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Pioneers Game
by
Chris Kohler
Played 7,026 times
View game source
(spoilers!)
Download the
.z8 file
Source Code
"Pioneers" by Chris Kohler When play begins, change the right hand status line to "Score: [score]/350". When play begins, change the left hand status line to "'Pioneers' by Chris Kohler". The maximum score is 350. The player carries no tea. [FIRST ROOM GAMEPLAY] Field is a room. "You are standing in an open field west of a white house." House is scenery in Field. The description of House is "This house seems familiar, like it was stolen from another text adventure." The small door is north of Field and south of Indoors. The small door is a door. The small door is locked. The description of the small door is "It's a door. It's on the small side. Not like one of those hobbit doors, though. It's more small like how things were smaller back in the 1930s or whatever. Also the door isn't round." The small brass key unlocks the small door. The description of the small brass key is "They left their key in the mailbox? This must be a relatively low-crime field." There is a mailbox in Field. The mailbox is fixed in place. The mailbox is a container. The mailbox is closed. The mailbox is openable. The mailbox contains a parcel and a letter. The description of the mailbox is "In times of yore, this is where you would get messages before email and texting and such." Understand "unlock house" as a mistake ("While I see what you're getting at, typically what we say in America is 'unlock the door.'"). Instead of entering house, try entering the small door. The parcel is a container. It is closed. It is openable. The parcel contains a trophy. The description of the parcel is "The parcel is damaged and late, which means it must have been carried here by the U.S. Postal Service. The readable part of the address label says 'TO: _a__ Li___n_ and M___ _lan_.' That could be anyone! Might as well open it, you think." The description of the trophy is "The handsome trophy is made up of two concave pieces of reflective metal, interwoven like clasped fingers, with a glass globe at the center of the inward curves." [SECOND ROOM GAMEPLAY] Indoors is a room. "Two men sit in this room, spinning non-linear yarns about the creation of interactive fiction. One sits at a small table. Another stands by a shelf along the wall, which is filled with many grey, rectangular objects that you can't quite make out from here." The small table is in the Indoors. The small table is a supporter. The shelf is in the Indoors. The shelf is fixed in place. The shelf is a supporter. The description of the shelf is "Just as it was the last time you checked it, the shelf is filled with Infocom games, including but not limited to Zork, Starcross, and Deadline." Instead of examining shelf for the first time: say "On closer inspection, the objects are Infocom games in their original packaging! Zork, Starcross, Deadline and many more. What a treasure trove of history! What an astounding collection of a decade's worth of creative work! This stuff would sell for a fortune on eBay!"; move the games to the Indoors. Instead of taking games, say "As you reach a trembling, sweaty hand towards the shelf full of games, Dave gives you a look that suggests that if you swipe his stuff, you are likely to be eaten by a grue. You revise your plan.". In the Indoors is a man called Dave. The description of the Dave is "Dave Lebling, co-founder of Infocom, sits at the table. He is wearing a button that says 'Ask Me About MIT, Adventure, Feelies or Zork.'" In the Indoors is a man called Steve. The description of the Steve is "Steve Meretzky, creator of Infocom games like Planetfall and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, admires the objects on the shelf. He wears a button that reads 'Ask Me About Infocom.'" [THIRD ROOM] Mu is a room. Mint Condition Infocom Games is in Mu. The small brass key is in Mu. [JOKES] Understand "help" as a mistake ("Certainly! In this short work of interactive fiction, your goal is to interview one of the 2013 Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Pioneer Award winners, Dave Lebling. He's the co-creator of the seminal text adventure Zork and co-founder of Infocom. You also need to present Dave with a worthy treasure. And get another quote from somebody else for your story. Commands in text adventures like this can be constructed of short sentences. Just tell me what to do: OPEN MAILBOX, for instance, might be a good start. Then TAKE everything you find in there. Make sure to LOOK at everything. 