Explore classic text adventure games from legendary publishers and authors including Magnetic Scrolls, Level 9, Infocom, Scott Adams, and Interplay. A podcast for fans of GET LAMP, Eaten By a Grue, The Classic Adventurer, Renga In Blue, and Quest For Clues.
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It's our 50th episode! Jason, Nick, and Tim make it a working holiday with news on the peak of competition season (Ectocomp! Introcomp! Iron ChIF! And of course IFComp!), news on developments for Z-Machine developers and Å-Machine players, five new Fairlight releases on C64, and, yes, reverb Ramsberg.
Iron ChIF Adventuron wrapup: https://intfiction.org/t/iron-chif-season-one-episode-3-flacrabbit-vs-dee-cooke-using-adventuron/81129/138
Iron ChIF TADS sought: https://intfiction.org/t/iron-chef-looking-for-tads-challengers/75758/36
Introcomp: https://introcomp.org/
ECTOCOMP 2026: https://itch.io/jam/ectocomp-2026
ReZet80: https://rezet80.blogspot.com/p/rezet80-sentinel.html
Tiny Text Adventure Engine: https://rezet80.blogspot.com/2026/02/tiny-text-adventure-engine.html
Haunted House: https://rezet80.blogspot.com/2023/09/haunted-house.html
Adventure Family Tree: https://www.ifwiki.org/Adventure_Family_Tree
Adventure Family Tree discussion: https://intfiction.org/t/adventure-family-tree-using-ifwiki-to-record-and-display-information/77211/2
ZigZag: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigZag_(software)
Lantern: https://textadventure.net
Swiss Family Robinson/FLT: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=263890
FairLight TV 159 (Synapse cracks): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2x1xYSHCFQ
The Demon Jar: https://qladventures.itch.io/the-demon-jar
AGI-64/AGI-ANTIC: https://meanhamster.com/games/agi-64
Vanyar: https://johanberntsson.itch.io/vanyar
I'm Still a Cannibal For the FBI: https://cannibalforthef.bi/
Dialog interpreter for Apple II: https://intfiction.org/t/help-dialog-choose-a-commodore-64-color-palette/81746/9
SCUMMVM MADS support: https://www.scummvm.org/news/20260826/
Fish on Apple platforms?!: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/fish
Magnetic Scrolls' Upon Westminster Bridge: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/upon-westminster-bridge/
DAAD tutorials: https://markhardisty.wordpress.com/
The Greedy Dwarf: https://mjhardisty.itch.io/the-greedy-dwarf/devlog/1674561/the-greedy-dwarf-now-available
Adjunct of Computing #1: https://youtu.be/tojYY6hdnNY
Plague On the Discovery testers wanted: https://intfiction.org/t/testers-needed-for-new-bdb-project-s-game-plague-on-the-discovery-morgan-tyler-series-3/82097
Dracula Spectrum Next: https://giadacu.itch.io/dracula-english-zx-spectrum-next-illustrated-edition
A Spy's Heist: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=au4s1nyuqonq10fw
PARANOID blog: https://play-paranoid.online/blog/best-mystery-text-adventure-games
Legends: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=3xgiq6kxz60zvff2
23 Sept 2026
A Mind Forever Voyaging and PRESTAVBA
It's Infocom and Iron Curtain classic text adventures from the final years of the Cold War!
With special guest Ana Meisel (ana.help), Nick and Jason take on two entertaining political-statement classics of the 1980s. First up is PRESTAVBA, aka PERESTROIKA, a once-anonymous satire set in the Prague Spring of 1968 and published (very carefully and also anonymously) in the former Czechoslovakia for ZX Spectrum. Then it's a not-so-distant flash-forward to Rockvil in the year 2031 for A Mind Forever Voyaging, Steve Meretzky's immersive statement on Reagan-era socioeconomic policies in the United States.
Does Perry Simm have free will? Is a Soviet lighter reliable in a pinch? It's the first (and last?) time both our games are the standout selections of Aaron Reed's 50 Years of Text Games project: are they worthy? Join us and find out!
