HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: friedman@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Noah Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: zmachine and story.dat's
Date: 29 Sep 92 13:24:39 GMT
Organization: Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139
In-reply-to: philip@labtam.labtam.oz.au's message of 24 Sep 92 23:33:14 GMT

In article <1992Sep24.233314.16924@labtam.labtam.oz.au> philip@labtam.labtam.oz.au (Philip Stephens) writes:
>Secondly: what is the legal status of story.dat files?  I would love to
>have some of these e-mailed to me, but I'm not sure whether that's A Good
>Thing to do.

   Redistribution of the story.dat files is illegal---however, you can get
them pretty cheaply in the Lost Treasures of Infocom volumes, available in
the US at just about any software shop, it seems.  I don't know if they've
reached Australia yet.
From: xeno@iastate.edu (Gary L Snethen)
Subject: Re: Asylum (was Re: Top 10 Adventures)
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 02:59:31 GMT

Oops...  Sorry...
I didn't notice your PS with 'Deathmaze 5000' already listed...  
Also, aren't you the author of KOTH?  Fancy meeting you here... :)

---Xeno
Xref: sparky rec.games.int-fiction:363 rec.arts.int-fiction:737
From: dmb@case.ai.mit.edu (David Baggett)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: Re: The trend in adventure games
Date: 1 Oct 92 14:31:26 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.int-fiction
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

In article <1992Sep30.104653.2811@wkuvx1.bitnet> mollems@wkuvx1.bitnet writes:
>              Mayhap we should go the OTHER way and try and write an
>interactive "world" of sorts, where you can try anything you want, as
>long as you're willing to pay the consequences.  That would be a
>monumental task indeed, almost a virtual reality issue.

"Mayhap?"  :-)

The problem with the "virtual reality" idea is that the game would be
hideously boring because it would have no plot.  If the author has a
plot (or plots) s/he will by definition end up forcing some
situations.  The idea that a game in which you could "just do anything
you wanted" would be fun (or computationally feasible) is totally
unrealistic.  (For one thing, it's an "AI-complete" problem, in that
we'd need to "solve AI" to do it.)

If the game designer plots the game at all, you won't be able to do
"just anything," and sometimes this means you might get some lame
excuse from the program, e.g., "Gosh, the forest is just *too* thick to
allow travel in any direction but north and south."  But this isn't a
bad thing -- it's just a not-so-subtle hint that you won't be following
the plot (i.e., making progress through the story) if you do what
you're trying to do.  (One could argue that you should be able to
read a novel backwards and get a different story, but the fact that
the pages are numbered in a particular order is a not-so-subtle hint
that you wouldn't get much out of reading them in the wrong order.  Yet
we don't complain about this!)

To think that this kind of constraint can be done away with is to
misunderstand the fundamental elements of the genre, IMHO, which are
the same as they are in traditional fiction: plot, characterization,
setting, theme, climax, etc..

>Then again, games like _Suspended_ force the player to think in a
>whole new way.

And *that's* the potential of the genre: exploration of themes that are
tremendously difficult in traditional fiction.  Consider an IF game
(work?) written from the standpoint of a retarded person.  I.e., you
control or "are" someone with a decidedly different view of the world.
Attempts to explore this within the confines of conventional fiction
tend to be very difficult to follow (e.g., Faulkner's _The Sound and
the Fury_), but could perhaps be clearer in an interactive setting.  As
always, the limitation with IF is that we've barely made a dent in
solving the central problem: making machines that can *reason* about
some (potentially artificial) environment.

Dave Baggett
--
dmb@ai.mit.edu           MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory                  
ADVENTIONS: interactive fiction (text adventures) for the 90's!
dmb@ai.mit.edu *** Compu$erve: 76440,2671 *** GEnie: ADVENTIONS
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: pds@lemming.webo.dg.com (Paul D. Smith)
Subject: Re: infocom z-code interpreters
Date: 28 Sep 92 16:31:50 GMT
	<Bv3r33.IuJ.2@cs.cmu.edu> <8_0ns9k@lynx.unm.edu>
Organization: NSDD/ONSD, Data General Corp., Westboro, MA

[] Regarding Re: infocom z-code interpreters;
[] kbos@carina.unm.edu (Kurt "Some Guy" Bose) writes:

    kb> Lurking Horror includes sound files on the Amiga; it can't be
    kb> ported.

I've seen this mentioned twice; it's simply not true.  Oh sure, you
can't port the sound files, but the game can still be played without
them...

