Interactive fiction

Interactive Fiction is a computer game genre. It is loosely defined by a narrative depicted as text and player interaction through either textual (keyboard) input in natural language or through multiple choice menus.

History
The term was coined in 1979 by American game designer Robert Lafore who wrote games for Scott Adams' company Adventure International. In 1984, Infocom started to label their games "interactive fiction" to distinguish them from less advanced competitor products. For almost a decade the term was almost exclusively used in connection to the works of Infocom.