The Retro Adventurers

Your monthly classic text adventuring news update delivered this month by Jason, Nick, and Tim. The top stories are  game contests still open for players votes at time of publication! Don't delay, listen and click today!

Text Adventure Literacy Jam 2026

https://itch.io/jam/talp2026

https://gameobserver.com/6th-annual-game-jam-inspires-next-generation-of-developers-to-keep-text-adventures-alive/

Iron CHiF Season One Episode Two: ZIL

https://intfiction.org/t/iron-chif-season-one-episode-2-lancelot-vs-someone2-using-zil/79983

Inform 6 benchmarking

https://discord.com/channels/830344544679493644/830344548315037739/1501871149288525844

PunyInform v6.6

https://github.com/johanberntsson/PunyInform/releases/tag/v6_6

Visible Zorker update: Deadline for backers, Zork III goes public

https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/05/visible-zork-3

https://archive.org/details/Suspended_Map_Recreation

https://archive.org/details/Infocom_Starcross_Chart_Recreation

Dialog 1b/01

https://intfiction.org/t/dialog-1b-01-library-1-2-0-a-machine-1-0-0-is-released/80151

https://github.com/Dialog-IF/dialog/releases/tag/release-1b01-1.2.0

War of the Worlds for Commodore 64

https://michel-molenaar.itch.io/war-of-the-worlds-c64

Modern PAW environment

https://www.reddit.com/r/interactivefiction/comments/1tgyyj2/show_if_a_modern_jsonbased_paws_engine/ 

https://carlosparamio.itch.io/paws-ai

Text Adventure Studio (formerly Apple II Adventure Studio)

https://www.reddit.com/r/textadventures/comments/1t3yypi/apple_ii_adventure_studio_is_now_officially_text/

https://textadventurestudio.com/ 

The Forgotten Nightmare release

https://intfiction.org/t/the-forgotten-nightmare-series-platform-expansion-release/80323/5

Voyage of the Beano for Spectrum Next

https://qladventures.itch.io/the-voyage-of-the-beano

Spring Thing 2026 recognizes C64 Latinorum, other neo-retro titles

https://www.springthing.net/2026/play.html

2026 IntroComp kickoff

https://mastodon.social/@Feneric/116636591715718306

It's an Infocom antiheroic classic and a throwback Infocom parody this time out as modern IF legend Andrew Plotkin (Zarf) joins Jason and Nick for two perilous adventures.

Lurking Horror sendup The Smirking Horror by Jason Davis leads off, a reasonably faithful re-interpretation of The Lurking Horror from Infocom. It's the first Amstrad CPC exclusive on the show and makes surprisingly minimal use of the graphics available in Graphic Adventure Creator.

For the main course we take on Infocom's Infidel, memorably parodied by Zarf himself (Episode 27's Inhumane) and created by Michael Berlyn and Patricia Fogleman. Legendary for its surly protagonist and shock ending, does it hold up to modern scrutiny?

Infidel (IFDB)

Infidel packaging (gray box)

Infidel packaging (folio)

The Smirking Horror (CPCWiki)

The Smirking Horror (playable online)

There's news out there in classic text adventures and neo-retro interactive fiction, and it's past time The Retro Adventurers got serious about delivering it! So, welcome to the first installment of a new monthly feature, OPEN MAILBOX -- where you GET NEWS AND LISTEN TO IT.

This episode compiled and presented by Retro Adventurers Nick and Jason covers multiple new Infocom/Z-Machine interpreters, Andrew Plotkin's Visible Zorker developments, an amazingly layered Cornerstone prank-that's-also-real, and other novel developments.

Zym II and Inform 6 Optimization:

https://intfiction.org/t/zym-ii-an-8-bit-z-machine-interpreter-for-symbos/79520

https://intfiction.org/t/accelerating-inform-6-games-on-8-bit-interpreters/79531

https://github.com/fredrikr/krebf

Visible Zorker - Deadline hijinx:

https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/03/visible-zorker-march

https://www.patreon.com/VisibleZorker

New Features for Old Hardware:

https://intfiction.org/t/statusline-options/79162

https://github.com/johanberntsson/ozmoo/releases

Retro Adventurers on Discord:

https://discord.gg/8jrbVptACc

Springtime in the PunyInform Century:

https://discord.com/channels/830344544679493644/830344937252978718/1491913229721665840

https://www.springthing.net/2026/

Zabbrev: 

https://intfiction.org/t/zabbrev-has-been-ported-from-c-to-c/75176/24

https://jxself.org/git?p=zabbrev.git;a=summary

The Linchpin to Infocom’s Database Strategy?:

https://intfiction.org/t/cornerstones-vm-was-cornerstone-for-atari/79644

https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/04/cornerstone-and-the-mu-machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgz5GIbKx3Y

https://zilf.io/

Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF) Grants:

https://blog.iftechfoundation.org/2026-04-08-announcing-the-2026-iftf-grant-recipients.html

Keep Circulating the Tapes:

https://ifdb.org

Thank you for another year of Retro Adventuring with us! To celebrate we've gathered together to share important news about a change in the team roster, an exciting new monthly department, and to share a first look at our new handcrafted artwork (thank you, Emily Sergent)!

Spend a little time with Jason, Nick, and Tim and watch for more game, interview, and news episodes coming soon to your feed (and YouTube, which did get sorted out!)

Our YouTube channel

Douglas Adams BBC interview (1985)

The BDB Project (Bonaventura Di Bello adventure translations)

Tim's 1987 (?) photo

Adventure Game Aptitude Test (Maniac Mansion 4-hour challenge)

Zork 78 logo pillow

Hyperspace adventure awaits as Tim Gilberts joins Jason to play two underrated science fiction games from the 1970s. For starters it's Dog Star Adventure, the first type-in text adventure in Softside Magazine. True to its 1979 roots it's steeped in Star Wars lore and vocabulary, and was ported to plenty of classic platforms in its heyday.

The feature game is Aldebaran III, one of the games created by Peter Langston in his Wander system. It, too, leans heavily on genre fiction, in this case the Retief novels by Keith Laumer, covering interstellar espionage, diplomacy, and bureaucracy in equal measure.

Aldebaran III (IFDB)

Wander source code (Github)

Wander game analysis (Renga In Blue)

Aldebaran III (CRPG Adventures)

 

Dog Star Adventure (IFDB)

Dog Star Adventure in Softside May 1979

Dog Star Adventure (Old School Gamer Magazine)