'Look at house,' e.g. Then everything else. There might be clues! Or jokes. Mostly jokes. You can type INVENTORY to see what you're carrying. If you want to talk to people, try a construction like this: 'ASK DAVE ABOUT ZORK.' Have fun!") Understand "xyzzy" as a mistake ("You attempt to invoke your magical transportation ability to better navigate your way through this game's maze of twisty little passages, but soon realize two things: 1) you have no magical transportation ability, 2) this game has a whopping two rooms in it. Pound the pavement."). Understand "plugh" as a mistake ("You attempt to say the magic word 'plugh,' but then realize you have no idea how it is pronounced. Ploo? Plug? Ploog? You wonder about this for, like, 20 minutes."). [STORY 1: THE LETTER] The description of the letter is "You loved the letter so much, you decide to read it again. It still says the same stuff: 'YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Interview Dave Lebling, co-creator of the influential text adventure Zork and co-founder of the legendary game maker Infocom. Also get a supporting quote from another Infocom designer to round out the story. In February, Lebling and his co-creator Marc Blank will be honored with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Pioneer Award at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. The award is given to the gamemakers whose groundbreaking early work laid the foundations of the multi-billion dollar videogame industry. Previous recipients include David Crane, creator of Pitfall!, and Asteroids designer Ed Logg. Zork all came about because Blank and Lebling, along with co-designers Bruce Daniels and Tim Anderson, encountered a groundbreaking game called Adventure that was played on the giant, room-filling PDP-10 computers that were found at universities in the 1960s and 70s. Adventure let players explore a series of caves, all through the magic of plain text. To tell the computer what to do, you entered two-word instructions like GO NORTH or KILL DRAGON. Blank and Lebling conceived of an even grander adventure -- then founded Infocom, a game publisher that brought Zork out of university mainframes and onto personal computers. Now go get that interview. Make sure to ask Lebling about his days at MIT, the game ADVENTURE, his work with ZORK and Infocom's FEELIES. (Don't be afraid to ask for HELP, LOOK around, or check your INVENTORY.)'". Instead of examining the letter for the first time: say "It is a letter on WIRED letterhead, and it seems to be addressed to you. It begins... 'YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Interview Dave Lebling, co-creator of the influential text adventure Zork and co-founder of the legendary game maker Infocom. Also get a supporting quote from another Infocom designer to round out the story. In February, Lebling and co-creator Marc Blank will be honored with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Pioneer Award at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. The award is given to the gamemakers whose groundbreaking early work laid the foundations of the multi-billion dollar videogame industry. Previous recipients include David Crane, creator of Pitfall!, and Asteroids designer Ed Logg. Zork all came about because Blank and Lebling, along with co-designers Bruce Daniels and Tim Anderson, encountered a groundbreaking game called Adventure that was played on the giant, room-filling PDP-10 computers that were found at universities in the 1960s and 70s. Adventure let players explore a series of caves, all through the magic of plain text. To tell the computer what to do, you entered two-word instructions like GO NORTH or KILL DRAGON. Blank and Lebling conceived of an even grander adventure -- then founded Infocom, a game publisher that brought Zork out of university mainframes and onto personal computers. Now go get that interview. (Don't be afraid to ask for HELP, LOOK around, or check your INVENTORY.)'"; increase the score by 1; say " As you finish reading the letter, a small brass key falls out from its folds."; move the small brass key to Field. [STORY 2: DAVE CONVO] Understand "talk Dave" as a mistake ("Dave Lebling, co-founder of Infocom, looks like he would be happy to talk to you until the cows come home. But why not try to ASK Dave Lebling about the things in your assignment letter?"). Understand "talk to Dave" as a mistake ("Dave Lebling, co-founder of Infocom, looks like he would be happy to talk to you until the cows come home. But why not try to ASK Dave Lebling about the things in your assignment letter?"). Understand "talk Lebling" as a mistake ("Dave Lebling, co-founder of Infocom, prefers you address him as 'Dave'. Why not try to ASK Dave Lebling about the things in your assignment letter?"). Understand "talk to Lebling" as a mistake ("Dave Lebling, co-founder of Infocom, prefers you address him as 'Dave'. Why not try to ASK Dave Lebling about the things in your assignment letter?"). After asking the Dave about "feelies" for the first time: increase the score by 100; say "‘The first feelies,’ Dave begins, ‘came about because of Marc Blank’s game Deadline, which was the first Infocom mystery game.’ ‘There just wasn’t enough memory in those early PCs to hold all of the expository material,’ Dave continues. Blank’s idea, he says, was based on a set of mystery books by a 1930’s author named Dennis Wheatley. The books would contain letters and dossiers that readers could pull out and study, and might contain pieces of physical evidence. Blank, Dave says, filled Deadline with similar items. ‘It had a pill found near the body, and that was included in our package,’ Dave says. ‘It was a SweeTart.’ Besides solving the small memory space problem, he says, it immersed players into the game world and ‘made them feel like they’d gotten more for their money than just the game.’". After asking the Dave about "feelies", say "‘The first feelies,’ Dave begins, ‘came about because of Marc Blank’s game Deadline, which was the first Infocom mystery game.’ ‘There just wasn’t enough memory in those early PCs to hold all of the expository material,’ Dave continues. Blank’s idea, he says, was based on a set of mystery books by a 1930’s author named Dennis Wheatley. The books would contain letters and dossiers that readers could pull out and study, and might contain pieces of physical evidence. Blank, Dave says, filled Deadline with similar items. ‘It had a pill found near the body, and that was included in our package,’ Dave says. ‘It was a SweeTart.’ Besides solving the small memory space problem, he says, it immersed players into the game world and ‘made them feel like they’d gotten more for their money than just the game.’". After asking the Dave about "Adventure" for the first time: increase the score by 50; say "Dave says that when he was a researcher at MIT, the original text adventure game Adventure appeared on the university’s computers. ‘We all got totally sucked into it, and played it obsessively until we solved it,’ he says. The captivating thing about the early game was the ‘illusion of omniscience,’ Dave says. ‘The program made an effort to make you think that it knew everything, and could do anything you asked it to do.’ Dave goes on to say that Bruce Daniels, another of the original Zork creators, had to hack into Adventure’s code to find the final puzzle solution." After asking the Dave about "Adventure", say "Dave says that when he was a researcher at MIT, the original text adventure game Adventure appeared on the university’s computers. ‘We all got totally sucked into it, and played it obsessively until we solved it,’ he says. The captivating thing about the early game was the ‘illusion of omniscience,’ Dave says. ‘The program made an effort to make you think that it knew everything, and could do anything you asked it to do.’ Dave goes on to say that Bruce Daniels, another of the original Zork creators, had to hack into Adventure’s code to find the final puzzle solution." After asking the Dave about "MIT", say "Dave smiles at the mention of MIT, where he got his undergrad degree and later worked as a researcher. ‘One of the things I encountered very early on there was a computer,’ he said, ‘which some people would call the first personal computer except it was the size of a dining room table.’ Dave says that in his spare time, he would use the giant computer to program games -- a clone of the original computer game Spacewar!, then a multiplayer maze called simply Maze. ‘We added the ability to do it... over the ARPANet,’ he says. ‘You could wander around this maze and shoot other people. It was really, in some sense, the world’s first multiplayer first-person shooter.’" After asking the Dave about "MIT" for the first time: say "Dave smiles at the mention of MIT, where he got his undergrad degree and later worked as a researcher. ‘One of the things I encountered very early on there was a computer,’ he said, ‘which some people would call the first personal computer except it was the size of a dining room table.’ Dave says that in his spare time, he would use the giant computer to program games -- a clone of the original computer game Spacewar!, then a multiplayer maze called simply Maze. ‘We added the ability to do it... over the ARPANet,’ he says. ‘You could wander around this maze and shoot other people. It was really, in some sense, the world’s first multiplayer first-person shooter.’"; increase the score by 50. After asking the Dave about "zork" for the first time: say "‘We were getting tired of working for DARPA, the same people who invented the Internet. Nobody said we should make a version of Zork that we can sell, because the microcomputer industry barely existed.’ Once they decided to try and make a commercial version of Zork, Dave says, he had to chop it up to fit into the memory of a home computer. ‘Fortuitously — or maybe I can just say I was really smart, but mostly I think it was fortuitous — it worked out really well, the amount I managed to chop up which eventually became Zork I just perfectly fit the memory space we had available on the TRS-80 and the Apple II.’ The first version of Zork, Dave says, was sold through a company called Personal Software, which gave the game a ‘very unfortunate cover that made it look like a barbarians, sword and sorcery and furs kind of fantasy novel.’ Eventually when Infocom was formed, they ‘redesigned the packaging to something that a grown-up wouldn’t be ashamed to play.’"; increase the score by 100. After asking the Dave about "zork", say "‘We were getting tired of working for DARPA, the same people who invented the Internet. Nobody said we should make a version of Zork that we can sell, because the microcomputer industry barely existed.’ Once they decided to try and make a commercial version of Zork, Dave says, he had to chop it up to fit into the memory of a home computer. ‘Fortuitously — or maybe I can just say I was really smart, but mostly I think it was fortuitous — it worked out really well, the amount I managed to chop up which eventually became Zork I just perfectly fit the memory space we had available on the TRS-80 and the Apple II.’ The first version of Zork, Dave says, was sold through a company called Personal Software, which gave the game a ‘very unfortunate cover that made it look like a barbarians, sword and sorcery and furs kind of fantasy novel.’ Eventually when Infocom was formed, they ‘redesigned the packaging to something that a grown-up wouldn’t be ashamed to play.’" [STORY 4: STEVE CONVO] Understand "talk Steve" as a mistake ("Steve Meretzky, writer of classic Infocom games like Planetfall and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, gives you a look indicating he would like you to ASK him about Infocom."). Understand "talk to Steve" as a mistake ("Steve Meretzky, writer of classic Infocom games like Planetfall and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, gives you a look indicating he would like you to ASK him about Infocom."). Understand "talk Meretzky" as a mistake ("Steve Meretzky, writer of classic Infocom games like Planetfall and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, gives you a look indicating he would like you to ASK STEVE ABOUT INFOCOM."). Understand "talk to Meretzky" as a mistake ("Steve Meretzky, writer of classic Infocom games like Planetfall and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, gives you a look indicating he would like you to ASK STEVE ABOUT INFOCOM."). After asking the Steve about "Infocom", say "Meretzky glances down at you and begins: 'It's hard to imagine it today, in an era of 3-D graphics cards and Nth generation game consoles, but when Zork came to personal computers around 1980, a text game could not only be one of the most entertaining games, but the most awe-inspiring,' he says. 'It was stunning to see a computer, with mere kilobytes of memory, understanding and responding to sentences like KILL THE THIEF WITH THE BLOODY AXE THEN PICK UP THE JEWEL-ENCRUSTED EGG AND THE BRASS BAUBLE,' Steve continues. 'And Marc and Dave didn't just develop such state-of-the-art tech, but applied it to one great interactive narrative after another. With games like Zork, Deadline, Starcross, and Enchanter, they planted the possibility that games could not just entertain but tell stories as well... a foundation that the entire game industry continues to build on 30 years later.'" After asking the Steve about "Infocom" for the first time: increase the score by 40; say "Steve glances down at you and begins: 'It's hard to imagine it today, in an era of 3-D graphics cards and Nth generation game consoles, but when Zork came to personal computers around 1980, a text game could not only be one of the most entertaining games, but the most awe-inspiring,' he says. 'It was stunning to see a computer, with mere kilobytes of memory, understanding and responding to sentences like KILL THE THIEF WITH THE BLOODY AXE THEN PICK UP THE JEWEL-ENCRUSTED EGG AND THE BRASS BAUBLE,' Steve continues. 'And Marc and Dave didn't just develop such state-of-the-art tech, but applied it to one great interactive narrative after another. With games like Zork, Deadline, Starcross, and Enchanter, they planted the possibility that games could not just entertain but tell stories as well... a foundation that the entire game industry continues to build on 30 years later.'" [WINNING] Instead of giving the trophy to Dave, say "Dave indicates that you should set the trophy in some place of honor in the room.'". After putting the trophy on the table: Say "You put the trophy on the table. It looks out of place, all alone." After putting the trophy on the shelf for the first time: Say "Clearing off a small spot amongst the expensive Infocom games on Dave's shelf, you place the Pioneer Award trophy there. It really brings the room together. Nice job."; increase the score by 9. Every turn: if score is 350 begin; say "Congratulations! You've completed your assignment, learning all about the AIAS Pioneer Award winners for 2013, and put the trophy in a place of honor. Thanks for playing!"; end the game in victory; end if.
