HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kimmel@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Matt Kimmel)
Subject: Re: Top 10 Adventures
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 16:59:22 GMT

I've always wanted to do this...

1. Hollywood Hijinx
2. Lurking Horror
3. Sorcerer (love that time travel puzzle)
4. Spellcasting 201
5. Ultima: Martian Dreams (does this count?)
6. Planetfall
7. Cutthroats
8. Trinity
9. Zork I
10. Suspended

-Matt
-- 
Matt Kimmel		Networking Assistant		Univ. of Mass.

Personal mail:   kimmel@titan.ucc.umass.edu
Network-related: kimmel@nic.umass.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: kimmel@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Matt Kimmel)
Subject: Re: Infocom Game Information File
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 21:19:23 GMT

In article <BvCs0I.Lpy.2@cs.cmu.edu> ddj+@cs.cmu.edu (Doug DeJulio) writes:
>Has anyone played a ZIL5 or ZIL6 game with the datafiles from one
>machine but the interpreter from another?  This would tell us if it's
>worth even CONSIDERING an interpreter -- I'm worried because of the
>intense graphics.  It'd be cool to play Zork Zero under Unix.

As long as we're speculating wildly...How about ZIL5/ZIL6 for X11?  Just
imagine, the text in one window with the graphics in another...

-Matt
-- 
Matt Kimmel		Networking Assistant		Univ. of Mass.

Personal mail:   kimmel@titan.ucc.umass.edu
Network-related: kimmel@nic.umass.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: sjs28257@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Stelter)
Subject: Re: ZORK: A hollow voice says, "Fool"
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: rec.games.int-fiction
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 16:30:35 GMT

jswartz@mbunix.mitre.org (Swartz) writes:

>I have a question about a certain "magic word" in ZORK

>POSSIBLE SPOILER TO FOLLOW:







































>I once heard that typing the word, "PLUGH" in the mainframe version of ZORK
>would do something special.  In the PC versions of the game, typing PLUGH
>gives the response, "A hollow voice says, 'Fool'"  Was there some use for
>this work in the mainframe version?  Is there some other word?

I believe this is a backhanded reference to the original ADVENTURE, in
which "plugh" was a bona fide magic word.


                                   --Steve Stelter
                                     sjs28257@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: gamble@owlnet.rice.edu (Ben Gamble)
Subject: Re: Top 10 Adventures
Organization: Tennessee Ernie Port Authority
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 16:48:55 GMT

In article <mumble> twpierce@unix.amherst.edu (Tim Pierce) writes:
|In article <Bv9zEJ.5A5@rice.edu> adam@owlnet.rice.edu (Adam Justin Thornton) writes:
|
|>Hon. Mention: outside of Infocom: Scott Adams' _The Count_, _Savage Island_,
|>_Strange Odyssey_, _Mystery Fun House_.
|
|Swoon.  A man who really knows his text adventures.  Marry me?

Hey, I know my adventures almost as well as he does!  Let's _all_ get
married!

-- 
Ben Gamble                              B0 f- t+ w- g+ k- s- m- e r-v p
gamble@owlnet.rice.edu 
       Oh ye who go about saying unto each other:  "Hello sailor":
       Dost thou know the magnitude of thy sin before the gods?
From: David.White@bbs.oit.unc.edu (David White)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Zyll
Date: 29 Sep 92 16:39:59 GMT
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service



I played Zyll years ago when we first got our PCjr - it was indeed a
really good game!  We occassionally liked to put a cardboard divider
in the middle of the screen so my brother and I couldn't see where the
other one was, etc.  We still drag it out from time to time to play it,
though we've solved it several times.  Unfortunately, I believe it's still
copyrighted. 
 
(BTW, this is my first post on a newsgroup ever, so if I did something
wrong or broke protocol anywhere, sorry!  Bear with me - I'll get the hang
of this. :) )
 
----- David -----

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
From: ddj+@cs.cmu.edu (Doug DeJulio)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Top 10 Adventures
Date: 29 Sep 92 18:05:00 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <1992Sep28.060104.10605@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> ins750t@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Jim Giannakis) writes:
>Since many other newsgroups have got their lists of movies/games/whatever ,
>Here is my list of top 10 adventures...
[...]
>What do other people think ?

I can name a top five.

