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Games Entertainment

Interactive Fiction Competition 2002 Underway 103

Posted by michael from the slide-upper-elevator-card-through-slot dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The games of the 2002 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition are now available from the IF Archive. Visit it or ifcomp.org to download the games."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Interactive Fiction Competition 2002 Underway More

Interactive Fiction Competition 2002 Underway

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  • Is it just coincidence that this post has to do with downloading games when the newest poll is about waiting in d/l queues? I bet some of these d/ls are on FilePlanet...
  • This is not entirely relevant, however...

    I have written a very basic IF authoring system in Python.

    I created the surface level (forest/building etc) from Zork 1, then implemented the underground levels from the orginal Advent.

    Its all a bit clunky, however there is one big difference to normal IF engines... its multiuser. If anyone wants the code, its free to a good home, I am no longer interested in working on it.

  • Wow, I didn't know that these things still existed.. I'll have to check it out. I remember playing "Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" about 15 years ago.. must have been one of the first for the PC. Classic game.

    • Re:still exist? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Sargent1 ( 124354 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @10:08PM (#4371447)

      Actually, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came smack dab in the middle of the big text-adventure boom of the 1980s. If you want early, go check out the Zork trilogy [csd.uwo.ca] or Scott Adams's games [msadams.com]. (No, not that Scott Adams.) And if you'd like to try Hitchhiker's, it's playable on the web at Douglas Adams's site [douglasadams.com].

      • Re:still exist? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by KelsoLundeen ( 454249 )
        And if you want to get really geeky, go ahead and pick up a copy of Inform [inform-fiction.org] -- an IF authoring system. (IMHO, Inform is the *best* system, but that's open to debate...)
      • There was a game during this era, just before Hitchhikers... and it had 'text-based graphics'... and you end up in a cannibal's cauldron, where someone says "NESSEN" - and if you manage to escape, then you need to fly the plane: North, East, South, South, East then North.
        Now, why the chief of cannibal's codes this into his own language, I never worked out...
        and now, what's even worse, I can't remember the name of the game. But it was good!

        Anyone?...

      • you are in a twisty maze of little posts, all alike.

        alas for the salad days of infocom, text adventures, and the new zork times!

    • Here it is. [freeshell.org]

      I've been working on getting stuff like this online.

      So far, I've gotten, Matthew Russo's zplet [sourceforge.net] working with a CGI front-end.

      Next on the list is jetty [drizzle.com], though this will probably take a bit (lot) more work, as its not very polished at the moment.

      Anyway...I put MY favorite Inform games (those that work with the z-machine interpreter) online at this location. [freeshell.org]

      I just added the competition's zcode section as well - it's
      here. [freeshell.org]

      Have fun!

      One note: the reason that the applet asks for read/write permission is so that you can save. Its a security risk for you, perhaps, but why live your life in fear?
      • Anyway...I put MY favorite Inform games (those that work with the z-machine interpreter) online at this location. [freeshell.org]

        Nice...

        Any chance you could be coaxed into sticking Suspended up there as well? I'm pretty sure it's an Inform game as well. That's one of the first games I can recall playing. My mom brought me into it and got me started. Actually, she got me started on a lot of games. She used to copy code out of the back of Compute's Gazette to give me games to play with and to teach herself BASIC. Oh, the good ol' days. That had to have been circa '83 or so on the ol' C64. The premise was that you were a computer/robot operater in cryonic suspended animation. You're waken up when some nasty things start happening in your complex and you have to get to robots (one representing each sense) to sort things out. I remember that Poet was one craaazy dude!

        Hmmm... Got me curious again, now. letsee. (Google, Google, Google...) Well, I guess there is this [elsewhere.org] :

        Ohhh! VERY COOL! And this. [elsewhere.org]

        Suspended(1983), a science fiction story by Michael Berlyn.
        As described on the box:

        They said you would sleep for half a millennium -- not an unreasonable length of time, considering you'd be in limited cryogenic suspension. Your body would rest frozen at the planet's nerve center, an underground complex 20 miles beneath the surface. Your brain, they told you, would be wired to a network of computers; your mind would continue to operate at a minimal level, overseeing maintenance of surface-side equilibrium. And you would not awake, so they promised, until your 500 years had elapsed -- barring, of course, the most dire emergency.

        Then, and only then, you would be awakened to save your planet by strategically manipulating six robots, each of whom perceives the world differently. But such a catastrophe, you have been assured, could not possibly occur.

