The history of the game Zork is a long and winding one, starting with MUDs and kin on university mainframes – where students entertained themselves in between their studies – and ending with the game being ported to home computers. These being pathetically undersized compared to even a PDP-10 meant that Zork got put to the axe, producing Zork I through III. Originally distributed by Infocom, eventually the process of Microsoft gobbling up game distributors and studios alike meant that Microsoft came to hold the license to these games. Games which are now open source as explained on the Microsoft Open Source blog.
Although the source had found its way onto the Internet previously, it’s now officially distributed under the MIT license, along with accompanying developer documentation. The source code for the three games can be found on GitHub, in separate repositories for Zork I, Zork II and Zork III.
We previously covered Zork’s journey from large systems to home computers, which was helped immensely by the Z-machine platform that the game’s code was ported to. Sadly the original games’s MDL code was a bit much for 8-bit home computers. Regardless of whether you prefer the original PDP-10 or the Z-machine version on a home computer system, both versions are now open sourced, which is a marvelous thing indeed.
does it really matter, with so many implementations of the Z-machine floating around?
Z-machine is the game player, Zork is the game data.
I think so. Instead of legally stealing the data, you are allowed to use it.
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
https://github.com/historicalsource/hitchhikersguide
Oh and they have “Leather Goddesses of Phobos” (“Hitchhiker’s Guide with s3x).
https://github.com/historicalsource/leathergoddesses-gold
Pick up No Tea.
You have No Tea.
Text adventure games had the best graphics imaginable.
Ha!
Now, thanks to AI, you can generate a real image for each room you enter and each action you do in those old text adventure games.
Oh now that would be interesting, probably a bit MC Escher or Dali weird, and everyone is going to have a different image for even more oddities… But I actually want to do that now, just because it would be interesting (though needing to use my most potent computer to get those images in a remotely timely fashion on a game that can probably run on an ATMega just fine seems so wasteful, also not sure if many of these text games really have enough description to make a reasonable image, the only one I ever played would no doubt be extra weird as Douglas Adams’ world is highly improbable…)
I played it originally… It was not an easy game, I think I spent about three months figuring it out and finishing it. There were no cheats, no walkthroughs.
I challenge you all to do it without looking anything up on the Internet.
See how you do.
Looking forward to trying it all again!
Missing the point
I remember playing Zork as a kid, taking a break to go get lunch, coming back to the computer and being genuinely surprised that the game was gone and there was just a text prompt.
That was literally an ad campaign for Infocom. “We Unleash the World’s Most Powerful Graphics Technology”
the context isn’t complete until you mention there’s a big glowing brain depicted below the headline. They weren’t being just snarky, they were posing that the human brain is the world’s most powerful graphics technology. It’s true after all, unless you wan’t to start comparing eagle eyes, for example and that would be either tone deaf or doubly snarky!
I was thinking about colossal caves.
In front of you is a big rabbit hole.
You are in the courtyard of an old farmhouse.
In front of you is a well with an old bucket lying nearby.
The bucket has a large dent in the side as if someone had kicked it.
As you go to kick the bucket you slip and trip over it instead, plunging head first down the well.
*** You have Died.
Hmm… It would seem that the old right caret prompt does something rather different here :)
It’s dark here. Be careful, or you may be eaten by a grue.
Your sword has began to shine with a faint blue glow
Want some rye? ‘course ya do.
It gets referenced literally every time someone in my house drinks whiskey.
God that game was terrible, repetitive boring unskippable BS like that.
Dragged the good Zork name through the mud.
Most important?
What is UX in computing?
AI Overview
In computing, UX stands for User Experience
and refers to the overall experience a person
has when interacting with a product, system, or
service. It encompasses the user’s feelings,
perceptions, and emotions, considering every
aspect from usability and design to the user’s
overall satisfaction. The goal is to create a
holistic and positive interaction by
coordinating elements like layout, visual
design, and functionality to make a
product useful, valuable, and easy
to use.
…
It’s the foundation of a good product:
A good user experience is crucial for
customer retention and is a key
aspect of product development,
ensuring that users find the
product valuable and effective.
Nobody wants AI spam.
I absolutely do not understand the mindset of people who 1. Want to read AI slop and more importantly 2. Think anyone else needs them to repost their AI slop when it is being crammed down our throats at every opportunity.
With high meat prices, it’s the only spam we’ll be able to afford.
The problem with spam isn’t that it’s bad.
It’s ridiculously overpriced.
You can get the same meat (pork shoulder) fresh for 1/4 the price.
Sure, you have to slow cook it for hours, half the fun.
Rasta cook: ‘We smoke it!’
Dungeon was split up to make Zork I and Zork II, although there was a little added, I think. Zork III was totally new. With the databases open sourced, it would – in principle – be possible to build a Dungeon+ which had the “complete” Zork as it ended up being.
I played the original when it got released, not an easy game, think it took me three months to finish, we didn’t have cheats or walkthroughs,
Fond memories. Looking forward to trying again!
Do yourself a favor and don’t look up walkthroughs if it’s your first try, take your time and try to figure it out.
It’s so much more fun
Ahh… This is part of the Activision acquisition.