[reticulated]

My goodness, I could have written this word-for-word. Similar age, same Apple II BASIC and 6502 upbringing (roll sleeves and call -151) and also wrote to Infocom. We were in the UK so even more surprised to get a reply similar to yours several weeks later. Sadly my letter is also lost to various house moves. Or eaten by a grue.

[DonHopkins]

I wrote them, and after a while I received a brochure in my mailbox, with this stamp:

    ---v----v----v----v----v---
    |         _______         |
    >  One   /       \     G  <
    | Lousy /         \    U  |
    > Point |   ___   |    E  <
    |       |  (___)  |       |
    >       <--)___(-->    P  <
    |       / /     \ \    o  |
    >      / /       \ \   s  <
    |     |-|---------|-|  t  |
    >     | |  \ _ /  | |  a  <
    |     | | --(_)-- | |  g  |
    >     | |  /| |\  | |  e  <
    |     |-|---|_|---|-|     |
    >      \ \__/_\__/ /      <
    |       _/_______\_       |
    >      |  f.m.l.c. |      <
    |      -------------      |
    >                         <
    |   Donald Woods, Editor  |
    >     Spelunker Today     <
    |                         |
    ---^----^----^----^----^---

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23114927

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Z1cKUxD9c

https://crpgadventures.blogspot.com/2016/05/zork-victory-sor...

[drob518]

Ha! They probably assigned an intern to reply to all the kids wanting to help them write the “next one.” Too funny! They had class, Infocom did.

[bryanlarsen]

Me too, except my letter was to Sierra On-Line and my experience was on TRS-80 6809. Really classy reply asking me to write back when I finished school.

[eej71]

I recall sending a letter to them asking them for information on how they compressed their images for their hi-res adventure games. While they replied, they said it was a trade secret. I was kind of bummed. But being a 12 year old kid who barely understood the 6502, it probably would have gone over my head.

[brandall10]

Lovely to hear this about Infocom and SOL. The former was my obsession throughout the mid-late 80s on my Atari 800XL, and then the latter for the next few years after getting a 386SX in '89.

[drob518]

Nice.

[stavros]

Recruiter pipelines back then were long, huh?