Eaten By A Grue: Infocom, Text Adventures, and Interactive Fiction: Recent Episodes
Monster Feet
Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston discuss and review classic Infocom games, text adventures, and interactive fiction.
How long does it take to load a saved game of Adventureland on the TRS-80? A little over a year, apparently. Kay and Carrington are back and ready to tackle tricky text adventures once again. It's a Christmas disaster! I mean, a Christmas miracle! Maybe a bit of both.
Hosts: Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston
Theme tune: "It Is Pitch Dark" by MC Frontalot
Find links, notes, and more episodes of Eaten By A Grue at MonsterFeet.com
Next episode: Fish!
Kay has created a 50,000 word choose your own adventure novel for NaNoGenMo, and Carrington has nothing in his home to sit on. One of the hosts has their life much more together than the other, but who's to say which one. Okay, it's Kay.
Hosts: Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston
Theme tune: "It Is Pitch Dark" by MC Frontalot
Find links, notes, and more episodes of Eaten By A Grue at MonsterFeet.com
Next episode: Adventureland
Procrastination is the name of the game when Kay and Carrington play Violet. Okay, technically Violet is the name of the game when Kay and Carrington play Violet, but you know what I mean. Note to self: write a better summary for this podcast episode. I'm sure I'll get around to it before we record.
Hosts: Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston
Theme tune: "It Is Pitch Dark" by MC Frontalot
Find links, notes, and more episodes of Eaten By A Grue at MonsterFeet.com
Next episode: Fifi's Big Adventure
The Grue Gang tackles one of modern IF's most intricate and interesting games, in which letters can be added or deleted from words at any time and anything can be rearranged. Grue can become gruel, games can become gams, and podcasters can become really cool dudes (okay, that one is hypothetical).
Hosts: Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston
Theme tune: "It Is Pitch Dark" by MC Frontalot
Find links, notes, and more episodes of Eaten By A Grue at MonsterFeet.com
Next episode: Violet
It's time to dim the lights and break out the legally binding waivers, as Kay and Carrington get busy with an interactive fiction dating sim. They'll also get down to some music inspired by Infocom games. Remember when they used to just play Zork? This podcast just keeps getting weirder.
Hosts: Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston
Theme tune: "It Is Pitch Dark" by MC Frontalot
Find links, notes, and more episodes of Eaten By A Grue at MonsterFeet.com
Next episode: Counterfeit Monkey
It's time to dim the lights and break out the legally binding waivers, as Kay and Carrington get busy with an interactive fiction dating sim. They'll also get down to some music inspired by Infocom games. Remember when they used to just play Zork? This podcast just keeps getting weirder.
Hosts: Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston
Find links, notes, and more episodes of Eaten By A Grue at MonsterFeet.com
Next episode: Counterfeit Monkey
The Grue Crew discuss Carrington's own new text adventure game which he foisted upon an unsuspecting Kay. This is a deep dive into the creation of both the game and Feelies. Can the podcast, and more the point Carrington's ego, survive such a review? As the game itself says, what's the worst that can happen? Only one way to find out.
Hosts: Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston
Find links, notes, and more episodes of Eaten By A Grue at MonsterFeet.com
Next episode: Creatures Such As We
What do you get when you mix difficult puzzles with intricate storytelling? A pair of defeated gamers, that's what. Kay and Carrington throw in the towel and admit they were bested by Hadean Lands. Then they replay Emily Short's recently remastered Bee, and tackle Jason Shiga's twisted tale of tentacles and truth. Bonus: Kay may or may not have sent Carrington some malware.
Hosts: Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston
Find links, notes, and more episodes of Eaten By A Grue at MonsterFeet.com
Next episode: Creatures Such As We
The guys from Grue tackle another pair of modern Interactive Fiction games, or at least try to. First up is Everybody Dies, by Jim Munroe, in which ... well, everybody dies. Until they don't. And maybe there are ghosts. Next is Bee, by Emily Short, about going to a spelling bee. Except the only version of the game available doesn't include the spelling bee. Infocom games were never this complicated.
Kay and Carrington get a double dose of IF when they play and discuss Twine games for the first time. First up is Their Angelical Understanding, by Porpentine, which comes with both music and warnings. Next is 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds, by Abigail Corfman, a game about french fries and undeath.