 1. Suspended (Infocom)
    I loved manipulating multiple actors instead of the traditional single one.
 2. A Mind Forever Voyaging (Infocom)
    Truely innovative.  It was cool to "be" a sentient computer.
 3. TimeQuest (Legend)
    The best puzzles, truely twisted time travel tricks, historical accuracy.
 4. Starflight (Electronic Arts?)
    Graphic oriented but with a HUGE universe.  A classic.
 5. Zork 2 (Infocom)
    A classic.

I had far and away the most fun playing these.  Hm.  Honorable mentions:

Text:
Sorcerer, Enchanter
    Zork with spells
The Lurking Horror
    C'thulu meets DARPA, lots of hacker in-jokes
Deadline
    Very good NPC interaction
Plundered Hearts
    Innovative concept done reasonably well, more fun than you may think

Graphic:
Starflight 2
    Perhaps more involved/complex than the original, but less innovative
Ultima 2
    A classic
Space 1889
    Victorian SF is a favorate genre of mine
BattleTech, The Crescent Hawks Inception
    A bit video-game-ish, but lots of fun.
-- 
Doug DeJulio
ddj+@cmu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: tomscud@ruf.rice.edu (Thomas Reid Scudder)
Subject: Hitchhikers guide -- HELP!
Organization: Rice University
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 19:30:05 GMT

I and my roommate are stuck in hitchhiker.  We're on the Heart of Gold,
we've set up the auxiliary improbability drive, and found all the obvious
stuff, but we can't figure out how to:

1 - read the circuit board in the nutrimatic machine
2 - interface eddie with the nutrimatic (if we have to do that)
3 - do anything useful in the narrow maintenance hatch (with the mesh floor)
4 - open the hatch
5 - pass the intelligence test on marvins door (i think it has to do with
      the fabled "tea and no tea"...
6 - on a related subject, how do we get tea out of the nutrimat?

We did figure out how to save the microscopic space fleet at the very beginning
but we aren't sure if it actually has any effect.

Post yer replies or mail em to tomscud@hadron.merit.edu (NOT my posting address)
thanx.
Tom Scudder
tomscud@hadron.merit.edu
From: jeffyg@wyatt.ksu.ksu.edu (Jeffrey Wayne Geist)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Stumped on Enchanter....
Date: 28 Sep 1992 13:07:55 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: wyatt.ksu.ksu.edu

I have made it farther than most of the amateurs around here.  I am at the very
end.... I have found the royal evil dude at the end.  I just cant kill him.  
What do i need to try?

-- 
My signature file!
From: mle@owlnet.rice.edu (Mark Louis Engelberg)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Zyll
Date: 28 Sep 92 18:00:24 GMT
Organization: Rice University

I have this game.  I played it way back on my PCJr.
It is copy-protected (disk-based) but it did work
as you described it.  You could have multiple players, and the complex
dungeon changed from game to game.  I never did beat the damn thing.
Good game, very respectable.

--Mark
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: forbes@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (Scott Forbes)
Subject: Re: Hitchhikers guide -- HELP!  *SPOILERS*
Organization: Usenet Sports Programming Network
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 05:12:13 GMT

tomscud@ruf.rice.edu (Thomas Reid Scudder) writes:
>I and my roommate are stuck in hitchhiker.  We're on the Heart of Gold,
>we've set up the auxiliary improbability drive

SPOILERS ahead

...Are you SURE you've set up the auxiliary improbability drive correctly?

REALLY sure?  Stop reading here and experiment for a while.

What happens when you turn on the drive?

Eddie keeps telling you that thing should only be hooked up in the event
of an emergency.

This isn't an emergency (yet).

So don't hook the drive up to the shipboard computer.  Turning on the drive
when it ISN'T hooked up will send you to some interesting places...

								   =====
								 =---=====
--								=-----=====
Scott Forbes		AT&T Network Wireless Systems		==---======
Naperville, IL		forbes@icbm.att.com			 =========
								   =====
From: toma@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: The Pawn
Date: 29 Sep 92 16:48:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: sail.12633
Reply-To: toma@sail.labs.tek.com
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.

In article <9227301.5705@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> moeller@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Mc Mars) writes:
>... would allow you to go around the entire game from the
>beginning, and test out all those "death sequences", without dying.

