I have a very vague picture in my head, of my next game being based around the use of a console of some sort. If you think about it the TA format (or probably gamebook even more) lends itself to such a concept perfectly, because the belief can be totally suspended as you're not forcing the player to imagine locations and such. Basically, the idea would be to turn the game screen into a PC/console of some sort (I'm using the term console in the old fashioned sense)
I have no clue what the theme or plot would be and I know it's by no means an original idea, so I suppose I'm just asking for inspiration and ideas for now.
If anyone knows of any games along these lines, I'd love to take a look. I'm currently searching IFDB for such games, but the keywords I'm using aren't turning much up.
I haven't played all of these and can't say for sure if they're what you're looking for, but here are some titles to check out. I believe they all use a computer-like interface of some sort.
AlethiCorp
http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=ixlz4gj9cag89mtj
Guilded Youth
http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=1dytdvtbgxuwfx0h
Building the Right Stuff
http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=q8hy8fy52290q9t2
The Entropy Cage
http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=2vikmop14n9l6m9u
The Endling Archive
http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=ms15e48egclycv3
https://swipetapthink.com
Built with a heavily customised version of Squiffy. It's a commercial product so not in a position to share source code, but might provide some inspiration.
Essentially the platform allows you to simulate and tell stories within a smartphone interface - simulated text messaging, file sharing, image sharing, emails, web browsing etc.
there's actually been a few users creating such games and posting here on it ... but good luck trying to find their posts/threads ... they exist... but good luck in trying to find them...
try to google search this site/forum with 'hack' or 'hacking' key-search words