Trivial Zork I question
jam...@gmail.com
large white house as the bowling green in front of Mount Vernon (the
home of George Washington, first president of the United States).
I'm wondering what other people think of - do you visualise someplace
famous like that, or do you just imagine "generic field in front of
generic house"?
Neil Cerutti
Frankly, I never imagined a field at all. It was more of a very
small clearing, with a grungy old house taking up most of it.
--
Neil Cerutti
The peace-making meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to
a conflict. --Church Bulletin Blooper
Andrew Plotkin
> On 2006-11-07, jam...@gmail.com <jam...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > At the opening of the game, I visualise the open field west of
> > the large white house as the bowling green in front of Mount
> > Vernon (the home of George Washington, first president of the
> > United States).
> >
> > I'm wondering what other people think of - do you visualise
> > someplace famous like that, or do you just imagine "generic
> > field in front of generic house"?
>
> Frankly, I never imagined a field at all. It was more of a very
> small clearing, with a grungy old house taking up most of it.
A small clearing, with a grungy old house taking up not very much of
it. Two rooms per floor -- or maybe three, since the arrangement of
the front door is unclear. That's not a big house.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
Just because you vote for the Republicans, doesn't mean they let you be one.
Emily Short
Andrew Plotkin wrote:
> A small clearing, with a grungy old house taking up not very much of
> it. Two rooms per floor -- or maybe three, since the arrangement of
> the front door is unclear. That's not a big house.
Ditto. I also picture the clearing as a lawn that's gone mostly
uncared-for for a while, so patchy grass and weeds.
The governor's house in Plundered Hearts, now, that's a fancy place...
JDC
Emily Short wrote:
> Ditto. I also picture the clearing as a lawn that's gone mostly
> uncared-for for a while, so patchy grass and weeds.
My image has been irrevocably corrupted by _shrapnel_...
-JDC
sj...@io.com
Lump me in with those who always picture a very small, humble sort of
house (partly, perhaps, because the mailbox is described as small, and
almost certainly because by now I know how tiny the house interior is).
I tend to imagine the "field" as meaning a kind of oversized lawn (like
many country houses have), unkempt and returning to nature (which goes
well with a house that has been boarded up) ... a messy clearing
surrounded by trees.
But my mental picture is a construct not just of the initial
description, but also my prior play experience ... the initial
description doesn't mention that the house is surrounded by forest, but
I know that if I go anywhere other than the areas immediately
surrounding the house, I'm instantly in the woods, so I include that in
my mental image.
I haven't the foggiest idea how I pictured the entire scene the very
first time I played. My suspicion is that I _didn't_ picture the entire
scene. Just a mailbox with a house behind it. The rest probably just
went in one eye and out the other, so to speak.
Colonel Communism
I always thought of it as one of those fields that end abruptly with a
forest that starts more or less in a straight line to the north.
Everywhere else is one of those generic fields with tall grass and stuff
around the house.
Incidentally, does anybody else *always* visualize west as left, east as
right, and so on, as if the player character is always standing due
north? It helps with the visualization, but it can get a little
ridiculous sometimes, like:
There is a gigantic, slavering monster to the east. Its jaws are
smeared with the blood of former adventurers, and its hands are not so
much hands as they are claws attached to arms.
Meanwhile, I'm facing the blank wall to the north.
JDC
Colonel Communism wrote:
> Incidentally, does anybody else *always* visualize west as left, east as
> right, and so on, as if the player character is always standing due
> north? It helps with the visualization, but it can get a little
> ridiculous sometimes, like:
This happens to me in certain games (but not in all, for some reason I
can't pinpoint). I played something recently where you could mainly
just go east and west, and I kept thinking of this as moving from side
to side.
-JDC
sj...@io.com
> Incidentally, does anybody else *always* visualize west as left, east as
> right, and so on, as if the player character is always standing due
> north?
