DOCSLIB.ORG

The Magazine for Interactive Fiction Enthusiasts

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Magazine for Interactive Fiction Enthusiasts November/ December 1995 Issue #6 The Magazine for Interactive Fiction Enthusiasts This issue marks the end of a full year’s worth of XYZZYnews and is also the largest one to date, with 32 pages in the print version. My New Year’s resolutions for improving the ’zine include even larger issues, more timely mailing, and (perhaps) some full-color print pages. We’ll see. On other fronts, the XYZZYnews Web site is getting beefed up—and just in time too, because at my day job I’m switching hats to become managing editor of a techie-oriented magazine (same compa- ny, different publication) about the Web, called Web Developer. Some of the ideas I’m toying with for additional content for the XYZZYnews Web site include having audio or video clips of interviewees, opening screens for “Sneak Preview” games, and options for online gaming. Suggestions for additional online content are most definitely welcome. But I mention my job mainly to correct the mistaken impression that one Web site devoted to reviews of other sites has about XYZZYnews. The McKinley Internet Directory (http://www.mckinley.com/) describes XYZZYnews as a magazine “about computer and video games, as the publisher/main writer does this for a living.” (Where’d they get the bit about video games, BTW?) Well, it would be great to write about, tinker with, and review IF games all day, wouldn’t it? In the meantime, Contents: though, this will remain my after-hours labor of love, and I’d like to just Sneak Previews ..........2 give you the briefest of introductions to what you’ll find in this latest Top 10 IF Web Sites ....2 issue: there are several thought-provoking essays, including Graham Nelson’s ruminations on Jigsaw and how readers identify (or fail to) Letters .......................3 with a game’s central character, Doug Atkinson’s long-awaited second On Jigsaw and ‘I’.........5 part of his “Character Gender in Interactive Fiction” article, and Gareth Rees’s views on approaching game design and analysis. I hope you find it Character Gender in all as compelling as I do. Interactive Fiction, Part II ......................11 Until next issue, happy gaming! Distinguishing Between Eileen Mullin Game Design and Analysis: One View....22 [email protected] Tales From the Code Front: The Hazards of Invisibility .............27 You Know You’ve Been Playing Too Much Infocom When… ......29 Game Review: Jigsaw...................31 What’s on the Disk....32 Sneak Previews XYZZYnews is published bimonthly by Bran Muffin Communications, 160 West 24th Street, # 7C, New York, NY 10011, USA. Email: [email protected]. Send Stuck Mid-Game: A Weekend of Prolonged Frustration by Marnie all inquiries, letters, and submissions to Parker ([email protected]) is an Inform game-in- the address above. progress that she bills as “an interactive science fiction mystery novelette.” The year is 2049, and you’ve set aside a whole week- Contents © 1995 XYZZYnews. All rights end to play a classic IF game. You must first contact an online reserved. Published in the United States friend to get a hint for playing the game, but your conversation is of America. abruptly interrupted. When you reestablish contact, you discover that your friend has suddenly disappeared. Although you’ve had a Electronic versions: There are long online relationship with your friend, you must now delve currently two versions of XYZZYnews into his real life to discover who had a motive to either kidnap made available online. One is in ASCII him or kill him. And your personal agenda for tracking him down, and can be viewed with any text reader. of course, also includes being able to get the hint you need to fin- You can also download a .PDF file that mirrors the layout of the print version. ish the classic IF game you’re playing! Gameplay is set over the Use the Adobe Acrobat Reader (available course of a single weekend, with a small number of rooms and for Windows, Mac, DOS and UNIX) to view reportedly difficult puzzles. “Stuck Mid-Game” will be freeware the .PDF file; no special fonts or linked and has an anticipated release date of early 1996. graphics are needed. You can obtain Acrobat Reader from ftp.adobe.com in the pub/adobe/applications/Acrobat November/December Top 10 Picks folder, or http://www.adobe.com/ Software.html. You can also read this for IF on the World Wide Web issue of XYZZYnews on the World Wide Web at http://www.interport.net/~eileen/ .alt.fan.douglas-adams FAQ xyzzy.6.html http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/archive/douglas-adams faq.html Subscriptions: Both electronic versions are available at no cost. You can obtain either one by FTPing to the ftp.gmd.de/if- GINAS Home Page archive/magazines/XYZZYnews directory. http://www.cs.indiana.edu/hyplan/jestandi/ginas.html To be added to the mailing list, please write to [email protected] and specify I Have No Words and I Must Design text-only or .PDF version. The print ver- http://www.crossover.com/~costik/nowords.html sion includes a 3.5" Mac or PC disk and is $21 (U.S.) for one year (6 issues) or INRETE Games Page $3.50 for a sample issue. For print sub- http://www.inrete.it/games/gms_e.html scriptions outside the U.S. or Canada, please email or write for rates. John Chang’s Home Page (click on the opening graphic) http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~jrc/ All products, names, and services are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. LIMA web page: