Gary McGath

I bought this book in 1984, and I've been carrying it around the world with me since then, I took it to college, I took it to the big city when I got my first job, I took it to India when my job took me there and I still have it on my nearby bookshelf in New York City. It's not particularly useful now, but as it was the first computer book I ever bought, I'm quite attached to it.

As was more common in the 80's, it's sort of a mix-n-match of things, a description of what adventure games are, a guide for players on how to keep track of maps and items while playing, and finally actual code for one in multiple versions of BASIC (including different fonts characteristic of the different computers) and reviews of some then-popular adventure games.

Every time I flip through it, though, I do want to get back into playing text adventures, especially Zork and Raaka-Tu (which I never finished, having gotten stuck with the gargoyle while playing on then-current TRS-80 computers at school).… (mais)

Great book! I was surprised to find that I was (peripherally) involved in filk just as it was taking off - I thought I was joining a long-established movement. I went to my first con a year before Gary did! Lots of interesting history, lots of explanations of stuff I'd heard vaguely about. He handles the Off Centaur controversy nicely - emphasizing the good bits, and straightforward reporting of the bad bits. However, I now have a _lot_ of filk songs, songbooks, and CDs/tapes I want to see/hear/own! If you're into filk, or have heard vaguely about it and would like to know more, this is a fantastic resource. It's also a lot of fun to read, especially if you are into filk (where was I when that happened? Oh, right...). Fun, and definitely will be reread - or at least dipped into to find stuff (What was that song of Talis' he mentions? And when was...).… (mais)