Rick Thornquist is writing a book about Infocom. It's going to be a coffee table book, with lots of pictures and sidebars, a chapter on each game, a chapter on the business, and a chapter talking about the Imps. It will be the kind of thing you don't read cover to cover, but rifle through right after you get it to check out the particular games you loved, and then pick up occasionally to scan now and then. It will come with a DVD of interviews with the Imps.
Today was his first official interview: me. He chose me because I'm closest (he lives in Vancouver, BC) and I have less to say than most of the others -- I only wrote one game (although technically my name is on four as a writer and many more than that as a tester), and I was only with Infocom for three years. We've met twice before this (when he was vetting the book with me, and probably making sure I wasn't some crazed doofus he didn't really want to have in the book).
Last night we had dinner and talked for a few hours. This morning he set up his equipment in the living room, and we did the official interview for another three hours. And now I am spent, not a penny left in the energy well, even 8 hours and a nap later. I have unfortunately recharged just enough that I am now remembering and wincing with regret about things I said and other things I didn't say. (Why did I just talk about me? Didn't I have any good stories about other people? About playing the games?) But Rick said I did "perfectly". So I have to not think about how solipsistic and banal I may have appeared in the video and hope that he edits wisely.
Who, you might ask, is the audience for a coffee table book about a company that went bankrupt 20 years ago? On which specialized in a category of games that were the Model T's of the computer gaming era? The answer is, lots of people. There is still an ardent cult fan-base. There are historians of computer games. There are nostalgics in their 40's and 50's, longing for the days of their youth. There are about 25 former Infocom employees who will buy a copy of the book, just because our names appear in it.
There are ardent collectors. Rick said much of his task is just collecting information into one source. There are collectors in Alberta (Canada), Peoria, and England, who between them have more Infocom games and memorabilia than anyone who ever worked for the company. (They have websites, which is how Rick found them.) The original games -- designed to run on operating systems of computers that haven't been sold for over 15 years -- still sell on eBay (Douglas Adams' Bureaucracy appears to be in a popular phase, selling commonly for $70+). A Zorkmid coin (a tchochke included in the game package to encourage people to buy the game legitimately rather than a pirated copy, called a feelie by us in the know), recently sold on eBay for $125. (I have a Zorkmid coin around here somewhere. Should find that thing.) People still write and play interactive fiction, building off the software used by Infocom (but 20 years of technology have improved it). No one will pay money to play an all-text game any more, but apparently there are a few authors who are well known to be "as good as Infocom" as the legend grows, and have a wide fan base themselves.
Rick, by the way, is planning to sell the book on his own, via eBay and other online channels. Once he's broken even on costs, he's going to try to sell it to a publisher, who will have a broader distribution network, but who will take a significant cut of any proceeds. And Rick figures having sold a number of copies himself, the book may be more attractive to publishers. It's an interesting and modern business model.
"Looking at the proliferation of personal web pages on the net, it looks like very soon everyone on earth will have 15 Megabytes of fame." Said by M. G. Siriam, according to several sites online. Amusingly, I can find no explanation of who this Siriam is, and why we should listen to him (or her).
Tomorrow: Back to earth: The brick pathway.
2 comments:
wow, the moment looks so....Hollywood-esque! The green screen, the light.
I'm intrigued by what Rick Thornquist is doing, his approach to the book. You are sure that he is serious, not just a fan who went to great lengths to meet you?
I am quite sure he's not just a fan. Unless he's a borderline personality who would create a whole identity as a hoax, which I suppose is possible.
His story is that he is a journalist -- was the Board Game Reviewer for the Vancouver newspaper for five years. Apparently he made enough money doing technology consulting and tech-writing that now he's taking two years off to write the book (can afford it, he says, by living with his girlfriend). I haven't done a background check on him, except to look him up once on Google and found a reasonably legit-looking article about him in the Vancouver paper (he has a huge collection of board games as a result of his "research").
He doesn't talk like a fan -- he doesn't play computer games now, although he did enjoy Infocom games back in the day. I'm pretty certain Plundered Hearts isn't one of his favorites, if he's played it at all. And he's very together and organized about the book; the interview process is requiring a serious amount of boring repeating of stories -- more than what a fan would want to do. So I think he's legit. And if he's just a fan, well, I guess we are rewarding him for thoroughness of hoax.
He might be a crap writer for all I know, however. (wink)
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