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From: svanegmo@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Stephen van Egmond)
Subject: Re: Zork games as text files
Message-ID: <DDsEyy.GCs@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>
Keywords: Z-machine, UNIX, marmosets
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Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 23:37:46 GMT
Lines: 38


Your best option is to take the data files for the various Zork games and
apply a disassembler (e.g. TXD available in the ztools distribution at
gmd) to them.  This will give you the Z-code assembly language, which
wouldn't be useful, but will also give you lots and lots of text.  The
text relating to the parser will be jumbled up in rather obscure ways, but
things like room and object descriptions, as well as a great many retorts
and curiosities can be found in the text tables that are to be found at
the end of most disassemblies. 

For example, I just did

txd zork1.data | more

And in the middle of a block of z-code I see the following:

PRINT_RET "The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of 
the arth.  Its favorite diet is adventurers, but its insatiable appetite 
is tempered by its fear of light.  No grue has ever been seen by the 
light of day, and few have survived its fearsome jaws to tell the tell."

Which is presumably in answer to the question WHAT IS A GRUE.

Just below that, is a message:

PRINT_RET "There is no grue here, but I'm sure there is at least one 
lurking in the darkness nearby.  I wouldn't let my light go out if I were 
you!"

Which I have never seen before but is probably an answer to FIND GRUE.

Later on the screen, there's the smart remark, "Auto-cannibalism is not
the answer." which you can probably earn with BITE ME.  Again, I've never
that in the middle of a game, but there it is.

Is this the sort of thing you were talking about?

/Steve
