[3] Infocom was founded on June 22, 1979, by staff and students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and lasted as an independent company until 1986, when it was bought by Activision.

Infocom games are text adventures where users direct the action by entering short strings of words to give commands when prompted.

Generally the program will respond by describing the results of the action, often the contents of a room if the player has moved within the virtual world.

Unlike earlier works of interactive fiction which only understood commands of the form 'verb noun', Infocom's parser could understand a wider variety of sentences.

Infocom began as a collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty and alumni, some of whom had previously worked a text-based adventure game called Zork.

[6] Development of Zork began in 1977 at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, with an initial team including Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, and Dave Lebling, as well as Bruce Daniels.

[7] Inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure,[8] the developers aspired to improve on the formula with a more robust text parser and more logical puzzles.

[9] They did not announce their game while it was in development, but a lack of security on the MIT systems meant that anyone who could access the PDP-10 computer over the ARPANET could see what programs were being run.

[39] Other popular and inventive titles included a number of sequels and spinoff games in the Zork series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and A Mind Forever Voyaging.

Most players enjoyed reading books;[45] in 1987 president Joel Berez stated, "[Infocom's] audience tends to be composed of heavy readers.

Unlike most computer software, Infocom titles were distributed under a no-returns policy,[citation needed] which allowed them to make money from a single game for a longer period of time.

Next, Infocom titles featured strong storytelling and rich descriptions, eschewing the inherent restrictions of graphic displays and allowing users to use their own imaginations for the lavish and exotic locations the games described.

[48] Infocom's puzzles were unique in that they were usually tightly integrated into the storyline, and rarely did gamers feel like they were being made to jump through one arbitrary hoop after another, as was the case in many of the competitors' games.

The puzzles were generally logical but also required close attention to the clues and hints given in the story, causing many gamers to keep copious notes as they went along.

And because of the cleverness and uniqueness of the feelies, users rarely felt like they were an intrusion or inconvenience, as was the case with most of the other copy-protection schemes of the time.

Originally, hints for the game were provided as a "pay-per-hint" service created by Mike Dornbrook, called the Zork Users Group (ZUG).

Dornbrook also started Infocom's customer newsletter, called The New Zork Times, to discuss game hints and preview and showcase new products.

The pay-per-hint service eventually led to the development of InvisiClues: books with hints, maps, clues, and solutions for puzzles in the games.

Infocom also released a small number of "interactive fiction paperbacks" (gamebooks), which were based on the games (such as Zork) and featured the ability to choose a different path through the story.

Although it was packaged in a slick hard plastic carrying case and was a very good database for personal and home use, it was originally priced at USD$495 per copy and used copy-protected disks.

[clarification needed] Another serious miscalculation was that the program did not include any kind of scripting language, so it was not promoted by any of the database consultants that small businesses typically hired to create and maintain their DB applications.

Businesses were moving en masse to the IBM PC platform by that time, so portability was no longer a significant differentiator.

Infocom was interested in producing them, that year proposing to Penguin Software that Antonio Antiochia, author of its Transylvania, provide artwork.

Within Infocom the game designers tended to oppose graphics, while marketing and business employees supported using them for the company to remain competitive.

[2] The merger was pushed by Activision's CEO Jim Levy, who was a fan of Infocom games and felt their two companies were in similar situations.

[52] Berez stated that although the two companies' headquarters and product lines would remain separate, "One of the effects of the merger will be for both of us to broaden our horizons".

[53] While relations were cordial between the two companies at first, Activision's ousting of Levy with new CEO Bruce Davis created problems in the working relationship with Infocom.

This release, however, was missing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Shogun because the licenses from Douglas Adams' and James Clavell's estates had expired.

Five games (Zork I, Planetfall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Wishbringer and Leather Goddesses of Phobos) were re-released in Solid Gold format.

[69] Zork made a cameo appearance as an easter egg in Activision and Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops.