An Interactive History of Interactive Fiction

## Description

This is a complement to BBC Radio 4’s “Archive on 4” presentation of the
“SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK” audio documentary about the roots of interactive
literature.

Within a standard hypertext interface it leads players through descriptions,
scans and recordings (new and historical) collected in the process of
researching and creating the documentary, supposing that the correct way to
tell the story of interactive media is through interactive media.

Subjects covered range from TutorText programmed learning books to the early
experiments of civil servant Dennis Guerrier and Raymond Queneau’s work in the
OULIPO, Crowther & Woords’ ADVENT, Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, MUD, Infocom’s
text adventures, LARPing, and Twine.

As part of the historical material shared in this interactive history, players
have an opportunity for the first time in decades to experience a portion of
Steve Jackson’s “F.I.S.T.” (Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone)
gamebook-by-telephone system.