Graham Nelson

Graham Nelson, a mathematician and poet, is one of the central figures of the IF community. He helped to reverse-engineer and expand a portable virtual machine, and created a free programming language and compiler for IF. He has also written several influential essays, a well-respected programming manual, and one of the most widely-distributed games in the IF community.

Author Credits

• Curses (1993; Z-code).
• Balances (1994; Z-code).
• Jigsaw (1995; Z-code).
• The Meteor, the Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet (as "Angela M. Horns"; 1996; Z-code), for IF Comp 1996 (1st place). Was a finalist for Best Individual Puzzle, Best Puzzles, Best Writing, and Best Game at the XYZZY Awards 1996.
• The Tempest (1997; Z-code). IF Comp 1997: 25th place. Winner of Best Use of Medium at the XYZZY Awards 1997.
• The Reliques of Tolti-Aph (01-Mar-2006; Z-code).

Porting Credits

• Ported Adventure and Adventureland to the Z-machine.
• With Adam Atkinson: ported Crobe, Fyleet, and Quest for the Sangraal to the Z-machine.

Tech Credits

• Helped reverse engineer and expand the Z-machine.
• Designed the Inform authoring system.
• Deja Vu (1993; Z-code). A demo for the Z-machine.
• Time and Dwarves (1998; Inform source code). Demo code for Inform programmers.
• Released Inform 7 as a public beta in 2006.

Review and Article Credits

• "The Craft of the Adventure." 2nd ed. The IF Archive, 1995.
• "On Jigsaw and I." XYZZYnews Issue #6: PDF, TXT. The IF Archive and Bran Muffin Communications, 1995.
• Had a regular column in most issues of Acorn User magazine from 167 (April 1996) through 202 (Xmas 1998). Covered interactive fiction (especially earlier ones) and other gaming material. IF-relevant issues:
  • The Teaser (pp59-60, no 167, Apr 1996): announcing the Acorn User 1996 Interactive Fiction Competition.
  • Hiding the Pogs (pp58-59, no 168, May 1996): on how adventure games bury their treasure.
  • Go once more a-roving (pp59-60, no 169, Jun 1996): Acheton review.
  • Inform 6 (pp59-60, no 170, Jul 1996). (Program included on cover CD.)
  • Invisible cities (pp61-62, no 171, Aug 1996): on maps in IF.
  • Colourless green ideas sleep furiously (pp57-58, no 172, Sep 1996): on the parser (loosely).
  • The 1996 Interactive Fiction Competition [not that one] (pp61-62, no 173, Oct 1996): results of the Acorn User 1996 Interactive Fiction Competition.
  • Meet Hugo and GTAC (pp83-84, no 174, Nov 1996).
  • Infocom gets a silver disc (pp72-73, no 175, Dec 1996): Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom.
  • Arfle barfle gloop (pp72-73, no 176, Xmas 1996): reviewing Level 9 games.
  • Another world (pp66-67, no 177, Jan 1997): reviewing gaming (including IF) websites.
  • NetHack and Slay (p54, no 178, Feb 1997): includes a brief review of the 2nd r.a.i-f competition results.
  • Burnt Sienna: Val, Frost (pp61-62, no 179, Mar 1997): TADS games.
  • Gruesome (p62, no 187, Nov 1997): Zork: The Undiscovered Underground and other IF news.
  • p65, no 188, Dec 1997: IF material on the accompanying cover CD.
  • The dragon's photo album (p57, no 191, Feb 1998): review of Arya: The Dragon's Quest; Aventura.
  • Three revivals (p82, no 193, Apr 1998): includes a review of Cyborg, a game with a text adventure component.
  • Into the iron city (p55, no 196, Jul 1998): on mazes.
• New Tricks for an Old Z-Machine, Part 2: Hacking Deeper (or, Follies of Graham Nelson’s Youth) - on Jimmy Maher's blog, November 8, 2019.

Organizational Credits

• Judged the Acorn User 1996 Interactive Fiction Competition.
• On the advisory board for the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation.

Testing Credits

• Floatpoint (Emily Short; 30-Sep-2006; Glulx).

Other Credits

• The Inform Designers Manual. Fourth Edition. The IF Archive, 2001.
• Wrote much of the documentation for Inform 7.

Game Appearances

As an NPC:

• The Cabal (Stephen Bond; 2004; Z-code).

As a reference:

• All Quiet on the Library Front (Michael S. Phillips; 1995; Z-code). IF Comp 1995. The PC needs a book by Graham Nelson from the library.
• Basket of Destiny (John Cater; 2001; Z-code). Speed-IF 15. A cardboard cutout of Graham Nelson blocks the entrance to a TV studio.
• Being Steve (Anonymous; 2006; Z-code). The PC insults Graham Nelson via computer.

Links

• Academic home page of Graham Nelson.
  • Former home page, at Demon Internet (archive).
• Baf's Guide listing for Graham Nelson (archive)
• Graham Nelson at Wikipedia.
• inform7.com - The official, current Inform website.
• inform-fiction.org - The old Inform website, no longer kept up to date.
• Нельсон, Грэхем (Nelson, Graham) at IF-Вики (the Russian IF wiki).

Interviews

• Interview - XYZZYnews Issue #1: PDF, TXT, January/February 1995.
• The Meteor, the Stone, and a Long Glass of Sherbet, by Graham Nelson - SPAG #10, February 3, 1997.
• SPAG #44 - Jimmy Maher interviews Graham Nelson and Emily Short about Inform 7. April 30, 2006. (Spanish translation)
• From Infocom to 80 Days: An oral history of text games and interactive fiction - June 20, 2024. Several people were interviewed by Anna Washenko for Ars Technica.