h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*floating in, in her usual vague, elf-like manner*

Seeing you campaigning for a new Zork game finally made me curious enough to try playing one - currently playing Zork 1, and cursing that thief (or are there several?) for stealing my torch, meaning that I have to use my lantern, meaning I haven't explored all places before it goes out...

Busy mapping the maze from the Troll Room right now - and seeing you in the Cave System sounded so familiar to what I'm doing...

I usually go first up, then down, n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, nw...

I'm running out of things to drop that aren't valuable enough to be stolen, though... I guess I'll have to use some of the items that I'll be needing later on... - I guess I'll just have to drop them close to the entrance of the maze... ho hum...

Ah, so welcome to the Great Underground Empire, Titania.

That maze was so tricky that I made myself commit the necessary portions of it to memory. I remember the days when I was dropping useless objects....

Oh, and no, there is only one thief. The only way to get your stuff back is to track him down and do him in, I'm afraid.

Keep me posted on how the adventure goes! It's always fun to hear someone else's perspective on the grand-daddy of all computer games.

Well, I decided to dedicate a whole round to just map the maze, once I had found some not-too-attractive things to drop (screwdriver, sack, bell, matches, leaves) - and I found the thief!

(I had to use the InvisiClues a bit though - I'm afraid I don't have enough patience to work every little bit out myself)

Saved game and then tried to kill him, but discovered I didn't have enough experience... spent some time running around trying to gather some treasures, and finally managed to get rid of him!

Ha! No one stealing my torch any more! But I had a bit of a trouble with the mine, and the gas room, and the narrow passage - took me a few rounds to figure it out, and by then my lantern was growing dimmer and I had ran out of matches...

What's that text that pops up once you step inside the barrow? It happened so fast and then the window closed before I could read it...

...and how are you expected to figure out to wave the sceptre to find the pot of gold?

That's one of the "Explorers Treasures" that you really need to take good notes to figure out.

The first hint is that there are two rooms where you find yourself at the end of the rainbow, Aragain Falls and End Of The Rainbow. Now, while not many people notice this, if there are two similar objects built into the room description, it generally means that there is a fast method of traveling between the two. The most obvious would be the locked grating in the Forest, and the other side of the locked grating hidden in the Maze. Other less notable ones include the two Mirrors of the two Mirror Rooms, and the Granite Walls in both the Temple and The Treasure Room (these secret passages really come in handy for experienced players, and also explains how the Thief can zip around the dungeons so quickly). The last hint is that the sceptre itself is rainbow colored. It's a really hard to catch hint, but it's there, and patient playing (mixed with frustration) gets people to think along those lines.

The thing when you enter the Barrow is difficult for me to remember. I used to have a version that would pause before the text vanished, but I'm not sure where it is. As far as I remember, it says something like:

"Stone Barrow
As you enter the Stone Barrow, the entrance behind you closes! Before you there is a bridge. Over the bridge a sign can be seen, and reads: "Congratulations! You have just passed a test of skill and bravery! Be warned, however, that those who cross this bridge will be severely tested!"

To be continued in Zork II: The Wizard Of Frobozz, and concluded in Zork III: The Dungeon Master!"

It was written a lot better the way they did it, though, which is why I'm really sorry that the DOS prompt likes to close programs quickly.

Well, I've started Zork II, and am trying *not* to have a look at the InvisiClues - but that Carousel Room is a bit confusing, to say the least...

The good ol' Carousel....one of the most frustrating puzzles (for map-making players) that there ever was.

And honestly, don't look to Invisiclues unless you must. The games are really much more satisfying if you don't give in.

Map-making, yes... so far found three different rooms stepping out of the carousel to the north...

I used Invisiclues in the first game, because I had some difficulties getting the hang of it - should be easer this time...

Well....Zork II is a tad harder than the first Zork game. I managed to get pretty far in Zork I before I got stuck (and I was firmly stuck for a few years....didn't know Invisiclues existed, unfortunately). But Zork II managed to throw me pretty quickly. The few puzzles that lead to the rest of the game were a bit more obscure than the ones from Zork I.

