Textfire 12-Pack

This collection was an April Fool's Day prank played in 1998: a group of people pseudonymously put together some very peculiar "demos" of very odd games, claiming that full versions would soon be available for sale. The original 12-pack contained 16 games, and the 17th, George, was added afterwards with more apocryphal news. Eventually, the conspirators came clean with the release of Masta'mind, the 18th game, which revealed the authors' true identities. Cody then created a website with behind-the-scenes information.

Games

Bad Guys (David Glasser as "Ed Dallas"; Z-code).
Coma! (Nate Cull as "Rachael Croft"; TADS 2).
An Exploration of Colour (Neil James Brown as "Mal Jackson"; Z-code).
Flowers for Algernon (Adam Cadre as "Deborah Keyes"; Z-code).
George (Cody Sandifer as "Shea Davis"; TADS 2).
The Inanimator (Matthew Amster-Burton as "Thomas Winkler"; TADS 2).
Insomnia (Scott Starkey as "August Pelter"; TADS 2).
Jack's Adventures (Dan Shiovitz as "Ben Scagels"; TADS 2).
Masta'mind (Stephen Granade as "Riley Hawkins"; TADS 2).
Once (Chris Klimas as "Robin Andrews"; Z-code).
Operate! (Cody Sandifer as "Shea Davis"; TADS 2).
Pumping! (Stephen Granade as "Riley Hawkins"; TADS 2).
Revenge of the Killer Surf Nazi Robot Babes from Hell (David Dyte as "Alex Crowley"; Z-code).
A Tenuous Hold (Stephen Granade as "Riley Hawkins"; TADS 2).
The U.S. Men's Hockey Team Olympic Challenge (Leon Lin as "Shishi M. Hayashi"; TADS 2).
Verb! (Neil deMause as "D.L. Schneck"; TADS 2).
Will the Real Marjorie Hopkirk Please Stand Up? (Neil James Brown as "Steve Parsons"; Hugo).
Zugzwang (Magnus Olsson as "Alfred Timpson"; Z-code).

The "Textfire" name

When the Textfire group were brainstorming names, the original choice was "Thundersoft", but it turned out there was already a Thundersoft.
Cody Sandifer proposed the name "Textfire".
Adam Thornton registered textfire.com for use with the IF Comp.
The German IF website, textfire.de, is the home of the annual Grand Prix competition, which began in 2002.