In 1992, IF enthusiast Volker Blasius started the IF Archive, which brought together remaining text adventure files and fans from across the Internet. Paul O’Brian, who runs a newsletter for IF fans, says the archive brought text gamers together. “The fact that people can go to one predictable, reliable space … has given the community a focus to organize around.”

For the past decade, Granade has unleashed the text-gaming community’s creativity by running IF Comp, an annual competition involving 40 to 50 new entries. “There started to be this recognition that there was a renaissance occurring in amateur IF,” says O’Brian, the 2004 winner for his Luminous Horizon. “Because there’s no longer a customer out there or a profit to be made, that has opened the form up artistically.” –Adam McDowell —Actually, there weren’t any pictures at all (Canada.com)

Nothing new here, but it’s still great to see a decent treatment of the IF genre in mainstream media.