Old school

A parser game is considered to be "old school" if it borrows heavily from the conventions of IF games from the '70s and '80s, particularly Adventure (William Crowther and Don Woods; c. 1975) and its imitators. These conventions may be considered frustrating by modern players, especially hunger puzzles and mazes.

Games that seriously challenged old school conventions and established a "new school" of IF include Photopia (Adam Cadre; 1998; Z-code) and Galatea (Emily Short; 2000; Z-code). New school works emphasize story over puzzle, include more NPCs and conversation, and may avoid the inclusion of a scoring system. Endings in new school works are often not split into winning and losing ones, although some endings may still be considered better than others by the player.

Also noteworthy, the game Savoir-Faire (Emily Short; 2002; Z-code) is a virtual showcase of old school tropes, except they are presented with new twists.