A Mind Forever Voyaging (IFDB)
A Mind Forever Voyaging docs (code table for Simulation Mode on p31)
A Mind Forever Voyaging (playable online)
Přestavba, original Czech and English translation downloads (ZXArt)
Prestavba (IFDB)
50 Years of Text Games (features both games as the standout of 1985 and 1988, respectively)
Gaming the Iron Curtain
London Permacomputing Club
Our Friend the Computer podcast
Bonus - 1980s Czech film recommendations from Ana:
Rozpuštěný a vypuštěný (https://www.oneplay.cz/film/1102-rozpusteny-a-vypusteny)
Vážení přátelé, ano (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vážení_přátelé,_ano)
any Cimrman movies (https://www.themoviedb.org/collection/134221-divadlo-jary-cimrmana-kolekce)
30 Aug 2026
OPEN MAILBOX September 2026
Contest deadlines, international reviews, and some Ramsberg groveling lead our news coverage for text adventure enthusiasts this month. Tim, Jason, and Nick bring you the latest for one of the oldest gaming disciplines... aside from that one story we accidentally repeated from last month.
Nick's a little heavy on the reverb filter in this one, let us know if you get seasick.
Spanish discussion of RetroAdv:
https://mastodon.social/@DekaBlack/117166787290154461
https://mastodon.social/@textualizame/117166805431903978
Madman, port of 1983 VIC-20 game by the dread Ramsberg:
https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=6ymufgd24jnxg256
Wyrmward, Z6 PunyInform title:
https://johanberntsson.itch.io/wyrmward
Darkwood V: The Lost God found and preserved: https://csdb.dk/release/index.php?id=263342
https://www.facebook.com/groups/EightBitAdventures/posts/28558175203785812/
Inform 6 DM4:
https://inform-fiction.org/manual/about_dm4.html
Inform 6 Programmer's Guide: https://jxself.org/inform-guide/
OS9 Infocom interpreter: https://github.com/rlucente-retro/infocom-os9-port/releases/tag/v1.0.0
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164528820297641/
Raaka-Tu: https://github.com/DrPitre/raakatu
CoCo Nation Podcast Episode 474:
Galaxy's Edge, BBC Micro title by Graham Nelson:
https://ahopeful.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/galaxys-edge-1984-by-graham-nelson/
Oo-Topos C64 cracked:
https://csdb.dk/release/?id=263365
FairLight TV #156: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ewUo92awZ0
Z-Machine BBS details: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1814239092232631
David Youd hacks Secrets of the Pyramid (duplicate, oops): https://youtu.be/OiUZ7qtRHB4
Inform Trail Camera: https://www.twitch.tv/informtrailcamera
Zork NES:
https://github.com/lupinthird/zorknes
AGI-64:
https://meanhamster.com/games/agi-64
Beatle Quest Python runner: https://www.amigaretro.com/projects/blakes-7-beatle-quest/
Blake's 7 for Oric:
https://defenceforce.itch.io/blakes-7
Wander System for Ubuntu Touch:
https://mastodont.cat/@cibersheep/117151878472175318
Clash of the Type-Ins returns:
https://rcveeder.net/clash/
The Hobbit for TI-99 4/A:
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/392212-the-hobbit-for-ti994a
Classic Infocom playable library:
https://jamiedurrant.com/infocom/
Iron ChIF Adventuron battle:
https://intfiction.org/t/iron-chif-season-one-episode-3-flacrabbit-vs-dee-cooke-using-adventuron/81129
Out of Luck: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=n1y41pmdrk8ikk26
A Bonded Harvester: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=mbsybax9swkzp81o
Adventurer's Rest channel: https://youtu.be/fgg_-9Rb2zY
PARANOID game: https://www.play-paranoid.online
Astaria MUD: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=6x86ablx3lg3u2y2
Who has been a guest on The Retro Adventurers
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Andrew Plotkin
Macbeth
Avon
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