Ever since I was seven years old, standing in an open field, west of a white house, I’ve had a soft spot for text adventures.  While I love full-motion video, point and click, and even the occasional FPS or stealth adventure, much akin to books there’s nothing like a fantastically written game that tickles your imagination.

There are thousands of (mostly) free IF games made by people all over the world.  Some require interpreters to play, some are web-based, and some have their own executable files.  In no way will I ever catch up on all the great games out there, but hopefully I can catalogue some of the finer offerings. I only post reviews of games I don’t like unless I am a fan of the author and am also posting reviews of their games I do enjoy.

Fabularium: Android app that plays most games requiring an interpreter
Frotz: iOS app for Inform and Glulx games
IFdB: Interactive Fiction Database, where you can find all the games
Glulx: Desktop interpreter for Inform and Glulx games
TADS3: Desktop intepreter for TADS games

Game	Author	Platform	Year	Length	Rating
16 Ways to Kill A Vampire at McDonalds	Abigail Corfman	Browser	2016	Short	9
Aisle	Sam Barlow	Inform	1999	Short	7
All Things Devours	half sick of shadows	Inform	2004	Medium	9
Anchorhead	Michael Gentry	Inform	1998	Long	10
At Wit’s End	Mike Sousa	TADS	2000	Medium	4
Babel	Ian Finley	TADS	1997	Medium	10
Babyface	Mark Sample	Twine	2020	Short	9
A Change in the Weather	Andrew Plotkin	Inform	1995	Medium	7
A Dark Room	Michael Townsend	iOS, Android, Browser	2013	Medium	8
A Day For Soft Food	Tod Levi	Inform	1999	Medium	5
Detectiveland	Robin Johnson	Android, Browser	2016	Short	7
The Elysium Enigma	Eric Eve	TADS	2006	Short	5
Fail-Safe	Jon Ingold	Inform	2000	Short	8
Fallacy of Dawn	Robb Sherwin	Hugo	2001	Medium	9
First Things First	J. Robinson Wheeler	TADS	2001	Long	10
Galatea	Emily Short	Inform	2000	Short	6
The Impossible Bottle	Linus Åkesson	Dialog	2020	Medium	8
Kaged	Ian Finley	TADS	2001	Medium	7
Lock & Key	Adam Cadre	Inform	2004	Short	7
MST3K Presents “Detective”	C.E. Forman, Graeme Cree, Stuart Moore	Inform	1995	Short	7
Necrotic Drift	Robb Sherwin	Hugo	2004	Medium	5
No Time To Squeal	Mike Sousa & Robb Sherwin	TADS	2001	Short	4
Photopia	Adam Cadre	Inform	1998	Short	9
Shuffling Around	Andrew Schultz	Inform	2012	Medium	9
Spider and Web	Andrew Plotkin	Inform	1998	Medium	9
Taco Fiction	Ryan Veeder	Inform	2011	Short	7
Tavern Crawler	Josh Labelle	Twine	2020	Short	7
Tapestry	Daniel Ravipinto	Inform	1996	Short	5