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Zork is full of [verified] lies

autoduelist

Member
Hm, I was saw 'Zork' in the discount bin in a used book store some years ago. I dodged a bullet there.

Actually, you dodged an absolute classic.

Never played Zork, despite being a big fan of adventure games. Where can I play it now?

I'd be surprised if you couldn't find an online version at this point, I know some other Infocom games exist like that. Mobile probably has emu too... again, I know it used to be available.

I preferred several other infocom games to Zork, but all are worth trying. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is fantastic, if difficult.

If you want to truly appreciate the childhood of elder gamers, then when you play, don't use any guides. Don't google anything. We did not have the internet. We had... sitting at the same text prompt for hours, trying to figure out what to do. Those were the days. And yes, I loved it... now people follow guides as they play, back then, if you were -lucky-, you might have a hint book with a highlighter.


EDIT -- I googled it, this should work.
http://textadventures.co.uk/games/play/5zyoqrsugeopel3ffhz_vq
 

mclem

Member
I'm a bit sceptical about this for two reasons:

* There are lots of versions of Zork, and it's not clear which version it's referring to.
* Zork's bugs are pretty well documented, and go into quite a lot of detail. The disassembly does look about right, which makes me suspect that there's *also* a separate hard limit implemented elsewhere.

Edit: max_held_mult would make a lot of sense.
 
Ah remember a time before graphics when gaming was literally just reading and writing stuff?
There was never really a time "before graphics". Though The Colossal Cave is suuuuuper early in video game history.

Infocom's text adventures were well past the dawn of arcades and home computer gaming, though.
 

Loptous

Member
I FUCKIN KNEW IT!!!
Any more dirty laundry to air this morning? Maybe the monster rancher cd generated monsters where random?
Fire Emblem's displayed hit rates are false in modern games (though it is usually skewed towards the player)
 
There was never really a time "before graphics". Though The Colossal Cave is suuuuuper early in video game history.

Infocom's text adventures were well past the dawn of arcades and home computer gaming, though.

Well, earlier microcomputers were not capable of displaying graphics, ie Commodore PET and Trash-80 afaik.
 

Frozone

Member
I have no idea what Zork is.
I'm 29.

I feel like I missed out

You did. The 80s were literally the most spectacular time to be a teenager. No point in history past that was more exciting (IMO).

OT: Take a look at the Netflix TV Series 'Stranger Things' to get an idea of how it was to be a teen back then.
 
It's actually an advanced weight distribution algorithm, some items are heavier than others and you have to make sure you're holding them right before you can pick up anything else.
 

Frozone

Member
It's actually an advanced weight distribution algorithm, some items are heavier than others and you have to make sure you're holding them right before you can pick up anything else.

That's not clear from the random() call. If they are using their own custom random() call, then we would need to know what distribution algorithm it's using. I would assume it's pretty uniform in order to get consistent behavior.
 

dose

Member
It really is a terrible game and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The maze sections are ridiculous too. Serioualy, don't waste your time on it.
 
which makes me suspect that there's *also* a separate hard limit implemented elsewhere.

There is. The code posted in the OP means that every time you pick an item, your rate of failure is proportional to the number of items you already have multiplied by a constant. Once you have (100 / Max_held_mult) items, this chance is 100%.

In other words, the absolute maximum number of items you can hold is 100 / Max_held_mult. If this constant is 5, you can hold at most 20 items. However, this (completely unnecesary) piece of code means you can actually fail before you reach that limit, and actually fail very often as you approach that limit. I can't imagine of a good reason for this other than pure sadism. :D
 

Shifty

Member
Good lord. I always thought Zork was brutal but that's straight up mean.

Like, if memory serves you already had to deal with the spatial mindfuck of Go West > Go East > You Are Not Back Where You Started. Yeepsh.
 

Zubz

Banned
Wait, you... seriously? I know I only played ports of Zork after its time, but...

I'm going to have to lie down for a minute.
 

dose

Member
That's...a game changer. Dang.


Wrong.
Nope, right.
It's a hard, unfair game that punishes you at every turn. Having a limited number of moves before you died meant you had to repeatedly restart. That's not fun in any way. The confusing maze sections where you could (and had to) go up or down but the game never told you those directions. Crazy.
There were some great text adventures released around that time, but Zork wasn't one of them.
 

Futaleufu

Member
I FUCKIN KNEW IT!!!
Fuck.
.
.

Any more dirty laundry to air this morning? Maybe the monster rancher cd generated monsters where random?

Samurai Shodown 1 weapon clash and the outcome were random, it doesn't matter how fast you press the buttons.
 

Xe4

Banned
Damn. I remember being introduced to Zork by my Grandmother and Uncle and playing the shit out of it as a kid. Blast to the past for sure.
That whole game had some frustrating parts, so this doesn't surprise me at all.
 

Sonicbug

Member
Nope, right.
It's a hard, unfair game that punishes you at every turn. Having a limited number of moves before you died meant you had to repeatedly restart. That's not fun in any way. The confusing maze sections where you could (and had to) go up or down but the game never told you those directions. Crazy.
There were some great text adventures released around that time, but Zork wasn't one of them.

There's a reason the game came with a map and a hint book. Old fashioned difficulty settings, you could use them or not. If you were one of the folks back in the day that 'copied the floppy' and didn't have that stuff, then well.... you had to make do without and die because your lamp ran out of batteries and a grue ate you.
 
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