Often, yeah. Worse still, I sometimes visualize directions as if I'm
looking down on a map, so I'll occasionally type "D" in an attempt to
go south and "U" in an attempt to go north! Oy.
anss...@hotmail.com
Like you, I imagine it as a very big field too ("open field" sounds
more than just a small clearing), and for some reason also tended and
in a good condition, even if there's no reason for that. Also, I
imagine the house as rather large (when you examine the house, it says
something about colonial style, I don't remember the wording exactly,
and that the owners must have been extremely wealthy. Makes me think of
something out of Gone With the Wind.)
Glenn P.,
On a somewhat different topic, it's a rather odd geography no matter HOW
you look at it: an empty field, right in front of one's front door, and
no path ANYWHERE to any other place of civilization! No path to any
stores, no path to any other houses, no path to any roadway -- nothing!
The only paths encircle the house, wander through empty forest, or lead
to a cliff overlooking a river!
It seems to me that any alert and reasonably intelligent person familiar
with "Zork I" who actually FOUND himself at such a location would very
quickly come to suspect where he was.
(Of course, finding a grating in the woods covered with exactly 69,105
leaves -- to say nothing of a jeweled egg in a bird's nest -- would be
a dead giveaway... but that's another story.) :)
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Glenn P.,
:> At the opening of the game, I visualise the open field west of
:> the large white house as the bowling green in front of Mount
:> Vernon (the home of George Washington, first president of the
:> United States).
:> I'm wondering what other people think of - do you visualise
:> someplace famous like that, or do you just imagine "generic
:> field in front of generic house"?
> Frankly, I never imagined a field at all. It was more of a very
> small clearing, with a grungy old house taking up most of it.
Grungy??? Methinks you'd better EXAMINE THE HOUSE.
Glenn P.,
> I always thought of it as one of those fields that end abruptly with
> a forest that starts more or less in a straight line to the north.
> Everywhere else is one of those generic fields with tall grass and
> stuff around the house.
North, dude, AND West. Remember, if you try to go West you meet a forest
so thick you'd need a machete would get you through it (and no such object
in the game, worse luck!).
> Incidentally, does anybody else *always* visualize west as left,
> east as right, and so on, as if the player character is always
> standing due north?
Only when I'm playin an adventure game. :)
> There is a gigantic, slavering monster to the east. Its
> jaws are smeared with the blood of former adventurers,
> and its hands are not so much hands as they are claws
> attached to arms.
Tungsten-Carbide Vast-Pain Claws, no doubt. And don't forget the
Swivel-Shear Teeth, LOL. :)
Glenn P.,
> ...I imagine it as a very big field too ("open field" sounds more than
> just a small clearing)...
Not too big, but big. With a VERY sharp boundary of impassable forest and
hedges directly to the west. :)
> ...and for some reason also tended and in a good condition, even if
> there's no reason for that.
Ditto. (Maybe the Thief moonlights as a gardener!) :)
> Also, I imagine the house as rather large (when you examine the house,
> it says something about colonial style... and that the owners must have
> been extremely wealthy.)
Ditto again, although it is clearly a Reverse TARDIS: Definitely smaller
on the inside than on the outside! :)
Default User
> It seems to me that any alert and reasonably intelligent person
> familiar with "Zork I" who actually FOUND himself at such a location
> would very quickly come to suspect where he was.
>
> (Of course, finding a grating in the woods covered with exactly 69,105
> leaves -- to say nothing of a jeweled egg in a bird's nest -- would be
> a dead giveaway... but that's another story.) :)
A quick peek in the mailbox would pretty well confirm it.
Brian
--
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won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)
Jim Heckel
estate I mentioned earlier in this thread:
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1701/pict0335co5.jpg
And their website:
Anyone else have any pictures of possible candidates?
TheR...@gmail.com
Glenn P., wrote:
> On 07-Nov-06 at 9:56am -0800, <jam...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It seems to me that any alert and reasonably intelligent person familiar
> with "Zork I" who actually FOUND himself at such a location would very
> quickly come to suspect where he was.
>
Try Adam Cadre's "Shrapnel". Pulls quite a fast one on you. (More in
context is its appearance in "The Meteor, the Stone and a Long Glass of
Sherbet".)