An Interactive History of Interactive Fiction

This is a complement to BBC Radio 4's "Archive on 4" presentation of the "SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK" audio documentary about the roots of interactive literature. Within a standard hypertext interface, it leads players through descriptions, scans and recordings (new and historical) collected in the process of researching and creating the documentary, supposing that the correct way to tell the story of interactive media is through interactive media. Subjects covered range from TutorText programmed learning books to the early experiments of civil servant Dennis Guerrier and Raymond Queneau's work in the OULIPO, Crowther & Woords' ADVENT, Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, MUD, Infocom's text adventures, LARPing, and Twine. As part of the historical material shared in this interactive history, players have an opportunity for the first time in decades to experience a portion of Steve Jackson's "F.I.S.T." (Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone) gamebook-by-telephone system.