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How to tell if you've been playing computer games like FOREVER, dude!
01/17/2024, 18:49:31
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The Elf Herself writes:
1. You understand "It is pitch dark--you are likely to be eaten by a grue."
2. You are familiar with the command, "Load *, 8, 1."
3. You remember why you made copies of disk 1, instead of playing the game right out of the box. Yes, games came in boxes then, with direction manuals.
4. You know why there's a disk 1, a disk 2, etc.
5. You still occasionally call some lowlife a "dippswitch."
Translations for you (to us) newbies:
1. From Zork, arguably the first computer game ever.
2. BASIC commands for reading, then playing, the disk in the drive.
3. Disk 1 was always the installation disk. If the original disk was inadvertently erased or damaged (frightfully easy to do, back then) you were s____ out of luck for ever playing the game again. Making copies was just a safety precaution.
4. Disk 1: installation; disk 2: usually a disk for the characters; disk 3 and on: the actual game commands, disk 4 (sometimes): the map disk.
5. The old computers frequently required different settings for different games and/or "serious" computing (letters, calculations, etc.) It was frequently necessary to physically change the DPP switches (usually called "Dippswitches.) It just sounded more genteel than "Dipstick" as a term for a lowlife.
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D, NW, N, CLAP, NE, E, CLAP, HOP, NE, NE, CLAP, SAY "KWEEPA"....
01/17/2024, 22:04:59
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Very good, Bones!
01/19/2024, 12:19:06
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The Elf Herself writes:
Did it require EDLIN's to get it to work properly?P. S. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've got a 11 1/2"X 6" X 2" cardboard box, wrapped in (virgin) plastic wrap, labelled "ZORK Grand Inquisitor" on a shelf right above me. (There's also a much smaller box labelled "King's Bounty," but it's seen much, much use. I was surprised to learn that the best-selling home computer of all time was the Commodore C64. We had one, until Papa Elf took it over, but gave me a brand new Comm. D128! Heaven on earth!
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Grue
01/28/2024, 07:57:05
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Eric B writes:
I think Infocom in general used the Grue in darkness. Seems like their game Starcross also had reference to the grue, until you were able to activate the emergency lighting in the yellow corridor. Also, there was a ruined cage in the zoo which had had a grue. Plus, if you asked the game "WHAT IS A GRUE," it would actually give you a description!In the game Deadline, if you ask "WHERE IS DUFFY," it would say "Like a lurking grue, Sergeant Duffy is always near the scene of a crime," and then continue with its description of him and how he can assist you. They probably had other places, but I can't recall at this time. I was an AVID Infocom gamer as a child. I credit those to helping improve my vocabulary (Literally needed a dictionary nearby at the start,) and also helping me learn how to type. One simple typo and you'd have to try typing the command again...or something adverse would happen!
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