Infocom game disks with original interpreter versions?

[Gatherer of Data]

I was wondering if any Infocom games have been preserved online ( in a format usable by emulators) featuring the original interpreters. I'm including the Asgard releases in this. I keep finding ones which have the "Lost Treasures of Infocom" intro, which I assume means they come from a CD conversion that was made around 2000.Does anyone know of a source?

[+arcadeshopper]

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/games/Infocom%20games/

[Gatherer of Data]

I was actually not having any luck there, hence the question. Everything I pulled from there so far showed the Lost Treasures intro etc.

[+arcadeshopper]

I was actually not having any luck there, hence the question. Everything I pulled from there so far showed the Lost Treasures intro etc.

 

Wild, guess someone updated them recently? let me dig into my archives when i have time and check mine out

[+arcadeshopper]

Oh I see they were the updates with 80col interpreter so i bet they had to import that version to get the text to 80col

 

I have the original disk for hitchhikers somewhere..

[Gatherer of Data]

Yeah, I can see why it would make sense to have updated versions, but old ones are still interesting for documentation etc. For most systems you can rely on TOSEC, No-Intro, MESS, or whatever for preservation, but with the TI it seems a bit different. Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you or anyone else could pull something from any other available archives.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Gatherer of Data

[+Ksarul]

I may have to look and see what I can dig up. I have a complete set of originals around here somewhere. . .

[christophlee]

This was a complicated thing - at the time I found that several people in the community had figured out how to hijack the interpreter that Infocom had made for the 99/4A to play games that they had never gotten around to offering. Since the games were essentially a database and the interpreter, it was simply a matter of converting the files. I thought it was tragic (as a huge fan of their games) that they didn't release them, so I contacted Infocom, which at the time had been bought out by Activision, to see if they would give me permission after I spoke with Barry Boone and a few other people in the community. Little did I know but I had walked into a shit-storm.. Infocom was in the process of being shutdown, and there was no one in authority. Eventually, I found someone in Activision who made me an intriguing offer - if I bought their deadstock they said that they didn't care if I re-packaged it for the 4A. It just so happened they had a ton of the stuff sitting around, much of it on 5-1/4" disks.. so I did just that... I bought all I could get my hands on, reformatted the disks and put TI versions on the same disks. I also paid a royalty to the programmers that put it together. It was never a huge money-maker... it was a labor of love... but it just felt good to get it out there.

 

Things got a little muddy when I went back to get more of Leather Goddesses of Phoebes.. by far my best seller (who knew computer guys liked adventure porn?). At this point Infocom was totally wound up, and I couldn't find anyone who could tell me anything. It just so happened, though, I had a back-door contact into the company. We essentially worked out a reproduction agreement - I paid them a royalty on the copies that I made from making my own versions of their documentation. Of course, they were famous for their complicated documentation, and there was no way I could cost-effectively replicate it. But, I did my best and people liked it anyway.

 

I still have 5-6 copies of LGOP sitting in my storage boxes, but no one to send a check to if I sold them... so I don't feel right about parting with them. I also have a fairly complete set of the originals in my personal collection - which I don't plan to sell or give away.

[Shift838]

I was wondering if any Infocom games have been preserved online ( in a format usable by emulators) featuring the original interpreters. I'm including the Asgard releases in this. I keep finding ones which have the "Lost Treasures of Infocom" intro, which I assume means they come from a CD conversion that was made around 2000.Does anyone know of a source?

 

I have alot of them with the original interpreters if you need disk images.

 

Let me know..

 

Chris

[Gatherer of Data]

 

 

Things got a little muddy when I went back to get more of Leather Goddesses of Phoebes.. by far my best seller (who knew computer guys liked adventure porn?). At this point Infocom was totally wound up, and I couldn't find anyone who could tell me anything. It just so happened, though, I had a back-door contact into the company. We essentially worked out a reproduction agreement - I paid them a royalty on the copies that I made from making my own versions of their documentation. Of course, they were famous for their complicated documentation, and there was no way I could cost-effectively replicate it. But, I did my best and people liked it anyway.

 

 

Yeah, the documentation, the "feelies", where probably a large part of the appeal, I've read Infocom also didn't put any copy protection on their games, though I don't know if they kept it this way until the end. I didn't realize that Asgard also sold old stock, I thought it was just the games that weren't released by Infocom before.

 

.

I have alot of them with the original interpreters if you need disk images.

 

Let me know..

 

Chris

 

 

 

I'll sent you a pm.