50 Years of Text Games, From Oregon Trail to AI Dungeon

Fifty in-depth chapters covering fifty games: one released in each year from 1971—when a Minnesota teacher wheeled a teletype into his class to debut a game called The Oregon Trail—to 2020 and the latest in A.I. storytellers. Revised and enhanced from the acclaimed blog series, each featured game gets a rich, deep-dive analysis into how it works, what it's about, why it's special, and its lasting legacy.

The fifty games you'll discover include famous classics, overlooked gems, and forgotten genres: everything from epic MUDs to generative text engines, and games running on hardware from teletypes to smart watches. It's the story of interactive fiction, made accessible to outsiders and insiders alike.