Titles and origins
In naming this blog (which for some time ran the risk of being called Title Goes Here) I have drawn on the grand tradition of Using Phrases From Old Text Adventure Games (if you can call it a grand tradition, which I’m not at all sure you can, seeing as how I now can’t think of any other sites to do this apart from Get Lamp, which is in fact a documentary – but still! Oh, wait, there’s XYZZYnews as well. I’m saved.).
“Blasting requires dynamite” is the pithy phrase that’s produced when a player types “blast” at certain points in Adventure (a.k.a. Colossal Cave Adventure), the first text adventure game. I chose it because it’s been part of my family’s lexicon for years, and thus seems appropriate.
Text adventure games – or as we now call them, interactive fiction – have long been an interest of mine. My first encounter with the genre was a game for the BBC Micro (so memorable that I’ve forgotten both the title and the content!), which I played at a tender age. I didn’t play one again for many years, but the early grounding proved useful. Now I’m trying to write one using Inform 7, and I’ll be chronicling my adventures along the way in this blog.