A Mind Forever Voyaging
| A Mind Forever Voyaging | |
|---|---|
| Game | |
 | |
| Main links | |
| Published | 1985 |
| Credits | |
| Author | Steve Meretzky |
| Publisher | Activision, Infocom |
| Reception | |
| IFDB rating | 4.5 out of 5 (118 ratings) |
| Gameplay | |
| Interaction style |  Parser |
| Literary genres |  Drama  Science fiction |
| Locations |  City  Virtual reality |
| Language | English |
| Cruelty scale | Nasty |
| IFDB play time | 6 hours 15 minutes |
| Accessibility | Colour: none. Graphics: none. Sound: none. |
| Technical details | |
| Authoring system | ZIL |
| Format | Z-code 4 |
| License | Commercial |
| IFID | ZCODE-77-850814 |
| Browse the games database • Edit this page | |
A disappointing sales draw for Infocom during its release in 1985, Steve Meretzky's A Mind Forever Voyaging has gained steady respect in the decades since. It is now considered by some to be one of the true classics of the early Interactive Fiction form, and far ahead of its time in terms of subject matter, approach to storytelling, and quality of writing.
Strongly political in nature, the game initially contained almost no puzzles, but added them after testing revealed confusion about the lack of them.
Meretzky has said he wrote this game as a reaction to Reaganomics and the policies of the Reagan Administration, trying to show, via trends, where the policies enacted by the administration would lead.
The title derives from Book III of The Prelude by William Wordsworth (1850): "A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone."
Meretzky compiled a number of relevant quotes and texts from a large variety of sources, including Shakespeare, Byron, Tennyson, and so on; in his original communications he suggested the title "A Mind Forever Voyaging" as well as others:
- My Mind to Me A Kingdom Is
- Deep Into That Darkness Peering
- In Worlds Not Realized
- But I Go On Forever
- Look Into the Seeds of Time
Trivia and Comments
- Often refered to by the initialism AMFV.
- Inspired Potsticker (Nick Montfort; 2000; Z-code), entered in Speed-IF 13.
- Internal/Working title was PRISM.
- According to Steve Meretzky, the joke nickname for the game was "Steve Meretzky's Interiors", a reference to Woody Allen's Interiors, the comedy filmmaker's first major move into "serious" cinema.
Versions
Infocom releases
Date: 1985
- A Mind Forever Voyaging (Steve Meretzky; publisher: Infocom; 1985; Z-code 4).
Activision releases
Date: Date unknown
- A Mind Forever Voyaging is included on the following Activision collections:
- The Lost Treasures of Infocom Volume II
- The Infocom Collections: The Sci-Fi Collection
- Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom
Links
General info
- A Mind Forever Voyaging at Peter Scheyen's Infocom Homepage.
- A Mind Forever Voyaging manual in PDF format - at The Infocom Documentation Project.
- A Mind Forever Voyaging at Wikipedia.
- A Mind Forever Voyaging - at IFDB.
- A Mind Forever Voyaging (portal) - 1985's work at 50 Years of Text Games.
- A Mind Forever Voyaging - at Home of the Underdogs.
- A Mind Forever Voyaging at TV Tropes Wiki.
Reviews
- A Mind Forever Voyaging - at SPAG.
Date: 1985
Date: Date unknown