It's time for pointin' and clicking' and piratin', oh my, as Kay and Carrington play one of LucasFilm's famously funny forays into adventure gaming. Will they become terrors of the high seas, or be stuffed into Davy Jones' locker? All we know for sure is, there will be grog.
The Grue Crew delves into a world of noisy elephants and silent Rs, as they discuss Graham Nelson's game The Meteor, The Stone And A Long Glass Of Sherbet. Just when they think they're out, Zork pulls them back in.
Kay and Carrington leave behind the world of Infocom and venture into the future! (By which we mean the 1990s.) In this episode they tackle the two winners of the First Annual IF Competition: A Change in the Weather by Andrew Plotkin, and Uncle Zebulon's Will by Magnus Olsson.
It's another game with a colon in the title, as Kay and Carrington tackle the ninth game in the increasingly inaccurately named Zork Trilogy. This one wraps up the entire Zork series, and (maybe) (kinda) explains everything. It all started long ago west of a white house, but how will it end? And what comes next?
Kay and Carrington take a midnight train going anywhere into a land of magic, but too few resources to play it any way they want it (that's the way they need it). Will the Grue Crew and this game go their separate ways, or will they embrace this capital-J Journey with open arms?
Kay and Carrington set sail on the virtual high seas to give a talk at this year's JoCo Cruise, an annual oceangoing event for technophiles, tabletop gamers, and creative-minded people. In other words, a bunch of nerds. The perfect venue to discuss all things Infocom.
Can Kay and Carrington defeat the usurper king and restore peace to a fabled land? And more importantly, can they do it while turning into badgers and turtles and eels, oh my. Some claim there is more to being a knight than just eating ham and jam and Spam a lot. Surely you joust.
You'll need swords, seamanship, political guile, but most of all inline hints to tackle Infocom's ill-conceived first foray into graphical adventures. Kay and Carrington find their patience tested in a game where, ironically, the most frequently used command is 'wait'.
Kay and Carrington take a victory lap after finishing all of the Infocom text-only adventures. Turn on verbose mode and light the brass lantern, it's time to take a look back at what they liked best, and least, from these classic games.
A bone chilling blizzard at the window, a reanimated hand on your shoulder, and worst of all a term paper deadline. All the ingredients for a deliciously dreadful day at Boston's creepiest college, where Kay and Carrington delve deep into the tunnels and tombs of The Lurking Horror.
In Wishbringer, a search for a lost cat leads Kay and Carrington into a dark fantasy land where their greatest concern isn't the witches, the eldritch tendrils, or even the grue. It's delivering the mail. Be careful what you wish for.
What do you get when you combine a plucky little robot, an abandoned space station, and Cousin Oliver? To find out, complete form JZ-59-G then listen in as Kay and Carrington discuss Stationfall, Infocom's comedy horror space adventure mystery.
The Gruesome Twosome take another vacation from Infocom to play a vintage text adventure written by none other than Kay himself back in the 1980s. From creative spellings to Playboy magazines, it's old school meets high school in Scavange! (Quack! Hiss!)
Kay and Carrington foray into the future to face the mishaps and misspellings of Planetfall, Infocom's rib-tickling romp about a boy and his bot. Star Patrol: it's not just a job, it's an adventure game.
What does it mean when Kay and Carrington discuss a game full of Christmas Tree Monsters and Cruel Puppets for over two hours, never once using the word "wacky" but often using the word "walkthrough"? It means it's time to load up on long-lasting snacks, and brace yourself for Beyond Zork.
It's turtles all the way down as Kevin and Carrington discuss Infocom's A Mind Forever Voyaging: a computer simulation about a dystopian future in which a computer simulation finds out it is a computer simulation simulating dystopian futures.
Will the third sleuthing game from Infocom be the caper that finally steals Kevin's heart? Or will Carrington continue to be the only one who likes bungling through Infocom's burglary games? Find out as the lads tackle Infocom's Suspect.
Kevin and Carrington return to discuss the expert-rated final game in the Enchanter trilogy. Are you happy the lads are back, or is that just an eft in your tarn?
Jetsetter Kevin Savetz flies to the GitHub lair on Skullcrusher Mountain to interview Steve Meretzky about what it was like to make games in the 80s.
A butterfly flaps its wings on the other side of the world, and suddenly Kevin and Carrington are discussing an obscure game that isn't on the usual list of Infocom titles. Also it happens to be April 1st, but that probably doesn't mean anything.