        Good morning.

        I also remember being really intrigued by the box. Follow the link above. I found it really disturbing but I was still somehow quite drawn to it. Kinda like when I first discovered DOOM, I guess.

        L8,
        T

        • Any chance you could be coaxed into sticking Suspended up there as well? I'm pretty sure it's an Inform game as well.

          Err... Sorry, not Inform. That should've read Infocom. BTW, if anyone wants to play some of these old Infocoms, telnet to:

          eldorado.elsewhere.org

          User: zork
          pass:

          L8,
          T

        • Well, yes, I could put Suspended up there. I have it in zcode. However, I won't.

          Unlike Hitchhiker's guide, the author wasn't kind enough to distribute a freeware version, so it's illegal to put it up. All of these games are on the up-and-up.

          My ACTUAL personal favorite is the Enchanter trilogy, and I would REALLY like to put it up there.

  • A Note from the Organizer (Score:5, Informative)

    by Sargent1 ( 124354 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @10:03PM (#4371427)

    Hi, I'm the competition organizer. A few words of instruction and explanation. The basic idea is that you're to download and play at least five of the forty games, and then rate them on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the best. Full instructions are in the competition readme file [ifarchive.org].

    Most of the games run in a virtual machine, so you'll need to download interpreters for those machines. For the TADS 2 and 3 games, grab the unified TADS 2 and 3 source tarball for Unix [ifarchive.org]. For the z-code games, try Nitfol [ifarchive.org] or Unix Frotz [ifarchive.org]. For the Glulx game, try Linux Glulxe [ifarchive.org] or Solaris Glulxe [ifarchive.org]. For the ALAN games, grab GlkALAN for Linux [ifarchive.org].

    You've got until November 15th to vote. Even if you don't want to vote, feel free to play the games anyway. And if this really gets you jonesing to play more of the recently-released interactive fiction, stop by Baf's Guide to the IF Archive [wurb.com] for reviews of many of the games on the IF Archive [ifarchive.org]. Oh, and a minor plug for my IF site, Brass Lantern [brasslantern.org].

    Stephen

  • - people still write 'text-adventures'???
    Good grief :)- people still write games that do NOT focus on
    pretty graphics and cool sound-effects???
    Good grief :)
    - people still write games that have an actualy
    storyline???
    Good grief :)
    - people still write text-adventures in BASIC for
    M$-DOS?!?!?!?!
    <<keels of chair in shock>>

    Hell, *I* haven't done anything like that in at least 10-15 years...
    (Besides...I used Borland Turbo-Pascal, fun fun fun ;^)

    If it wasn't for this blasted Java assignment thats due tommorrow...I'd be...eh...nevermind.

  • Different is Good, Less is more! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gurnb ( 80987 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @10:31PM (#4371515) Homepage
    Not all games require the use of a 128Meg NVIDIA card. Something that has been lost in todays wiz-bang game world is game content, and enjoyment.

    OOTP4 (Out Of The Park Baseball) is a great example of this. Solid game. Miminal graphics. Rabid fanbase. Solid fun.

    Don't fall for all of the eye-candy that is out there!

  • Heehee (Score:4, Funny)

    by zapfie ( 560589 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @10:39PM (#4371535)
    If we visit their webserver enough, maybe it will become the International Fusion Competition. :)

  • Shameless plug (Score:4, Informative)

    by ScottForbes ( 528679 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @10:49PM (#4371566) Homepage
    If you're really interested, download my game-authoring utility -- Yonk 1.0b3 [ravenna.com] for the Macintosh. It'll let you write Inform-language games for the 2003 competition. :-)
  • I wrote one of these for my TI-81...well, it was more of a choose your own adventure, but come on...it was a calculator!

  • Interactive Reality (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @11:05PM (#4371634)
    You are drunk. You are in front of a 17" CRT Monitor attatched to a large, black tower case. There is a keyboard and mouse here.

    > Post On Slashdot as AC

    You Post. You are Moded Down.

    > Damn.

  • XYZZY (Score:3, Funny)

    by DeadMoose ( 518744 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @11:07PM (#4371643)
    ....Well come on, isn't something supposed to happen?
  • IF I can find enough virtual machines that run on my visor then I'd totally do this. I think its the perfect platform for such interactive games.

