Iria

Howard Sherman is hoping to convince people that their iPods and cell phones aren't just for music or phone calls. Instead, he'd like you to use yours to fight dragons and solve murder mysteries.

A lifelong computer-game player, Sherman spends his professional life talking up the nostalgic charm of old-fashioned text-based games. His company, Malinche Entertainment, has produced several titles similar to old Infocom text games such as the legendary Zork. While the company has found a niche market selling these retro games for computers, Sherman is hoping to exploit new devices to reinvigorate the genre.

His newest title, The First Mile, is the first to be marketed to iPod users. After spending six months developing an engine for playing games on the device with no keyboard, Sherman is preaching the virtues of interactive fiction to a new market. So far the new title is selling better than Sherman expected.

"People are taking notice," he said, noting three major iPod download sites have featured the game on their front pages. "It's reaching the iPod people, and that is a wide range of people."

Sherman said he saw another entrepreneurial programmer trying to market a text game on a cell phone nearly a year ago, but that endeavor failed before Malinche could approach the startup company about a partnership.
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Read More / Source: Wired News