So I got to present a session at MAGFest this past weekend! I enjoyed it a lot. If you're not familiar with it, it's a fan convention centering around video games but with a strong focus on music. (Hence the name -- Music And Gaming.) That means chiptune performances like Chipzel (who I sadly missed this year), for example, but also performances with gameplay such Bit Brigade and Journey Live. I was lucky enough to see most of the debut performance of Journey Live, and was just floored by how good it was. If there's any way at all for you to go to one of their performances, you ought to.
Anyway, I've been attending MAGFest for a number of years, but this was my first one presenting. I did a session on the history and predecessors of gamebooks, a subject that's obviously dear to my heart. And, it appeared, a subject that also brought up fond memories for a number of attendees. Thanks to everyone who dropped in!
As I promised in the session, below are the links from my presentation:
- gamebooks.org, the foremost online catalog of gamebook series.
- A Let's Play of Murder off Miami, a mystery which the reader is meant to solve instead of a protagonist.
- A post from the Digital Antiquarian, one of the best blogs about computer game history, about the history of Murder off Miami.
- An English translation of "The Garden of Forking Paths."
- tutortext.org, a partial recreation of one of the TutorText books.
- An online version of "A Story Your Way," an interactive story by Raymond Queneau.
- A great visualization of the structure of Choose Your Own Adventure books.
- You Chose Wrong, a compendium of bad endings to gamebooks.
- The Windhammer Prize, a yearly competition for original gamebooks.