I think all versions are playable now. Here is a rough timeline with what was added between the different versions:
1977-12-12
500 point version, no end-game.
This version still has a bug that writes two messages when you pick up objects. I’m not sure if this is an original bug or something that is introduced by Confusion.
1978-01-24
500 point version + end game (100 points)
1979-12-11
616 point version + end game (100 points)
New puzzles:
Canary egg + brass bauble + clockwork canary
Dready room (blue palantir)
Coal chute (red palantir)
Bank area
Royal puzzle
1981-07-22
616 point version + end game (100 points)
This version is almost identical to the 1979 one. There is only some minor bugfixes.
The 1977-12-12 version of Zork is now fully reconstructed and playable. I played the whole game just now and finished with all 500 points!
There was a game-breaking bug in the autotake logic (TAKE-IT) in np.mud that made you always pick up takable things, even those with the flag NO-TAKE. This is a problem with the boat, because it has to be on the ground for you to be able to BOARD it. But that’s fixed now.
For other changes that was made to make it possible to play this under Confusion, see the README.file.
The parser is interesting. It is noticable that this is an early attempt. It, for example, understands ALL but not multiple itrems seperated with a comma. You can’t refer to objects with IT and you can’t type a lone adjective. I think it is charming and you can trace the development of the parser through the different versions of Zork and then on through Infocom.
Note that this version lacks the end-game (not yet developt I guess) and therefore the ending is a bit anticlimatic. You get the max score and then can just continue to wander around in the world.
By the way. Is this a possible way to die in Zork 1?
Clearing
There is a pile of leaves on the ground.
>get leaves
Taken.
A grating appears on the ground.
>light match
One of the matches starts to burn.
>light leaves with match
The sight of someone carrying a pile of burning leaves so offends
the neighbors that they come over and put you out.
Do you want me to try to patch you?
Your ranking when you got 500 points is “Cheater” and in the 1978-01-24 version this message is in the code, when the end-game is not loaded:
Suddenly a sinister wraithlike figure, cloaked and hooded, appears
seeming to float in the air before you. In a low, almost inaudible
voice he says, "I welcome you to the ranks of the chosen of Zork. You
have persisted through many trials and tests, and have overcome them
all. One such as yourself is fit to join the even the Implementers!"
He then raises his oaken staff, and chuckling, drifts away like a
wisp of smoke, his laughter fading in the distance.
Unfortunately, as the wraith fades, in his place appears a tastefully
lettered sign reading:
Soon to be Constructed on this Site
A Complete Modern Dungeon Endgame
Designed and Built by the
Frobozz Magic Dungeon Company
This leads me to believe that the implementers were just a little bit ahead of the players and frantically added things to the game.
Kind of. This is from release 88, but other than spacing the message is almost the same as in release 2 so I’m just assuming it didn’t change in between:
>GET LEAVES
In disturbing the pile of leaves, a grating is revealed.
Taken.
>LIGHT MATCH
One of the matches starts to burn.
>BURN LEAVES WITH MATCH
The leaves burn, and so do you.
**** You have died ****
The “Solid Gold” release does reinstate some things from the mainframe version, e.g. a slightly expanded version of the Flood Control Dam #3 guidebook, and you die if you try to “PLAY object”, where object is an actor (even “PLAY ME”) though the output is a bit buggy. But I don’t see anything about the neighbors in that version either.
Someone must have really liked that “PLAY …” joke, because there are versions of it in Zork III and Enchanter (though neither seem to work quite as intended), Infidel (I can’t find any object to use it on) and - somewhat bizarrely - Cutthroats:
>PLAY DESK CLERK
You are so engrossed in the role of the desk clerk that you kill yourself, just
as he would have done!
**** You have died ****
Too bad.
I like the more unpolished look in mainframe Zork. like this from the matchbook, where Mr. TAA and Mr. MARC is quite identifiable.
>read matchbook
[close cover before striking BKD]
You too can make BIG MONEY in the exciting field of
PAPER SHUFFLING!
Mr. TAA of Muddle, Mass. says: "Before I took
this course I used to be a lowly bit twiddler.
Now with what I learned at MIT Tech I feel really
important and can obfuscate and confuse with the best."
Mr. MARC had this to say: "Ten short days ago all I could
look forward to was a dead-end job as a doctor. Now
I have a promising future and make really big Zorkmids."
MIT Tech can't promise these fantastic results to everyone.
But when you earn your MDL degree from MIT Tech your future
will be brighter. Send for our free brochure today.
And of course, there is the ASCII-art…
---v----v----v----v----v----v----v----v---
| |
| |||||||||| LORD |
> !|||| | DIMWIT <
| |||| ---| FLATHEAD |
| |||C CC \ |
> |||| _\ <
| ||| (____| |
| || | |
> |______| Our <
| / \ Excessive |
| / \ Leader |
> | | <
| | | |
| |
> G.U.E. POSTAGE 3 Zorkmids <
| |
---^----^----^----^----^----^----^----^---
--------------------------
/ Gold Zorkmid \
/ T e n T h o u s a n d \
/ Z O R K M I D S \
/ \
/ |||||||||||||||||| \
/ !|||| ||||! \
| ||| ^^ ^^ ||| |
| ||| OO OO ||| |
| In Frobs ||| << ||| We Trust |
| || (______) || |
| | | |
| |__________| |
\ /
\ -- Lord Dimwit Flathead -- /
\ -- Beloved of Zorkers -- /
\ /
\ * 722 G.U.E. * /
\ /
--------------------------
---v----v----v----v----v---
| _______ |
> One / \ G <
| Lousy / \ U |
> Point | ___ | E <
| | (___) | |
> <--)___(--> P <
| / / \ \ o |
> / / \ \ s <
| |-|---------|-| t |
> | | \ _ / | | a <
| | | --(_)-- | | g |
> | | /| |\ | | e <
| |-|---|_|---|-| |
> \ \__/_\__/ / <
| _/_______\_ |
> | f.m.l.c. | <
| ------------- |
> <
| Donald Woods, Editor |
> Spelunker Today <
| |
---^----^----^----^----^---
______________________________________________________________
| 1 0 0 GREAT UNDERGROUND EMPIRE 1 0 0 |
| 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0|
| 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0|
| 1 0 0 DIMWIT 1 0 0 |
| |||||||||||||||| |
| || __ __ || B30332744D |
| || -OO OO- || |
| IN FROBS \|| >> ||/ WE TRUST |
| || ______ || |
| B30332744D | ------ | |
| \\________// |
| 1 0 0 Series FLATHEAD LD Flathead 1 0 0 |
| 1 0 0 0 0 719GUE Treasurer 1 0 0 0 0|
| 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0|
| 1 0 0 One Hundred Royal Zorkmids 1 0 0 |
|_____________________________________________________________|
I thought “Mr. Anderson” and “Dr. Blank” in Zork I were pretty identifiably, too.
