Ohhhh, my hollow voice said “PLUGH” too. Actually, my own stricken voice usually whimpered “pleasecomeback” whenever the Cyber 7000 system I used in the '70’s kicked users off. We called it being cyburped. If we got back on within 15 minutes, we could usually recall our last online session and save our work (or game :)).
Colossal Cave is my favorite computer game. I mapped out the cave and got all but the last few points of the 440 version (I always had to buy the batteries). This game overcame my fear of computers because it completely pulled me into this strange new world. I became so intent on finding new rooms and solving problems that I forgot to worry about making some terrible key stroke that might cause the lights to go out or the untimely death of the SYS-OPS. The imagery I came up through exploring the cave has been, for me, more satisfying than most visually-based games. I can still remember my amazement at how the screen blinked when the ebony leopard jumped out at me. A simple blink of the screen and I was mezmerized. Very happy to see there are still text-based game fans out there!
BTW, Equipoise - nice name. Is that in reference to Whitney’s horse? Also, that is an excellent link to a wealth of Advent info.
Too bad ChiefScott hasn’t looked in yet, we could give him a big “Hello, sailor!”
Having played “Bedlam” several times, I consider “plugh” a wonderful word–it was the magic word that de-lobotomized you.
I still type in “xyzzy” every now and then, just to see what happens, every time I encounter a new system or software. I replayed Zork I-III recently and found that I still love them (although I have to give the graphical Zork: Grand Inquisitor full marks for hewing to the original skewed, irreverent humor of Zork).
Invocatus Episcopus (a cookie to the first person to get the reference)
I spent most of my spare time during high school hunched over a commodore 128 trying to write an adventure game in Basic. Actually I ended up spending much more time on getting the nuts and bolts right and making it so it behaved just like an infocom game than actually writing a story and plot. Heck I even implemented the “script” command that would copy everything onscreen to the printer. I have been waiting patiently for someone to write a Commodore 128 emulator for the Mac so I can continue
I found most of the games unfinishable without some sort of clues or help system, which kindof ruined some of the fun for me, but I still love them, and now I’m going to have to go pull out my copy of the “Lost Treasures” and get back to finishing Zork!
There are still people writing freeware and shareware IF games, and some of them have some funny responses to the XYZZY command. A few that come to mind…
[ul]
[li]“A hollow voice says ‘Fool. But you’re cute, so that makes up for it.’”[/li][li]“Such archaic magic is no longer practiced in this day and age.”[/li][li]In a game called “Lost New York”: “Sadly, recent city budget cuts have led to the elimination of the Department of Magic.”[/li][li]“A hollow voice says, ‘cool!’”[/ul]And my personal favorite…[ul]“A hollow voice says, ‘Wow! You must be, like, really old.’”[/ul][/li]__________________
Yer pal,
Satan - Commissioner, The Teeming Minions
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What game was this? Come on! Gimme a hint! Was it from Zork?
I remember it from somewhere way back in time.
Man, i just love those ancient games. Adventure was my first one. And I thought it was pure blasphemy when a friend in 7th grade gave me a map - which he got from his bigger brother who knew some real “pirates”.
I never played the Zork games, but got into the Dungeon of Eamon series, where you could save your character and play it in different scenarios. You would buy the scenarios for $5 apiece from some guy on Mercer Island. And you could even create your own!
Um, actually, it’s the magic word used in the Adventure (Colossal Cave) game you mentioned playing.
Since the lineage from that original mainframe game to the Infocom folks was so direct, they all put a response of some kind into their games when you entered XYZZY into their games - It invoked a hollow voice saying “Fool” or something else.
You should download the Zork game above! You’ll have fun with it, I think.
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Anybody remember “The Lurking Horror”? Pretty cool and creepy.
Hitchhiker’s will always hold a special place on my hard drive. Who could ever forget the babel fish puzzle? I always pictured a big coke machine with these little fish shooting out of it at very high speed. And of course…
“The Nutrimat is confused by your request for boiling water poured on dry leaves with stuff from a cow squirted in it.”
IIRC, “plover” transported you to the Plover Room, containing an emerald(?) the size of a plover’s egg. It was the only way to get there with a light, because the entrance was too narrow to squeeze through while carrying your lamp.
If you really like this sort of game – enough to want to write one – there are languages and compilers designed specifically for interactive fiction. I’ve got a copy of the Inform Designer’s Manual at my desk. (Actually I was using it to investigate a text-based interface to a computer program – how often do you get paid to play computer games?)
I also have (at home) a listing of the original Colossal Cave Adventure game in FORTRAN. It’s not the first version but it’s the first version I ever played (on a PDP-7).
And are you aware that the original Adventure was based on the Mammoth Cave complex in Kentucky? Many of the rooms (Bedquilt, Swiss Cheese, etc) are actual locations in Mammoth Cave. (The dwarves are still imaginary.)
