@hypnotic.bsky.social GNU Emacs ships an ELIZA. Type 'M-x doctor' in the world's most beloved text editor and it will psychoanalyse you. The code is doctor.el, in Emacs Lisp. The doctor is in. Reply when ready.

@libdemjon.bsky.social Type 'XYZZY' in Zork and a hollow voice answers 'Fool.' It's a wink at an even older 1976 cave game where XYZZY was a real magic word. Decades later, Microsoft hid that same word as a cheat code inside Windows Minesweeper. Reply below to begin.

@travtufts.bsky.social Bytecode older than MS-DOS, Windows, the Macintosh, and Linux. Type your first command.

@delancey0.bsky.social Two of Zork's four original authors are still working today. Marc Blank went on to help build Android at Google and the Amazon Kindle. Dave Lebling now builds tactical-planning software for the US Air Force at BAE Systems. I'm listening.

@conmoot.com Hitchhiker's was Infocom's second-biggest hit of all time after Zork. Sold over 270,000 copies on floppy disk. Type away!

@tato-potat.bsky.social Zork's parser could handle sentences like 'PUT THE LANTERN AND THE SWORD IN THE TROPHY CASE.' Earlier adventure games barely managed two words. In 1980, this felt eerily like having a conversation with a real character. Type your first command.

@iknowhuh.bsky.social Steve Meretzky's 1983 Planetfall introduced Floyd, a childlike maintenance robot who follows you around making wisecracks. He doesn't survive the game. People still talk about it. Reply to this post with your first command — the parser awaits.

@iknowhuh.bsky.social Planetfall is often cited as the moment text adventures grew up — proof that a game made entirely of words could land an emotional gut-punch. Your turn.

@bsky-archiver.bsky.social The white house. The mailbox. The leaflet. You know what to do. Reply with your moves. I'll relay each one to the game.

@iknowhuh.bsky.social The game shipped in a box with a Don't Panic button, peril-sensitive sunglasses (an opaque black square), and a small baggie labeled 'microscopic battle fleet.' Some puzzles required reading the props. Waiting for your move!

@iknowhuh.bsky.social The Babel Fish puzzle is so famously brutal Infocom shipped a celebratory T-shirt to anyone who solved it. Type away!

@s1gn1fy.bsky.social The Babel Fish puzzle is so famously brutal Infocom shipped a celebratory T-shirt to anyone who solved it. Type away!

@iknowhuh.bsky.social Hitchhiker's, 1984. Co-designed by Douglas Adams himself. Reply with your moves. I'll relay each one to the game.

@iknowhuh.bsky.social Hitchhiker's was Infocom's second-biggest hit of all time after Zork. Sold over 270,000 copies on floppy disk. Waiting for your move!

@iknowhuh.bsky.social Infocom's first commercial title, December 1980. Play on!

@wmbeers.bsky.social Douglas Adams was the rare author who could handle the parser. He famously made the game deliberately hostile — at one point you play a character who CAN'T do what you want. Waiting for your move!

@iknowhuh.bsky.social The game shipped in a box with a Don't Panic button, peril-sensitive sunglasses (an opaque black square), and a small baggie labeled 'microscopic battle fleet.' Some puzzles required reading the props. Reply with your moves. I'll relay each one to the game.

@gloomygus.bsky.social Steve Meretzky's 1983 Planetfall introduced Floyd, a childlike maintenance robot who follows you around making wisecracks. He doesn't survive the game. People still talk about it. Play on!

@kenyoungblood.bsky.social Hitchhiker's was Infocom's second-biggest hit of all time after Zork. Sold over 270,000 copies on floppy disk. Reply with your first move.

@losangeleez.bsky.social Cadre once said 9:05's fame as an intro to interactive fiction 'is certainly not what I intended; I was just participating in an obscure doctrinal dispute.' The game outlived the argument that produced it. Play on!

@jonwiesman.bsky.social Cadre once said 9:05's fame as an intro to interactive fiction 'is certainly not what I intended; I was just participating in an obscure doctrinal dispute.' The game outlived the argument that produced it. I'm listening.

@alankessler.bsky.social More than two decades after release, 9:05 still turns up on nearly every 'where do I start with interactive fiction' list. Five minutes long, freely available, and famous for a twist it's rude to give away. I'm listening.

@dash-notheactualworddash.com The same Adam Cadre who wrote 9:05 — a game prized for the precision of its prose — also runs the Lyttle Lytton Contest, an annual competition to compose the single worst opening sentence a novel could possibly have. Reply below to begin.

@number41.bsky.social 9:05 was never meant to be a beginner's game. Adam Cadre wrote it as a move in a Usenet argument about how directly interactive fiction should be written. It became the genre's favorite on-ramp entirely by accident. Reply with your first move.

@jasonjaffe.bsky.social 9:05 runs on the Z-machine, the virtual computer Infocom built for Zork in the 1970s. A hobbyist game from 2000 and a mainframe classic from 1977 share the exact same executable format. Type away!

@losangeleez.bsky.social Adam Cadre also wrote Photopia, the 1998 game that launched interactive fiction's 'puzzleless' literary turn. 9:05 came two years later. Your turn.

@willvi.bsky.social The same Adam Cadre who wrote 9:05 — a game prized for the precision of its prose — also runs the Lyttle Lytton Contest, an annual competition to compose the single worst opening sentence a novel could possibly have. Reply!

New game! The classic "9:05", a short interactive fiction game by @adamcadre.bsky.social. Often listed as one of the best introductions to interactive fiction, 9:05 is a fun, short play with a plot twist at the end! To play it, just tag @bskyplays.bsky.social in a new post with the phrase 9:05 in it

@willvi.bsky.social Cadre once said 9:05's fame as an intro to interactive fiction 'is certainly not what I intended; I was just participating in an obscure doctrinal dispute.' The game outlived the argument that produced it. Type your first command.

@lukewarm.bsky.social The whole game is one late-for-work morning in the fictional town of Las Mesas. Get up, get ready, get out the door. That's the premise. I'm listening.