Description
The papers include design and game development documents, correspondence, paper files, electronic games, magazines, data disks,
original game package artwork, PR and marketing materials, and miscellaneous electronic game industry memorabilia.
Background
Steven Meretzky was born on May 1, 1957 in Yonkers, NY. He attended MIT in 1975 in pursuit of an architecture career, and
was majoring in construction management when he changed his career goals to focus on computer game development. His roommate
at the time, Mike Dornbrook, was working as the first and only game tester for Infocom, a computer game publisher specializing
in text adventures (aka “interactive fiction”) titles. Interactive fiction games are controlled by the player through a text-based
parser, which interprets simple instructions that the player types into the computer, such as “get lamp.” Dornbrook was play
testing the title
Zork I in their living room on an Apple II computer, recording any programming bugs, and Meretzky assisted (unpaid) because of his
interest in the game. Dornbrook eventually left to attend business school, leaving Infocom in need of a new game tester. In
1981, Marc Blank, Infocom’s VP of Development, hired Meretzky to fill the vacated position. Meretzky worked as a game tester
for one year and then was offered the opportunity to develop his first game,
Planetfall, which was released in 1983.
Extent
43.5 Linear feet
(54 boxes, 1 flat box, 6 map folders, 1 map tube)
Restrictions
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.
Availability
Open for research, except that born-digital materials in Series 9. are CLOSED UNTIL PROCESSED. Physical boxes can be paged
for use through Searchworks. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital
use copy. Scans of selected documents from Series 9 are available through the media cart (dedicated offline computers) inside
the Green Library reading room.