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Typewriter Hacked To Play Zork

Posted by samzenpus on from the old-school dept.

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)."

5 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. No words required, see link for pic. by kheldan · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.computermuseumgroningen.nl/terminals/teletypeclose.jpg

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    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    1. Re:No words required, see link for pic. by Joseph+Vigneau · · Score: 4, Informative

      For more information on this model:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASR-33_Teletype

    2. Re:No words required, see link for pic. by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 3, Informative

      No sir. It's a legitimate mechanical typewriter, not a teletype. The disappointment you are looking for is in that it's Arduino-controlled, instead of having been mechanically engineered to actually play the game. This is confusing because Slashdot summaries usually mention the Arduino if they have the chance. But I guess the drive to be blatantly wrong in TFS is more powerful than the drive to plug nerdy products.

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      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  2. Better link for the video by Monkey-Man2000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    At least for me: http://vimeo.com/16311288

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    This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
  3. Trek? Roguelikes? by bughunter · · Score: 3, Informative

    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...)

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    I can see the fnords!