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Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

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Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#111

Post by radiowave »

tclancy wrote: post #69
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #46

Earlier 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?

To preface this explanation, remember that it "was a different time" so one's expectations for what a game could and could not do, or even what a game was, were very different. The best way I can explain it is if you have ever played a modern game that you liked so much you went back and did all the side quests (or maybe you are just a completist when it comes to games), the Infocom text adventures were something lik…

And part of the joy of reading through the source code is that I can see text prompts for eventualities that I never once stumbled into while playing the game.

Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#112

Post by david-given »

jperry wrote: post #12
jacobush wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-machine

Z-Machines aren't compilers, they're virtual machines that can execute the compiled output. There's no (known) compiler that still exists that can compile ZIL into Z-code. edit: except for zilf, as mentioned, but it's not functional for even zork 1.

ZILF works just fine. There's even a competition for games written in ZIL using it:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ZILcom/permalink/76701623374...

Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#113

Post by ThorinJacobs »

Bartweiss wrote: post #107
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #46

Earlier 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?

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…

+1 - Another great example of difficult games as parody is I Wanna Be The Guy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wanna_Be_the_Guy). Take all the existing conventions and stereotypes of difficult platform games and exaggerate them to the extreme.

Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#114

Post by bredren »

pavlov wrote: post #71
bredren wrote: post #37

Hitchhikers 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…

A very thorough review of the game on the Digital Antiquarian, including photos of the packaging: https://www.filfre.net/2013/11/hitchhiking-the-galaxy-infoco... On the same site, an exquisitely detailed account of how the Hitchhiker's game came to be: https://www.filfre.net/2013/11/the-computerized-hitchhikers/

Whoa! This is the “fuzz” I remember!

I had this box! The cover opened on it, it was so cool.

Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#115

Post by WorldMaker »

Bartweiss wrote: post #107
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #46

Earlier 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?

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…

It's also why the later Infocom game that Douglas Adams collaborated on, Bureaucracy, is one of the best comedies that Infocom released. The subject matter, the obstinacy of parser-driven IF, and increasingly absurd solutions to puzzles all worked hand-in-hand given the subject matter.

Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#116

Post by egypturnash »

jackhack wrote: post #91
outside1234 wrote: post #55

Is there any good modern analogue to Infocom games that I can plan on my iPhone slowly?

Slowly? the iPhone is many thousands of times more capable than any of the target systems these software were built for -- typical was a 1 megahertz 8-bit CPU with 32 kilobytes of RAM. Even the most inefficient ZIL interpreter will spend most of its time in a stall loop.

I think “play slowly” in this case means “take it out during odd moments of the day such as waiting in a line or riding a bus and poke at the puzzles instead of catching up on Twitter”.

I am pretty sure that even a first-generation ZIL interpreter spent the bulk of its cycles flashing the cursor and waiting for the player to type something.

Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#118

Post by WorldMaker »

localhostdotdev wrote: post #95
andrewstuart wrote: post #5

This is the correct link, not the one on the HN post: https://github.com/historicalsource?tab=repositories As a zipfile because someone is bound to get that repo taken down. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S1CgtZNEKS8VITqTAWAkeyO0LBf...

not likely to be taken down as the CEO tweeted about it: https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1118057606159798274

It's still possible for Activision/Blizzard to send a DMCA takedown, even if the GitHub CEO is excited about it.

Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#119

Post by vanderZwan »

localhostdotdev wrote: post #95
andrewstuart wrote: post #5

This is the correct link, not the one on the HN post: https://github.com/historicalsource?tab=repositories As a zipfile because someone is bound to get that repo taken down. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S1CgtZNEKS8VITqTAWAkeyO0LBf...

not likely to be taken down as the CEO tweeted about it: https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1118057606159798274

I love how a tongue-in-cheek reply about the lack of syntax highlighting for ZIL files drew the attention of someone who actually implemented syntax highlighting for it.

https://twitter.com/taradinoc/status/1118181848494985216

Re: Source code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and other Infocom games

#120

Post by WorldMaker »

pwiecz wrote: post #44
speps wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that this is probably based on the the sequel[1] to H2G2 given that H2G2 was completed as game. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restaurant_at_the_End_of_t...

You can find a somewhat playable early "prototype" linked from here: https://waxy.org/2008/04/milliways_infocoms_unreleased_seque...

What might have been if Infocom hadn't tried to "grow up" and make business software.
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