http://lima.imaginary.com/ Editorial deadline for Issue #7 is December 31, 1995. Play Colossal Cave! http://sundae.triumf.ca/pub2/cave/node001.html (0k) Editor: Snacky Pete’s Text Adventure Archive Eileen Mullin http://www.helikon.com/Personal/Pete/Advents/iflib.htm Contributors to this issue: Doug Atkinson Totally Unofficial List of Internet MUDs C.E. Forman http://tecfa.unige.ch/pub/documentation/MUD/Big-Mud-list.html Laurel Halbany Graham Nelson The XYZZY Page Gareth Rees http://www.winternet.com/~radams/adventure/xyzzy.html 2 Issue #6 November/December 1995 LETTERS…LETTERS…LETTERS…LETTERS…LETTERS…LETTERS…LETTERS…LETTERS…LETTERS… the genders of the other NPCs bashing my head against Dear Eileen, without the game even needing Christminster and slowly to know your own. getting back into things. Yes, I was intending to write this (Similarly, games that as the review states, it’s good! little note after part 2 of Doug require seducing a NPC in But I really don’t have the Atkinson’s article on character order to solve a puzzle could time for these games… gender in interactive fiction get around the problem of Anyhow, the survey pub- appeared, but the recent dis- determining the player’s gen- lished in the last issue of cussion about gender in r.g.i-f der by allowing for two equally XYZZYnews was intriguing. (about the gender of characters acceptable “solutions” to the I am left wondering about in Graham Nelson’s Jigsaw) puzzle— one of each gender.) other aspects of XYZZYnews spurred me on. As a gay man, I readers. think I may have a slightly dif- —David Wagner 1. The top two occupa- ferent perspective on gender in [email protected] tions of the readers were interactive fiction. either students or technical- I am occasionally annoyed based. Of the students, what with games that come with a To XYZZYnews: majors are they pursuing? heterosexual assumption; you 2. An interest in text- choose your gender at the start I enjoyed Graeme’s trivia quiz based adventure games (inter- of the game, but then the (though it was rather tough), active fiction) would also sug- game requires intimate rela- but I did find a couple of gest an interest in reading. Is tions with members of the errors in the answers: this the case? other sex. For example, in #72: “Grueslayer” is actu- 3. If so, what types of Leather Goddesses of Phobos, ally found in Beyond Zork, not books do people prefer? sci- you choose your gender in the Zork Zero. ence fiction, cyberpunk, mys- opening scene by using either #95: Trinity also has a tery, fantasy, romance, west- the Ladies’ or the Gents’ scene set in Japan. erns, nonfiction? room. From then on, a variety I also have another addi- 4. What are their favorite of sexual encounters occur tion to the bug list; I got this books and authors? with members of the other from New Zork Times, actual- 5. How many of the read- sex. When I played the game, I ly. When you put objects in ers have written an IF? finally had to grit my teeth the raft and then deflate it, 6. How many are writing and choose the Ladies’ Room they effectively cease to exist, or thinking about writing an (and then play as a male char- allowing you to carry as much IF? acter) just to get the genders of weight and as many objects as 7. Do the readers like the NPCs correct. the raft will hold (it won’t other forms of puzzles? puzzle But in my opinion, games hold the gold coffin, unfortu- books, Rubik’s cube, math- that ask you to choose a gender nately, and of course sharp ematics…? are usually asking the wrong objects are out). This is 8. What number of IF question. Often what is more because the game handles the games has the average reader important is the gender that pile and the raft as two sepa- finished? the player is attracted to.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • PDF Download Planetfall
    PLANETFALL PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Emma Newman | 324 pages | 05 Nov 2015 | Penguin Putnam Inc | 9780425282397 | English | New York, United States Planetfall PDF Book He is both a constant source of comic relief e. Premium Wallpapers. Mehr Infos zu Cookies. Archived from the original on OST MP3. All other trademarks, logos, and copyrights are property of their respective owners. Add to Cart. Emerge from the cosmic dark age of a fallen galactic empire to build a new future for your people. After defeating a giant microbe, the adventurer is informed that the primary Miniaturization Booth is malfunctioning and is rerouted to the Auxiliary Booth. Discover the fate of the Star Union by exploring lush landscapes, wild wastelands and overgrown megacities. I have read and understood the Privacy Policy. By pressing Subscribe, you agree to receive our newsletters and to either create or log in to your Paradox account. Enchanter Sorcerer Spellbreaker. Later in the game they can actually demolish mountain ranges on the strategic map. The escape from the planet continues, but without Floyd's company the player feels lonely and bereaved. You can perch her up on an embankment overlooking the gully where your Kir'Ko rivals are bound to flood in, while you send in troopers with laser rifles and set them to overwatch for when the bugs inevitably rush to melee range. Try new play styles in skirmish mode, and play multiplayer your way - online, hotseat, and asynchronous! Windows 7, 8, 10 , Mac OS X Overall Reviews:. Empfohlene Systemanforderungen:. Retrieved February 26, Knights of Pen and Paper. The answer the GEnie crowd came up with was, yes, a computer game can make you cry: consider the death of Floyd the robot in Planetfall.