    Makes sitting in the can for hours enjoyable! ;)
    • I disagree. I like interactive fiction, but I hate entering text via the stylus. The games are much more enjoyable using a keyboard.

      Just this fact has had me thinking about getting either a Handspring Treo or a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 (both PDA's feature a keyboard, in case you don't know) and dump my Visor Deluxe.

      But I can't justify spending $300 - $400 to play interactive fiction on the go.
      • Try purchasing a Stowaway keyboard for your visor. I did and have been able to play "Zork" in the strangest places..

        The price used to be $100 (USD that is). It's hopefully less now..

      • First off-
        frobnitz is great- you can write in commonly used verbs and POOF they appear. You can also tap a word and your verbs show up around it... it does a great job of minimizing typing.

        Second off- that damn stowaway- its awesome! Now I feel like a chump for buying one for $40!

        Blow $40- keep your deluxe, play frobnitz- its a win-win!
        • You type the verbs ONCE into a menu item,
          THEN it appears in your bar under the "..." section.

          BTW: I have no association with frobnitz, I just think its damn cool.

  • A few more notes. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by seebs ( 15766 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @11:07PM (#4371646) Homepage
    First: see also Usenet's rec.arts.int-fiction [rec.arts.int-fiction].

    Second: Note that you can play at least the zcode games on pretty much ANYTHING. Windows. Mac. Palm. You name it... I have a game in the comp, and it has *one* problem on my Handera (PalmOS) PDA. Most of them probably work fine.

    • Second: Note that you can play at least the zcode games on pretty much ANYTHING. Windows. Mac. Palm.

      Yes, but will it run on my DoCoMo Java phone? (:

      • > Yes, but will it run on my DoCoMo Java phone? (:

        I wouldn't be surprised. ZPlet will run them as Java applets (it's the one that's used to put The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the web). I'm not sure how resource intensive it is, or how tied to being an applet instead of an app, but it wouldn't be too hard to modify.

        It runs on the Gameboy. ISTR it runs on a toaster somewhere.
    • You can even play zcode games under emacs [ifarchive.org].

  • Please don't discuss the games (Score:5, Informative)

    by boa13 ( 548222 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @11:13PM (#4371665) Homepage Journal
    There's one important rule in this competition that Stephen Granade left out: please don't discuss the games in public before the competition ends. This is to avoid influencing other judges and rumors such as "this game is bullshit, don't bother playing it" and its cousin "this is the best game in the comp, try it". We want fair judgement. Of course, as soon as the competition ends, be sure that rec.games.int-fiction [rec.games.int-fiction] will burst into verbiage, as everybody there will be posting comments and reviews.

    Personnally, I've played five games already, and was lucky enough that the third on my list is one of the greatest I've played. If it doesn't win the comp, then hell, this means the comp was exceptionnally good this year! :)

    Of course there's crap in these fourty games: the four other games I've played are not quite good (not bad, either). So, if you intend to discover Interactive Fiction, I suggest you try one of the "best-of IF" site. Either the ones Stephen mentioned, or The Best of IF [igs.net].

    From the top of my head, the best IF I've played recently is:
    • Anchorhead (best Lovecraft game I've played)
    • World's Apart (good SF)
    • Spider and Web (spy game, with a twist)

  • What I like in IF (Score:5, Insightful)

    by boa13 ( 548222 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @12:01AM (#4371835) Homepage Journal
    I was born around the same time as interactive fiction. Which means that I was way too young to play it, and when I grew old enough to own a computer, the genre had already disapeared from the shelves. So, there's no sentimental, "remember-the-good-ol'-days" value for me in IF.

    I discovered the genre at the same time as I discovered Linux, back in around 1996. Among the few games that shipped by default with, what was it at that time? RedHat, I guess, were a few classic Scott Adams (not the Dilbert author!) games. As soon as I tried them, I didn't completely... dislike them. I liked the idea, and I love to explore and draw maps, but they were too much of the (what I learned afterwards) "guess the verb" category, something that is rightly considered a major flaw in modern IF. So, I went on to other activities, and another Linux I installed later didn't contain them, so I forgot about IF (I didn't even know the term).

    Then, somehow, I remembered them in 1998, and decided to give them a second shot. Looking on the web (was I still using Altavista? wow), I found not only them, but also other, seemingly better ones. So I downloaded Theatre (a good fantastic/horror game) and finished it straight. Man that was good! And from then on, I was hooked.

