellent episode once again MJ. I think you should do more older PC game reviews/compilations videos. They're just great. Cheers! ^>^

Looks interesting going to download that app & give it ago

Such a Legendary room full of Great PC Boxes of the old... Oh the memories! edit: 7:08 LOL

Great vid MJ. Great memories of Zork back in the 80s. :-)

Coming soon.

Nice Baldur's gate collection! Any plans to cover those games?

there's a great flash game that's text based called "you find yourself in a room" i'ts great you guys should check it out