    [Show full text]
  • A Selected List of Interactive Text Adventures
    Michigan Reading Journal Volume 22 Issue 4 Article 9 July 1989 A Selected List of Interactive Text Adventures Kent Layton Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mrj Recommended Citation Layton, Kent (1989) "A Selected List of Interactive Text Adventures," Michigan Reading Journal: Vol. 22 : Iss. 4 , Article 9. Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mrj/vol22/iss4/9 This Other is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Reading Journal by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Selected List of Interactive Text Adventures Compiled by Kent Layton INFOCOM. 35 Wheeler Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. A Mind Forever Voyaging, Ballyhoo, Battletech, Crescent Hawk, Cutthroats, Deadline, Enchanter, Journey, Infidel, Moonmist, Planetfall, Seastalker, Shogun, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Starcross,, Suspect, Suspended, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Witness, Wishbringer, Zork I, Zork II, Zork Ill, and Zork Zero. SCHOLASTIC, INC. 2931 E. McCarty Street, P.O. Box 7502, Jefferson City, MO 65102. An Oval Office Odyssey, Captains of the China Trade, Cosmic Hero, Crickety Manor, Escape from Antcatraz, Haunted Channels, History Mystery, Malice and Wonderland, MicroAgent of the Body Guard, Quest for the Pole, Robot Rescue, Safari, The Funhouse Caper, The Frogs and the Fables, The Great Frankfurter, The Myths of Olympus, The Wizard of Darkling Wood, Tickets to America, Voyage to See What's on the Bottom, and Wagons West. (Available through Microzine and Microzine Jr. subscriptions.) SIERRA ON-LINE. Empire State Building, Suite 1101, 350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118.
    [Show full text]
  • Gamasutra - Features - the History of Activision 10/13/11 3:13 PM
    Gamasutra - Features - The History Of Activision 10/13/11 3:13 PM The History Of Activision By Jeffrey Fleming The Memo When David Crane joined Atari in 1977, the company was maturing from a feisty Silicon Valley start-up to a mass-market entertainment company. “Nolan Bushnell had recently sold to Warner but he was still around offering creative guidance. Most of the drug culture was a thing of the past and the days of hot-tubbing in the office were over,” Crane recalled. The sale to Warner Communications had given Atari the much-needed financial stability required to push into the home market with its new VCS console. Despite an uncertain start, the VCS soon became a retail sensation, bringing in hundreds of millions in profits for Atari. “It was a great place to work because we were creating cutting-edge home video games, and helping to define a new industry,” Crane remembered. “But it wasn’t all roses as the California culture of creativity was being pushed out in favor of traditional corporate structure,” Crane noted. Bushnell clashed with Warner’s board of directors and in 1978 he was forced out of the company that he had founded. To replace Bushnell, Warner installed former Burlington executive Ray Kassar as the company’s new CEO, a man who had little in common with the creative programmers at Atari. “In spite of Warner’s management, Atari was still doing very well financially, and middle management made promises of profit sharing and other bonuses. Unfortunately, when it came time to distribute these windfalls, senior management denied ever making such promises,” Crane remembered.
