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Typewriter Hacked To Play Zork
UgLyPuNk writes "Typewriters that can type by themselves are one thing. Typewriters that can type by themselves and play Zork are totally different — the stuff that dreams are made of (at least the dreams of little girls who spent hours in front of a Commodore 64 telling the machine to GO NORTH and such)."
http://www.computermuseumgroningen.nl/terminals/teletypeclose.jpg
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Far better. Creepier. Spooky even. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspended
...though we called it a "printer". Also, are there any pictures of the thing from the front? Not everyone has the ability to view videos. All I can see are some internals pictures on the project page.
At least for me: http://vimeo.com/16311288
This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
This is nothing compared to Fringe's typewriter hacked to communicate with a parallel universe through a mirror.
Now we have a teletype to the other side!
...though we called it a "printer". Also, are there any pictures of the thing from the front? Not everyone has the ability to view videos. All I can see are some internals pictures on the project page.
Printers don't generally accept feedback. I know you can't view the video but what you see is a typewriter (with the keys moving) typing out the opening to Zork and then the user issuing it a few commands on the same typewriter keys that then come back to life and respond. This level of interaction is unique and I've never seen a "printer" with that sort of functionality. If you're interested in how it displays the output:
computer to Arduino (via USB); Arduino to shift registers; shift registers to MOSFETs; MOSFETs to solenoids; solenoids to keys.
And to acquire input flattened resistors are placed beneath each key and are converted into a serialized device signal to the computer via USB. Not exactly earth shattering work but for the hobbyist that likes to see clever hacks and remembers Zork, it's a grin achieving piece of work.
My work here is dung.
Instead of the Screen for the input and output they turned it to a piece of paper - which takes longer so it's not entirely practical.
That being said, if this were around when Typewriters were still used widespread - this might have helped some people transition to computers.
However, the more I think about games like that I used to play, and how frustrating it was trying to convey what it is you wanted to do while sticking to the constraints of their input language... I mean coupled with how long it takes for the Typewriter to reply "I didn't understnad that. Try typing HELP if you need help" This might just be a massive waste of paper.
In my day though - I didn't play too many text only games, mine were usually coupled with some form of graphics and arrow keys movement, like Adventures of Hugo and Kings Quest. I remember ONE text only game I played when I was 5 or 6 - and I kept getting hit by a Bus or a car or something when I tried to cross the street. I mean when you're 5 or 6 you think "Maybe if I walk east and west back and forth a few times, the bus will have passed by then... No... Well maybe I'll try doing something else... Okay - maybe NOW I can cross that street". I wish I could remember the name of the game... Or even anything else to do with it. Man memory is so weird sometimes.
My very first computer game was TREK.BAS, hosted on a city hall computer and played on a DecWriter paper terminal hidden in a janitor's closet at my St. Petersburg, FL middle school.
Why the janitor's closet? Because that's where they could get to a phone line.
This machine could replicate that experience.
(OK, well, you'd have to pour some ammonia and pine sol on it, to really take me back, but I'm talking about the game...)
I can see the fnords!
No, not why did they do it - that part is obvious. Rather, why did they write such a short meaningless summary and then embed a flash 10 video in it? The website is damned close to worthless for anyone who isn't running the latest flash.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I really wish I still had all my green-bar output from the decwriter I used to play adventure, tic-tac-toe, and even Star Trek. I think one game of that generated more than 100 pages (and took about 8 hours to play).
More than that, I can't for the life of me remember how exactly I *got* to the games, being a little kid; I remember it was a PDP-something, but no idea what the OS was.
Regardless, this looks like an awesome hack and makes me wish I'd kept that old IBM Selectric I had for years and years....it hadn't even occurred to me to do something like this (much to my dismay), even though that *was* the interface to a system like the IBM 7090 or somesuch.
Given that Zork was originally run on the PDP-10 back in the late 70's chances are it already ran on a paper driven console..WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT.
This is very cool, and I'm sure they got quite a kick out of interacting with the game in this way. And for the people that are saying this is impractical or a waste of paper - you're missing the point entirely. It's not like this something to be marketed or used extensively. It was done because someone had some originality coupled with technical prowess.
Now for my gripe. I was hoping they had written some new firmware / software for an existing typewriter's controller / CPU, as opposed to using thoroughly modern electronics to control the typewriter. So in the scheme of things they could have used any old printer, and any old keyboard. Kudos that they are combined into a single physical device, but I was expecting more of a hacked 80s era typewriter with no hardware modifications or interface.
Regardless, job well done!
Better known as 318230.
climb tree > "look an egg" > take egg > open egg > "you don't have the tools or expertise to do that" Whats Inside The Egg!?
