Infocom · The Grey-Box Collection · 1980–1988
In the 1980s, Infocom shipped worlds with no pictures in them. You typed a sentence, and the machine wrote back—in prose so good the pictures arrived anyway.
All 32 grey-box releases are here. 31 are still sealed. One is still out there.
Two of those original worlds are being brought back to life with AI.
Enter the collectionTHE WORK / PRESERVATION IN MOTION
Collecting preserves the things Infocom made. NewZork and Planetfall.ai are my attempt to preserve something harder: the feeling that a world on the other side of a prompt is listening.
EXPERIMENT 01 / NEWZORK.AI
Zork I opened Infocom’s first door. Its authored rooms, objects, puzzles, and consequences remain intact while an intelligent narrator understands your intent, describes what happens, and keeps the world alive around you.
Preserve the astonishing feeling—not only the source.
Find Zork I on the wallEXPERIMENT 02 / PLANETFALL.AI
Planetfall has been rebuilt room by room and object by object. Its intelligent narrator gives the completed world a voice—and lets you meet Floyd, Blather, and the Ambassador as characters who feel present, responsive, and alive.
Because Floyd deserves more than preservation.
Find Planetfall on the wallROOM 01 / THE WALL
The real arrangement, lightly curated. Two boxes carry a signal: their worlds can be entered.
THE COLLECTOR’S KEY / PERSONAL HISTORY
Each mark records Michael’s history without touching the cover art.i Select any box to bring the world closer. Follow the green signal to enter one.
Archival scans stand in while Michael’s collection photography is added, box by box.
A PERSONAL FOOTNOTE / OUTSIDE THE GREY BOXES
Beyond the thirty-two worlds on the wall, I still have the original boxes of Journey: The Quest Begins, ZorkQuest II: The Crystal of Doom, and both Lost Treasures of Infocom anthologies—four more survivors from my Infocom years.
