Some guys at MIT wrote a terrific long-format article on Infocom (PDF here). It's a very well-done chronicle of the rise and fall of a successful company, with some good commentary on how Infocom made its money and the critical mistakes it made that killed 'em.

There are plenty of lessons to be learned, so read it.

If you're still a fetus and you don't remember those classy old Infocom text-adventures, you can still play 'em. One thing the article failed to mention is that the .Z format is still alive, that folks are still porting the interpreter and even writing new games. There are interpreters for .Z here, and there are a slew of third-party .Z adventures here. The original Zorks are downloadable as executables for PC and Mac here.

Enjoy 'em and stay away from the Grue!