    [Show full text]
  • Jay Simon 3/18/2002 STS 145 Case Study Zork: a Study of Early
    Jay Simon 3/18/2002 STS 145 Case Study Zork: A Study of Early Interactive Fiction I: Introduction If you are a fan of interactive fiction, or have any interest in text-based games from the early 1980’s, then you are no doubt familiar with a fascinating series known as Zork. For the other 97 percent of the population, the original Zork games are text-based adventures in which the player is given a setting, and types in a command in standard English. The command is processed, and sometimes changes the state of the game. This results in a new situation that is then communicated to the user, restarting the cycle. This type of adventure game is classified as belonging to a genre called “interactive fiction”. Zork is exceptional in that the early Zork games are by far the most popular early interactive fiction titles ever released. It is interesting to examine why these games sold so well, while most other interactive fiction games could not sell for free in the 1980’s. As we will see, this is a result of many different technological and stylistic aspects of Zork that separate it from the rest of the genre. Zork is a unique artifact in gaming history. II: MIT and Infocom – The Prehistory of Zork Zork was not a modern project developed under a strict timeline by a designated team of programmers, but credit is given to two MIT phenoms named Marc Blank and Dave Lebling. Its history can be traced all the way back to the invention of a medium-sized machine called the PDP-10, in the 1960’s.
    [Show full text]
  • IF Theory Reader
    IF Theory Reader edited by Kevin Jackson-Mead J. Robinson Wheeler > Transcript On Press Boston, MA All authors of articles in this book retain their own copyrights. Neither the editors nor the publisher make any copyright claims. Version 1, March 2011. Version 2, April 2011. Please send corrections to [email protected]. Contents Preface Crimes Against Mimesis 1 Roger S. G. Sorolla Theory Toward a Theory of Interactive Fiction 25 Nick Montfort Characterizing, If Not Defining, Interactive Fiction 59 Andrew Plotkin not that you may remember time: Interactive Fiction, Stream-of-Consciousness Writing, and Free Will 67 Mark Silcox 2 Brief Dada Angels 89 Ryan Stevens, writing as Rybread Celsius Object Relations 91 Graham Nelson IF as Argument 101 Duncan Stevens The Success of Genre in Interactive Fiction 111 Neil Yorke-Smith Parser at the Threshold: Lovecraftian Horror in Interactive Fiction 129 Michael Gentry Distinguishing Between Game Design and Analysis: One View 135 Gareth Rees Natural Language, Semantic Analysis, and Interactive Fiction 141 Graham Nelson Afterword: Five Years Later 189 Graham Nelson Craft Challenges of a Broad Geography 203 Emily Short Thinking Into the Box: On the Use and Deployment of Puzzles 229 Jon Ingold PC Personality and Motivations 249 Duncan Stevens Landscape and Character in IF 261 Paul O’Brian Hint Development for IF 279 Lucian Smith Descriptions Constructed 291 Stephen Granade Mapping the Tale: Scene Description in IF 299 J. Robinson Wheeler Repetition of Text in Interactive Fiction 317 Jason Dyer NPC Dialogue Writing 325 Robb Sherwin NPC Conversation Systems 331 Emily Short History 10 Years of IF: 1994–2004 359 Duncan Stevens The Evolution of Short Works: From Sprawling Cave Crawls to Tiny Experiments 369 Stephen Granade History of Italian IF 379 Francesco Cordella Racontons une histoire ensemble: History and Characteristics of French IF 389 Hugo Labrande Preface This is a book for which people in the interactive fiction community have been waiting for quite some time.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyondzork-Regcard.Pdf
    Fantastic savings on Brian Moriarty's Wishbringer® ! Now that you're proving your cunning and valor in Wishbringer is the perfect choice for both novices Beyond Zork,® you'll want to take on the fabulous crea­ and seasoned interactive fiction players. Although the tures and explore the fantastic landscape in another magic wishes you're granted will help you solve the captivating lnfocom story. And we've got just the one puzzles, experienced players can challenge them­ for you. Wishbringer, Brian Moriarty's first work of selves by using logic alone. interactive fiction, is now available for only $14.95. To prepare you for your adventure, the In this award-winning story, you're an ordinary Wishbringer package includes a postal map of your mail clerk in an ordinary little town. But there's some­ home town, a mysterious sealed envelope, a copy of thing quite extraordinary in today's mail. It's a ransom note for a The Legend of Wishbringer, and an enchanted glow-in-the-dark kidnapped cat, and it will lead you through amazing adventures Wishbringer stone. to Wishbringer, a stone possessing undreamt-of powers. For You can order Wishbringer by simply filling out the form on although the note is addressed to someone in your ordinary little the reverse side. Then you're on your way to having your most town, it's postmarked for Special Delivery to Parts Unknown. And fabulous wishes come true. its true destination is somewhere beyond your wildest dreams .. .. G-IZB-01 We'll Help You Out! There's a solution to every puzzle in Beyond Zork, and a way out story.
