Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
101–110 of 241 posts
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the parent means that is still how we do software, eg. coyping resembling code and modifying it until it does what we want.
And I mean "If it works for modern devs too, so?"
For OP’s personal projects? Meh, it works but will sometimes cause you problems. For a team of 10+ software devs? Disaster!
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#103Is there any good modern analogue to Infocom games that I can plan on my iPhone slowly?
If you have a pre-iOS 11* device, "The Lost Adventures of Infocom" should still be for sale in the App Store. It has a dozen-ish of the actual Infocom classics. Best on an iPad, but I think it's usable on a phone.
*They didn't -- and won't -- re-build it to cross Apple's 64-bit barrier, so you can't play it after iOS 11.
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Frankly, this sounds like terribly punishing game design. Why did so many players put up with it? Was there really nothing better?
This was deliberate on Douglas Adams' part [0]. It's all part of the joke. Other notable sections are where the game actively lies to you about being able to access a particular room (you need to try to enter several times in a row), and then sulks when you call it out and lies about the contents of the room. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_th...
Yep - a lot of text adventures were brutally hard, often to make up length, but the Hitchhiker's Guide game was something else altogether. It was tricky, but also gratuitously unfair for the sake of comedy. A lot of it doubled as parody of earlier text adventures, like recreating "guess the command" difficulties by forcing the player to "take buffered analgesic" instead of "take aspirin".
The most famous example, I think, is the babel fish machine: it wasn't actually hard, in the sense that each failure told you exactly what you needed to do fix. But it was unfair, because you got one fewer attempt than the number of steps required. The designers basically expected you would roll your eyes, laugh, and try again with that extra knowledge.
(Which is a pretty standard part of punishingly hard games even today, interestingly. Dark Souls is mechanically hard, but it's also full of easily-managed surprises that are mostly present to create a feeling that the implicit rules of fair design aren't in effect.)
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#105Hitchhikers Guide was one of the first PC games I ever got. I had no idea it was a “text adventure.” Nor did I understand it was based on a book. My dad got it for me used from The Computer Club in downtown Lake Oswego, Oregon. I picked it out largely due to the green guy on the front of the box. I remember being delighted by all the weird stuff it came with, including a small packet of fuzz, and other artifacts from…
I played that game so many times on the C64 and never got past the Heart of Gold. The Babelfish puzzle took a ridiculous number of guesses to figure out, and the parser was extremely picky.
I want to go back to it now with a walkthrough to see just how much of the game I missed due to the insane difficulty level.
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#106> In general, Infocom games were created by taking previous Infocom source code, copying the directory, and making changes until the game worked the way the current Implementor needed. Structure, therefore, tended to follow from game to game and may or may not accurately reflect the actual function of the code. Some things never change... EDIT: this is how I do most of my personal projects!
This is definitely how I do all my LaTeX projects.
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is an extremely difficult game. In theory, I know the answer to all the puzzles, however, there are so many ways to lose without realizing it that I've never managed to string together a single play session in which I do it correctly. Though I've also long since stopped trying. :) For instance, there are subareas where you must collect various tools. Many of these are themselves rather fragile affairs, easy to rui…
Frankly, this sounds like terribly punishing game design. Why did so many players put up with it? Was there really nothing better?
The other responses about difficult Infocom games are all accurate, but it's worth noting that Hitchhiker's Guide in particular played this as comedy. There were genuinely tough puzzles, but there were also lots of elements which essentially pulled the rug out from under the player to amuse them with unreasonable demands. Broadly, the game didn't feel as fundamentally hard as many of its contemporaries. Instead, it felt like competing against an obstinate and sarcastic opponent, so failing repeatedly was exasperating and funny instead of aggravating.
For instance, lots of early text games required tricky-to-identify commands for technical reasons, like the myriad ways to phrase "use key on door". Mostly, that was just frustrating and accepted because there was nothing better. Hitchhiker's Guide came late enough to parse language somewhat more gracefully, so it replayed that trope as parody by occasionally requiring absurd phrasings for basic commands. "Take aspirin" didn't work, but "get buffered analgesic" (a phrase the game did present to you) did. And then the rest of the time, it went back to fairly normal naming standards so as not to irritate the player.
As a horribly-dated example: Battletoads is infamous as one of the hardest platform games in history, but it was challenging by simply taking the standard play elements of a game like Mario and making them excessively tight and demanding. Syobon Action is also infamously difficult, but its gameplay is (often) relatively forgiving. The challenge comes from suspending normal conventions of games like making threats visible and giving consistent behavior to objects. Putting any one instance of that style in a normal game would be a ridiculous design error, but Syobon is built on escalating that unfairness to the point of humor, and openly demands trial and error as the way to progress.
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#108I don't see it here, but Bureaucracy[1] was also really great. The whole premise of the game was that you are trying to change your address with your bank after a move. It's never that easy... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy_(video_game)
I agree, loved this one! The satire ran thick there
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also consider that, Invisiclues books notwithstanding, there was no straightforward way to get help if you really got stuck somewhere as this was pre-Internet for most people and certainly pre-Web.
but dial-up modem bulletin boards were definitely a thing, in those days. Or Compuserv, if so inclined. I wrote a BBS in Applesoft basic (and assembly, to trap some of the control characters and escape commands) and hosted it on my Apple ][. comms at 110/300 baud (full duplex!) or even 1200 baud where text comes faster than you can read, if you had the extra $400 for an AppleCat modem! walkthroughs were very popular…
And magazines - some times later than Infocom we got Dungeon Master (on an ST although we were Amiga guys) as soon as possible, played it through, wrote a walkthrough with all the maps drawn to be the first to the magazine but got slightly beaten by another guy.
Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also consider that, Invisiclues books notwithstanding, there was no straightforward way to get help if you really got stuck somewhere as this was pre-Internet for most people and certainly pre-Web.
but dial-up modem bulletin boards were definitely a thing, in those days. Or Compuserv, if so inclined. I wrote a BBS in Applesoft basic (and assembly, to trap some of the control characters and escape commands) and hosted it on my Apple ][. comms at 110/300 baud (full duplex!) or even 1200 baud where text comes faster than you can read, if you had the extra $400 for an AppleCat modem! walkthroughs were very popular…
Fair enough. I was active in BBSs but didn’t remember walkthroughs. But then I knew a number of the authors and just asked them if I was really stuck :-)