HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jennings@halcyon.com (James Jennings)
Subject: Bureaucracy Hint Request
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 08:39:17 GMT

                BUREAUCRACY HINT REQUEST FORM (BHRF)

FILL OUT THE FORM COMPLETELY. BE SURE TO SUPPLY SPOILER LEVELS OR YOUR 
REQUEST FOR A HINT WILL NOT BE ACKNOWLEDGED.

FIRST NAME?
  James
E-MAIL ADDRESS?
  jennings@halcyon.com
LAST NAME (MUST NOT BE CONTAINED IN E-MAIL ADDRESS)
  ...um...Jennings?

SPECIFY THE SPOILER LEVEL OF THIS REQUEST ON A SCALE OF 1 (NOT A 
SPOILER) TO 10 (EXTREME SPOILER).
  ...um... 2 I guess.

SPECIFY THE SPOILER LEVEL OF THE HINT YOU ARE REQUESTING ON A SCALE OF A 
(BLATANT ANSWER) TO G (CRYPTIC HINT). SPECIFY Z IF YOU ARE REQUESTING A 
USELESS HINT.
  ...um...F...I think...

SPECIFY THE NUMBER OF POINTS YOU HAVE FOUND SO FAR IN ROMAN NUMERALS
  ...just a sec...ok, its XV...

DOES THE DIRECTORY CONTAINING THE GAME AND ALL OF YOUR SAVED GAMES 
EXCEED ONE MEGABYTE?
  no
YOU ARE LYING.

SPECIFY THE NAME OF THE ROOM YOU ARE CURRENTLY STUCK IN.
  the persecution complex.

SPECIFY THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM
  the lawyers won't let me out and I can't find anything to do
YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE WORD 'LAWYER' ON THIS FORM
[Your blood pressure just went up.]

ARE YOU PLAYING A PIRATED COPY?
  no
THAT'S WHAT THEY ALL SAY.

SPECIFY THE FRIENDLINESS OF THIS FORM ON A SCALE OF ALPHA (VERY 
FRIENDLY) TO GAMMA (REASONABLY FRIENDLY).
  omega
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING 'COSMICLY FRIENDLY'.

THANK YOU FOR FILLING OUT A BHRF. YOUR REQUEST WILL BE PROCESSED AT OUR 
CONVENIENCE.

I had one more question...
TO REQUEST ANOTHER HINT, YOU MUST FILL OUT ANOTHER BHRF FORM. TO REQUEST 
ANOTHER BHRF FORM, FILL OUT A BHRF-REQUEST-FORM NO EARLIER THAN 14 WEEKS 
FROM THE FILING OF THIS FORM AND NO LATER THAN 3 MONTHS FROM THE POSTING 
OF THIS MESSAGE.

I just want to know if it's possible to tip the waitress. 

Hello? 

Hello?



Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: giese@k9.dev.cdx.mot.com (Bruce Giese)
Subject: Re: Crystal Cave Help
Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton, Massachusetts
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 15:48:12 GMT

Ellenb@mac.dev.upenn.edu (Ellen Bart) writes:

>How do I handle those miserable dwarves?  
>(E-Mail is fine.)

  If I recall correctly, "throw axe".
From: slghx@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Patch for MicroProse's DarkLands
Date: 26 Dec 92 20:23:10 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

I want to know where I could find a patch for DarkLands, I have a patch, but 
it gave me a little error, any help would be appreciated. I think I have
version  0.06 or something, but the patch was called dkv06.zip, and had a data
error. If you cou8ld give me a location or address to contact MicroProse.
It would be greatly appreciated.
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: rjones@buzzard.eecs.umich.edu (Randolph M. Jones)
Subject: Binaries for NeXt
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 21:41:49 GMT

Can anybody tell me if the binaries for the original adventure and zork
games are available for the NeXT somewhere? 
Thanks in advance.
  Randy Jones
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Alan Mead)
Subject: TADS help requested
Organization: UIUC Department of Psychology
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 23:47:22 GMT

Well, I still haven't gotten the hang of this language...  TADS 2.0
has just made it worse.