    [Show full text]
  • The Status Line
    Meet Mike’s Important Dream Date Reader Poll See page 7 The Status Line See page 6 Volume VI Number 1 Formerly The New Zork Times Winter/Spring 1987 Douglas Adams' Bureaucracy Not very long ago, Douglas Adams It's a sad story, one that's replayed (who is, as everyone knows, the best- every day for millions of people selling author of that zany interactive worldwide. Of course, it's not always story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the a bank at fault. Sometimes it's the Galaxy™) moved from one apartment postal service, or the telephone com- in London to another. He dutifully pany, or an airline, or the govern- notified everyone of his new address, ment. All of us, at one time or including his bank. In fact, he person- another, feel persecuted by a bureauc- ally went to the bank and filled out a racy. What can be done? change-of-address form. Only Douglas Adams would exact Soon after, Douglas found that he such sweet revenge. He retaliated by was unable to use his credit card. He writing Bureaucracy™, a hilarious discovered that the card had been interactive journey through masses of invalidated by the bank. Apparently, red tape. the bank had sent a new card to his You begin Bureaucracy in your old address. spiffy new apartment. You're going to For weeks, Douglas tried to get the Paris this very afternoon for a combi- bank to acknowledge his change-of- nation training seminar and vacation, address form. He talked to bank offi- so you'll need to leave as soon as you cials, and filled out new forms, and get the money order your boss has applied for another credit card, but mailed you.
    [Show full text]
  • The Inform Designer's Manual
    Cited Works of Interactive Fiction The following bibliography includes only those works cited in the text of this book: it makes no claim to completeness or even balance. An index entry is followed by designer's name, publisher or organisation (if any) and date of first substantial version. The following denote formats: ZM for Z-Machine, L9 for Level 9's A-code, AGT for the Adventure Game Toolkit run-time, TADS for TADS run-time and SA for Scott Adams's format. Games in each of these formats can be played on most modern computers. Scott Adams, ``Quill''-written and Cambridge University games can all be mechanically translated to Inform and then recompiled as ZM. The symbol marks that the game can be downloaded from ftp.gmd.de, though for early games} sometimes only in source code format. Sa1 and Sa2 indicate that a playable demonstration can be found on Infocom's first or second sampler game, each of which is . Most Infocom games are widely available in remarkably inexpensive packages} marketed by Activision. The `Zork' trilogy has often been freely downloadable from Activision web sites to promote the ``Infocom'' brand, as has `Zork: The Undiscovered Underground'. `Abenteuer', 264. German translation of `Advent' by Toni Arnold (1998). ZM } `Acheton', 3, 113 ex8, 348, 353, 399. David Seal, Jonathan Thackray with Jonathan Partington, Cambridge University and later Acornsoft, Topologika (1978--9). `Advent', 2, 47, 48, 62, 75, 86, 95, 99, 102, 105, 113 ex8, 114, 121, 124, 126, 142, 146, 147, 151, 159, 159, 179, 220, 221, 243, 264, 312 ex125, 344, 370, 377, 385, 386, 390, 393, 394, 396, 398, 403, 404, 509 an125.
    [Show full text]
  • Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing, Ca
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt529018f2 No online items Guide to the Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing, ca. 1975-1995 Processed by Stephan Potchatek; machine-readable finding aid created by Steven Mandeville-Gamble Department of Special Collections Green Library Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 Phone: (650) 725-1022 Email: [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc © 2001 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved. Special Collections M0997 1 Guide to the Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing, ca. 1975-1995 Collection number: M0997 Department of Special Collections and University Archives Stanford University Libraries Stanford, California Contact Information Department of Special Collections Green Library Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 Phone: (650) 725-1022 Email: [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Processed by: Stephan Potchatek Date Completed: 2000 Encoded by: Steven Mandeville-Gamble © 2001 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing, Date (inclusive): ca. 1975-1995 Collection number: Special Collections M0997 Creator: Cabrinety, Stephen M. Extent: 815.5 linear ft. Repository: Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives. Language: English. Access Access restricted; this collection is stored off-site in commercial storage from which material is not routinely paged. Access to the collection will remain restricted until such time as the collection can be moved to Stanford-owned facilities. Any exemption from this rule requires the written permission of the Head of Special Collections.