>I never saw THAT in an Infocom game.

Well, not *quite* the same, but the original "Mainframe" Zork had a debugger,
ZDT, that had a "no deaths" command. This was great fun as the program
would joke about your magic powers. You could also travel to any room
and get any objects you wanted. I liked to take the robot around outside
its realm.


-- 
Tom Almy
toma@sail.labs.tek.com
Standard Disclaimers Apply
From: bsc7@po.CWRU.Edu (Bradley S. Corsello)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Where can I get TADS by FTP?
Date: 29 Sep 92 14:49:14 GMT
Reply-To: bsc7@po.CWRU.Edu (Bradley S. Corsello)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)


See subject.  Note no "sorry if this is a FAQ", 'cause we don't have a FAQ
file yet!
-- 
Brad Corsello (bsc7@po.cwru.edu) 2L Case Western Reserve Law School
"The Fanaticks have always had a way of affecting to run into Per-
secution, and count vast Merit upon every little Hardship they suffer."
^ J. Swift.  "Factum clarum, jus nebulosum."  Rex v. Haddock.
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,rec.arts.int-fiction
From: peril@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Peter Lisle)
Subject: InfoTaskForce Infocom Interpreter v4.01 is available for ftp
Organization: Sydney University Computing Service, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 05:16:19 GMT

The InfoTaskForce Infocom Interpreter Version 4.01 Announcement
===============================================================
Copyright (c) 1992 InfoTaskForce


Hello, Sailors!

InfoTaskForce is pleased to announce the release of version 4.01 of its
popular Infocom datafile interpreter.

It features:
        *  Integrated Infocom Interpreter for Z-Code versions 1-5
	   (that's right: play anything from Zork to Trinity to
	   Beyond Zork with the one program)
        *  Game debugging tools, including
               -  Object/Room tree listings
               -  Real-time object movement notification
               -  Real-time attribute change notification
               -  Vocabulary listings
	       -  Header listings
	*  Documentation of Infocom datafile internals
        *  Extremely portable source code

The InfoTaskForce Infocom Interpreter is available for anonymous ftp from:
         ftp.cse.unsw.edu.au [149.171.16.16]

Look in the /pub/infocom directory.

Two versions are available:
        itf-src.tar	C source code and documentation
        itf-exe.zoo	MS-DOS executable and documentation

Send bug reports to peril@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
From: friedman@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Noah Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Lurking Horror
Date: 30 Sep 92 14:35:12 GMT
Organization: Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139

Supposedly, Lurking Horror has a bunch of descriptions of places that are
actually part of the MIT campus (for example, Vassar street is called Smith
street in the game).  I haven't played it yet---I'm still stuck at the
airport in Bureaucracy---but it'll probably be next on my list of games to
try.
From: mollems@wkuvx1.bitnet
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Infidel
Date: 28 Sep 92 12:09:59 CDT
Organization: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY

In article <1992Sep28.132504.10035@news.acns.nwu.edu>, msr@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Michael Rosenberg) writes:
> In article <1a56i8INNbv7@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> jeffyg@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Jeffrey Wayne Geist) writes:
>>I have managed to solve this whole game myself with the exception of
>>the last puzzle.  To get into the sarcophagus, one must turn the statues
>>to get their hands off or it.  When I turn the forth statue, they all snap
>>back.  What am i missing? Can someone help me?  Thanx much.
>>-- 
>>My signature file!
> 
> You have to turn them in a specific order.  If you turn them in the wrong
> order, than they snap back.  It's been too long since I played to remember
> what the order is.  There are clues though.  I have vague memories of their
> being hieroglyphics with the order in them (somewhere near the headless
> statue?).  As I said, it's been too long for me to remember precisely.  If
> nothing else, play with the order.  After all, there are only 24 combinations.
> 
> Hope this helps...
> 
> --Mike
> 

In point of fact, the heiroglyphics telling you which order to turn
the heads are located in the rooms where you found the jewelled
clusters, down there at the bottom of the pit.  If you have translated
the heiroglyphics, (which is an imposing task but not impossible) then
you will have the answer spelled out for you.  Otherwise, as Mike
mentioned, it won't take a tremendous amount of permutating to arrive
at the same solution.