    There's something in (good) IF you don't find in modern, 3D-graphics games: substance, content, plot, atmosphere, characters, adult themes (not that kind of adult - though such games exist, too).

    Theatre and Anchorhead are two excellent horror games. The latter is simply the best game in the Lovecraftian genre - seriously, I mean it.

    Worlds Apart is an excellent SF game. By SF, I mean Science-Fiction (with capitals), as in "the author created a whole new and fascinating universe for this game", and the prime motivation of the game is actually discovering it... and yourself.

    Spider and Web, an excellent spy story, is told in way that is one of the most innovative I've seen. Used in a movie, a la "Usual Suspects", it would be excellent, but this is even more magnified in a gaming setting.

    Most of the games by Adam Cadre are excellent too, from Photopia, which is an almost puzzleless game that left me astonished once I finished, to the excellent Varicella (read the intro of the game on his site, you'll understand I hope), I-0 (hot, hot) and Shrapnel (what a crazy storytelling - not for newcomers), it seems this guys only produces goodness.

    Same goes for other people like Emily Short and Andrew Plotkin, but I haven't played their games yet, so I can't comment.

    Babel (the second game I played) is an excellent thriller-like game, in which you are trapped in a somewhat devastated Antartic scientific station, and try to understand what went wrong... and who you are.

    I could and should go on and on... I like playing games, but foremostly, I love to read - science-fiction, like a lot of the geeks around, though I don't mind some more classical books. IF marries the gaming and the litterature together, and has offered me emotions that I never thought I would experience in front of a PC; I'm more used to them in front of a theatre screen or with some dead-tree in my hand.

    How many times have you been in bed, thinking again and again to the game you just finished (tetris-mares don't count!), pondering life, the universe and everything?

    Damn, I can't believe I've just written all this incoherent stuff - I wish I was a good writer, and able to sum this up in a few brilliant sentences. Well, here's a shitty conclusion: IF can be great, go try some good one! (you have to see it for yourself, and so on)

    • Re:What I like in IF (Score:3, Informative)

      by boa13 ( 548222 )
      Somehow, I forgot some URLs. Here are Adam Cadre's games [adamcadre.ac], and Emily Short's ones [mindspring.com] (scroll down a bit).

    • Re:What I like in IF (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You've already played at least one Adrew Plotkin's game. It's Spider and Web.
    • There's something in (good) IF you don't find in modern, 3D-graphics games: substance, content, plot, atmosphere, characters, adult themes (not that kind of adult - though such games exist, too).

      A year or two ago, I downloaded a few of the "best" ones to give them a try and see what IF is all about today. And no kidding, the first three games I played all contained scenes involving non-consensual sex with minors.

      I don't know what this says (if anything) about the IF authoring community, but I haven't played any IF since.

      • Non-consensual sex with minors? What the hell are those "games"?! Where did you download them from? None of the games listed on the Best-of IF sites contain such things, as far as I know, and I've never seen mention to such games in rec.games.int-fiction or rec.arts.int-fiction.

        Seriously, could you please name them, and the site you downloaded them from?
        • Actually, these were all award-winning games. One was Anchorhead. Another was a kind of time-travel thing about slavery, but I don't remember the name. The third one was about a teenaged girl hitchhiking and having to fight off a man who tried to rape her.
          • Anchorhead... Damn true! It is actually a crucial plot element, and I understand it can disgust you. But then, the character involved in these infamous acts is supposed to be one of the worst evils to exist on Earth.

            I don't think I know the two other ones; perhaps the last one is I0 by Adam Cadre? I've only played it for a few minutes, and it is indeed rather explicit, if you want it to be.

            All-in-all, yes, two games I know and which involve sex and minors. However, not in the way you suggested: I thought, as most of the people who read your comment probably, that you were talking about games in which the player-character is actively engaged in sex with minors, which is by far not the case in these games.

            Even though "sex with minors" can be a very dirty and cheap trick to attract an audience, I don't think these two games are wrong to use it the way they do. We are reaching the domain of personal, ethical, religious beliefs, so I won't delve further into this.
            • perhaps the last one is I0 by Adam Cadre?

              That rings a bell... Could be.

              All-in-all, yes, two games I know and which involve sex and minors. However, not in the way you suggested: I thought, as most of the people who read your comment probably, that you were talking about games in which the player-character is actively engaged in sex with minors, which is by far not the case in these games.

