What are really famous and outstanding PCs or NPCs in IF history?
My own suggestions for this are a bit lame:
- the grue
- the post man (from Wishbringer)
- Grunk
- the thief in Zork
Floyd from Planetfall
Violet
AlexAndra from Counterfeit Monkey
Tiffany/Trent from Leather Goddesses of Phobos
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I’d nominate Lil’ Raggamuffin from the Guttersnipe series. But I don’t know if she counts as “famous” enough.
Otherwise, the wife (protagonist) and husband (antagonist) from Anchorhead, and Morrodox from Delusions, and the PC from Babel.
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Galatea is a big one.
While the name may not be instantly recognizable, Bell Park was the main character in both an XYZZY-winning game (which is the most-rated choice game on IFDB) and an IFComp-winning game (which is the most-rated of any kind of game since it came out in 2022). She also has her own game: Bell Park, Youth Detective.
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All good answers. And I, too, think that Galatea stands out.
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the one NPC you talk to in The Edifice. if you played it you know what i mean
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It’s hard to say what’s famous. I think a lot of younger players don’t play Infocom games at all, for instance, despite playing contemporary parser games!
I’d say Perry Simm anyway.
I also would also name Bell Park. She was the first character I thought of.
The protagonist of Bee? Certainly a favorite of mine.
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Fred Strickland in Will Not Let Me Go. I’m not sure if this is going to be a useful list honestly, since famous and outstanding are really subjective measures.
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Yeah, sure, but that’s intended. I came to this question when we talked at work about Guybrush Threepwood. He is famous and outstanding for 2D point and click adventures. I then had the thought: What would be similar characters in IF?
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If you’d asked this question 20 years ago I’m pretty sure Alley Dawson would have been one of the first names on everyone’s list.
I think Floyd is the most iconic Infocom character.
Galatea, Violet, Grunk … there might be something in the fact that all of these are recognisable from a single name? (Not that I think any of them were given more than that…)
For extremely meta reasons, Naomi Cragne?
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I think that is a decent top 4 (with the caveat that this is subjective as @pieartsy said)
I want to add some more, again not so great, suggestions:
- AMFV
- that Renaissance (or Baroque?) character: Varicelli or so.
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That’d be Perry Simm, already mentioned upthread by @kamineko
Primo Varicella - I wondered about mentioning him, but Varicella (the game) doesn’t seem to get much recognition these days.
I did forget to mention Rameses Alexander Moran.
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Oh, I just realized one, but I hate to bring it up…
one of the most recognizable IF characters over many decades is, unfortunately, Stiffy Makane.
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I was totally unaware of the name Perry Simm, despite the fact that AMFV is my all-time favorite IF.
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The documentation accompanying AMFV explains Perry Simm and Prism.
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Which I hadn’t decades ago. Because I had a copy of questionable sources. But wouldn’t have read it anyway, I guess. I didn’t read the doc about Babel, too, when I played it.
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That’s interesting. I’ve always considered documentation to be a feature of Infocom games.
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It really is a feature. So were the feelies. Some people don’t read the instruction manual when they build devices or furniture. I 'm such a person when it comes to games.
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Just to be clear, I’m talking about a fake “magazine article” written by the protagonist of AMFV, a fictional character named Perry Simm, and not an instruction manual. Which you probably know, but for the benefit of anyone else happening by: I haven’t been talking about reading directions.
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