The Retro Adventurers

Fourteen (!) capsule reviews of games submitted to this year's Interactive Fiction Competition (IFComp 2026), all with at least one claim to neo-retro status. Joining regulars Jason, Tim, and Nick are three guests from past episodes: Robin Raymond, Christian Neuhaus, and Dudley of Yesterzine. Some of this year's entries can be played in ancient languages (Hittite!) and on ancient devices (Atari 2600!)

Let us know what you think of this experiment and if you'd like to see adjustments made if there is a next-time!

Games covered:

Copper Tavern (Tavern Heist)
The Rat
Demonstration
Ruined Temple
Bob the Barbarian
Forensic Necromancy
9:00 AM Train
Gambler’s Quest
Meet the Timesheet
Wait-Our-Way Tower
Ḫattušumna Laḫḫa (Hittite Adventure)
The Count and the Communist
The Two Seasons: Encounter With a Vampire
Logic Land

It's our 50th episode! Jason, Nick, and Tim make it a working holiday with news on the peak of competition season (Ectocomp! Introcomp! Iron ChIF! And of course IFComp!), news on developments for Z-Machine developers and Å-Machine players, five new Fairlight releases on C64, and, yes, reverb Ramsberg.

Iron ChIF Adventuron wrapup: https://intfiction.org/t/iron-chif-season-one-episode-3-flacrabbit-vs-dee-cooke-using-adventuron/81129/138

Iron ChIF TADS sought: https://intfiction.org/t/iron-chef-looking-for-tads-challengers/75758/36

Introcomp: https://introcomp.org/

ECTOCOMP 2026: https://itch.io/jam/ectocomp-2026

ReZet80: https://rezet80.blogspot.com/p/rezet80-sentinel.html

Tiny Text Adventure Engine: https://rezet80.blogspot.com/2026/02/tiny-text-adventure-engine.html

Haunted House: https://rezet80.blogspot.com/2023/09/haunted-house.html

Adventure Family Tree: https://www.ifwiki.org/Adventure_Family_Tree

Adventure Family Tree discussion: https://intfiction.org/t/adventure-family-tree-using-ifwiki-to-record-and-display-information/77211/2

ZigZag: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigZag_(software)

Lantern: https://textadventure.net

Swiss Family Robinson/FLT: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=263890

FairLight TV 159 (Synapse cracks): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2x1xYSHCFQ

The Demon Jar: https://qladventures.itch.io/the-demon-jar

AGI-64/AGI-ANTIC: https://meanhamster.com/games/agi-64

Vanyar: https://johanberntsson.itch.io/vanyar

I'm Still a Cannibal For the FBI: https://cannibalforthef.bi/

Dialog interpreter for Apple II: https://intfiction.org/t/help-dialog-choose-a-commodore-64-color-palette/81746/9

SCUMMVM MADS support: https://www.scummvm.org/news/20260826/

Fish on Apple platforms?!: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/fish

Magnetic Scrolls' Upon Westminster Bridge: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/upon-westminster-bridge/

DAAD tutorials: https://markhardisty.wordpress.com/

The Greedy Dwarf: https://mjhardisty.itch.io/the-greedy-dwarf/devlog/1674561/the-greedy-dwarf-now-available

Adjunct of Computing #1: https://youtu.be/tojYY6hdnNY

Plague On the Discovery testers wanted: https://intfiction.org/t/testers-needed-for-new-bdb-project-s-game-plague-on-the-discovery-morgan-tyler-series-3/82097

Dracula Spectrum Next: https://giadacu.itch.io/dracula-english-zx-spectrum-next-illustrated-edition

A Spy's Heist: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=au4s1nyuqonq10fw

PARANOID blog: https://play-paranoid.online/blog/best-mystery-text-adventure-games

Legends: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=3xgiq6kxz60zvff2

It's Infocom and Iron Curtain classic text adventures from the final years of the Cold War!

With special guest Ana Meisel (ana.help), Nick and Jason take on two entertaining political-statement classics of the 1980s. First up is PRESTAVBA, aka PERESTROIKA, a once-anonymous satire set in the Prague Spring of 1968 and published (very carefully and also anonymously) in the former Czechoslovakia for ZX Spectrum. Then it's a not-so-distant flash-forward to Rockvil in the year 2031 for A Mind Forever Voyaging, Steve Meretzky's immersive statement on Reagan-era socioeconomic policies in the United States.

Does Perry Simm have free will? Is a Soviet lighter reliable in a pinch?  It's the first (and last?) time both our games are the standout selections of Aaron Reed's 50 Years of Text Games project: are they worthy? Join us and find out!

