Home » Sponsored » Pi Speakers » Wayne, remember a text based game called "Ferret"?
Wayne, remember a text based game called "Ferret"? [message #42507] Wed, 17 September 2003 04:15 Go to next message
darkstar is currently offline  darkstar
Messages: 6
Registered: May 2009
Esquire
like Adventure, only much much trickier. Only ever saw it on DG, AOS/VS, but it was written in Pascal so you'd think it got ported...

Randy
I smoke and I drink
and each time I blink
I have a tiny dream
As bad as I am,
I'm proud of the fact
that I'm worse than I seem
- Ani DiFranco

Zork perhaps? [message #42510 is a reply to message #42507] Wed, 17 September 2003 06:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
I don't remember "Ferret" but I sure played a lot of the old original "Zork". I even have source code of the version that pre-dates the Infocom release. I'm sure I must have seen Ferret if it was on AOS/VS, but I don't recall. Are you sure you're not thinking of Zork? It was like you've described - A much larger and more sophisticated form of adventure.

Click on the link to Zork and download it - Maybe this is what you're thinking of. The file contains both source and executables ported for the PC.

I love those old text games! [message #42511 is a reply to message #42510] Wed, 17 September 2003 07:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adrian Mack is currently offline  Adrian Mack
Messages: 568
Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (1st Degree)
Hey, I used to play those old text-games too. I've played Zork, also this other one called Planetfall (which was way way better than Zork but both were good), and this other one which I cannot remember. I used to play it on one of those old XT computers with a monochrome monitor chugging away at 4.77MHz :P It was so cool! Imagine if we still used those PCs. There would be no PC internet-bank fraud and no hackers, because theres nothing worth hacking on those old machines :P

A shame I dont have those games anymore :-( I just downloaded Zork from the link on your post. Have you got any more text games that are on your web server?

Re: I love those old text games! [message #42512 is a reply to message #42511] Wed, 17 September 2003 08:30 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
I don't have any more games like that on my server, but I do have "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" around here somewhere. I'm comfortable distributing the old Zork games that I have on the server, but not really with distributing all the games that Infocom sold. I don't think they're around anymore, so it may be a mute point. You can find most of them available for download if you'll search the internet. But the games were property of Infocom, after all.

Another set of games that I thought was really cool was the PC versions of arcade games. There was a vector graphics rendering engine available in the 80's and games like "Tempest" and "Asteroids" ran on it. There were literally dozens if not hundreds of other popular games too, but those are just the ones I remember the best. I probably might have those around here somewhere too, so I think I'll go have look for them. This little walk down "memory lane" has made me want to revisit some of these old fun things.

Yup, it was Ferret [message #42513 is a reply to message #42512] Wed, 17 September 2003 13:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
darkstar is currently offline  darkstar
Messages: 6
Registered: May 2009
Esquire
and written by some guys in England.

Didn't run on no XT, by gum, it ran on a REAL computer, the floorstanding kind, and it LIKED it that way!

Randy
I smoke and I drink
and each time I blink
I have a tiny dream
As bad as I am,
I'm proud of the fact
that I'm worse than I seem
- Ani DiFranco

Re: Yup, it was Ferret [message #42514 is a reply to message #42513] Wed, 17 September 2003 16:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Wow, that's pretty cool. I wish we could find it then; Probably written in Cobol, MDL or Fortran and could be ported. I wonder if a search would turn anything up? I think I'll look for it right now. It would be really interesting to find something like that from the old days - Something I've never seen before from that era.

I consider those days to be the "wonder years" of the computer industry. Big iron was the only thing in business, education or government, the microprocessor had just been invented, Intel stock could be bought for next to nothing and Microsoft didn't even exist yet.

Thanks Wayne! [message #42517 is a reply to message #42510] Thu, 18 September 2003 07:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
jlharden is currently offline  jlharden
Messages: 94
Registered: May 2009
Viscount
You just made me waste an hour of my day! What a frustrating game! The parser understands about as much as my ex. ;^}
"You're in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." [message #42518 is a reply to message #42517] Thu, 18 September 2003 10:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
There are some really fun responses you can get from the parser. I can't recall specific examples right now, but I remember that sometimes the game would reply with the funniest things! I always was impressed with its ability to parse English, particularly for the time it was written. And some specific words besides those required by the game are recognized too - the vocabulary includes some slang and other unrelated words - so the parser can really surprise you with its responses sometimes.

But you need to have either a hint file or someone who has played the game with you to really get into it. It's hard to even get underground if you don't know that's the object of the game. Most of the action happens down there, so if you don't know that, you will just wander around in the house or the yard. So if you don't have some familiarity with the game, I want to send you a hint file. I'll have to look around and see if I have it handy, but it's worth it.

Once you have that, you'll find that "your sword is glowing with a faint blue glow."

Re: "You're in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." [message #42520 is a reply to message #42518] Thu, 18 September 2003 12:30 Go to previous messageGo to next message
jlharden is currently offline  jlharden
Messages: 94
Registered: May 2009
Viscount
Hi Wayne,

Yes, I'd like to have a hint book. Your correct on the wandering around above ground part. Still it's a fun game. I enjoy games like this more than the new super duper graphic based games. Let me know if you find that hint guide. Jerrod

Re: "You're in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike." [message #42522 is a reply to message #42520] Thu, 18 September 2003 12:54 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
I'm looking back through my stuff now; It looks like I have all this stuff on diskette, the old floppy kind. I've got it on 5 1/4" and 8", no kidding. So now I'll need to find something to read those. :-)

Is the "Mcleodusa.net" E-Mail address I have for you still current? If so, I'll send to that address. I'll also put the hint files on the Zork page on the Parham Data web site. I don't think the help files will "fit" in your Yahoo account, but maybe so.

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