              Is that what I suggested, or is that what you inferred? (This is a rhetorical question.) All I said was that these games contained scenes depicting non-consensual sex with minors... I can't see anything misleading or inaccurate in that statement.

              Even though "sex with minors" can be a very dirty and cheap trick to attract an audience, I don't think these two games are wrong to use it the way they do.

              I never said they were "wrong." Any one of these games, by itself, probably wouldn't have raised an eyebrow (although the one about slavery was quite unnecessarily graphic). It is the fact that I encountered three of them in a row (out of three), chosen essentially at random. It is also worth noting that none of the three had any other kind of "adult" content -- i.e., nothing actually between consenting adults -- only non-consensual (bad enough) with minors/children (much worse).

              Granted, my sample of three may not be statistically significant (although there aren't *that* many IF games out there, and even fewer which have won awards). Certainly, I don't take it to mean that every single IF game has this kind of content in it; but I'd be willing to bet that these aren't the only three. And as a guy who's just looking for another Planetfall or Zork to play, I don't want to get 2/3 through an otherwise innocuous adventure game only to run into this kind of thing again.

              • Spider and Web definitely doesn't contain this kind of thing.

                Worlds Apart is a big game, but as far as I remember, it doesn't contain sex either -- at one point you control a young player-character, though.

                Babel doesn't involve any minor, but contains violence -- nothing gratuitous, mind you, and most of it happened in the past.

                Glowgrass is short, rather easy game, well suited for beginners. It involves a teenage girl (again!) as a non-player character but no sex anywere.

                Savoir Faire is promising, given the review [wurb.com] in the Baf's Guide to IF, and sex with minors just doesn't seem to fit in there, especially given that the author is a woman. Good old puzzles and locks, this might be the next game I play, when I have the time.
  • I was born in 1978 - which means that in 1987, when I was exposed to my first computer (The Epson Equity II, most popular computer of all time by market share I think) I managed to hit the just-after-middle of the IF craze. Started with Wishbringer, and 15 years later, still have not finished Starcross, probably after 100,000 iterations of "Put rod ". I also never got the robot to let me open the screen door on the ship in hitchhikers. What's scary is I even remember that's the spot where I got stalled out 14 years later.

    The Infocom boxes are still on the shelf at the rents with all of the other old school software from the 80's we just can't bring ourselves to throw out - although the glowing Wishbringer stone has long since been lost.

    Of course, then my dad brought home a 1200 baud modem from work and I discoverred Opus 1.03b and Tradewars, and from then on it was just a matter of explaining why my parents couldn't receive phone calls anymore.....

    Christ, I'm 24 and most of my memories of when I was 10 involve ASCII text. And I'm confessing on slashdot - excuse me while I go get laid.

    -1 minute and 37 seconds later-

    Ah, I feel much better now.
    • I also never got the robot to let me open the screen door on the ship in hitchhikers. What's scary is I even remember that's the spot where I got stalled out 14 years later.

      Ahh yesss. One of the more brilliant and annoying problems in the history of IF games. Every geek I know who remembers that game groans when reminded of the evil screening door problem!

      Solution: Give the, 'No Tea' to the robot. It'll convulse in such a spasm of metaphysical wonder that it'll open the screening door wide.

      Frustration taught me that one. "Well, fer crying out loud! Just try giving the damned robot every item in the inventory starting at the top. . ."

      Question is, do you still have a 5.25" disk drive available to load Hitchhiker's back into your system so you can pick up where you left off?


      -Fantastic Lad

    • Yep. Hint book. Best money I ever spent on such a thing. Granted, I was 12 and not very clever so HHGTTG played "fair" would have kicked my ass.

      And I wasn't coy with the hints; none of that "oh I'll just "uncover" the first one and see if I can figure it out..." nope- I just uncovered every damn "invisi-text" I could. You know, that hint book was a pretty good read all by itself!

    • I was born in 1984 and exposed to my first computer in 1986 :)
  • Did anyone ever come across this press release [nokia.com] from two years ago.

    What happened to that? Did it ever happen, or did people come to their senses and realise that expecting people to play text adventure games which involved typing precise phrases on a fucking numeric keypad was an idiotic idea?
    Personally, I've got nothing against text adventures, and even wrote some which are still floating around the internet to my eternal shame. But then again I don't take daguerrotypes or ride a penny farthing to the charabanc station. They're in the past...
    • Personally, I've got nothing against text adventures, and even wrote some which are still floating around the internet to my eternal shame. But then again I don't take daguerrotypes or ride a penny farthing to the charabanc station. They're in the past...

