“A fascinating peek into the history and evolution of interactive storytelling.” —Serenity Caldwell

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“An exceptional survey of the form: I learned new things even about games I know well, and had a delightful introduction to some I’d never heard of. ...both thoroughly researched and full of joy.” —Emily Short

“Shows why interactive fiction is important, why it still matters, and how the field has evolved.” —Cidney Hamilton

“An awesome exploration of the long history of the genre.” —Nick Walton (AI Dungeon)

“A staggering history of text games... It’s an incredible accomplishment and a wellspring of historical knowledge.” —Cat Manning

“It's impossible to overstate how good a job @aaronareed has done... well-designed, easy to browse, and full of primary source material. It's not just a great book—it's an invaluable resource for everyone interested in text-based games, whether you're a scholar or a game designer or a player.” —Adrian Hon


Get Your Own Copy

Zork. Dwarf Fortress. Fallen London...

Adventure. ELIZA. Trade Wars. That paperclips game... Galatea. Choices. Lifeline. 80 Days. And many more...

For fifty years, writers have been creating interactive fiction on digital platforms. From text adventures to VR poetry, MUDS to mobile dating sims, chatbots to roguelikes, these games without graphics have pioneered new genres of interactive storytelling and engaged imaginations with prose and code.

Now you can (re)discover these games in a beautiful book chronicling the first half-century of video games made from words.

50 Games in 50 Years

Fifty in-depth chapters cover one text game from each year starting in 1971—when a Minnesota teacher wheeled a teletype into his class to debut a game called The Oregon Trail—through the dawn of the 2020s.

The fifty games include famous classics, overlooked gems, and forgotten genres: everything from epic MUDs to generative text engines, and games running on hardware from teletypes to smart watches. It's the story of interactive fiction, made accessible to outsiders and insiders alike.


What's Inside?

  • 620 pages of in-depth coverage
  • Original maps and diagrams reveal each game's structure
  • Excerpts of text and source code highlight the writing and design of each game
  • Extensive version and release histories for each game
  • Contextualized with overviews of each decade and major trends in the evolution of interactive fiction, and an in-depth look at the roots of digital text in the 1950s and 60s
  • Capsule summaries of nearly five hundred other noteworthy text games
  • A full index and research bibliography

Further Explorations

A bonus volume crammed full of stuff that just couldn't fit in the main book is also now available. Further Explorations is an 85-page supplement that covers weird text game genres like hacking simulators and type-in books, fan-favorite games like Anchorhead and A Dark Room, and features a detailed timeline of text game history with hundreds of tools, technologies, events, and milestones.

Originally available exclusively as a perk to crowdfunders, Further Explorations is now available for standalone purchase in a revised and expanded edition.

The hardcover edition of 50 Years of Text Games standing upright against a neutral background. It features a black faux-leather cover, with the title overlaid in silver foil and the debossed years 1971 and 2020.
Cover of the softcover edition of 50 Years of Text Games, which features the title in a retro font and the legend 'From Oregon Trail to A I Dungeon and everything... chatbots, MUDs, text adventures, gamebooks, database fiction, hypertext, clicker games, storylets, Twines, roguelikes, spoken-word shooters, browser games, visual novels, B B S doors, play-by-mail, hacking simulators, V R poetry, generative text... in between.
A page from the book showing the chapter header on the 1980 game MUD, with a stats block showing launch platform and other details, and a blockquote with the opening text of the game, which begins: 'You are stood on a narrow road between The Land and whence you came.'
A two-page spread from the interior of 50 Years of Text Games, showing the opening of the overview chapter on the 1990s.
A two-page spread from the book showing the chapter on 80 Days, featuring a map of node connections.
Close-up on part of a map of the 1978 game Pirate Adventure from the book.
Page detail from the book's chapter 'Before the 70s,' showing a picture of a girl playing the 1963 educational title 'The Sumerian Game' on a teletype.
Detail from the book's chapter on Dwarf Fortress, showing a sidebar with a history of major releases of the game.
Page from the book's chapter on the 1975 game d n d, showing sprites and a screenshot from this early dungeon-crawling game.

Buy the Books

50 Years of Text Games

Cover of 50 Years of Text Games

An in-depth history of interactive fiction. 640 pages.