Although the Amiga version does support sound, it's still a Z-Code
version 3 game and can be played with a v.3 ZIP (Zork Interpretive
Program); however, the ZIP has to grok the sound instructions and
ignore them...  apparently zmachine doesn't.

I had other problems with zmachine which I believe had to do with
endianness: it just printed junk on my machine.  So, I found a pointer
to a different ZIP by a group from Australia known only as
"InfoTaskForce".  They've all graduated now and the code was a little
buggy (but it basically worked, unlike zmachine :).

I've taken it and fixed it up, added a few features, different machine
interfaces were contributed (currently Unix, DOS, and Amiga is
supported) by some folks, and it's been in beta-test most of the
summer.  At this point I'm pretty much ready to post it to one of the
sources newsgroups.  I'll certainly let this group know when that
happens.

I personally think it's better than zmachine, but I'm probably biased
:).
--

                                                                paul
-----
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
| Paul D. Smith                          |    paul_smith@dg.com    |
| Data General Corp.                     | pds@lemming.webo.dg.com |
| Network Systems Development Division   |                         |
| Open Network Systems Development       |   "Pretty Damn S..."    |
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: kdavies@titan.trl.OZ.AU (Kirk Davies)
Subject: Cyborg
Summary: Does cyborg exist for more than just the Mac?
Keywords: cyborg berlyn infocom cool
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 10:37:46 GMT


Before he wrote the Infocom adventure "Suspended", Michael Berlyn wrote
an adventure called "Cyborg".

Now, I know this game was available for the Macintosh, but does anyone
know if it was available on any other platform?

Is it still available?

Would someone like to part with their copy?
From: jml12@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Jonathan M Lennox)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Q: Please help with Unnkulian Unventure I [spoilers]
Date: 2 Oct 92 03:31:13 GMT
Organization: Columbia University


  I got Unnkulian 1 the other day, and I'm afraid I'm stuck at the
Guardian.  I describe my current situation after the ^L...

  I've figured out how to trigger the guardian and not have it kill
me, but I am, after this, left in the dark.  The only thing I can do
which does not leave me permanently stuck is to go back above ground,
but this seems counterproductive, as I believe I've done most of what
is possible up there.

  I'd guess there's either (a) an alternative light source somewhere,
or (b) something that lets me move around below ground without one,
but I haven't been able to discover either one.  I haven't been able
to either burn anything or get any of the fungus from the pillar room.

  To let you know my current situation: I've managed to get the
scroll, key, acmid, notice, rod, egg, and gloves above ground (I
believe these were the only things up there that were worth
points--did I miss anything?), and underground I killed the beast and
got past the droll.  (I also "discovered" the drum, though I imagine
that won't be useful for a while.)

  Can anyone help me out?  Either e-mail or posts are fine.  No
outright answers please, just hints.

Jonathan Lennox
jml12@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Subject: Re: Planetfall
Originator: jmkaraka@c00059-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 21:54:37 GMT


|>
|>Here is a game that has taken quite a bit of my time....  It has stumped me now
|>Im miniaturized in the computer.  I have eliminated the dust particle.... I
|>am leaving when a microbe attacks me.  Ive tried the laser on all settings.  
|>Ive thrown food.  Ive used chemicals (tho not all of them).  Is anybody willing
|>to help?
|>
|>-- 
|>My signature file!
|>
	Great game eh?






First of all a hint (semi-spoiler)






























Shoot it with your laser and watch it carefully (read those descriptions now)














Still can't figure it out?  Well then...


























When you shoot the laser too much, it heats up.  The amoeba is attracted
to the heat and will follow it if you throw it off the path.






	-john 'tricky, eh?' karakash-
From: spc55721@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (the Shadowlurker)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Looking for Spellbreaker
Date: 27 Sep 92 17:18:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Bv8yqw.CF3
Reply-To: spc55721@sumter.cso.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Disclaimer: This article may self-destruct if exposed to flames.


Hi there, I'm looking for a copy of Infocom's Spellbreaker (the game, not
the clues) without having to buy the Lost Treasures package.

If anyone is willing to give (or sell, I'm willing) their copy, drop me
some e-mail.


-- 
the Shadowlurker         Steven P. Calica         <spc55721@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
From: friedman@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Noah Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Need help with Bureaucracy (potential SPOILER alert)
Date: 30 Sep 92 19:24:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: nutrimat.FRIEDMAN.92Sep30152411
Organization: Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139

Be careful, as some potential hints to the game may be given away by my
description of where I am. 

