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Interactive fiction

Interactive fiction (IF) is the modern term for text-driven adventure games, which originated in the 1970s. In an IF game, the computer describes your surroundings and you instruct your character in simple English: go east, for example, or get the lamp then light it.

I've written a couple of humorous IF games (the second being a sequel to the first).

Web-based gameplay is a bit glitchy, and you can't save your progress to a file, so you'll have a better experience if you play these games on a fully-featured Z-code interpreter running on your own computer.

Teacher Feature (2006)

Welcome to the world of St Borogrund's School — a world of intrigue, mystery, deceit, and excruciatingly bad dinners. Above a scattering of ugly grey outbuildings, Borogrund's four-storey tower block rises to assault the eye in a bitter and largely futile attempt to get a second glance.

The end of term looms, and with it the prospect of your school report. Your parents have made it very clear that the report must praise you as a talented and conscientious individual. Being none of the above — but ever loyal to your parents — you make it your quest to seek out the offending report and... amend it.

• Play the game online.
• Download teacher.z5 and play offline.

Lecture Feature (2009)

You are awake, but you would rather not be. The severe cramp in your neck seems almost inconsequential in comparison with the pounding in your head. Your suspicions are roused as to what may have happened the previous night because, as yet, you can remember nothing. A peculiarly furry sensation in your mouth, combined with the unmistakable stench of very cheap scotch, adds to your mounting fear.

By the time your vision clears and you notice that you are lying in the bath of your friend's hall of residence, it is clear to you that you are a victim of Jessica's 21st Birthday Party, as advertised on lamp posts and fences across the city for the past three months.

Your liver is reporting major difficulties and your stomach produces intermittent gurgles of protest. Your head drowns out all other considerations, however, and you sit up, take a look around you, and pray for death...

• Play the game online.
• Download lecture.zblorb and play offline.