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Module 4; Computing
by
Joe Obermaier
Played 1,830 times
View game source
(spoilers!)
Download the
.z8 file
Source Code
"Module 4; Computing" Use no scoring. The Plaza is south of the Museum. "[if the Plaza is unvisited]You have arrived at a museum entrance. Suddenly, you hear a booming voice proclaim, ‘Welcome to the Museum of Interactive Fiction! Come back to a time before smartphones, before home computers. Back to a time of high-def imagination. If you've never done anything like this before, don't worry. I will show you how it is done. To begin, click on the > and type in 'go north', or 'north', to enter the Museum. Once you've typed it, go ahead and hit the enter key.[end if][if the Plaza is visited]You are in the Plaza. The Museum’s Entrance is just to the north.[end if]" The Museum is west of the Lobby. "[if the Museum is unvisited]Interactive Fiction puts you at the beginning of a story. The rest is up to you. You type commands for your character to carry out, and the story responds by describing what happens next. Your job is to go from room to room, backwards and forwards if you like, discovering things and solving puzzles on the way. You can move by typing in a compass direction. Where you started the game is to the south. The next room is to the east. What would you like to do?[end if][if the Museum is visited]You are in the Museum. The Lobby is to the east and the Plaza is to the south.[end if]" The Lobby is a room. "[if the Lobby is unvisited]So far, so good! In Interactive Fiction, part of your role is to help the main character overcome obstacles, solve problems, work out what is going on in the story, and discover ways to reach new locations and tools. And to do so using natural language commands. You are in the Lobby of the museum. On the wall there is a sign. Type 'look at sign' to see what it says.[end if][if the Lobby is visited]You are in the Lobby. The Museum is to the east and there is a sign attached to the wall.[end if]" The sign is fixed in place in the Lobby. It is scenery. The description of sign is "The sign is just an arrow pointing up. The sign is next to a staircase. Apparently, you next destination is above you. Type 'go up' or 'up' to proceed up the stairs." A staircase is a kind of door. A staircase is usually open. A staircase is seldom openable. The stairs is a staircase. It is above the Lobby and below the Hallway. It is scenery. The Hallway is a room. "[if the Hallway is unvisited]Excellent! As the story moves along, you'll need to pick up objects and unlock or open doors. Here there is a door and a box. The door is locked. To unlock the door, you will first need to find a key. Maybe there's some useful stuff in that box. Type 'open box' to see what's inside. Type 'look at (object)' to take a closer look.[end if][if Hallway is visited]You are in the Hallway. Below you is the Lobby and east of you is the door. You can also see a box here.[end if]" The box is a closed, fixed in place, openable container in the Hallway. It is scenery. The description of the box is "A large box made of red oak. It can be opened and closed." The wood door is a closed, locked door. It is scenery. The wood door is west of the Exhibit and east of the Hallway. The description of the wood door is "A simple wood door that can be unlocked and locked with the key." Inside the box is the key. The key unlocks the wood door. The description of the key is "A small brass key that can be used to lock and unlock the door." Inside the box is the crumpled paper. The description of the crumpled paper is "a tattered piece of paper that says 'Admit One' in faded print on it." After opening the box: say "Hey look, there's stuff inside. Looks like a key and a crumpled piece of paper inside. Imagine that! To pick up the key, type 'take key', 'get key', or 'pick up key' to take the key. To pick up the paper, type 'take paper'. You better take them both." After taking the key: say "Good. You can also drop objects at anytime by typing 'drop' followed by the object. Go ahead and unlock the door by typing 'unlock door with key'." After unlocking the wood door with the key: say "You unlocked the door. Type in 'open door' to get it open." After opening the wood door: say "You opened the door. To go through the door, just go to the east." The Exhibit is a room. "You are at the entrance to the Main Exhibit." The Guard is a man in the Exhibit. "[if Exhibit is unvisited]You see a turnstile to the west and a bored Guard standing next to it. This Guard has the power to open the turnstile for you. Try asking him about the turnstile by typing 'ask Guard about turnstile'.[end if][if Exhibit is visited]You are in the Exhibit. You see a turnstile to the west and a Guard standing next to it. The Hallway is to the north.