First, a gripe: What is the attraction of case-sensitivity?  I mean I
probably spent 20 minutes trying to make my "verDoLookThru" method work
until I double-checked and found that it was supposed to be
"verDoLook>>t<<hru"  AND, right below, is LookUnder (in fact, in re-
scanning the list of verbs, the capitalization seems pretty damn
capricious: LookBehind, Lookin, Lookthru, LookUnder).  Is there some
strange tradition I'm not aquainted with that provides rules for
capitalization?

[BTW, I know I can dispell all the below errors with a compiler directive,
but I want to understand WHY I get them.]

Anyway, I have a function like

exitsfunc( actor )
...
;

called as

if (...)
  exitsfunc( Me )
...
;

And I get a run time error, "Wrong number of parameters", whenever I
call exitsfunc()?  Is this normal?  I don't see anywhere in the manual, 
either a coherent discusscusion of arguments to functions or an example
that seems qualitatively different from my situation.  Is this a bug?

Ok, then I'm pretty much completely lost regarding the number of parameters
that a method is passed...  Ie, for methods called by the interpreter (in
response to the player's commands), how many parameters are used and
why?  Like, is "actor" ALWAYS a parameter?  Or is there no parameters
for methods like look...

I've also had a lot of trouble understanding the stack usage.  I have two
bits of code, one a fucntion and one a method, and both do pretty much 
the same thing (print something and then return nil) and one works fine
and the other produces an error about "Stack underflow" unless I "exit"
after returning the nil?  Why the hell is that?

Thanks a lot; I'm fairly confused and rather frustrated.

-alan mead
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: pse533@siemens.co.at (Kurt Mayr)
Subject: Question to LTOI1 & LTOI2
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 06:25:05 GMT
Organization: SIEMENS Austria Corp., A-1100 Wien, Gudrunstr. 11

I recently got (finally) the Lost Treasures of Infocom (I & II) series.
Some of the games I know from the old days, but some are new to me.
How are the games ranked difficulty-wise (I want to work from bottom up)?

Thanks in advance and please don't flame me if this was asked (and
answered) before, 'cause I'm fairly new to the net.
---
Hans Kraus, using another account       
e-mail: pse533@siemens.co.at
From: cctr120@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz (Brendon Wyber)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Please send me S301 walkthrough
Date: 21 Dec 92 21:43:22 GMT
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Howdy,

  Could some kind soul please send me the walk through for
SpellCasting 301: Spring Break.

Thanks in advance...

Be seeing you,

Brendon Wyber                     Computer Services Centre,
b.wyber@csc.canterbury.ac.nz      University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

"Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
Xref: sparky rec.games.int-fiction:1091 rec.arts.int-fiction:1134
From: erd@kumiss.cmhnet.org (Ethan Dicks)
Subject: Re: Totally helpless
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,rec.arts.int-fiction
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: 23 Dec 92 02:08:28 EDT
Organization: Not an Organization

Palmer T. Davis (ptd2@po.CWRU.Edu) wrote:
:
: Two popular choices for IF development systems are TADS and ADVSYS.
: TADS is shareware, and has attracted a great deal of attention; I don't
: remember whether the most recent version has an Amiga port or not.

Not yet :-(

: ADVSYS is free, and is distributed in portable C source.

ADVSYS is available from comp.sources.(games|misc|unix) [I forget which one]
in source form for UN*X and from the Fred Fish library for the Amiga in
binary form only.  I did port the UN*X version to the Amiga; I seem to
recall the only problem was with printing the prompt before the user
input (an extra fflush() or two fixed it).  The Fish disk is an early
one (like ~45)

I have written a little in ADVSYS  (a 10 room mini-adventure, written
for learning purposes).  I really like it.  After working with ADVSYS,
I have quite an appreciation for OOP (especially planning out all
of the objects in advance!)

-ethan
From: kist@acsu.buffalo.edu (james e kist)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Hints/maps for ZORK I
Date: 27 Dec 92 00:01:14 GMT
Organization: UB

I need some hints and maps for ZORK I by Infocom. I don't know if it makes
a difference, but I'm playing it on a TRS-80 Model III. Any help is
appreciated. Thanks alot.
--Jim
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: nathan@brokaw.lcs.mit.edu (Nathan Glasser)
Subject: Skyland question (slight spoiler)
Organization: MIT LCS, Cambridge, MA
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 07:07:10 GMT


For those of you who have played and completed the text adventure game
called Skyland:

I have "finished" the game, completing the objectives that you are told at the
start of the game. However, I only have 780 points out of a maximum of 800.

