Andrew Plotkin
Interactive fiction author and hacker; wrote Spider and Web and Hadean Lands, and designed the Glulx virtual machine.
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Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 11 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Mixed on Tweetie
I keep iChat running (for Jabber), and also Tweetie (it hasn't been updated in forever, but it's good enough for my low-level Twitter usage).
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Liked iSSH
I also have iSSH on the iPad (and iPhone, etc). That lets me ssh into a server and run Emacs over 3G. Yes, this is my greatest computer dream. Emacs anywhere!
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Uses Inform 7
Programming? Xcode for the iPhone work; Inform 7 for text adventures; everything else is Emacs and a command line.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Show 8 more
Uses Audio Hijack Pro
Music and TV shows are set up in iTunes, with Audio Hijack Pro to redirect music out a USB port.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Liked iCab
But when I do want to see a full web site, design and all, I fire up iCab or Safari. Both are perfectly nice web browsers.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Liked TextWrangler
My text editing slides back and forth between Emacs and TextWrangler; neither is dispensable.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Uses Pine
When I read email, I swear, I'm ssh'd into a shell account and running Pine.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Liked Lynx
I use Lynx for moment-to-moment browsing. It's all-text, fixed font, black-on-white, no JavaScript or Flash or blinking or borders… it's just more comfortable to read blogs and news articles this way.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Uses emacs
I always have Emacs up, in one Terminal. A couple more generally have Lynx.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Loved Matias Tactile Pro
They've also got Matias TactilePro keyboards. Because if your typing doesn't sound like a hailstorm on a tin roof, you're not typing.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Mixed on Dell U2410
The 17" Apple Studio Display that I bought with it died a couple of years ago (touch-sensitive power switch went wonky) so I dropped in a Dell U2410 monitor. The Dell is awfully nice, except that it has that OLED color oversaturation problem.
usesthis.com 22 Jan 2011
Where they publish
Site eblong.com/zarf His site: games, essays and code.
Link verified 5 Sept 2026.
Mastodon @zarfeblong@mastodon.gamedev.place Where he posts day to day.
Recent
- Cyan is doing a kickstarter to reprint the Myst novel trilogy, super-fancy. 21 Oct 2026
- Here's the text and slides from my Roguelike Celebration talk this weekend: https://eblong.com/zarf/essays/maze-talk/ The video is not yet up. I’ll follow up when it is available. 19 Oct 2026
- I am seriously spending so much time in Nivalis. 10 Oct 2026
Show 17 more
- Just to spread the word, there's a spammer contacting previous IFComp entrants. (Not this year's entrants, but 2025 and going back at least to 2011.) Trying to drum up traffic for his "IF community" Discord server. Short AI-generated queries about each game, faking personal interest. #InteractiveFiction #IFComp 8 Oct 2026
- Really, Past Self? Creating a self-signed local ssl cert with an 800 day lifespan? So that when it finally expires, I can't even find my notes on how I did it the first time? I found them eventually. I guess I should be glad it wasn't a 1600 day lifespan, because then I'd have been totally hosed. Time to repeat the trick, I guess. 5 Oct 2026
- My blog and website seem to have shown up on UK content restriction lists, as seen from iOS. https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/10/a-note-on-content-restrictions If you can’t see the blog post, try here: 3 Oct 2026 gist.github.com
- Anatomy of a wild-pointer bug in Infocom's Infidel. Yes, in the released version. I believe this is a brand-new discovery. https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/10/infidel-goes-wild #Infocom #InteractiveFiction 3 Oct 2026
- It has been a few years since I remembered to start reading _A Night in the Lonesome October_ on October 1st, so I have just read chapter 1 of _A Night in the Lonesome October_. Out loud. Obviously. 1 Oct 2026
- Visible Planetfall is up. https://eblong.com/infocom/visi/planetfall/ https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/10/visible-planetfall #InteractiveFiction #Infocom #Planetfall 1 Oct 2026
- I've been quoting bits of John M. Ford, who died twenty years ago this morning. https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/09/twenty-years "There's not the time to stand still in the corridor / waiting for life to make sense after all.” 25 Sept 2026
- “Spock," Kirk said, “Spock." Then, from the heart, “*Spock.*” He held out his arms. "Somebody give the captain a *pie!*” (From _How Much for Just the Planet?_) 24 Sept 2026
- "... Except that guy. Don’t give that guy his character sheet. Pretend not to hear when he asks for it, or why he doesn’t have one. "Eventually, inform that player that his character is in fact the imaginary friend of one of the other Troubleshooters, but don’t say which one. Let them ponder this for a while.” 23 Sept 2026
- Yay, 20 More Somehow Even Smaller Mazes. 18 Sept 2026
- Some recent mystery and puzzle games. (Okay, _This Bed We Made_ is from a couple years back.) ⁃ The Mermaid Mask ⁃ This Bed We Made ⁃ Cognition Method ⁃ He Who Watches https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/09/late-summer-mysteries #Reviews 15 Sept 2026
- Funny every time: The fans in my M3 iMac are so silent that when I run a real CPU-hog of a task, I can only tell by the *smell*. (You know that warm dust / motherboard smell. Coming out of the iMac's bottom vents. Silently.) If Apple were consistent, they would put as much engineering effort into smell suppression as sound suppression. Right? 14 Sept 2026
- The funny thing is, my dream phone at this point is an updated iPhone SE, because that means (a) small and (b) touchid rather than faceid. And the foldyphone satisfies both those criteria! (Small when folded, which is how I’d carry it.) Can’t swing first-gen prices, though. My SE3 will totter on another year. 9 Sept 2026
- Following up my speculations about the Hugo "Best Game” finalists, now that the winners are out. Turns out _Clair Obscur_ won handily. Good for the game! Bad if you're looking for finely-sliced statistical commentary. Also, I promise I will read _Inventing the Renaissance_ now. 4 Sept 2026 blog.zarfhome.com
- The Visible Witness is now available. https://eblong.com/infocom/visi/witness/ https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/09/visible-witness #Infocom #InteractiveFiction 1 Sept 2026
- Thoughts on Servant of the Lake, the latest Rusty Lake game; and the HIdden Town series, which is basically a Rusty Lake knock-off but I have no problem with that. https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/08/rusty-lake-and-hidden-town #Reviews 22 Aug 2026
- I've updated all the Visible Zorker pages to include a search field. You can search for objects, routines, variables, and game text. https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/08/visible-zorker-search Yes, the word “Zork" is temporarily swamped in gaming news due to some FromSoftware article. Big deal. #Zork #InteractiveFiction 20 Aug 2026
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Bluesky eblong.com His Bluesky account, verified by his own domain.