[end if]" The description of the Guard is "A grumpy old man in a faded blue uniform, who has the power to open the turnstile." The turnstile is a closed, locked, openable door. It is scenery. The turnstile is east of the Exhibit and west of the Cave Entrance. Player is carrying a penny. The description of the penny is "A bright shiny penny." After asking the Guard about "Turnstile", say "'So you want to go through the turnstile? Well then, unless you’ve got a ticket, we may have a problem.' Maybe you have something in your inventory that could help. Check your inventory by typing 'inventory' and then show the Guard something you think would help by typing 'show Guard' followed by the object that you think would help." After telling the Guard about "Turnstile", say "'So you want to go through the turnstile? Well then, unless you’ve got a ticket, we may have a problem.' Maybe you have something in your inventory that could help. Check your inventory by typing 'inventory' and then show the Guard something you think would help by typing 'show Guard' followed by the object that you think would help." Instead of showing the key to the Guard: say "'No, the turnstile doesn't use a key. What else do you have?'" Instead of showing the penny to the Guard: say "'If you’re trying to bribe me, you’ll need more than a penny. What else do you have?'" Instead of showing paper to the Guard: now the turnstile is open; say "'That's the ticket! Ok, now the turnstile to the east is open. Go on through it to see the exhibit. Don't forget to look around.'" The Cave Entrance is a room. "Slowly you step through the creaky turnstile and into the Exhibit proper. You look around at an exhibit that has seen better days. Most of the items on display have been removed, leaving only voids in the dust to tell where they had been. On a small table sits an old television playing some show in black and white. Nearby sits an old instruction manual. On the north wall is a large wooden door." The desk is in the Cave Entrance. The television is in the Cave Entrance. The manual is in the Cave Entrance. The description of the desk is "It is a fine old desk." The description of the television is "The television is showing an old British science fiction series called Stranger from Space. A small card next to the television explains this was the first experiment in Interactive Fiction for television. The show based each episode on suggestions that came from viewer mail. It seems the idea of Interactive Fiction predates the computing era." The description of the manual is "These are instructions to Hunt the Wumpus, written by Gregory Yob in 1972. It may have been the first interactive game played on a computer. But what the heck is a Wumpus?" The description of the wooden door is "The door is a massive oak door, with dark hinges. It may be locked. If only we had a key." The wooden door is a door. It is a locked door and scenery. It is north of the Cave Entrance and south of the Colossal Cave. The key unlocks the wooden door. After opening the wooden door: say "The old hinges creak and moan as you open the door to an unlit Cave. You're not scared are you? You bravely swallow your fear and plunge into the darkness..." After entering the wooden door: say "The old hinges creak and moan as you open the door to an unlit Cave. You're not scared are you? You bravely swallow your fear and plunge into the darkness..." The Colossal Cave is a dark room. The lamp is a lit thing in the Colossal Cave. "A dank, dark, (dare we even say colossal?) cave stretches out before you. It is hard to make out any features in the endless shadow. Suddenly, you see a faint flicker of flame in the corner of your eye. You reach out against the wall in hope for a lamp to guide your way." [taking the lamp] After taking the lamp: say "You brush off the dusty glass of the lamp with your fingers. It casts just enough light for you to look around. You can see a poster on the wall beside you, and you can just make out a stairway to the east." The poster is fixed in place in the Colossal Cave. It is scenery. The description of the poster is "Will Crowther created the first Interactive Fiction game, Colossal Cave Adventure in 1975, basing the game on an actual cave system in Kentucky. He used natural language inputs, instead of code language, to make the game accessible to non-computer people. A big part of the fun of the game was just experimenting with strange commands to see if the developers had anticipated them, such as PUNCH, JUMP or WAVE. Or to put in curse words to see what happened. (Go ahead and try it – you know you want to!)" The stairway is an open door and scenery. The stairway is east of the Colossal Cave and west of the Stanford Lab. The Stanford Lab is a room. "You slowly make your way up a metal staircase, ignoring the clanging iron beneath your feet. At last, you emerge into an early computer lab. It's a large rectangular room, full of workstations, chewed