Is there some small thing that isn't required for completing the objectives
that I have failed to do? Or anything you can think of that I missed?

				Thanks,
--
				Nathan Glasser
fnord				nathan@brokaw.lcs.mit.edu,mintaka!brokaw!nathan
YP-17				Nate on IRC
Beware the DDG!
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: daz@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Darren Primm)
Subject: Kings Quest VI query
Keywords: hint
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 05:30:24 GMT

HI all,

I was wondering if any one has played Kings Quest VI, i was wondering if
someone could help me out, as I am stuck in the game. 

Spoilers for the game to follow



I am on 75 points of a possible 231, and have been on all four islands,
and have got 16 items, i cannot get past the stone archer, or onto the
chessland, or past the cliff on The Isle of the Sacred Mountain, or
figure out what to do with the spider. Any small hint would be much
appreciated.

Cheers, Darren.

--
  Darren (Dazza) Primm, Dept EE Eng, Melb Uni, Parkville, 3052, Australia
 "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish, sometimes."
   Internet: daz@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au  [dazza@ecr.mu.oz.au]  IRC: Family

Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: timbuck@borg.lib.vt.edu (Tim Buck)
Subject: Re: ITF 4.01 patched source available (ftp site wanted)
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 14:00:27 GMT

In article <19DEC199215061213@acad3.alaska.edu> fxmlk@acad3.alaska.edu (KIENENBERGER MIKE L) writes:
>Surprising, it doesn't seem like anyone else has made available a patched
>version of the source code anywhere. So I've got the patched source.  If
>anyone wants to point me to ftp sites interested in the patched source (I'm
>calling it itf4.01-pl2-src since it has both of the patches made available
>by the ITF team installed in it), I'll be happy to upload it to those sites.

OK, the patched ITF 4.01 source (PL2) is available on borg.lib.vt.edu
(128.173.7.185) in pub/incoming.  I can only make it available there for a
short time, so get it while you can.  I'm sure it will be available at other
sites soon.
-- 
Tim Buck
   rri!tim@vtserf.cc.vt.edu        Recognition Research, Inc.
   timbuck@borg.lib.vt.edu         Blacksburg, VA  24060
   ------------------- Standard disclaimers apply -------------------
From: Ellenb@mac.dev.upenn.edu (Ellen Bart)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Crystal Cave Help
Date: 23 Dec 92 20:18:31 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.int-fiction
Organization: Univ of PA

How do I handle those miserable dwarves?  
(E-Mail is fine.)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: blasius@gmd.de (Volker Blasius)
Subject: Re: ITF 4.01 patched source available (ftp site wanted)
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 15:15:57 GMT

In article <1992Dec22.140027.11322@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> 
   timbuck@borg.lib.vt.edu (Tim Buck) writes:

>OK, the patched ITF 4.01 source (PL2) is available on borg.lib.vt.edu
>(128.173.7.185) in pub/incoming.  I can only make it available there for a
>short time, so get it while you can.  I'm sure it will be available at other
>sites soon.

Got it, thank you. It is now available at ftp.gmd.de in directory
/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/itf as itf-pl2-src.tar.Z and itfp2src.zip
(same contents, only repackaged).

Volker

---
Volker Blasius
Senior Doorstop, Gesellschaft fuer Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung
---
Origin: a maze of twisty little passages, all different (2:243/50.37)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: moeller@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Mars)
Subject: Mini-Zork
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 11:05:27 GMT

I've got this game called Mini Zork, which was given away for the C64 with
Zzap! magazine some years back. Never bothered playing it. Anyone got
any comments on it?
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: Re: FUDGE: Levels
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, NH.
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 14:13:32 GMT

schwarts@cps.msu.edu (Steven Eric Schwartz) writes:
>A suggestion (even though I am a little late coming into this project) for 
>level progressions: 

Lateness doesn't matter - welcome!

>To make it easier on character sheets when abbreviating levels to a single
>character, the 'Great' level could be changed to another word (off the top
>of my head I'd use 'Excellent') to avoid confusing it with the 'Good' level.