Softcover

8"x10" softcover

Hardcover

8"x10" casebound

Digital

PDF and Reflowable EPUB

Also available direct to libraries/booksellers via IngramSpark.
Hardcover ISBN: 9798985966107
Softcover ISBN: 9798985966114

Further Explorations

Cover of 50 Years of Text Games

A companion volume of bonus chapters. 85 pages.

Softcover

8"x10" softcover

Hardcover

8"x10" casebound




Please note that the offset print run manufactured for the 2022 crowdfunding campaign, including the faux-leather hardcover and slipcase collector's edition, is now completely sold out and these editions are no longer available for sale. The copies being sold now contain the same interior contents as the original run, but are print-on-demand editions.

Note: if you are looking for the original print run on eBay, note that I have seen several auctions pop up which do not specify which version of the book they are selling or include any photos. Assume these auctions are likely the print-on-demand version unless they explicitly say otherwise and have photos to prove it!

Merch Store

Many of the cool maps and designs from the book are now available as standalone posters or as t-shirts, coffee mugs, or phone cases! (Along with a couple new surprises...) Want some CYOA socks? A Dwarf Fortress shower curtain? A meticulously detailed map of mainframe Zork? Now's your chance.

Visit The Store

—— Check out the Merch Store on Redbubble ——

Sample Chapters

1991: Trade Wars

BBS games in the 90s had to compete with the multimedia CD-ROM games on retail shelves, and had only text and 16-color character art to do it with...

A screenshot from Trade Wars showing an alien wearing green sunglasses rendered in blocky ASCII characters.

Table of Contents and First 10 Pages

Check out the opening pages of the book, including the start of an extensive opening chapter on the earliest days of interactive text on computers.

Part of the cover of the paperback edition of the book.

Press/Reviewers

If you're interested in reviewing 50 Years of Text Games for your publication, please contact me (Aaron A. Reed) about getting a review copy. I'm also happy to do interviews on your blog or podcast!

You're also welcome to download hi-res images from the book for use in coverage.

What Games Are Featured?

  • The Oregon Trail
  • ROCKET
  • Hunt the Wumpus
  • Super Star Trek
  • dnd
  • Adventure
  • Zork
  • Pirate Adventure
  • Choose Your Own Adventure #1
  • MUD
  • His Majesty’s Ship “Impetuous”
  • The Hobbit
  • Suspended
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • A Mind Forever Voyaging
  • Uncle Roger
  • Plundered Hearts
  • P.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A.
  • Monster Island
  • LambdaMOO
  • Trade Wars 2002
  • Silverwolf
  • Curses
  • The Playground
  • Patchwork Girl
  • So Far
  • Achaea
  • Photopia
  • King of Dragon Pass
  • Galatea
  • The Beast
  • Screen
  • The Kingdom of Loathing
  • The Fire Tower
  • Shades of Doom
  • Dwarf Fortress
  • Lieux Communs/El Museo de la Consciencias
  • Violet
  • Fallen London
  • Digital: A Love Story
  • Nested
  • Howling Dogs
  • Versu: A Family Supper
  • 80 Days
  • Lifeline
  • Choices: The Freshman
  • Universal Paperclips
  • Weyrwood
  • AI Dungeon
  • Scents & Semiosis


More from the 50 Years of Text Games Newsletter

View All Posts

Business Wargames

New research into the dawn of digital gaming history reveals the surprisingly complex computer games created in the 1950s for, of all people, business management students.

A portion of a paper turn report from the 1950s game Top Management Decision Simulation, with circled numbers corresponding to business decisions.

Thomas M. Disch's Amnesia

The doomed text game from a lauded sci-fi writer with a script far too big for a floppy disk to hold...

Close-up of part of the original box art for Amnesia, featuring artwork of a confused-looking man in a white tuxedo and top hat amidst bright neon signs.

The Gostak

The interactive fiction game that made its players learn a whole new language to play.

Close-up of player notes from the Gostak featuring guesses at definitions for various words, including darftunder: noun, not poltive.


About the Author

Aaron A. Reed is an indie creator exploring the intersection of writing and play. He is the author of Blue Lacuna, voted one of the top ten text adventures of all time; Subcutanean, a novel that changes for each new reader (Lambda Literary Awards finalist); and the tabletop roleplaying game Archives of the Sky, a 2020 ENnie award winner. His previous nonfiction books are Creating Interactive Fiction With Inform 7 and Adventure Games: Playing the Outsider (with Anastasia Salter and John Murray). He holds a PhD in interactive story and lives in the Bay Area of California.

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