up pencils and half-eaten slices of pizza. On the wall is a placard. There is also a large door to the south. " The placard is fixed in place in the Stanford Lab. It is scenery. The description of the placard is "Don Woods, while working at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1976, discovered Crowther’s game on ARPANET (the precursor to the Internet). With Crowther’s permission, he reworked the caves and stocked them with magical items and puzzles. The new game, called ADVENTURE or simply ADVENT took off. It may have set the entire computer industry back two weeks: whenever it reached a new site, normal work was suspended until everyone there had solved it." A mail package is a container which is closed and openable. A mail package is in the Stanford Lab. A table is in the Stanford Lab. On the table is a cookie, cheese, and a knife. The cookie and the cheese are edible. The large door is an unlocked and closed door. The large door is scenery. The large door is south of the Stanford Lab and north of MIT. [opening the package] After opening the package: say "As your hands rip open the package, you hear an ominous ticking begin. You attempt to get rid of the package, but it is too late- it explodes, tearing you into a thousand pieces. You should never open someone else’s mail."; end the story saying "You have died"; [taking the cookie] After taking the cookie: say "An old cookie has been left out for some time. Could it be oatmeal raisin? At least you hope those are raisins." [taking the cheese] After taking the cheese: say "You pick up a moldy piece of bleu cheese." [taking the knife] After taking the knife: say "You pick up the knife; its blade is beginning to rust, but it is still sharp." [eating the cookie] After eating the cookie: say "You eat the cookie. Whatever kind it was, it wasn’t bad." [eating the cheese] After eating the cheese: say "You eat the cheese. Bleu cheese was never your favorite." MIT is a room. "[if MIT is unvisited]Very nicely done. You are in a classroom at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Something is written on a large chalkboard to the west.[end if][if MIT is visited]You are at MIT. To the north through the door is the Stanford Lab.[end if]" The chalkboard is fixed in place in MIT. It is scenery. The description of the chalkboard is "A group of students at MIT created an improved version of the game, and named it ZORK. One of the creators of ZORK actually disassembled the Adventure object code in order to discover the solution to the game. One maddening feature of the games were mazes. The only way to navigate the mazes was to drop breadcrumbs - the objects the player was carrying - in certain rooms, altering their descriptions and allowing players to retrace their steps. You can try it. Go back to an earlier room and type 'drop penny'. Then go back out and back in, and see how the room is described." The gate is a closed, locked, openable door. It is scenery. The gate is east of MIT and west of Infocom. The description of the gate is "A iron gate that can be opened with the push of a button." The ghost is a man in MIT. Table of the ghost's Movement destination Stanford Lab MIT Infocom MIT Stanford Lab MIT Every turn: if the ghost is active: repeat through the Table of the ghost's Movement: let last space be the location of the ghost; if the ghost can be seen by the player, say "The ghost of a previous adventurer goes to [the destination entry]."; move the ghost to destination entry; if the ghost can be seen by the player, say "The ghost of a previous adventurer arrives from [the last space]."; blank out the whole row; break. The ghost can be active or passive. The ghost is active. Before doing something to the ghost: now the ghost is passive; Instead of telling the ghost about something: say "The ghost listens, looks at you and whispers eerily, BEWARE THE WAMPUS!" Instead of asking the ghost about something: say "The ghost doesn't know what you're talking about and doesn't really care." Every turn when the ghost is passive: now the ghost is active. The button is a device in MIT. "[if the MIT is unvisited]There is a gate that leads to the east. It appears locked. But you notice a button on the wall. I wonder what happens if I push that button?[end if][if MIT is visited]Here is a button that you push to open the gate to the east. Have you pushed it yet?