    [Show full text]
  • Infocom's New Graphics Will Blow You out of the Water
    Erasmus at sea: Bridge of the Erasmus The gale tears at you, biting deep within, and you know that if you don't make landfall soon you'll all be dead. You are John Blackthorne, Pilot-Najor of a dead fleet: one ship left out of five, eight and twenty men out of one hundred and seven, and only ten of those can walk. No food, almost no water, and that brackish and foul. idge of the Erasmus This is the bridge of the Erasmus, a Dutch merchant and privateer. The unlashed wheel is directly forward of you, a sea chair is lashed to the deck aft of the wheel, and the ship's bell is hanging here. Spray blows past in an angry torrent. The wheel dominates the quarterdeck It is turned straight and free to turn now. The ship heels in a sudden squall, throwing you from your- post at the wheel, which, uncontrolled, begins to turn to port. >STRAIGHTEN THE WHEEL INFOCOM'S NEW GRAPHICS WILL BLOW YOU OUT OF THE WATER... , ZORK ZERO The game that started it all has a new beginning! Zork Zero is the interactive fiction prequel to the Zork Trilogy, the best-selling entertainment software product of all time. In Zork Zero, a curious jester offers you puzzles, paradoxes and plenty of fun as you seek out objects ranging from the curious to the sublime. • One million satisfied game players can't be wrong! Discover the origins of the Great Underground Empire in this new and exciting chapter of Zork. • Zork Zero integrates graphics into the game play with visual puzzles, illustrated maps and a Zorkian encyclopedia.
    [Show full text]
  • Temporary Zork Zero Manual
    I N S T R U C T I O N M A N U A L If you've never played Infocom's interactive fiction before, you should read this entire instruction manual. If you're an experienced TABLE OF CONTENTS Infocom player, just read Section I: About Zork Zero. Section I: About Zork Zero Preface to the Story 2 Hints 2 Mapping 3 Graphical Puzzles 3 If You Have a Mouse 3 Function Keys 3 Special Commands 4 Sample Transcript and Map 6 About the Author 9 Section II: About Infocom's Interactive Fiction An Overview: 10 What is interactive fiction? Starting and Stopping 10 ! "Booting up" ! Saving and restoring ! Quitting and restarting Communicating with Infocom's Interactive 11 Fiction ! Basic sentences ! Complex sentences ! Talking to characters in the story Tips for Novices 13 Eleven useful pointers about interactive fiction Common Complaints 14 We're Never Satisfied 15 If You Have Technical Problems 15 Copyright and Warranty Information 15 Quick Reference Guide 16 This briefly describes the most important things to know about interactive fiction. Instruction Manual 1 In fact, as you begin your desperate quest to find the relics of the SECTION I: Empire you need to stop the Curse, your only company is the court ABOUT ZORK ZERO jester, who spins rhymes for your amusement. Always appearing when you least expect him, the jester will confront you with riddles and games, spring some deadly tricks, and give you helpful nudges in the Preface to the Story right direction. And throughout, he seems to be laughing at some More than 90 years have passed since the great wizard Megaboz cast tremendous joke which you can't begin to fathom..
    [Show full text]
  • The Status Line
    The Status Line Volume VII Number 3 Formerly The New Zork Times Fall 1988 BattleTech: Lots of Meching around He cursed himself for what felt like scanned the status report of his the 15th time in the last hour. The 'Mech’s condition. His concentration inside of his neuro-helmet was slick was broken by alarm bells sounding with sweat, making matters even and the warning, “Critical shot to the worse now that there was poor con- head! Man eject!” blaring into his tact with the helmet's electrodes. He ears. Numb, Jason triggered the eject remembered the message that his button, blasting the canopy off the top instructors drilled into his head again of the 'Mech and causing him to drop and again: “Controlling a 'Mech re- the 35 feet to the ground, safely quires patience and above all strate- cocooned within the seat's webbing. gic allocation of resources.” Funny Dejectedly, Jason detached himself how it was never as easy when the from the now useless seat and trudged trainer 'Mechs were firing back. back to the Citadel's training “I cannot let father down,” Jason grounds, realizing that he now had mumbled to himself as he aligned the another failure he would have to try Chameleon's twin medium lasers on to live down with the mechanics. the approaching Locust's torso. “They already hate me because of “Cannot let the computer keep fight- their station in life,” said Jason, real- ing for me, especially after last time,” izing that tomorrow's training session Jason thought, ruefully remembering would be just as brutal as today's.
    [Show full text]