Kevin and Carrington throw caution to the wind and spill the beans about Infocom's idiom-riddled game. Does it cut the mustard, or should you give this one the could shoulder? To make a long story short, the devil is in the details.
Is playing The Witness a total gasser, or is it a trip for biscuits? Listen in as those hep cats Kevin and Carrington get on the Ameche to bushwa about Infocom's second gumshoe. If you give this rip-snorter the high hat, you're all wet.
Kevin and Carrington thrust into adventure (and Cleveland) to solve saucy puzzles and grapple bawdy baddies in spaaaaaaace! Something, possibly this very sentence, tells you things are going to get strange.
Kevin and Carrington delve once again into the dungeons of the Great Underground Empire to complete Infocom's famous (and famously difficult) trilogy. Can they complete the game without cheating? The answer will not surprise you.
Brave the baking sun with Kevin and Carrington as they scour the desert for pyramids plunder. And maybe, just maybe, they'll discover the greatest treasure of all: a macro to type the word 'hieroglyphs' for them.
Set sail for Hardscrabble Island, where sly divers vie for sunken treasure. Can Kevin and Carrington avoid the dangers of the deep long enough to enjoy the game? Don't hold your breath.
Explore a house filled with traps and trophies in Hollywood Hijinx, the zany (or is it kooky?) treasure hunt from Infocom. And if you listen carefully you can hear Kevin's home slide out to sea.
Infocom released several non-IF programs, such a series of digital comics, a board game, and even a corporate database. The company is in the black, you are likely to accrue a Grue.
Kevin resurrects the very first video game that used a laserdisc: a type-in text adventure that ran on the Apple II. First you type in the game, then you type in the game!
Solve a murder, unmask a ghost, and hunt for treasure in Infocom's multitrack mystery. Can you do what Scooby do? Find out in Moonmist. Viva la diffidence!
To listen to this episode, fill out form GRU3 using a #2 pencil and send it by postal mail no later than 8AM yesterday. Be sure to submit all forms in triplicate, in person, and in ink.
Stick out your digital thumb and catch a ride with Kevin, Carrington, and special guest Charles Mangin as they try to answer the great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything without using InvisiClues.
Set sail on the seven seas where swords clash, bodices rip, and it's not always clear who's rescuing whom. Special guest: Quinn Dunki, pirate queen.
Venture forth with the middle child of Infocom's Enchanter series, where food is unnecessary, sleep is unwelcome, and a glass maze can drive you batty.
Removed from society, frozen in time, and fumbling to interact with the outside world only through remote electronics, Suspended might as well have been called Podcasters.
Delve once more into the underground world of Zork where only things you can count on are your low cunning and your high number of saved games.
Fooblitzky is a city of secrets where the crosswalks are deadly, a flasher is dropping pianos on people, and the only job is washing dishes. Oh, and everyone is a dog. This is not an April Fool's episode.
Two podcasters, both alike in indignity, at KansasFest, where unfair puzzles make unfair games unsolvable. In short, this is no Shakespeare and we are not Starcross lovers.
The Gruesome Twosome take a vacation from Infocom to visit Thimbleweed Park, where they solve a murder, discuss free will, and admire de lo res graphics.
It's 19th Century London, and Crown Jewels are missing! Solving the mystery will take all the skills of the world's greatest dectective! You are also there.
Enchanter is filled with magic spells, prophetic dreams, and even a talking turtle. Put on your robe and wizard hat, and prepare for adventure. Accio InvisiClues!
Infocom's first mystery: a locked room, six suspects, and a ticking clock. Can a pair of fumbling podcasters solve the murder in time? Probably not.
Infocom's only espionage story, Border Zone is filled with intrigue and danger in a constantly moving world that doesn't wait while the player types. Tune in to see if our heroes achieve success by stealth, or death by typo.
Ahoy! Kevin and Carrington dive into Seastalker, Infocom's junior gee-whiz submarine adventure. Set course for adventure, as we raise our sails and lower our expectations.
Trinity is Infocom's classic game about the dangers of the Atomic Age, and it's a blast! Get it? Get it? A blast? Hilarious.
Welcome to Ballyhoo, Infocom's circus mystery. Can these johnny tin plates foil the grift and save the circus? Or is the cherry pie just too much for a pair of side-walling lot loafers?
Kevin and Carrington discuss Zork I, the first text adventure from Infocom. From the highs of its incredible parser to the lows of its unfair puzzles, it all comes down to one burning question: are you a TAKE person or a GET person?