Ron Martinez, our guest from Episode 11, returns! This is actually a holdover from the 2025 Year-End Chatisode sessions, but it really stands alone as an exploration of Ron's recent work in narrative design involving generative AI, large language models, and other 21st century interactive storytelling techniques. Joining us on the call are regular Retro Adventurers Jason and Nick, along with This Week in Retro's Dave "Velociraptor" (Episode 29).

And it's a big day for Nabokov fans as both Pale Fire and his lecture on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are invoked.

Hidden Agenda 2026 preview

Hidden Agenda 2026 landing page

Invention Arts

Headcanon

It's the Infocom classic Zork, but in two unusual formats!

First Nick and Jason explore the unusual covertape edition of Mini-Zork I, a stripped-down, memory-resident version of the original Great Underground Empire created in 1987 and later provided free to readers of the November 1990 issue of ZZap 64 magazine for the Commodore 64. It's a bold undertaking, but is it art? Indeed, does it even work at all?

Then the Retro Adventurers take on Zork-285, a reconstruction "of the very first MDL version of Zork from June 14, 1977" as provided by Henrik Åsman. Only available to play by a small cadre of MIT insiders, this version has the bones of what would later become the full-fledged Dungeon game before being carved up for Infocom's commercial products Zork I, II, and III. It's full of pitfalls but notably empty of grues.

Cover image from David Ardito's 1981 Zork poster, sourced from zarfhome.com

Mini-Zork I on IFDB

Zork 285 on IFDB

The Newton (excerpt from The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, performed by Jason)

Holiday merriment with many past guests and minimal editing!

Retro Adventurers Jason and Nick chat about the year that was including recent developments in classic adventure open source, plans for 2026, and more with many of our past participants:

Robin Raymond, author of Kingdom of the Seven Stones (Episode 9) Tim Gilberts of Gilsoft (Episodes 5, 13, 17, 25) Scott Adams of Adventure International (Episodes 3, 13) Andrew Plotkin (Inhumane covered in Episode 27 and interviewed in Episode 28) Dave "Velociraptor" of This Week in Retro (Episode 29) Christian Neuhaus, co-writer of You've Ruined a Perfectly Good Mystery! (Episode 23) Iain Lee, game show pilot host and media icon (Episode 18)

A separate chat with Ron Martinez (Episode 11) will be published in a later episode.

Parsely tabletop game

Nick's unfinished PunyInform book

Nick and Jason deliver holiday cheer straight from Santa's Grotto in the form of two 1980s Christmas classics. First up is the bite-sized Quill adventure A Spell Of Christmas Ice by Mike Turner, originally published on the tape-based 16/48 Magazine for ZX Spectrum users. For the main course, enjoy Brian Howarth's very British adaptation of the very American monster mayhem classic Gremlins.

Curl up by the fire with your favorite picturebook adaptation of a Hollywood blockbuster, listen, and enjoy the season!

16/48 Magazine Issue 12

A Spell Of Christmas Ice, stand-alone tape image

Mike E. Turner (IFDB)

Gremlins: The Adventure (IFDB)

Gremlins: The Adventure (MOCAGH)

Level 9 Archive (Github)

Andrew Plotkin's analysis of Zork I-III becoming open source

Original cover photo by Gy21dds

No one has reviewed more text adventures and works of interactive fiction over the past decade than MathBrush. A self-described newcomer to the scene he has nonetheless posted over 3,600 reviews and counting of games old and new, along with creating or collaborating with others to create 30 games of his own.

MathBrush's thousands of reviews

MathBrush's IFDB profile

MathBrush's games

Intfiction.org profile

Get ready to type out every letter in "dodecahedron"!

Nick, Jason, and Ben play two games steeped in math, science, and trippy physics in this episode. Beyond the Tesseract by David Lo is the appetizer course, a game originally designed in TRS-80 Level II BASIC, then ported to C and published on a variety of platforms before later being reimplemented in Inform 6 by Andrew Plotkin. A self-professed "abstract adventure", you'll have a better time with it if you paid attention in school.

The main course was published in 1984 for the BBC Micro by the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (UK) and goes by L: A Mathemagical Adventure. It's a core memory for many who were young and remember their school experiences with BBC Micros, but does the plot to rescue the fair maid Runia from the Drogos hold up today?

Beyond the Tesseract (IFDB, includes playable link)

L: A Mathemagical Adventure (IFDB)

L: A Mathemagical Adventure (playable online, BBC)

Beatle Quest for BBC Micro

Shawn McClure's How To Design Adventure Games (IntFiction.org)

WE'VE GOT TEXT ADVENTURE SIGN!!

Ben, Jason, and Nick stooge their way through two comedy games. First up is the 1993 Matt Barringer "classic" Detective as put (unofficially) through the wringer of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew by CE Forman and a collection of subsequent riffers. One player was (and remains) completely baffled by this format in which a man and two robots are forced to watch a bad movie (slash play a bad game) for the entertainment of two mad scientists, against a backdrop of scenery bought for peanuts.

Then they take on Delta 4's treatment of Terry Pratchett's Discword in The Colour of Magic, a waiting simulator disguised as a four-part comedy adventure. Watch out for the end of the world!

The Colour of Magic (IFDB)

MST3K: Detective (IFDB)

Detective, author's original version (IFDB)

Discworld on Page and Screen, Part 2 (The Digital Antiquarian)

Review of Detective (SPAG #5)

MST3K Satellite News

Discworld Emporium

Ben, Jason, and Nick set sail for adventures new and old on this episode, starting with 10 CAVE ADVENTURE, so named for the number of BASIC lines making up its entire codebase. They then head to the Commodore VIC-20 for a crack at Young Arthur's Quest before journeying to the not-so-long-ago 2021 release Captain Cutter's Treasure, a neo-retro style adventure created in the PunyInform system.

Captain Cutter's Treasure (IFDB)

Young Arthur's Quest (Renga in Blue)

Young Arthur's Quest (MobyGames)

10 Cave Adventure (Spectrum Computing)

8-Bit Show and Tell's breakdown of 10 CAVE