Well, I suppose we were due for some jank sooner or later.
look through grate
>look through grate
The grate is closed.
>look into grate
The grate is closed.
>examine grate
The grate is closed.
(even modern, advanced, natural language programs like Siri and Google Assistant tend to get janky, let alone a game that's - let's see - over 35 years old. For me there's a magic to being able to talk to a computer like a person that makes up for the inevitable jankiness of it)
Well, that was just a bit of caution that wasn't strictly necessary anyway. I can probably just not use "look through [thing]" anymore under the assumption that if it can't parse that there's not gonna be any life or death stuff that depends on doing that. I should reread the section of the instructions on the text parser. It had some stuff on the logic used by it but I didn't really read it too closely; it'll probably save some invalid inputs to be more familiar with that.
open grate
Well, that was just a bit of caution that wasn't strictly necessary anyway. I can probably just not use "look through [thing]" anymore under the assumption that if it can't parse that there's not gonna be any life or death stuff that depends on doing that. I should reread the section of the instructions on the text parser. It had some stuff on the logic used by it but I didn't really read it too closely; it'll probably save some invalid inputs to be more familiar with that.
open grate
(Maybe, but, interesting note: originally we were playing the mainframe version of Zork, but after a few moves I decided to sneakily switch over to the home computer release of Zork I, thinking the latter would be more polished. Anyway I checked, and in this version if you try and look through the house window it handles it better - it says something like 'you can see a kitchen', even if you haven't opened the window up yet.)
Guess I'll need to come back here later, then. I remember you said I can go west, but before I do that I'm gonna check the other options first. east
Wait, no, checking everything would need me to check not just north and east, but sw/se/nw/ne too, wouldn't it. Nevermind, fuck that.
west
Guess I'll need to come back here later, then. I remember you said I can go west, but before I do that I'm gonna check the other options first. east
Wait, no, checking everything would need me to check not just north and east, but sw/se/nw/ne too, wouldn't it. Nevermind, fuck that.
west
>w Forest
This is a forest, with trees in all directions. To the east, there appears to be sunlight.
>n Clearing
You are in a clearing, with a forest surrounding you on all sides. A path leads south.
There is a grating securely fastened into the ground.
On the ground is a pile of leaves.
You hear in the distance the chirping of a song bird.
...Hrm. The other tile with the grating didn't have a bird chirping in its description, so I think this is a different tile? Unless stuff like than can differ from visit to visit.
jump into pile of leaves
...Hrm. The other tile with the grating didn't have a bird chirping in its description, so I think this is a different tile? Unless stuff like than can differ from visit to visit.
jump into pile of leaves
(I'll just tell you that it's the same place!)
>jump into pile of leaves
Do you expect me to applaud?
Is this a "deviating from specific paths resets you to a certain tile" situation or non-euclidian?
(More the latter. To quote the manual: "since some passages twist and curve, going NORTH from Place A to Place B doesn't always mean that SOUTH will take you back to Place A." I guess the idea is that, if you're in the forest, and aren't on a path, then you're lost in a forest maze and movement is intentionally confusing.)
Well, alright. If I start drawing up a map or something in mspaint I'll probably figure it out eventually.
Before that, though, I wanna
jump into pile of leaves
until it stops giving me new dialogue.
Well, alright. If I start drawing up a map or something in mspaint I'll probably figure it out eventually.
Before that, though, I wanna
jump into pile of leaves
until it stops giving me new dialogue.
>jump into pile of leaves
Very good. Now you can go to the second grade.
>jump
Are you enjoying yourself?
>jump
Do you expect me to applaud?
>jump
Are you enjoying yourself?
>jump
Very good. Now you can go to the second grade.
>jump
Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!!
>jump
Do you expect me to applaud?
>jump
Do you expect me to applaud?
>jump
Very good. Now you can go to the second grade.
(Since the dialog is the same whether you jump into the pile of leaves of just jump, I thought I'd test to see if it's just ignoring everything after 'jump'...but, no, it is smarter than that)
>jump into purple wumpus
I don't know the word "purple".
>west Forest
This is a forest, with trees in all directions. To the east, there appears to be sunlight.
This is the second tile I entered in this forest, isn't it. Jeez.
Well,
e
I guess.
>e Forest path
This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south from here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.
I was kinda hoping that would take me back to the exit. Figured that would be a good point of reference to work with and it'd have been nice to know how to just leave if I decide to give up on figuring out the forest.
Well, a path is probably nice too. Hopefully sticking to it means that directions will make sense.
s
I was kinda hoping that would take me back to the exit. Figured that would be a good point of reference to work with and it'd have been nice to know how to just leave if I decide to give up on figuring out the forest.
Well, a path is probably nice too. Hopefully sticking to it means that directions will make sense.
s
>s
North of House
You are facing the north side of a white house. There is no door here, and all the windows are boarded up. To the north a narrow path winds through the trees.
(To me, moving around the outside of the house seems unintentionally confusing, rather than intentionally confusing. So I'll just say that 'west of house' is west and 'behind house' is east. And then there's the forest path to the north.)
>n Forest path
This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south from here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.
>n Clearing
You are in a clearing, with a forest surrounding you on all sides. A path leads south.
