Textfire 12-Pack

From IFWiki

This collection was an April Fool's Day prank played in 1998: a group of people pseudonymously put together some very peculiar "demos" of very odd games, claiming that full versions would soon be available for sale. The original 12-pack contained 16 games, and the 17th, George, was added afterwards with more apocryphal news. Eventually, the conspirators came clean with the release of Masta'mind, the 18th game, which revealed the authors' true identities. Cody then created a website (archive) with behind-the-scenes information.

Games

(All the demos can be found at the IF Archive and IFDB.)

The "Textfire" name

  • When the Textfire group were brainstorming names, the original choice was "Thundersoft", but it turned out there was already a Thundersoft.
  • Cody Sandifer proposed the name "Textfire".
  • Adam Thornton registered textfire.com for use with the IF Comp.
  • The German IF website, textfire.de, is the home of the annual Grand Prix competition, which began in 2002.
  • Textfyre was a commercial publisher founded by David Cornelson in 2007.