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
What are really famous and outstanding PCs or NPCs in IF history?
My own suggestions for this are a bit lame:
Floyd from Planetfall
Violet
AlexAndra from Counterfeit Monkey
Tiffany/Trent from Leather Goddesses of Phobos
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.
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.
All good answers. And I, too, think that Galatea stands out.
the one NPC you talk to in The Edifice. if you played it you know what i mean
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.
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.
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?
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?
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:
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.
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.
I was totally unaware of the name Perry Simm, despite the fact that AMFV is my all-time favorite IF.
The documentation accompanying AMFV explains Perry Simm and Prism.
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.
That’s interesting. I’ve always considered documentation to be a feature of Infocom games.
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.
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.