Other than that, the main difference in the mainframe version of the matchbook seems to be the bit about sending for a free brochure.
Which reminds me, there was a post on the Data Driven Gamer blog comparing three versions of Zork I. Most of the differences were of course parser responses, but there were a couple of changes to the game text as well. E.g. the references to Hunt the Wumpus and EBCDIC were removed.
(Oddly enough, Zork II kept the EBCDIC reference.)
I always thought the one with the lantern was the best drawn, but I could never figure out… What does the “f.m.l.c.” on the base mean?
Edit: The only interpretation I’ve found that makes any kind of sense is “First Match Losers Consolation”. (At least it seems much more likely than “Fetal Mouse Liver Cell”.)
By the way, there is a pretty significant change in the Flood Control Dam #3 guidebook when comparing Zork I to mainframe Zork: In Zork I, it says that “This impressive structure is composed of 370,000 cubic feet of concrete”. In mainframe Zork, it’s “composed of 3.7 cubic feet of concrete”.
A Marc Egazarian asked about that in the Summer 1985 edition of The New Zork Times. The answer he got was that “It may be impossible to build a dam with such a small piece of concrete, but this is a fantasy remember? Actually, it was intended as a joke; it is not a typo.” I wonder if the joke wasn’t funny enough to be retained in Zork I, or if the joke’s on me for believing them.
I played through the 780124 version up until 500 points. Unfortunately the end-game herald didn’t appear, but I know what’s the problem so I’m gonna fix it soon and play through the end-game too.
If there is someone who like to hone their MDL skills there is two parser bugs, one in the 77 version and one in the 78 version that I found. These are probably original bugs but it would be nice to fix things like this. So, if you so inclined take a look at the issues and offer a solution (I’m gonna give them a crack later when the end-game is fixed).
I glady take reports of any other bugs you can find!
I have seen reports of bugs in the 1981 version if you try to PLAY VIOLIN and somthing about LIGHT WIRE when you gonna blow the safe open. My ambition is to fix these bugs eventually.
I have fixed some 39 year old bugs in the original MDL code. These are bugs that I found in comments from when Renga in Blue and @beslayed played the game.
The fixes are the following (in the 1981-07-22 version):
Change line 1381 in act3.mud to make "play violin" respond "An amazingly offensive noise issues from the violin.":
<COND (<AND <NOT <EMPTY? <PRSI>>> <TRNN <PRSI> ,WEAPONBIT>>
Change line 153 in parser.mud to prevent the parser from crashing with phrases like "HELLLO, SAILOR":
<COND (<N=? <PRSO> <>> <SET ANDFLG T>)> ;"AND is only allowed between NOUN-phrases"
Change line 1386-88 in act3.mud to make "play me/thief/troll" work:
<JIGS-UP <STRING
"You are so engrossed in the role of the " <ODESC2 <PRSO>> " that
you kill yourself, just as he would have done!">>)>>
Change line 1207-08 in dung.mud to make save/restore during thief melee (for FLAGS to be properly saved/restored they have to be defined in MGVALS.)
THIEF-ENGROSSED!-FLAG
]>
BINF!-FLAG is used to hold the OBJECT that's burning in the receptacle. When restored it is unlikly that the pointer will point to the same OBJECT.
To fix this add this line after line 414 in act2.mud to make save/restore work during balloon ride:
<COND (.BINF <SET BINF <SETG BINF!-FLAG <1 <OCONTENTS .CONT>>>>)> ;"Rebind BINF to OBJ burning in receptacle."
All four versions is now fully playable from start to finish! See the project at my GitHub-page and please report any additional bugs that you can find.
I think I’ve had several email discussions over the years with people (not Henrik) reporting the balloon and thief issues as a bug in Confusion. My speculation was that BINF!-FLAG was once really a flag, but it looks like it was an object even in the 1977 version. Quite possibly it works in real MDL.
Lars Brinkhoff leads an effort to emulate and restore the PDP-10 ITS. It’s an ongoing effort but a couple of months ago they got the 1978 version of Zork up and running. So there is a possobility to test your thesis that it was possible that the BINF!-FLAG worked in real MDL. I think I’m gonna test that later today.
It’s not possible to test this in my reconstructions of the 1977 or 1978 versions because I used your implementation of SAVE/RESTORE (of the whole workbench) in these.
Nice hearing from you! I find your Confusion amazing and quite an achievment.
I’ve tried the 1978 version that’s on the PDP-10 ITS and in the original MDL it’s possible to save both during the fight with the thief and during the balloon ride. So the problem with BINF!-FLAG seems to be isolated to Confusion.
