With the Z-machine, Infocom was able to release most of their games for most popular home computers of the day simultaneously — the Apple II family, Atari 800, IBM PC compatibles, Amstrad CPC / PCW ( one disc worked on both machines ), Commodore 64, Commodore Plus / 4, Commodore 128, Kaypro CP / M, Texas Instruments TI-99 / 4A, the Mac, Atari ST, the Commodore Amiga and the Radio Shack TRS-80.

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 as 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.

Although Infocom started out with Zork, and although the Zork world was the centerpiece of their product line throughout the Zork and Enchanter series, the company quickly branched out into a wide variety of story lines: fantasy, science-fiction, mystery, horror, historical adventure, children's stories, and others that defied categories.

Reviewers were also consistently disappointed that Infocom — noted for the natural language syntax of their games — did not include a natural language query ability, which was the most expected feature for this database.

And a final disappointment was that Cornerstone was available only for IBM PCs and not any of the other platforms that Infocom supported for their games ; while Cornerstone had been programmed with its own virtual machine for maximum portability, that feature had become essentially irrelevant.

* Infocom had a successful marketing approach that kept all their games in store inventories for years.

Personal Software published what would become the first part of the trilogy under the name Zork when it was first released in 1980, but Infocom later handled the distribution of that game and their subsequent games.

* Zork Implementation Language, the language which Infocom used to produce their works of interactive fiction

Adventure International, owned by Scott and Lexis Adams, had been an early competitor of Infocom, but they went out of business long before Infocom had hit their stride.

Infocom sold similar hint books called " invisiclues " for their interactive fiction games.

Aside from a reference to their being " born in places of darkness " on the Inner Planes and a general sense of shapeless menace, they have very little in common with their Infocom namesakes, despite having been introduced soon after the first Zork games and presumably having been inspired by them.

" One significant achievement noted by reviewers was that Infocom was able to contain the entire program on one floppy disk, a bonus provided by their use of their custom virtual machine ( in addition to other facilities, it compressed text ).

Infocom used the term feelie to refer to the extra content included with the boxed versions of their interactive fiction computer games.

Of the 15 ISPs who attended PLDT's presentation, the 5 largest ISPs signified their intention to join the PhIX project by signing the Multi-Lateral Peering Agreement on 19 November 1996, namely: Infocom, IPhil, Moscom, Virtualink and WorldTel Phil.

InvisiClues were hint booklets sold by Infocom to help players solve puzzles in their interactive fiction computer games.

By the time of Arthurs release, Infocom had stopped rating their games in terms of difficulty.

Even for a player who owned an original copy and thus, was more likely to have the letter, it was unusual for an NES game to refer to a physical object that would otherwise just be a novelty ( although Infocom games had been doing this for some time, with the " Feelies " that they included with their games ).

Infocom stopped assigning " difficulty " levels for their games before Zork Zero was released.

Infocom thus started including feelies in their subsequent releases, though not every game required the use of the included feelies.

Infocom was a software company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction.

Infocom also released a small number of " interactive fiction paperbacks " ( gamebooks ), which were based on the games and featured the ability to choose a different path through the story.

* The Lost Treasures of Infocom ( 1991 ; contained 20 of Infocom's interactive fiction games )

* The Lost Treasures of Infocom II ( 1992 ; contained 11 interactive fiction games )

" The command commonly produces a humorous response in other Infocom games and text adventures, leading to its usage in the title of the interactive fiction competition, the XYZZY Awards.

** Zork Quest: Assault on Egreth Castle ( 1988, Infocom, interactive computer comic book )

** Zork Quest: The Crystal of Doom ( 1989, Infocom, interactive computer comic book )

A licensed interactive fiction game based on the script was being developed for Infocom by Bob Bates, but was cancelled when Infocom was shut down by its then-parent company Activision.

Suspended: A Cryogenic Nightmare is an interactive fiction video game written by Michael Berlyn and published by Infocom in 1983.

* Enchanter ( video game ), a 1983 interactive fiction game by Infocom

A second example of Vogon poetry is found in the Hitchhiker's Guide interactive fiction game that was produced by Infocom.

The Infocom interactive fiction game Trinity begins in the Kensington Gardens.

* Sorcerer ( video game ), a 1984 interactive fiction computer game made by Infocom

Bureaucracy is an interactive fiction computer game released by Infocom in 1987, scripted by popular comic science fiction author Douglas Adams.

Their goal was to design interactive fiction in the Infocom tradition.

A Mind Forever Voyaging ( AMFV ) is an interactive fiction game designed and implemented by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in 1985.

P. David Lebling ( born October 30, 1949 ) is an interactive fiction game designer ( implementor ) and programmer who has worked at various companies, including Infocom and Avid.

Dave Lebling introduced a similar monster, whose name was borrowed from Vance's grues, into the interactive fiction computer game Zork, published by Infocom.

They have cropped up in other fantasy realms, though rarely, as they are seen as being strongly attached to the Zork universe, Infocom and the medium of interactive fiction in general.

Later, Reeve, Daniels, Galley and other members of Dynamic Modeling went on to start Infocom, a company that produced many early commercial works of interactive fiction.

Leather Goddesses of Phobos is an interactive fiction computer game written by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in 1986.

Brian Moriarty ( born 1956 ) is an American video game developer who authored three of the original Infocom interactive fiction titles, Wishbringer ( 1985 ), Trinity ( 1986 ) and Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor ( 1987 ).