A Mind Forever Voyaging (IFDB)

A Mind Forever Voyaging docs (code table for Simulation Mode on p31)

A Mind Forever Voyaging (playable online)

Přestavba, original Czech and English translation downloads (ZXArt)

Prestavba (IFDB)

50 Years of Text Games (features both games as the standout of 1985 and 1988, respectively)

Gaming the Iron Curtain

London Permacomputing Club

Our Friend the Computer podcast

Bonus - 1980s Czech film recommendations from Ana:

Rozpuštěný a vypuštěný (https://www.oneplay.cz/film/1102-rozpusteny-a-vypusteny)

Vážení přátelé, ano (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vážení_přátelé,_ano)

any Cimrman movies (https://www.themoviedb.org/collection/134221-divadlo-jary-cimrmana-kolekce)

Contest deadlines, international reviews, and some Ramsberg groveling lead our news coverage for text adventure enthusiasts this month. Tim, Jason, and Nick bring you the latest for one of the oldest gaming disciplines... aside from that one story we accidentally repeated from last month.

Nick's a little heavy on the reverb filter in this one, let us know if you get seasick.

Spanish discussion of RetroAdv:

https://mastodon.social/@DekaBlack/117166787290154461

https://mastodon.social/@textualizame/117166805431903978

Madman, port of 1983 VIC-20 game by the dread Ramsberg:

https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=6ymufgd24jnxg256

Wyrmward, Z6 PunyInform title:

https://johanberntsson.itch.io/wyrmward

Darkwood V: The Lost God found and preserved: https://csdb.dk/release/index.php?id=263342

https://www.facebook.com/groups/EightBitAdventures/posts/28558175203785812/

Inform 6 DM4:

https://inform-fiction.org/manual/about_dm4.html

Inform 6 Programmer's Guide: https://jxself.org/inform-guide/

OS9 Infocom interpreter: https://github.com/rlucente-retro/infocom-os9-port/releases/tag/v1.0.0 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2359462640/posts/10164528820297641/

Raaka-Tu: https://github.com/DrPitre/raakatu 

CoCo Nation Podcast Episode 474: 

Galaxy's Edge, BBC Micro title by Graham Nelson:

https://ahopeful.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/galaxys-edge-1984-by-graham-nelson/

Oo-Topos C64 cracked:

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=263365

FairLight TV #156: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ewUo92awZ0

Z-Machine BBS details: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1814239092232631

David Youd hacks Secrets of the Pyramid (duplicate, oops): https://youtu.be/OiUZ7qtRHB4

Inform Trail Camera: https://www.twitch.tv/informtrailcamera

Zork NES:

https://github.com/lupinthird/zorknes

AGI-64:

https://meanhamster.com/games/agi-64 

Beatle Quest Python runner: https://www.amigaretro.com/projects/blakes-7-beatle-quest/

Blake's 7 for Oric:

https://defenceforce.itch.io/blakes-7 

Wander System for Ubuntu Touch:

https://mastodont.cat/@cibersheep/117151878472175318

Clash of the Type-Ins returns:

https://rcveeder.net/clash/ 

The Hobbit for TI-99 4/A:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/392212-the-hobbit-for-ti994a 

Classic Infocom playable library:

https://jamiedurrant.com/infocom/

Iron ChIF Adventuron battle:

https://intfiction.org/t/iron-chif-season-one-episode-3-flacrabbit-vs-dee-cooke-using-adventuron/81129

Out of Luck: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=n1y41pmdrk8ikk26

A Bonded Harvester: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=mbsybax9swkzp81o

Adventurer's Rest channel: https://youtu.be/fgg_-9Rb2zY

PARANOID game: https://www.play-paranoid.online

Astaria MUD: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=6x86ablx3lg3u2y2

Pack your phrasebook and get ready to defend democracy as Ben and Jason take on a pair of quirky early 1980s adventures. For an appetizer, we order Infocom legend Brian Moriarty's early effort, a type-in published in ANALOG Computing Magazine no less:  the Nicolas Cage-coded Adventure In the Fifth Dimension.

The feature game is Invincible Island by Pete Cooke... that's Cooke with an e, sadly, although Ben and Jason do find time for a little Derek & Clive discourse which steers clear of the need to flag this episode for adult content. Both games have mindbending maps, but do they have anything else in common?

Also, there's quite a bit of listener mail and news... from the summer of 2025, which is how long this episode has been waiting for publication! Thanks to Nick for breathing life into this one. If nothing else, let it serve as a reminder why we've created the monthly >OPEN MAILBOX series!

Invincible Island (IFDB)

Invincible Island (playable online, ZX Spectrum)

Adventure In the Fifth Dimension (IFDB)

Adventure in the Fifth Dimension (playable online, Atari 8-bit)

The Guild of Thieves, Hit It With a Hammer! playthrough (YouTube)

Encounter HD

Asimov's The Black Widowers