-- M. Sean Molley, CS Department, Western Kentucky University
From: revans@uspi2.Prime.COM (Robbin Evans)
Subject: Re: New ZORK question : " I got all the... hey!  what's up?"
Organization: Prime Computer, Inc.
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 13:40:12 GMT

In article <1992Sep28.190949.10004@ulowell.ulowell.edu>, bkeener@cs.ulowell.edu (Brian E. Keener) writes:
> 
> (1) how do you open the jeweled egg without smashing the canary?
> (2) how do you get into the secret passage betwixt the Cyclops Room and the
> 	Living Room?
> 

I thought that damned egg puzzle was the most annoying one in the whole
game -- I had to have a hint on that one.  I asked my college CS professor
(and avid interactive fiction fan), and it turned out he was the one who
thought the silly thing up.  But he did write a great version of Adventure,
complete with Dorothy's shoes and puzzles to find all of the standard
treasures (that used to just be lying around).  Definitely on my top 10
list. (If only the old DEC-20 were around to play it on.  Eric, are you
there?  Any thoughts of porting it to a PC????)

Anyway, here are some hints on the puzzles; e-mail me if you want complete
answers:

(1)  YOU can't open the egg.  But you might give it to someone with
fingers more nimble than yours.

(2)  You need to frighten the cyclops, who will break the wall running
away with fright.
From: jdevlin@pollux.usc.edu (Joseph T. Devlin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Zill
Date: 28 Sep 92 01:40:31 GMT
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: pollux.usc.edu


  Anyone out there in the gaming community remember a game called
Zill for the old IBM XTs?  As I recall it was the only game I knew
that more than one person could play simultaneously (by using the
two halves of the keyboard!) and it was kind of a real time game.
Your average dungeon type thing?  Anyone else remember it or, even
better, know where I might be able to get a copy still?  Thanks
much!


							- Joe

*************************************************************************
Joseph Devlin                      * email: jdevlin@pollux.usc.edu
University of Southern California  *
Department of Computer science     * "I spent four loney days in a
Los Angeles, CA 90089              *  brown LA haze..."  - J.B.
*************************************************************************
From: jeffyg@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Jeffrey Wayne Geist)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Infidel
Date: 27 Sep 1992 15:46:00 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu

I have managed to solve this whole game myself with the exception of
the last puzzle.  To get into the sarcophagus, one must turn the statues
to get their hands off or it.  When I turn the forth statue, they all snap
back.  What am i missing? Can someone help me?  Thanx much.
-- 
My signature file!
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: p7z092@rick.cs.ubc.ca (Anthony Jang)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Copy Protection -> Let's end this thread
Date: 27 Sep 1992 13:25:51 -0700
Organization: Computer Science, University of B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: gambier.rick.cs.ubc.ca

This topic has been going on for weeks.  Just when I thought it would die it
comes back to haunt me.  It really doesn't belong in this newsgroup.  The two
sides of the debate are unlikely to convert anybody to their side.

Please no more.

nothing catchy, just my name
tony jang
From: brl@kopasker.is (Bjorgvin Runar Leifsson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: The trend in adventure games
Date: 3 Oct 92 14:26:22 GMT
Organization: Primary School of Kopasker, Iceland

positron@engin.umich.edu (Jonathan Scott Haas) writes:

>I'm starting this thread to talk about the type of game that seems
>to be the norm today. You know the type... big on graphics, big on
>disk space, short on puzzles, short on executable commands.

Thank you, Jonathan, for starting this thread.  I couldn't agree more with you
and I can see that most of the people that has followed your articles agrees
more or less with your reasoning.
IMHO, Sierra is a good example of a company that has put graphics and sounds
in front of text and puzzles.  I own a Mac SE20 and will not be able to
upgrade to a machine that can effectively run the new games.  So after I
bought Space Quest III (and finished it on one weekend), I decided to quit
buying Sierra products - a company that cannot provide games for older types
of a specific computer (no matter if it is Mac or IBM or something else) is
just not my kind of company.

Bjorgvin R. Leifsson
brl@kopasker.is
Organization: The Leader Desslok School of Diplomacy
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 12:30:37 EDT
From: Norman St. John Polevaulter <MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Unnkulian Unventure II

In article <28439@life.ai.mit.edu>, dmb@lf.ai.mit.edu (David Baggett) says:
>First of all, if you haven't been reading your daily Calvin and Hobbes,
>look up "transmogrify" in the dictionary.  (Yes, it actaully is a
>real word.)  This in itself should be a good hint.