In this case, though, I must admit we hashed it out quite a bit.  The
upshot is:

No two net.people can agree on seven adjectives that form a progression
for the worst to the best.  Some have to be rejected because of other
connotations (such as Average - a Good swordsman gets a Good result on
the average, for example . . .).  Since no one can agree, I just chose
the seven that made the most sense to me and added a caveat that the GM
should change them as needed.  Your example wouldn't help me at all,
for instance:  I can easily see a difference between Good and Great,
but would have a hard time telling the difference between Excellent and
Superb . . .

But thanks for the feedback - always welcome!

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: ericg@sopwith.ucs.indiana.edu (Eric C. Garrison)
Subject: Re: FUDGE Dice
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 19:39:02 GMT

In article <1992Dec21.013601.2373@oz.plymouth.edu> sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan) writes:
>Whether I use the 2d6 or 2d10 as the main text, though, I
>don't know - waiting for other votes and arguments to come in . . .

I'd still vote for using d6's, since they are readily available and
have a better "feel" to them physically and intuitively.

I've always been partial to the simpler ideas, and to me the original
idea of 2d6 is more elegant and simple.

Besides, *my* simple game uses 6 sided dice only... :-)

Though as it turns out I am having real trouble making up a simple
combat system that goes with my mechanic.  I may have to scrap it and
just use FUDGE.  :-)

Eric
From: schwarts@cps.msu.edu (Steven Eric Schwartz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: FUDGE: Levels
Date: 21 Dec 1992 07:38:10 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University
Reply-To: schwarts@cps.msu.edu (Steven Eric Schwartz)
NNTP-Posting-Host: atlantic.cps.msu.edu
Originator: schwarts@atlantic.cps.msu.edu

A suggestion (even though I am a little late coming into this project) for 
level progressions: 

To make it easier on character sheets when abbreviating levels to a single
character, the 'Great' level could be changed to another word (off the top
of my head I'd use 'Excellent') to avoid confusing it with the 'Good' level.


-- 
Steven Eric Schwartz            "It's not safe out here. It's wonderous, with
(schwarts@cps.msu.edu)           treasures to satiate desires both subtle and
125 East Wilson Hall, MSU        gross.  But it's not for the timid."
East Lansing, Michigan  48825                           - Q, "Q Who"
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: Re: net.rpg - eliminating mundane magic
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, NH.
	<1992Dec18.151103.23858@oz.plymouth.edu>
	<1992Dec21.015955.10532@trl.oz.au>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 14:08:10 GMT

s.mathers@trl.oz.au writes:
>
>Could have a bizaare effect on the type of magic cast in a world where
>magic works as described above.  Every mage would constantly be trying
>to come up with new spells, as old ones are used up.  All the obvious
>spells would have been used up ages ago, so magic would be pretty weird.
>Forget your average fireball spell.  That went ages ago.  These days
>people cast 'poison confetti rain' spells etc...

Right - I wrote this option up into FUDGE Magic, first version - but you
just can't do it.  You run into book-keeping problems.  You have to keep
track of every spell ever cast by every PC and NPC mage . . .

If someone figures out a way to do this, *please* let me know - this
would be my favorite option!

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: umsmigi0@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Trevor Allan Smigiel)
Subject: Re: MAZE
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 22:05:59 GMT

In <1992Dec24.065809.23791@wuecl.wustl.edu> ppc1@cec2.wustl.edu (Peter Pui Tak Chiu) writes:
>is there a maze algorithm out there?  i don't mean a C program (or some
>other language) that generates a maze... just the algorithm...
>peter

     There is a Maze FAQ out there somewhere.  It was just posted a few days
ago.  Either on here or rec.games.programmer.

Trevor
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: Re: FUDGE Levels
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, NH.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 15:43:57 GMT

schwarts@cps.msu.edu (Steven Eric Schwartz) writes:
>
>Wouldn't it be more intuitive/easier to remember if the backwards progression
>went like:
>
>        Superb: Sc, Sc, H, H, VH, VH, In, ND
>        Great:  Sc, Sc, H, H, VH,     In, ND    [remove a VH]
>        Good:   Sc, Sc, H,    VH,     In, ND    [remove an H]
>        Fair:   Sc,     H,    VH,     In, ND    [remove a Sc]
>
>This makes each level going down one less duplicate level than the one
>after it.

Sure, makes sense - thanks.  I'll change it.

