1996 was the first year of the Xyzzy Awards, and the catagories of "Best Individual PC" and "Best Use of Medium" had not yet been created.
The nominees for the awards are as follows (entries in bold won):
Best Game:
So Far, by Andrew Plotkin
The Light, Shelby's Addendum, by Colm McCarthy
Lost New York, by Neil deMause
The Meteor, the Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet, by Graham Nelson
Time: All Things Come to an End, by Andy Phillips
Best Writing:
So Far, by Andrew Plotkin
Aayela, by Magnus Olsson
Lost New York, by Neil deMause
The Meteor, the Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet, by Graham Nelson
Tapestry, by Daniel Ravipinto
Best Story:
Delusions, by C.E. Forman
Lost New York, by Neil deMause
So Far, by Andrew Plotkin
Tapestry, by Daniel Ravipinto
Time: All Things Come To An End, by Andy Phillips
Best Setting:
The Light: Shelby's Addendum, by Colm McCarthy
Lost New York, by Neil deMause
A Night at the Computer Center, by Bonni Mierzejewska
Small World, by Andrew Pontious
So Far, by Andrew Plotkin
Best Puzzles:
Frobozz Magic Support, by Nate Cull
Lost New York, by Neil deMause
The Meteor, the Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet, by Graham Nelson
So Far, by Andrew Plotkin
Time: All Things Come to an End, by Andy Phillips
Best NPCs:
Kissing the Buddha's Feet, by Leon Lin
Lost New York, by Neil deMause
Small World, by Andrew Pontious
The Underoos That Ate New York, by Gerry Kevin Wilson
The Wedding, by Neil J Brown
Best Individual Puzzle:
Cramped, crawling from So Far, by Andrew Plotkin
The crystals from Fear, by Chuan-Tze Teo
The elephant from The Meteor, The Stone and a Long Glass of Sherbet, by Graham Nelson
Opening the gate from So Far, by Andrew Plotkin
Riding the creature from So Far, by Andrew Plotkin
Best Individual NPC (three-way tie):
The burin, from Frobozz Magic Support, by Nate Cull
Christopher Robin from Ralph, by Miron Schmidt
The Devil from Small World, by Andrew D. Pontious
Evan from Kissing the Buddha's Feet, by Leon Lin
Leo the Lemming from Phlegm, by Jason Dyer
Related Web Sites:
- Andrew Plotkin has a mostly complete transcript available at http://www.eblong.com/zarf/award-transcript.html
- A listing of the winners and nominees is available at "Baf's Guide to the IF Archive" at http://www.wurb.com/if/award/3#14.
- And, finally, all the games are available at the Interactive Fiction Archive at http://ifarchive.org/