Heh, I've got all the Calvin and Hobbes books... and was transmogrified
into a small flightless bird for my trouble. Well, maybe I can squeeze
through that hole up in Dawg Rock now. Worth a shot.

>You're closer to the brink than you think.

Good! Now I wink at the missing link, nu?

Incidentally, I like a lot the character of... um... whatisname, the
Adventure Game Wizard, wandering around in the underground complex and
giving me his cryptic hints and/or wild guesses for each object and
problem. Generally it is a Good Feature to have some sort of reference
for all the anonymous junk floating around adventure games; for example
the Adventure Game Wizard, or the Encyclopedia in Zork Zero.

                  "Two hundredth verse, same as the first!"
[Your blood pressure just went up.]        Mark Sachs IS: mbs110@psuvm.psu.edu
DISCLAIMER: If PSU knew I had opinions they'd probably try to charge me for it.
From: positron@engin.umich.edu (Jonathan Scott Haas)
Subject: Re: Hitchhikers guide -- HELP!
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 20:08:18 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <1992Sep26.213923.23456@ncsu.edu> jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH) writes:
>
>|>
>|>I and my roommate are stuck in hitchhiker.  We're on the Heart of Gold,
>|>we've set up the auxiliary improbability drive, and found all the obvious
>|>stuff, but we can't figure out how to:
>|>
>|>1 - read the circuit board in the nutrimatic machine
>|>2 - interface eddie with the nutrimatic (if we have to do that)
>|>3 - do anything useful in the narrow maintenance hatch (with the mesh floor)
>|>4 - open the hatch
>|>5 - pass the intelligence test on marvins door (i think it has to do with
>|>      the fabled "tea and no tea"...
>|>6 - on a related subject, how do we get tea out of the nutrimat?
>|>
>|>We did figure out how to save the microscopic space fleet at the very beginning
>|>but we aren't sure if it actually has any effect.
>|>
>|>
>	My memory dims with time, but...
>
>1) there is something to let you read the circuit board (Mag. glass?)
>2) you DO need to interface eddie with the nutrimatic
>3) the mesh floor is useless
>4) only Marvin can open the hatch
>5) Your 'common sense' won't let you have tea and no tea simultaneously
>6) once interface tea is no problem
>
>x) saving the space fleet is VERY important, but make sure Arthur does it
>   rather than Ford
>

Don't listen to this guy, his memory has dimmed with time.

1) You don't need to read the circuit board. Perhaps it is possible, but
   it is unnecessary.
2) You don't need to interface Eddie with the Nutrimatic per se... once
   you get the Nutrimat to understand that you want *real* tea, it'll
   hook up with Eddie itself.
3) You need to enter the access hatch with the mesh floor once, at the
   very end of the game.

If you're looking for more complete information rather than vague
hints, post or write.

-- 
__/\__  Jonathan S. Haas         | Jake liked his women the way he liked
\    /  University of Michigan   | his kiwi fruit: sweet yet tart, firm-
/_  _\  positron@engin.umich.edu | fleshed yet yielding to the touch, and
  \/                             | covered with short brown fuzzy hair.
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: fxmlk@acad3.alaska.edu (KIENENBERGER MIKE L)
Subject: Re: LTOI Lurking Horror Userid
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41.UAC
Organization: University of Alaska - Fairbanks
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 04:55:00 GMT

Earlier I wrote: 
>> The problem is that page 151 is blank in my manual.
>> As [now that I go and look carefully] are pages 131, 132, 135, 136, 139, 140,
>> 143, 144, 147, 148, and 152 (I already meantioned 151), ie, about half of
>> my Suspect and Lurking Horror pages.

I called Activision, but they refused to acknowledge that such problems
had occurred.   However, my local computer store let my trade my defective
version for a new version.  It certainly helps!

=============================================================================
-Mike Kienenberger                       FXMLK@ALASKA           (BITNet)
 Academic Computing                      FXMLK@acad3.alaska.edu (Internet)
 University of Alaska-Fairbanks
 "I'm a computer programmer....<link><link><kludge><kludge> say-no-more!"