      I take it you don't read books either, now that we have TV?

    • It is theoretically possible to play IF games on a cell phone. One possible method is to go with a reduced noun/verb set, and use a list accessible through a menu. Using this method would enable IF games to be played on something as simple as a Gameboy.

  • IF Archive (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Skiboo ( 306467 )
    The IF-Archive is an excellent source of these games. Their collection is *massive*.

    However, if you're into uncommon and under-rated games in general - check out Home of the Underdogs [the-underdogs.org] if you haven't already. Not only does it review and describe many excellent games, but it has tons of full downloads of old games too.

    One particular IF game that really caught my eye was Ad Verbum [the-underdogs.org]. It's premise is mostly to do with words. For example, there's a room who's entire description starts with the letter N. You quickly realise that only words starting with N work in the room (note, the exit to the room is south):


    Neat Nursery
    Nice, nondescript nursery, noticeably neat. Normally, nurslings nestle noisily. Now, none. No needful, naive newborns.

    Nearby: ... nifty nappy.

    >take nappy
    No! No! Negative, novice. Nasty notation.

    >asdfg
    No! No! Nefarious nomenclature. Narrate nicely, now.

    >south
    No! No! Negative, novice. Nasty notation.

    >exit
    No! No! Nefarious nomenclature. Narrate nicely, now.

    >north
    Northward? No, necessarily not. Not north. No noticeable notch, no navigable nook.

    There's all sorts of other language-based puzzles in the game, and it's an excellent test of your vocabulary. Despite being a little short, i highly recommend it.
    (Note, it's not part of this competition).
    • The Ad Verbum link on The Underdogs site refers to the old GMD site. The IF Archive is now here [ifarchive.org].

      Ad Verbum is available here [ifarchive.org].

    • Re:IF Archive (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Cosmicbandito ( 160658 )
      If you liked Ad Verbum, you should hunt around for a copy of an old Infocom title:
      "Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of it"

      The wordplay puzzles in "Nord and Bert" offer more variety and depth than "Ad Verbum". There are puzzles involving spoonerisms, puns, and every other type of word play. I can't recommend it highly enough.

      Also, for scholarly research and lots of great Interactive fiction links, check out Prof. Dennis Jerz's Interactive Fiction [uwec.edu] pages.

  • from Ridiculopathy.com [ridiculopathy.com]

    You are standing at the end of the roadway. In front of you (to the north) is a large castle with a moat of green lava. A large hairy monster stands next to the castle, ready to attack. "RAARRr! I am a horrible MONSTAR!" he says, poking himself with a stick.

    > N

    You can't go that way.

    > North

    That North? Oh. But you don't really want to go that way.

    > Go castle

    Sure. But then the monster is going to kill you, and you probably didn't save yet.

    > Save

    You can't do that here.

    > Inventory

    You are carrying: - 1 radiator from a 1962 Ford Mustang - 1 plastic bag marked "eye of newt" containing a substance we can presume is ground up newt eyes. - 2 pairs of swim trunks

    > attack monster

    With what? Your swim trunks?

    > attack monster with trunks

    Somehow that worked. He appears to be dead.

    > N

    Now you did it. The horrible monster (who wasn't dead after all) has grabbed you and popped your head off your spine like a champaigne cork.

    You have died.

    END.

    For more of this, check out: ">>N You cannot go that way" [ridiculopathy.com]

    You can also play old text games like Pirate Adventure online (in Javascript) here [ridiculopathy.com].

  • > post comment on slashdot about if
    Comment posted.


    > wait
    Time passes.


    > wait
    Profit!


    > score
    You have a score of 50 out of 50, earning you the rank of Excellent.
  • The feeling persists that no one can simultaneously be a respectable writer
    and understand how a refrigerator works, just as no gentleman wears a brown
    suit in the city. Colleges may be to blame. English majors are encouraged,
    I know, to hate chemistry and physics, and to be proud because they are not
    dull and creepy and humorless and war-oriented like the engineers across the
    quad. And our most impressive critics have commonly been such English majors,
    and they are squeamish about technology to this very day. So it is natural
    for them to despise science fiction.
    -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr., "Science Fiction"

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