[end if]" The button is switched off. The button is fixed in place. The description of the button is "A big, red, round button that can be used to open the gate." Instead of pushing a button: try switching on the button. Carry out switching on the button: now the gate is open; say "You hear a mechanical grinding noise. The gate is now open. Go east to pass through it and on to the next room." Infocom is a room. "You tread carefully, warily eyeing the gate, as you exit MIT, and enter the lunchroom headquarters of something called Infocom. The place is a mess. It seems to have been abandoned a long time ago. On a table in front of you lies a brochure. To the south is a sliding glass door, leading out to fresh air and sunlight. " The brochure is fixed in place in Infocom. It is scenery. The description of the brochure is "Those MIT students formed a company called Infocom in 1979. The cut Zork in half, squeezed the first half onto one 140K floppy disk for personal computers and called it Zork I. By 1986, they had sold over a quarter million copies. The home computer market of the day was crowded with dozens on entrants: some you’ll recognize (Apple, IBM, Atari, Commodore) and some you won’t (Exidy, Acorn, Sinclair, Osborn). These machines were mutually incompatible, with the exception of text adventures. Since text adventures were 90% map, text and data tables, only 10% had to be rewritten to go on a new machine. Zork I was offered for 23 different microcomputers." The sliding door is a door. It is scenery. The sliding door is south of Infocom and north of the Patio. There is a Zork jacket in Infocom. The Zork jacket is wearable. A large envelope is a container which is closed and openable. There is a large envelope in Infocom. [wear the Zork jacket] After wearing the Zork jacket: say "As you put on the leather jacket emblazoned with the Zork logo, you can almost feel what it must have been like back in day. This was the beginning of the ‘Startup Culture,’ with its free soda, aloha shirts, and lunchtime meetings. " [open the large envelope] After opening the large envelope: say "There is only a brief note inside. It says, ominously, BEWARE THE WAMPUS! There is also a picture of the weirdest looking thing you’ve ever seen." [going south] The Patio is a room. "Ahhh, the outdoors! You breathe deeply of the cool air, and feel refreshed. To the south lies a sidewalk and the way home. You enter the Patio and then stop. Something is wrong. The area is empty, except for a single occupant – what can only be described as a large, red, furry head suspended between two hairless legs growing out the sides! The massive, furry Wumpus meets your gaze and glowers, its beady, bright red soulless eyes bearing into you. It looks VERY hungry. If only you had some food to give..." A Wumpus is in The Patio. It is undescribed. The Wumpus is a male animal. The block giving rule is not listed in the check giving it to rules. [giving the cookie to the Wumpus] After giving the cookie to the Wumpus: say "You offer up the cookie. The Wumpus devours the cookie in one gulp and waits, watching you. You idiot! If you give a Wumpus a cookie, he’s going to want some milk! Before you can look for some, the Wumpus loses his patience and attacks, his enormous front teeth ripping into your neck…."; end the story saying "You have died"; Understand the command "stab" as something new. Understand "stab [something]" as stabbing. Stabbing is an action applying to one visible thing. Understand the command "slay" as something new. Understand "slay [something]" as slaying. Slaying is an action applying to one visible thing. [stabbing the Wumpus] After stabbing the Wumpus: say "Knife in hand, you lunge toward the Wumpus, but despite his size, he is faster than you. He dodges your knife thrust with an enormous leg and attacks, his enormous front teeth ripping into your neck…." ; end the story saying "You have died." [slaying the Wumpus] After slaying the Wumpus: say "Knife in hand, you lunge toward the Wumpus, but despite his size, he is faster than you. He dodges your knife thrust with an enormous leg and attacks, his enormous front teeth ripping into your neck…." ; end the story saying "You have died." [giving the cheese to the Wumpus] After giving the cheese to the Wumpus: say " Cautiously, you offer the bleu cheese to the Wumpus. He sniffs once, then twice, then softly eats a small piece off the side. Sighing contentedly, the massive creature sits down, pulls out a glass and wine bottle, and prepares a light snack. The danger is passed and you can move on." Ecstasy is a room. It is south of the Patio. Every turn: if the player is in Ecstasy: say " You've solved every riddle and you've overcome every obstacle. Your trip to the museum is over, and I hoped you learned a little something of the wonderful art form that is Interactive Fiction. Text adventures may have faded, but they haven’t died. Between 1980 and 1990, the home computer went from barely being able to play a text adventure, to easily being able to compile one. These home authors have kept the form alive. The rise of smartphones has brought back some interactive fiction gaming. (Yes, there is an app for that.) You can even play Zork on Twitter (just tweet @playzork). Take the time and play another, from any of these talented authors on this site or others like it. And enjoy!"; end the game in victory.
