Name: Gnusto
Version: 0.7
Site: http://gnusto.mozdev.org/
What it does: Runs text-adventure games
Reviewer: Barbara Krasnoff

Gnusto lets text adventurers play from their browser. (Click on image to expand.)

Many of us who are more left-brain oriented -- in other words, who favor words and language over symbols and images -- are simply not very good at the current crop of graphics-laden games. I, for one, wouldn't trade the most hard-hitting realistic shoot-'em-up for any of the old Infocom text adventures (also called interactive fiction) that were so popular back in the DOS era. So I was delighted to find that there is a Firefox extension call Gnusto, a Javascript Z-Machine emulator that lets you run any game that is formatted for this format.

Like most successful Firefox extensions, Gnusto does one thing, and does it well. Clicking on the "Gnusto" entry that is added to the Tools menu brings up a small window where you can open and play any interactive fiction game that uses the Z-Machine engine. A transcription feature lets you make a text record of your moves and an Explore menu lists a number of sites where enthusiasts have created their own games for distribution.

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Today's image-oriented game-players may find interactive fiction static and colorless. But folks who are enamored of the written word will find Gnusto a great (and addictive) way to take an occasional game break while not alerting the boss with unnecessary noise and movement. Let's see: "You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building...."