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: schwarts@cps.msu.edu (Steven Eric Schwartz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: FUDGE: Levels
Date: 21 Dec 92 21:07:31 GMT
Reply-To: schwarts@cps.msu.edu (Steven Eric Schwartz)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: atlantic.cps.msu.edu
Originator: schwarts@atlantic.cps.msu.edu

In article <1992Dec21.141332.7260@oz.plymouth.edu> sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan) writes:

>>To make it easier on character sheets when abbreviating levels to a single
>>character, the 'Great' level could be changed to another word (off the top
>>of my head I'd use 'Excellent') to avoid confusing it with the 'Good' level.
>
>In this case, though, I must admit we hashed it out quite a bit.  The
>upshot is:
>
>No two net.people can agree on seven adjectives that form a progression
>for the worst to the best.  Some have to be rejected because of other
>connotations (such as Average - a Good swordsman gets a Good result on
>the average, for example . . .).  Since no one can agree, I just chose
>the seven that made the most sense to me and added a caveat that the GM
>should change them as needed.  Your example wouldn't help me at all,
>for instance:  I can easily see a difference between Good and Great,
>but would have a hard time telling the difference between Excellent and
>Superb . . .

I thought of that confusion on Ex...Su as well....ok back to eating more
FUDGE!


-- 
Steven Eric Schwartz            "It's not safe out here. It's wonderous, with
(schwarts@cps.msu.edu)           treasures to satiate desires both subtle and
125 East Wilson Hall, MSU        gross.  But it's not for the timid."
East Lansing, Michigan  48825                           - Q, "Q Who"
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: soss@unix.cie.rpi.edu (Steven Soss)
Subject: Re: FUDGE: magic
Organization: CIE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 21:15:52 GMT


sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan) writes:

>I like it a lot!  I may write it up concisely and add it to the
>Addenda, ignoring all the matchups with my earlier system.  Would you
>mind if I changed Control and Accuracy to Warp and Weft, or do these
>terms leave you cold?

Actually, the way you describe the spellweaving is similar to the
way that we  used this system -- though  I must admit the idea of
'spellweaving' does  give it a better  conceptual  ring... I like
it.

The only thing that I think  should still be  in the mechanics is
the roll against Power.  The main reason this is in the mechanics
is that it was found that otherwise there is no reason for a mage
to cast a relatively low power spell (unless there is a penaly to
control   for  using high power,  but   I  dislike that  kind  of
linking).

The roll  vs. power would  give a 0/-  to the power   stat of the
mage.  So long as the modified stat  is above the necessary power
for the spell, then the spell size  is  unaffected (in our system
your power rating gave the largest spell that you were physically
capable of weaving).  If the modified power  is less  than called
for, then the spell is that much weaker (or didn't cast depending
on the spell).  A critical  failure to power  would cost the mage
in health  (as  he could not  release the spell threads  from his
body).

This has the benifit that low power spells should be very easy to
cast, with spells becoming more difficult as the size reaches the
limit  of  the caster.  I would imagine  that you could allow for
the mage to cast spells larger than their power  by adding in the
possibility of a +modifier to the roll vs. power.

At any rate, I appreciate the new terminology and the
suggestions.

--Steve
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: ratinox@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu (Richard Pieri)
Subject: Re: Does anyone know...
X-Posting-Software: GNUS 3.14.1 [ NNTP-based News Reader for GNU Emacs ]
Reply-To: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu
X-Signature-Virus-Protection: Version 1.51
X-Get-A-Clue: Have two, they're small.
Organization: 3WA, Boston Office. Or Nu Meta Chi. Take your pick.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 04:55:25 GMT

>>>>> On 22 Dec 1992 02:52:01 GMT, cj841@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Chris
>>>>> Steiner) said:

Chris>    I'm wondering about copyright rules, etc.  Is there a file on
Chris> the net I can look at or do I have to find out where to go from
Chris> the courthouse?

Copyright Law is a very convoluted subject. If you're planning on having a
work Copyrighted (note the capital "C"), you should talk to a lawyer who
specializes in Copyright Law, and take anything you read on the Net with a
grain of salt.

--Rat
||||| | | | |  |  |  |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |  |  |  |  | | | | | |||||
Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat          ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu
I ran all night and day/I just ran/I ran so far away/I couldn't get away
                                                   --A Flock of Seagulls, I Ran
Newsgroups: rec.games.design