Good luck!

Just found this message, and it reminded me of Zork. Ah, good ol' days....

You know, come to think of it - I can't remember if I actually finished Zork 2 - I think I took a break from it in pure frustration, and then forgot it when I came across a new game of some sort - oh well, now I know what to do if I ever run out of things to do...

Zork is always a good option.

Every one of the thirteen games is worth playing through (fourteen if you count "The Creeping Terror", though the context makes it obvious that the game doesn't take place in Zork).

I'll second that opinion - I have the fondest memories of the zork games. Or, I should say, "dungeon", since that is what I originally played. Dungeon was the original mainframe game from which the first 3 zork games were created - it had to be split up in order to fit on a home computer. I played it on our mainframe at work and got stuck. I had solved lots of the puzzles, but there were still lots of them I hadn't solved. It stayed that way for 10 or 15 years, then I discovered the zork games and downloaded them and played them and met Affy. It was after I had played the zork games and had gotten hooked on Infocom text games. I had found all of the Infocom games on the internet and had downloaded them, but many of those games require bits of information from the documentation in order to play them. So, I went looking for people who might have the documentation and be willing to tell me the bits I needed. I found Affy on a zork discussion board somewhere and he ended up giving me the info that I needed. The rest, as they say, is history. Of course, now you can get all of that documentation on the internet too.

I've played about 90% of the infocom games now. At least 90% of the ones I WANT to play - I tried one of the mysteries and didn't like it, so I won't bother with the others.

I dunno about that, most of the mysteries have different feels to them I don't like the way that they tend to depend on quickly figuring out what every character's schedule is in the game, but each one's a bit different. Moonmist is actually 4 different games when you work at it, for instance.

But out of curiosity, Garius, ever tried the Infocomics? I managed to get ahold of some downloadable versions, and they were neat. You couldn't interact with the storylines, but you could choose for yourself which character you would follow in the story.

Yup, I read through all of those a year or two ago. I still have copies on my computer. They were pretty good, considering when they were made.

I'm trying to remember them at the moment. There were the two ZorkQuest Infocomics of course (I'm still upset that they never finished the trilogy), there was a Lane Mastadon thing (something about Blubber Men? Regardless, it was nice to see Steve Meretzky's staple hero used as something other than a reference in other games), and....Gamma Force, or something? Something about a super hero group that wasn't un-like the Fantastic Four.

Were there any others? I don't think so. But then again, I didn't think that Infocom ever made any games for the NES before I found Tombs & Treasure.


I just got a pop-up add. On h2g2. WHAT IS THE BBC DOING TO THIS ONCE FINE ORGANIZATION??? I can handle moderators and moderation (I have seen a pleasant decrease in foul language since then). I can handle the presence of two other skins (as long as they still let Classic Goo be an option, I'm okay). I can even handle the ugly bar on the top of the screen that's been present ever since this annoying "Single Sign-In" thing got started (yeah, and....that comment pretty much explains itself. I can deal with it). But POP UP ADDS? AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

They've got pop-ups on h2g2?!???

Man, that is really low. I use Netscape, which has a no pop-ups feature that you can set, so I never see pop-ups anymore. Even the one that used to pop up on Netscape's own site.

I only have 4 infocomics, so I think you remembered them all.

Okay, then I think that I've played them all.

The biggest problem I had with those was that I could never know when I'd seen the entire story unfold. You would have to spend a good week just to map out where every single story juncture was.

Maybe it wasn't an h2g2 pop up add, but I don't know what else it might've been. I was on h2g2, and an add popped up. Maybe it was an extremely, extremely delayed reaction from another web site (but seeing as I'm using University computers from 11:00 to 5:00 most days, this is unlikely).

Eh - I've never seen any pop-ups on h2g2 (although I get a lot of them on other sites) so I really don't think it's one of h2g2's...

Maybe its a rogue ad that travels from website to website, haunting individuals briefly before moving on.