There is a grating securely fastened into the ground.
On the ground is a pile of leaves.
>s Forest path
This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south from here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.
>s North of House
You are facing the north side of a white house. There is no door here, and all the windows are boarded up. To the north a narrow path winds through the trees.
w
(that'll get us to the west side of the house, yeah?)
(correct!)
>w West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded up front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
(So here we are - the iconic opening of the game. That we kinda skipped earlier.)
(Please enjoy this Zork cover art, which I love in all its cheesy glory:)
(Regarding that cover, one of the authors of the game said in an interview: "it was so cheesy...I mean, it's clear that the artist had either played the game or gotten enough of a description to do what he thought was a good job. It just somehow managed to come across as out of character. But in any other circumstance it would be an awesome cover. When we took Zork back from Personal Software, we decided to do our own packaging with the help of Giardini Russell, the ad agency we were using.")
(...Also isn't the house in that cover Victorian style? The game clearly says the house is colonial!)
Heh, there's just something about the way all the individual elements of that guy combine that just makes him hilarious to me.
Anyway, if it wasn't obvious yet, I'm trying to check all of the individual routes paths going off from the house in cardinal directions, so
w
>w Forest
This is a forest, with trees in all directions. To the east, there appears to be sunlight.
You hear in the distance the chirping of a song bird.
>e Forest path
This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south from here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.
Posts
look through grate
The grate is closed.
>look into grate
The grate is closed.
>examine grate
The grate is closed.
(even modern, advanced, natural language programs like Siri and Google Assistant tend to get janky, let alone a game that's - let's see - over 35 years old. For me there's a magic to being able to talk to a computer like a person that makes up for the inevitable jankiness of it)
open grate
You have to cross some parking driveways.
Kinda dodgy there.
Maybe in late afternoon/early evening but it's usually not that big of a hassle.
>open grate
The grating is locked.
east
Wait, no, checking everything would need me to check not just north and east, but sw/se/nw/ne too, wouldn't it. Nevermind, fuck that.
west
Forest
This is a forest, with trees in all directions. To the east, there appears to be sunlight.
You would need a machete to go further west.
Clearing
You are in a clearing, with a forest surrounding you on all sides. A path leads south.
There is a grating securely fastened into the ground.
On the ground is a pile of leaves.
You hear in the distance the chirping of a song bird.
jump into pile of leaves
>jump into pile of leaves
Do you expect me to applaud?
Before that, though, I wanna
jump into pile of leaves
until it stops giving me new dialogue.
Very good. Now you can go to the second grade.
>jump
Are you enjoying yourself?
>jump
Do you expect me to applaud?
>jump
Are you enjoying yourself?
>jump
Very good. Now you can go to the second grade.
>jump
Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!!
>jump
Do you expect me to applaud?
>jump
Do you expect me to applaud?
>jump
Very good. Now you can go to the second grade.
(Since the dialog is the same whether you jump into the pile of leaves of just jump, I thought I'd test to see if it's just ignoring everything after 'jump'...but, no, it is smarter than that)
>jump into purple wumpus
I don't know the word "purple".
>jump into sword
You can't see any sword here!
(Oh also...)
>count leaves
There are 69,105 leaves here.
Forest
This is a forest, with trees in all directions. To the east, there appears to be sunlight.
Well,
e
I guess.
Forest path
This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south from here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.
Well, a path is probably nice too. Hopefully sticking to it means that directions will make sense.
s
North of House
You are facing the north side of a white house. There is no door here, and all the windows are boarded up. To the north a narrow path winds through the trees.
(To me, moving around the outside of the house seems unintentionally confusing, rather than intentionally confusing. So I'll just say that 'west of house' is west and 'behind house' is east. And then there's the forest path to the north.)
how
n
>n
Forest path
This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south from here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.
Clearing
You are in a clearing, with a forest surrounding you on all sides. A path leads south.
There is a grating securely fastened into the ground.
On the ground is a pile of leaves.
Somehow hadn't really noticed that the mention of the path on this tile!
Well,
s then s
then.
Forest path
This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south from here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.
>s
North of House
You are facing the north side of a white house. There is no door here, and all the windows are boarded up. To the north a narrow path winds through the trees.
I don't know the word "left".
(I guess the dungeon master's conservative.)
(that'll get us to the west side of the house, yeah?)
>w
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded up front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
(So here we are - the iconic opening of the game. That we kinda skipped earlier.)
(Please enjoy this Zork cover art, which I love in all its cheesy glory:)
(Regarding that cover, one of the authors of the game said in an interview: "it was so cheesy...I mean, it's clear that the artist had either played the game or gotten enough of a description to do what he thought was a good job. It just somehow managed to come across as out of character. But in any other circumstance it would be an awesome cover. When we took Zork back from Personal Software, we decided to do our own packaging with the help of Giardini Russell, the ad agency we were using.")
(...Also isn't the house in that cover Victorian style? The game clearly says the house is colonial!)
Anyway, if it wasn't obvious yet, I'm trying to check all of the individual routes paths going off from the house in cardinal directions, so
w
Forest
This is a forest, with trees in all directions. To the east, there appears to be sunlight.
You hear in the distance the chirping of a song bird.
e
Forest path
This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south from here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.