Infocom was founded on June 22, 1979 by MIT staff and students led by Dave Lebling, Marc Blank, Albert Vezza, and Joel Berez and lasted as an independent company until 1986 when it was bought by Activision.

Infocom games were written using a roughly LISP-like programming language called ZIL ( Zork Implementation Language or Zork Interactive Language — it was referred to as both ) that compiled into a byte code able to run on a standardized virtual machine called the Z-machine.

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.

Inspired by Colossal Cave, Marc Blank and Dave Lebling created what was to become the first Infocom game, Zork, in 1977 at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science.

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.

In an attempt to reach out to females, Infocom also produced Plundered Hearts, which required the gamer to take the part of a heroine in a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, and which required the heroine to use more feminine tactics to win the game, since hacking-and-slashing was not a very ladylike way to behave.

And to compete with the Leisure Suit Larry style games that were also appearing, Infocom also came out with Leather Goddesses of Phobos in 1986, which featured " tame ", " suggestive ", and " lewd " playing modes, and that was notable for including among its " feelies " a " scratch-and-sniff " card with six odors that corresponded to six cues during the game.

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.

By the time Infocom removed the copy-protection and reduced the price to less than $ 100, it was too late, and the market had moved on to other database solutions.

Davis believed that his company had paid too much for Infocom and initiated a lawsuit against them to recoup some of the cost, along with changing the way Infocom was run.

In addition, Zork was written on the PDP-10, and Infocom used several PDP-10s for game development and testing.

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.

Enchanter was originally developed as Zork IV ; Infocom decided to instead release it separately, however, and it became the basis of a new trilogy.

When Zork became a commercial product at Infocom, Infocom agreed that if an Infocom copyright notice was put on the Fortran version, noncommercial distribution would be allowed.

The Z-machine is a virtual machine that was developed by Joel Berez and Marc Blank in 1979 and used by Infocom for its text adventure games.

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.

Whereas most game developers sold their games mainly in software stores, Infocom also distributed their games via bookstores.

Unlike most computer software, Infocom titles were distributed under a no-returns policy, which allowed them to make money from a single game for a longer period of time.

* Infocom used the Z-machine to make its software applications more portable.

* A software compiler used by Infocom to create Z-machine games.

In keeping with another Infocom tradition, these feelies also provided a measure of protection against software piracy.

The feelies pioneered by text adventure company Infocom include many examples, such as blueprints, maps, documents, and publications designed within the context of each game's fictional setting.

Infocom had sunk much of the money from games sales into Cornerstone ; this, in addition to a slump in computer game sales, left the company in a very precarious financial position.

* Infocom company profile from MobyGames

In January 2011, SAY Media announced that Infocom, a Japanese IT company, had acquired Six Apart Japan and that as part of the transaction, Infocom would assume responsibility for Movable Type.

The company was founded in 1989 by Bob Bates and Mike Verdu after the end of Infocom.

Unlike most other Infocom titles, particularly those written by Steve Meretzky, the game had a serious tone and a political theme ; attributes which the company would revisit with the following year's Trinity.

On January 21, 2011, SAY Media announced that it was selling the Six Apart brand and the worldwide Movable Type business to Infocom, a Japanese information technology company.

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.

Infocom was closed in 1989 by its then-parent company Activision.

It was one of the last games in Infocom's Zork series ; or, rather, one of the last Zork games that many Infocom fans consider " official " ( titles such as Zork: Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor were created after Activision had dissolved Infocom as a company and kept the " brand name ").

Although Arthur was one of the last interactive fiction games Infocom released before closing, the packaging still included a modest attempt at the extra objects, or feelies, that had been a long-standing tradition for the company.

ZUU can be seen as having two goals: promotion of the commercial title Zork Grand Inquisitor, and an attempt to reconcile with die-hard Infocom fans who may have harbored resentment against Activision for their role in buying Infocom in 1985 and subsequent closure of the company in 1989.

It was also the thirty-fifth and last game released by Infocom before parent company Activision closed the Cambridge office, effectively reducing Infocom to a " label " to be applied to later games.

One of the last major text-based games published by a major games company other than Infocom, Amnesia is also the only all-text adventure ever published by EA ( The Hound of Shadow, released by EA in, also was largely text-based but featured static graphical screens in its displays to establish setting and atmosphere ).

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.

While this made sense for the graphically intensive games that made up the rest of Activision's catalog, since Infocom games were text based, it didn't make sense-the newer games didn't have improved text.

Of six novels published as " Infocom Books " by Avon Books between 1989 – 1991, four were directly based on Zork: The Zork Chronicles by George Alec Effinger ( 1990 ), The Lost City of Zork by Robin W. Bailey ( 1991 ), Wishbringer by Craig Shaw Gardner and Enchanter, also by Bailey.

During the 1990s, Graham Nelson drew up a Z-machine standard, based on detailed studies of the existing Infocom files.

The undisputed giants of the genre were Infocom, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who practically redefined the genre by ensuring the interface ( or text parser ) never provided a barrier between the player and the fictional elements of the game.

The Ur-Grue character in Beyond Zork may be a reference to Brian Moriarty himself, the creator of the game, who is notably absent from the game's portrayal of an " Implementors ' Luncheon ", where each Implementor is recognizably based on a member of the Infocom staff.

A Mind Forever Voyaging, published by Infocom in 1985, was an interactive fiction game in which the player controlled a sentient computer capable of experimenting with potential future scenarios based on varying public policy decisions.

He allegedly invested $ 250, 000 in InfoCom, with Infocom to make payments to Marzook based on the company's net profits or losses.