Ok, I'm at the airport and I've managed to find the control tower and get
the plane to go back to the terminal.  Now, what I want to know is, how the
HELL do I get to the plane so I can board it?  All I seem to be able to do
is wander randomly around the airport without actually getting anywhere. 

Help?
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: librik@cory.Berkeley.EDU (David Librik)
Subject: Re: Asylum (was Re: Top 10 Adventures)
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 22:39:31 GMT

wms@ssd.intel.com (William Shubert) writes:

>Thinking about my top 10 favorite adventures, I couldn't come up witha  list,
>but I did think of an adventure I havent seen mentioned yet...does
>anybody out there remember Asylum?

YES!  Written by Frank Demmett of Med Systems Software (later Screenplay).
Demmett's games were primarily huge and complex mazes; your task was to
explore and map them.  There was about as much "adventure" element in them
as in any other 16K adventure, but it seemed like so much more because of
the complexity of the maze.  Fog, rotating squares, walls dropping from
behind you, insane teleportation and utterly nonEuclidean geometry (one
area had scrawled on the wall BEWARE THESE HALLS).  Deathmaze 5000 and
Labyrinth were his first two games, and they were primarily mazes.
Asylum and Asylum II took place in a nightmarish insane asylum, which
was a series of pentagonal buildings filled with cells of strange characters,
linked by those infamous mazes.  There was a fellow who joined you for a
while, a master lockpick with a certain craving for cigarettes.  Denying
his requests was unwise.

Med Systems produced several traditional text games as well.  One I recall,
but I never played, had an utterly brilliant idea I'd love to see re-used:
you were imprisoned in an insane asylum being run by lunatic guards and
semifascist doctors (a common theme in these games).  You broke out of
your cell, broke into a doctor's pharmacy, grabbed a bunch of drugs, and
locked yourself in a closet.  The rest of the game consisted of you dosing
yourself with psychedelics and hallucinogens, locked in that closet.
(Eventually you were able to deduce enough from your "trips" to find your
way out of the asylum.)  The promotional picture showed a grinning, stoned
figure slumped on the floor.  (I suppose UU1 used a bit of this theme.)

I've never seen any of the Med Systems graphical games for any modern machines.
I don't think they'd be as easy to port as the Scott Adams games (which
were just an interpreter and some data), nor would they be too thrilling to
a world which expects more from its graphics than simple mazes.  But they
were great for a teenage student home from school for months and months during
the summer with nothing else to do but spend days slowly mapping those mazes.

- David Librik
librik@cory.Berkeley.edu
...who never did solve Deathmaze 5000, and thus does not have a free
promotional "drooling madman with an axe" T-shirt.
From: bsc7@po.CWRU.Edu (Bradley S. Corsello)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Need help with Bureaucracy (potential SPOILER alert)
Date: 1 Oct 92 13:16:50 GMT
Reply-To: bsc7@po.CWRU.Edu (Bradley S. Corsello)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, friedman@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Noah Friedman) says:

>Be careful, as some potential hints to the game may be given away by my
>description of where I am. 
>
>Ok, I'm at the airport and I've managed to find the control tower and get
>the plane to go back to the terminal.  Now, what I want to know is, how the
>HELL do I get to the plane so I can board it?  All I seem to be able to do
>is wander randomly around the airport without actually getting anywhere. 
>
>Help?
>

Is there something about the ambience at the airport that has been bugging
the hell out of you?  Do something about it.

(That vague enough for you?  ;-)

-- 
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.
From: davesimp@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Simpson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: zmachine
Date: 1 Oct 1992 22:32:33 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandstorm.berkeley.edu


This question may have already been answered, if so, could you direct
me to the right message....

I have heard about zmachine, that will interpret .dat files on certain
machines.  Will this compile on a standard PC?  Could I use my old 
commodore disks on my pc if I could somehow find someone with a c64 and
a modem??  Anyways, thanks, and if you could, respond in email, please.

