Iain Lee, "an old bloke who was popular in the Nineties" as well as counsellor, broadcaster, and I'm a Celebrity survivor joins Dave and Jason this episode. They discuss Tolkien sendup Bored of the rings by Fergus McNeill and the Mark Data classic Calixto Island. Iain shares his love for the Dragon 32, memories of sneaking text adventure time on school BBC Micros, and Experienced Media Professional Image Advice with Jason.

Bored of the Rings (playable online)

Calixto Island (playable online)

Iain Lee's Random Access Memories podcast

Quill Adventure Guides (Bored of the Rings and other Quill games, deconstructed)

MST3K: Detective

Jason, Nick, and the returning Tim Gilberts of Gilsoft dig into the magazines of the 1970s and 1980s that chronicled the rise of text adventures!

We look at two of the most significant Stateside issues of the early commercial period, the November 1979 issue of Creative Computing with a full (and unusual) implementation of Colossal Cave Adventure, and the December 1980 BYTE with articles by Dave Lebling, Jon Freeman, and of course one of the most significant events of the year in personal computer games: Scott Adams' release of the Pirate Adventure source code.

New Zork Times #3.1, early 1984

Micro Adventurer #1, November 1983

Creative Computing, November 1979

BYTE Magazine December 1980

Sinclair User #2, May 1982

Sinclair User #3, June 1982

Adventure Probe #1, June 1986

Be an Interplanetary Spy (Ron Martinez) discussion on IntFic

Mike Dornbrook (Infocom) oral history

Giant's Gold, Commodore 64 port

Atari Swordquest's Real-Life Treasures

Another Atari Swordquest overview

Treasure Quest

Treasure Quest prize winner mystery

Adventure (Colossal Cave) Family Tree

Jason and Dave welcome classic text adventure author Jonathan Partington to the program. While studying at Cambridge University, he created and contributed to several memorable games including Avon (featured in Episode 12), Crobe, Sangraal, Fyleet, Monsters of Murdac, and Spy Snatcher.

We discuss how Jonathan got hooked into text adventures, how the pipeline between Cambridge mainframe creations and the broader commercial market worked, and the best time of day to play games on official campus computers without getting scolded. And for the first time, we ask a living author which of his games we should play next!

Special thanks to Mark Hardisty for helping connect us with Jonathan.

Jonathan Partington on IFDB

Topologika (The Digital Antiquarian)

Phoenix (mainframe operating system) on IFWiki

Mystic Wood (board game)

Sorcerer's Cave (board game)

Peter Killworth on IFWiki

How To Write Adventure Games by Peter Killworth on MOCAGH

L: A Mathemagical Adventure