I think it was actually called Star Trek at the time, but at some point, people started calling it "Space War".
We had eliza, and dungeon, too, and a chat program called "connect".
Once the connect fans had a party in the basement of one of the dorms, because they had really nice computer equipment. VT50s.
They all sat at their terminals and "chat"ted with each other. While in the same room.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Flash 10 has been around for ages, and older versions of Flash are filled with known exploits. I can't think of a good reason why you'd want to keep an older version of Flash, unless you really want some malware.
You can make the argument that we should abandon Flash and go straight HTML5, except most people aren't running browsers with proper HTML5 support yet. If you think demanding people have Flash 10 is asking people to be needlessly up-to-date, requiring a HTML5 browser is even more so.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
But if he had interfaced a Mag Card, THAT would have been impressive. And very different.
Mag Cards used a transmit block to code keystrokes to the processor. Selectric mechanism printed, and yes they used magentic cards (about 3"x8") to store data. The whole thing was not much different in size than a Xerox 860, except that the Mag card had a typewriter in place of the monitor & keyboard.
And of course, the Selectric takes a bit more maintenance, maybe. Those SCM typewriters had their problems, and the cartridges must be getting hard to find.
Gee, maybe I can score an IBM Electonic 60 and wire up that transmit block. Yeah, what a POJ that was. Better off making a Typetronic work. At least there you only need two inputs to do everything.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Some of us actually grew up playing Adventure (still playable online today -- wow!) on something that looks suspiciously similar to that! In my case, a LA36 DECWriter II, which apparently came standard with hippie dress, porn mustache and butterfly collar. I think I still have the old 300 baud acoustic coupler modem lying around somewhere.
Building Better Software
Way back, in the far distant past, you could buy kits to make your IBM selectric connect to a serial port, and it would work as both a printer and a keyboard.
There were also kits available to us many common electric typewriters as printers, by putting a solenoid above every key.
And many of the later electronic typewriters came with a serial port.
Or you could have bought one of the letter-quality daisy wheel terminals, which could often be used as a typewriter.
It doesn't even appear that they used a manual typewriter.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
I've been on IRC with a teletype before. It's not anything new or unusual.
Yeah, but...can it display Kindle books?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Anyone have a port of (or source to) DUNGEON for the DEC-10?
If I spent that many hours playing it, I should acquire a copy for my legacy library...
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
How much longer until they can abstract input even more and use correction tapes for playing NetHack?
Can't be long now, NetHack runs on pretty much anything.
In the early 80s, my "80-Micro" magazines used to have ads for a gadget that turned an IBM Selectric typewriter into a computer printer. You fit the device over the keyboard of your typewriter and it had a set of solenoids and plungers that, when signalled, pressed the appropriate keys, causing the typewriter to 'type.' I remember watching these beasties at trade shows - It was almost creepy.
Back in the day almost every office had an IBM Selectric, so this provided a means of getting a "letter quality" printer into an office during a time when a letter quality printer could cost $1500 or more ($3000+ in today's dollars).
can it communicate with alternate universes?
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
With a little bit of accessorizing, this would make a cool steampunk gadget.
I learned to play on an ASR-33. No, really. First thing you'll notice, the paper for a ASR-33 I bet was cheaper than the 8x11 paper for thing thing. Also, all the paper changing required for playing for 5 hours I bet is easier for an ASR, and they ASR-33 is way faster (10 cps). Also, when you drop a roll on the floor, you don't have to worry about what order the pages were in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nigRT2KmCE
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
"the stuff that dreams are made of (at least the dreams of little girls who spent hours in front of a Commodore 64 telling the machine to GO NORTH and such)."
I'm sorry but those don't exist.
This gives me an idea. I think I might head out to the pending recycle pile and rescue a pair of IBM Selectrics. Not as cool as rigging up ~50 solenoids to tug on the keys of a mechanical typewriter, but still cool.
See that "Preview" button?
One of the happiest days of my childhood was when I discovered that 'N' was every bit as effective as 'Go North.' Sad, but true.
Life is better in Lingerie.
Indeed, while hopelessly impractical and rough to common standards as a tool or game it still is very very cool as a statement! of course if you look at it from an 'ease of use' , 'gameplay' or 'previous art' standpoint it really isn't much. Interaction is very slow, gameplay is outdated and tty existed since ancient Greece. But this isn't a game nor is it a patent application. It's just a knowledgeable pal hacking on a typewriter for hours on some Sunday afternoon because he just could and maybe nostalgia drove him to. Therefore it's a statement and a cool one at that ;-)
-- no sig today
hahaha this is awesome. maybe hack that machine to play super mario too? Learn DSLR Video Store