2 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 typewritten "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:

• Davis 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.
• Davis demanded the struggling developer 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, 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.

3 Titles & authors

• The Zork series:
  • The original Zork Trilogy (Marc Blank & Dave Lebling):
    • Zork I: The Great Underground Empire ( 1980)
    • Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz ( 1981)
    • Zork III: The Dungeon Master ( 1982)
  • The Enchanter Trilogy:
    • Enchanter ( 1983, Marc Blank)
    • Sorcerer ( 1984, Steve Meretzky)
    • Spellbreaker ( 1985, Dave Lebling)
  • Beyond Zork ( 1987, Brian Moriarty)
  • Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz ( 1988, Steve Meretzky)
  • Return to Zork (1993)
  • (1996)
  • (1997)
  • Zork: The Undiscovered Underground (1997, Mike Berlyn and Marc Blank)
• Deadline (1982, Marc Blank)
• Starcross (1982, Dave Lebling)
• Suspended (1983, Michael Berlyn)
• Infidel (1983, Michael Berlyn)
• Planetfall (1983, Steve Meretzky)
• 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)
• (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)
• 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 (1987, Bob Bates)
• Stationfall (1987, Steve Meretzky)
• Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur (1989, Bob Bates)
• James Clavell's Shogun (1989, Dave Lebling)
• Journey (1989, Marc Blank)

4 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.

5 Notes

1. 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)

6 See also

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

7 External links

• MobyGames' entry on Infocom
• Infocom's history, games and authors
• INFOCOM Homepage by Peter Scheyen—An enthusiast's home page, containing, among many other resources, a timeline of Infocom's founding, releases and eventual dissolution.
• Down From the Top of Its Game: The Story of Infocom, Inc.—A report from MIT which offers a very detailed examination of Infocom's creative successes and marketing failures. A must-read for Infocom fans.
• The Infocom Gallerywith photos of all game boxes, feelies, instruction manuals and extra game contents
• Numerous Infocom games in Java playable online
• Numerous Infocom games playable online via telnet login: zork Password:
• A gallery of Infocom box art

Defunct computer and video game companies Infocom Interactive fiction

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