Recent
- Cyan is doing a kickstarter to reprint the Myst novel trilogy, super-fancy. 21 Oct 2026
- Here's the text and slides from my Roguelike Celebration talk this weekend: eblong.com/zarf/essays/... The video is not yet up. I’ll follow up when it is available. 19 Oct 2026
- I am seriously spending so much time in Nivalis. 10 Oct 2026
Show 13 more
- Just to spread the word, there's a spammer contacting previous IFComp entrants. (Not this year's entrants, but 2025 and going back at least to 2011.) Trying to drum up traffic for his "IF community" Discord server. Short AI-generated queries about each game, faking personal interest. 8 Oct 2026
- Really, Past Self? Creating a self-signed local ssl cert with an 800 day lifespan? So that when it finally expires, I can't even find my notes on how I did it the first time? 5 Oct 2026
- My blog and website seem to have shown up on UK content restriction lists, as seen from iOS. blog.zarfhome.com/2026/10/a-no... If you can’t see the blog post, try here: 3 Oct 2026 gist.github.com
- Anatomy of a wild-pointer bug in Infocom's Infidel. Yes, in the released version. I believe this is a brand-new discovery. 3 Oct 2026 blog.zarfhome.com
- It has been a few years since I remembered to start reading _A Night in the Lonesome October_ on October 1st, so I have just read chapter 1 of _A Night in the Lonesome October_. Out loud. Obviously. 1 Oct 2026
- Visible Planetfall is up. 1 Oct 2026
- I've been quoting bits of John M. Ford, who died twenty years ago this morning. blog.zarfhome.com/2026/09/twen... “There's not the time to stand still in the corridor / waiting for life to make sense after all.” 25 Sept 2026
- “Spock,” Kirk said, “Spock.” Then, from the heart, “*Spock.*” He held out his arms. "Somebody give the captain a *pie!*” (From _How Much for Just the Planet?_) 24 Sept 2026
- "... Except that guy. Don’t give that guy his character sheet. Pretend not to hear when he asks for it, or why he doesn’t have one. 23 Sept 2026
- Yay, 20 More Somehow Even Smaller Mazes. 18 Sept 2026
- It is indeed a good book. 16 Sept 2026
- Some recent mystery and puzzle games. (Okay, _This Bed We Made_ is from a couple years back.) - The Mermaid Mask - This Bed We Made - Cognition Method - He Who Watches 15 Sept 2026 blog.zarfhome.com
- Funny every time: The fans in my M3 iMac are so silent that when I run a real CPU-hog of a task, I can only tell by the *smell*. (You know that warm dust / motherboard smell. Coming out of the iMac's bottom vents. Silently.) 14 Sept 2026
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
GitHub @erkyrath Glulx, Glk and his interactive fiction tooling.
Recent
- Inform6-Testing — Regression testing for the Inform 6 compiler 18 Oct 2026
- glk-dev — Miscellaneous Glk and Glulx files and documents 13 Aug 2026
- bloggor — Lightweight static blog generator 5 Aug 2026
Show 12 more
- blorbtool — Interactive in-browser Blorb editing 30 May 2026
- glulxe — The Glulx VM reference interpreter 5 May 2026
- pbbeacon — Structured declaration language for the PixelBlaze LED controller 19 Feb 2026
- ztools — Disassembling Z-code game files 23 Jan 2026
- beacon — Pattern generator for an LED strip 21 Jan 2026
- lectrote — The IF interpreter in an Electron shell 4 Oct 2025
- quixe — A Glulx VM interpreter written in Javascript 1 Sept 2025
- plotex — The PlotEx and RegTest tools for IF development 11 Aug 2025
- bocfel — Fork of the Bocfel Z-machine interpreter 5 Jul 2025
- YSRun-Single — A single-turn GlkOte wrapper for the YarnSpinner interpreter 2 Jul 2025
- inkrun-single — Single-turn GlkOte wrapper for the InkJS interpreter 28 Jun 2025
- glkote — A Javascript display library for IF interfaces 25 Jun 2025
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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