-DAVE
From: gamble@owlnet.rice.edu (Ben Gamble)
Subject: Re: Top 10 Adventures
Organization: Tennessee Ernie Port Authority
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 22:55:49 GMT

1.  Spellbreaker.  It has no equal.
2.  Dungeon
3.  Zork Zero
4.  Stationfall
5.  Sorceror
6.  Lurking Horror
7.  Bureaucracy
8.  Spellcasting 101
9.  Zork II
10. Hitchhiker's Guide

HM:  Enchanter, Leather Goddesses, Planetfall, Ballyhoo, Tesseract
DM:  Leisure Suit Larry I-V

-- 
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?
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: positron@engin.umich.edu (Jonathan Scott Haas)
Subject: Re: Bureaucracy - computer
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 92 20:14:23 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <1992Oct1.194223.3663@samba.oit.unc.edu> David.White@bbs.oit.unc.edu (David White) writes:
>
>
>This question will give away where I was in the game (which is near the
>end, so abort now or forever hold your peace!
>
 
>
>
>How in the WORLD was I supposed to solve the puzzle of all those identical
>rooms just before I entered the hacker's lair?  I noticed that each of the
>different files on my unlabeled cartridge cleared a different "quadrant 
>of my screen, and I eventually just divided my monitor into four segments
>using Scotch tape then copied all the letters in file  (then read them
>vertically)!!!  There's GOT to be a better way than that - what was it?
>

Spoilers follow...

You bet there was a better way. 'Member collecting four pieces of mail,
back in the ol' home town? Remember cute little orange Post Office stickers?
The commands in the unlabeled cartridge were PRINTB, PRINTC, PRINTD, and
PRINTE... and if you issued them in the order you found the postal stickers,
the screen would be legible.

-- 
__/\__  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.
From: linhart@remus.rutgers.edu (Mike Threepoint)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: LTOI Lurking Horror Userid
Date: 2 Oct 92 21:47:55 GMT
Organization: Frobozz Magic Amulet of Yendor Company

fxmlk@acad3.alaska.edu (KIENENBERGER MIKE L) writes:
> 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.

If you have a binary file editor, the user ID and password are the
only readable text in the entire data file for the game (besides the
serial number).  How appropriate for a game with MIT hacker in-jokes.
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Unnkulian Unventure II
From: Norman St. John Polevaulter <MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 19:40:56 EDT
Organization: The Leader Desslok School of Diplomacy

Okay... I'm stuck. I made my way into the Acme Prototypes Lab and got all
the neato keen things there are there, but beyond that, it's hopeless! The
puzzles I'm stuck on:

- How to get past the dogs and into Acme HQ (I've done the gravel walk bit)
- What to do with the hole behind the oven
- Figuring out the password to log into the cheezee mainframe
- What to do with the transmogrifier
- Opening the panel on the monolith (I already know the bit about the disk)
- Moving the anchor so I can drop it on the dragon

Geez, and only 150 points into the thing yet... what a game. Anyway, I'd
appreciate vague, general (no complete answers, please) hints on these
topics. Thanks.

                  "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.
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: David.White@bbs.oit.unc.edu (David White)
Subject: Re: What the hell?
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 19:35:06 GMT


Sorry, Carl, but I TOLD you I was new to Usenet!  Still, I'm pretty sure
it was the BBS at fault, since my next message after that went out. :/
 
----- 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
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Subject: Re: Hitchhikers guide -- HELP!
Originator: jmkaraka@c00054-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 21:39:23 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
|>
|>
	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

	-john 'where are those joo-janta etc. glasses?' karakash-
From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: The trend in adventure games
Date: 3 Oct 92 22:20:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: cancun.rdippold.718150822
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA

If you haven't seen it, possibly the worst example of this now is
Leather Godesses of Phobos II.  15 megs on the hard disk.  Incredibly
easy.  All the space is taken up by graphics and speech.

What's really bad is that this is the sequel to an excellent Infocom
game, and apparently at least one of the Infocom people is involved in
this monstrosity.

For a look in the other direction, there's the Spellcasting xxx
series, which at least combines graphics with an excellent parser and
"real" plots and puzzles.  I believe this is from Steve Merzetsky,
another Infocomite.
-- 
"Do you want to dance?  No?  Do you want to have sex?  No?  Well, neither
do I, but let's get it over with."
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From: eyeq@wpi.WPI.EDU (Brent Burkholder)
Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Leather Goddess
Date: 3 Oct 1992 22:28:39 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: wpi.wpi.edu

  I've just started playing this thing again and I'm running into the same
walls I did a couple of years ago (as well as some that I forgot from back
then ;)

  How do you dock at that one dock on the opposite side of the river? There
are two docks on each side and you always go to the one and not the other.

  How do you avoid the ion beam, or failing that, how do you get rid of
the headache? (or does this tie in with the first question?)