Phoenix

Phoenix (1973-1995) was an IBM mainframe computer at the University of Cambridge, UK. Acheton, the first major text adventure developed in the UK, was developed on this machine. Between 1978 and 1985, the programming language and interpreter used for Acheton were extended and used to create more games, collectively called "the Phoenix games." The Phoenix development system is probably the first text adventure system to be used by people other than its original authors. Various subsets of the Phoenix games were later ported to home systems and published by Acornsoft and later Topologika. A different subset were more recently converted directly from Phoenix sources to Z-code (with the authors' permission, conditional on making only unavoidable changes).

Games

• Acheton (Jon Thackray, David Seal, Jonathan Partington; 1978-80). Derived versions published commercially by Acornsoft and Topologika; later converted to Z-code.
• Hezarin (Alex Shipp, Steve Tinney; 1981?). Only the Topologika version survives.
• Hamil (Jonathan Partington; 1982?). Source available. Derived versions published by Acornsoft and Topologika. Converted to Z-code.
• Murdac (Jonathan Partington; 1982?). Source available. Derived versions published by Global Software and Topologika. Converted to Z-code.
• Avon (Jonathan Partington; 1982?). Source available. Published by Topologika. Converted to Z-code.
• BrandX (Jonathan Mestel, Peter Killworth; 1983). Source available. Derived versions released by Acornsoft and Topologika (as Philosopher's Quest). Converted to Z-code.
• Parc (John Rennie; 1983). Converted to Z-code.
• Quondam (Rod Underwood; ≤1984?). Only the Acornsoft version survives.
• Fyleet (Jonathan Partington; 1985). Source available; converted to Z-code.
• Crobe (Jonathan Partington; 1986). Source available; converted to Z-code.
• Quest of the Sangraal (Jonathan Partington; 1987). Source available; converted to Z-code.
• Nidus (Adam Atkinson; 1986). Source available; converted to Z-code.
• Spycatcher (Jon Thackray, Jonathan Partington; 1988). Published by Topologika (as Spy Snatcher). Converted to Z-code.
• Xenophobia (Jonathan Mestel; 1989?). Source available; converted to Z-code.
• Xerb (Andrew Lipson; 1989?). Lost.

Links

• Phoenix (computer) at Wikipedia.
• About the first attempt at porting the Phoenix games to the Z-Machine.
• Revisiting the Phoenix Games, Adam Atkinson, SPAG #58 (2010) - article on games on the Phoenix mainframe, their development and afterlife (including the second bout of translation from 2009).
• phoenix/ at the IF Archive. (Contains some works by Phoenix people that never existed on Phoenix itself.)
• Works tagged Phoenix mainframe - at IFDB.
• r*if newsgroup threads:
  • DJS/JGT Adventures on rec.games.int-fiction (Gareth Rees, 27-Jun-1994) - a list of the games then extant on Phoenix, posted by a user before it shut down in 1995.
  • [ANNOUNCE] Lost Adventures of Topologika on rec.games.int-fiction (Gunther Schmidl, 16-Jul-1999) - publication of the source code to Fyleet, Crobe, and Sangraal (and later in the thread, Xeno and BrandX), and associated tool documentation.
  • Announcing: Fyleet, Crobe, Sangraal on rec.games.int-fiction (Graham Nelson, 24-Aug-1999) - announcing the first three Z-code ports of Phoenix games. (Also on the IF Archive.)
  • ifarchive: Avon, Hamil, Murdac on rec.games.int-fiction (Adam Atkinson, 24-Oct-2001) - more Phoenix game source published.
  • New old game: a Z-code version of Acheton on rec.games.int-fiction (David Kinder, 28-Feb-2010) - Acheton finally ported to Z-code, after bug-fixes to the conversion tooling.
  • New old games: more from Cambridge's Phoenix mainframe on rec.games.int-fiction (David Kinder, 25-Apr-2010) - Z-code conversions of the remaining games, and bugfixed versions of already-released games.