the finale of Marooned, including one of the most absurd puzzles I have ever run across
with the asterisk this was an unfinished game, and I get into why I think it was left in the state it was
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/07/17/marooned-diamonds-to-dust/
And now an #InteractiveFiction quiz thread where the clues are riddle poems:
https://intfiction.org/t/guess-the-if-game-from-a-riddle-poem-about-it/75383
(The emoji quiz of the previous post is still going, too.)
Trinity (1986), by Infocom. One of the first five Infocom games I bought (the others were Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, and Deadline), and it still has some of the best graphics I've ever seen in an adventure game.
(Screenshot from the Macintosh version, because that's how I played it back then.)
Save the date: Another Let's Code Livestream this Sunday, 20th July, 20:00 CEST, 18:00 UTC!
More amateur 6502 hacking, to optimize the Infocom interpreter for the Commodore PET!
https://youtube.com/live/Ywp51hY5GDo
#infocom #interactivefiction #commodore #commodorePET #retrogaming #letscode
Did you already listen to the latest episode of „The Retro Adventurer“? No? Then go do it now!
If only they were PROPERLY on the Fediverse!
https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/the-retro-adventurers/id1739948119?i=1000716247040
My playthrough of the rescued-from-oblivion 1980(-ish) game Marooned continues, albeit erratically; it turns out an unpublished and unfinished game would have even more bugs than the worst published game, who knew?
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/07/15/marooned-into-the-glitchiverse/
The intfiction dot org forum is currently doing a "guess which #InteractiveFiction work these emojis refer to" quiz format: https://intfiction.org/t/guess-the-if-emojis/75668
Hadean Lands is now part of the Boston-Based Indies bundle on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/56056/Bostonbased_Indies/
Five titles, 15% off:
- Hadean Lands (me!)
- Monster Loves You Too! (Dejobaan)
- MewnBase (Cairn4)
- Million Monster Militia (Space Capsule)
- Loki's Revenge (OWL)
Not on Steam? I've set up a one-week sale on Itch as well. (Just HL, no bundle.) https://zarf.itch.io/hadean-lands
Enjoy! And thanks for supporting Boston local game developers.
Today for All the Adventures I have a most unusual post as a game by Kim Watt (likely from 1980) was left in a non-functional state by the author and now is fixed and playable for the first time.
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/07/12/marooned-playable-for-the-first-time/
What would you do if you only have ONE choice?
Come participate in the next Neo-Interactive jam and show us how you used the ONE choice!
https://itch.io/jam/single-choice-jam-25
#interactivefiction #visualnovel #gamedev #singlechoicejam #neointeractives
A new review for The Zen of Kayaking (2024), some very nice words from BrownPants! Thank you for playing 
- The game is on reverse-sale ($10 instead of $5) for the next 20 days: https://pixel-turkey.itch.io/the-zen-of-kayaking but can also be had for less via patreon https://www.patreon.com/pixel_turkey #interactivefiction
The next secret we are going to tackle is the secret entrance in one of the main columns. What we already discovered: every column has a statue. We examined those but no luck there. As it turns out you have to EXAMINE <SURNAME> to find an ITEM said saint is holding. You don’t get this info when examining the statue nor when using the first name. Bad puzzle design hits again!
#interactivefiction #diekathedrale #commodore #amiga500
All the Adventures reaches a TRS-80 game with code that suggest an author enamored with Scott Adams. He tries to copy, but with a much different method, leading to bizarre side effects.
Also, a near brush with "moon logic" and keys coming out of a bathtub faucet.
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/07/09/herrick-venture-1-escape-1983/
The libertine thread of disco-era sci-fi shines through in this #Asimov-inspired text adventure, for better and/or worse!
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bjpufa66d36itb5rzn3p6vrn/post/3ltgbuftmi224 #InteractiveFiction
Of course there are a lot of coffins. But so far nothing interesting.
#interactivefiction #diekathedrale
How about you? Any other card games in your country that mix interactive fiction with puzzle-solving? Always looking for new recommendations—drop your favorites!
And if you want to try Brussels Vortex yourself, head over to https://brussels-vortex.com
In my grand finale to The Dark Crystal, events start to hew closer to the movie, with unfortunate side effects.
This would set the stage for the creation of King's Quest, with a demo version in stores later that same year, and a full release in May of 1984.
https://bluerenga.blog/2025/07/06/the-dark-crystal-a-thousand-years-of-solitude/
@profoundlynerdy This sounds an awful lot like Redhawk, which the @retroadventurers.bsky.social covered in episode 22: https://retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/22/ #InteractiveFiction
I've been doing a lot more work on "Who Whacked Jimmy Piñata?" lately. It's now possible to confess your sins in the Church of the Immaculate Confection, and you may very well want to: it's hard to investigate a murder in Sugar City without getting one's hands a little dirty.
#ScreenshotSaturday #BubbleGumshoe #WhoWhackedJimmyPiñata #InteractiveFiction #Inform
Ok, we gave in and had a look at a German walkthrough. To be precise: ASM Special issue 15, which I actually owned as a kid! It is since long lost, copies float around the web! So you REALLY have to examine and search EVERYTHING. And I mean literally EVERYTHING. And you CAN‘T solve the game using the mouse interface alone. Which is a huge NO NO in my books. The verb we needed was TURN, and it is NOT in the icons. Then what’s the use of icons anyhow?
#interactivefiction #diekathedrale
