Slashdot Mirror

Now let's have an AI beat Zork.

http://thcnet.net/zork/index.p...

>>>thought the Arpanet was there so I could play Zork

ZORK online: Unfortunately this doesn't "fee" right; it should be light blue text on a dark blue background the way I remember. Or pale green on a dark green CRT. (shrug). http://thcnet.net/zork/

You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.

> open mailbox

Opening the mailbox reveals:
A leaflet.

> read leaflet

Welcome to Zork! Zork is a game of adventure, danger, and low cunning. In it you will explore some of the most amazing territory ever seen by mortal man. Hardened adventurers have run screaming from the terrors contained within.

No computer should be without one!

Welcome to Zork (originally Dungeon). This version created 11-MAR-91 (PHP mod 03-AUG-05)
There are 22 users playing Zork. Of those, 20 have not logged in.
There are 40636 registered adventurers.

404 Error: Now what??

True, but that's because that page exists. Try http://thcnet.net/zork/indexasdfasdf.php instead.

I have to say, this is by far my favorite 404.

The 70's era computers weren't so bad. You had a command line interface and generally human understandable commands.

A few of the classics are available as free downloads. They became more sophisticated over time. Have a look at Zork for an example of one of the popular ones.

I have routinely hacked my copies of Zork and other Infocom games (HHGttG etc...) over the years to keep them playable as I've migrated systems.

In my book that would mean at least *I* deem them worth playing still.

A number of those games now exist as web hosted java apps (for example http://thcnet.net/error/index.php).

You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded
front door.

There is a small mailbox here.

http://thcnet.net/zork/index.php

See http://thcnet.net/zork/index.php although not the original it may help your understanding. And for further understanding of the thread, type in "what is a grue"

> TYPE ZORK INTO WWW.GOOGLE.COM

Google suggests that the original poster try the Zork Wikipedia Entry.

It is almost 5:00 pm in your office. You are feeling a mite peckish.

> TRY THE NEXT LINK

Google's second link points to the Infocom-IF page on the history of Interactive Fiction.

It is almost 5:30 pm in your office. You are hungry. Because Congress fucked up Daylight Saving Time, it is not yet dark.

> TRY THE THIRD LINK.

Google's third link points to a live PHP-based implementation Zork, cleverly disguised as a 404 page.

By the time you're done with that, you will have either starved to death, or despite Congress' fucking up Daylight Saving Time, it will be sufficiently dark that you will have been eaten by a grue.

*** You have died ***
Your score is 2 out of a possible (+5, Funny)

No mention of Zork is complete without a reference to the Zork 404 error as implemented by my friend Krux at thcnet.net.

The newest free RealOne player's not actually that bad.

Unfortunately, trying to find the free version on their website is about as easy as completing Zork - I always wondered what happened to the Infocom coders, guess Real must've hired them! :)

Here is just one of many places: Play Zork.

My favorite 404 Page Not Found error is a online PHP version of Zork.

More games as 404 errors here.

In Yahoo! Directory Humor > 404 Error I found the 404 Research Lab which links to my favorite 404 of all time: THCNET's 404. Also in the Yahoo! Directory and 404 Research Lab are other interesting/funny 404's

BTW, the problem with the link in the /. article is actually not a 404. 404 is when a URL for a valid website is a file that is not found or doesn't exist; the link in /. redirects to an entirely different domain, which could be caused by any number of things other than a 404.

In Yahoo! Directory Humor > 404 Error I found the 404 Research Lab which links to my favorite 404 of all time: THCNET's 404. Also in the Yahoo! Directory and 404 Research Lab are other interesting/funny 404's

BTW, the problem with the link in the /. article is actually not a 404. 404 is when a URL for a valid website is a file that is not found or doesn't exist; the link in /. redirects to an entirely different domain, which could be caused by any number of things other than a 404.

They even play in webpages now:

http://thcnet.net/error/index.php

This code was shown (briefly) at Forum2003 to convince their resellers they had a good case. It would appear that due to the BSD provenance, that case is not entirely sound.

Someone needs to tell the resellers. Is there anyone from the Las Vegas LUG who can (very politely) stand outside the MGM Grand and distribute information showing:
a) The photos from the talk
b) The late 1970s provenance of the source
c) Proof of the Santa Cruz Operation's release of this source under the BSD licence.

SCO can ignore kernel hackers, but if the resellers -- handily gathered in one place -- realise they've been lied to, they can give management a seriously hard time.

Go on, you know it makes sense...

These are all the server-based tools mentionned in the above discussion:

Active PHP Bookmarks
Bookmarker
Bookmark4U
PHP Bookmarks
Sitebar

Both here, and umpteen other articles.

Is it really necessary to have so many permutations of such a well covered topic?

Here - maybe you'll re-enjoy this then, if you're that tired of 3D....

There's also "Zork" as a 404 error page: Zork

Yeah, I thought it was that Adventure as well. At least we have the 404 Error version of Zork.

I really don't understand the levels spammers goe to. I'm an intelligent person, and if I want something, I know where to go to get it. I've been around on the net long enough to know where the best sites are, be they news, computer sales, money matters, or even porn. It's gotten[sic] so ridiculous that I often want to scream. On a technology forum I post on(very private, mostly real life friends, but still public THCNET)about once a week someone will come in a make a damn spam post on the board. This is utterly pathetic. For one, if I know you circumvented security features for your email to get through, I'm going to be so angry I would never, ever desire to give you one red cent. Most likely, I would find some way of retribution, be it legal avenues or guerilla tactics on your servers.

This has got to stop. It's been proven time and time again that if you want consumers money make the best product/offer the best service, and do it in a helpful, non-pushy way.

Some one showed me this the other day - it's Zork implemented as a '404 not found' page!! :oD

Just had to share it..

The Old SSI version was my doing ;) Check out the archives of the Las Vegas LUG for a better explination of what I did with the SSI.

I agree, the 24 hour everything is great sometimes. As with any town, there is the good and the bad.

The lack of support for the tech industry from the government and the big industry guns in town, the casinos, makes Las Vegas a poor place for tech. I beleive there is only one software firm in town, Westwood Studios, the rest are all VARS, and consultants. They cater mostly to the Hotels/Casinos, construction, or government. This is also a very big Microsoft town. There is the LVLUG that is shaping up nicely, but Microsoft seems to have hits hands around the neck of the management types in this town (I really can't say it is any different elsewhere, but this is a Unix User's perspective of this town)

On the good side, the Local Cable Service Rocks. 512/128 DN/UP plus Static IP for $39.99 month ($29 for std service plus $10 for Static IP) No firewalls, no blocked ports (except 25, which you can ask to be removed) No PPPOE to mess with either (for Local ADSL, what a mess.) Mostly excellent support, too.

Housing prices are good, but all the growth has caused traffic, water and civil service problems. There are no state taxes, but higher gas taxes, and sales taxes. There are also strong smog rules in the valley, a smog check is required every year in LV.