Renga in Blue: Zork II

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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Jason Dyer is exploring Renga in Blue in a bloggy format for those of you interested in such a thing. Entries:

https://bluerenga.blog/2020/02/20/zork-ii-1981
https://bluerenga.blog/2020/02/24/zork-ii-old-haunts/
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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

(Also, I wonder if we should have support for such a blog writing format on the RFTK site. Right now I have to wait until I am done playing before writing a review, but the kids these days do seem to love the multi-blog post thing. We could always wrap the reviews up in a single post at the end.)
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jbd
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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by jbd »

I'd read it!

Multi-blog posts are nice insofar as I can have people play along, give hints, or point out my errors (before I propagate them too far).

I incidentally use tagging so that you can read all of a game's posts in one go in chronological order.

https://bluerenga.blog/tag/zork-2/?order=ASC

(I'm not done with Zork II yet as of the time of this writing, but the above link is future-proofed.)

If you just want to binge everything (each link reads all the posts about a game even when there are multiples)

https://bluerenga.blog/all-the-adventures/

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bryanb
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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by bryanb »

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 8:24 am (Also, I wonder if we should have support for such a blog writing format on the RFTK site. Right now I have to wait until I am done playing before writing a review, but the kids these days do seem to love the multi-blog post thing. We could always wrap the reviews up in a single post at the end.)
That definitely might be worth considering! I do like the idea of providing a running commentary as one completes a long game. That's kind of the idea behind my Scapeghost thread (which is still an active project notwithstanding appearances). If we create a different category for multi-blog posts I might be able to keep the author pages as review index pages with a few tweaks to the PHP. (Tweaking the PHP is always an interesting process considering I don't actually know PHP.) Or I guess we could use alt accounts for the multi-blogging stuff. Unfortunately, I think my little homages to the old site like the author index pages and the essays-as-pages-not-posts thing have just made everything more cumbersome and less conducive to content production. Does that mean I actually want to change anything? Not really, but I could certainly be persuaded.

It's great to see JD here! His august presence has reminded me add a link to Renga in Blue on RFTK. I genuinely always meant for it to be linked because it's a great site. I just forget things sometimes. Probably the best proof of that is that all this also somehow reminded me to link to The Digital Antiquarian. Much as he does every other day, Jason had just one goal today: to not promote Filfre in word, thought, or deed. Now I've ruined that for him. Sorry man :(.

Admittedly, this would be funnier if you couldn't immediately jump over to The Digital Antiquarian's latest post and proceed to read Jason's thoughts on Myst parodies in the comments section.

jbd
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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by jbd »

? Not sure if you're trying to establish an east coast-west coast rivalry or something, but I have referred to Maher's blog quite a few times, and the first post on Zork II links to it twice. We also coordinated once both posting on Star Trek 25th Anniversary at roughly the same time (Before Adventure took a little longer than I expected so I missed the target slightly). We're "in" different years so there's not a lot of overlap.

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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by bryanb »

jbd wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 5:06 pm ? Not sure if you're trying to establish an east coast-west coast rivalry or something, but I have referred to Maher's blog quite a few times, and the first post on Zork II links to it twice. We also coordinated once both posting on Star Trek 25th Anniversary at roughly the same time (Before Adventure took a little longer than I expected so I missed the target slightly). We're "in" different years so there's not a lot of overlap.
Yeah, maybe I'm just detecting a rivalry that has never really existed. It just seems to me like there are very few people on the Internet who have educated more people about interactive fiction history than you and Jimmy M. over the years. I know I can always go to your site, click around a bit, and find an obscure 80s adventure game I've never heard of before and know I need to play no matter how bad the parser. And I know that pretty much every search I make on some topic in interactive fiction history will involve a visit to The Digital Antiquarian at some point and that the content there will be well-researched and exhaustive in detail and scope. You guys have very different approaches and styles, but you're two of the best at what you do. How could you not hate each other?! Maybe hate is too strong a word, but surely there's a slight Shaq-Kobe, Leibniz-Newton, and Tesla-Edison type of dynamic to your relationship? Well, maybe not. I guess I'll just have to take your word for it, but I'll probably just assume all the hate is coming from Maher's end unless he chimes in here too.

It still might be a good idea to some conflict for the controversy and the clicks. I tried to get a faux rivalry going with Baf back in the day, but I don't think he ever noticed. I guess I'll just have to try harder!

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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by jbd »

Nope, no drama. Sorry to disappoint.

If you really are dying for some early-computing-history drama, try these articles from Brian Dear (who spent many years researching the PLATO system and published The Friendly Orange Glow).





I'm honestly not sure what to think? But it's got the drama.

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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by Jizaboz »

As someone from Best Carolina I can confirm that I'm probably 1 out of 10000 people at best in a 200 mile radius that finished Zork II with the help of a walthrough 20+ years ago.
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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by Jizaboz »

jbd wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 9:08 pm Nope, no drama. Sorry to disappoint.

If you really are dying for some early-computing-history drama, try these articles from Brian Dear (who spent many years researching the PLATO system and published The Friendly Orange Glow).





I'm honestly not sure what to think? But it's got the drama.
Wow, ain't this a perfect example of "People who think they are important talking to people who think they are important and getting all bent out of shape over trifling BS the think is important"?
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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

jbd wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 12:47 pm I'd read it!

Multi-blog posts are nice insofar as I can have people play along, give hints, or point out my errors (before I propagate them too far).

I incidentally use tagging so that you can read all of a game's posts in one go in chronological order.

https://bluerenga.blog/tag/zork-2/?order=ASC

(I'm not done with Zork II yet as of the time of this writing, but the above link is future-proofed.)

If you just want to binge everything (each link reads all the posts about a game even when there are multiples)

https://bluerenga.blog/all-the-adventures/
Hey, great to see you here! I really could read you blog about old games forever. I think the side thing that is interesting is that my memory is losing a lot of "detail" when it comes to Infocom. For instance:

- I knew there was a room that "spun" you in a direction and I think it was the Round Room or Carousel Room but couldn't remember until I read your post.
- I knew the "worst puzzle in Zork" was in Zork II, but I couldn't remember if it was the Bank of Zork or the curtain of light or other details.
- I remembered that the Wizard of Frobozz had spells that started with F and that at least one of them actually helped you, but I forgot that it was the "Fireproof" spell that did it.

Getting a chance to read in detail what it is like to play the game is awesome. I used to think that Zork II is the better Zork game than the first one IF you played the first one (if you came in cold, I'd still go with Zork I) but now I am not so sure, I think maybe Zork I is the undisputed champ of Zork games.
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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by Jizaboz »

Yes, jbd excellent blog! I thought have mentioned that earlier.

I keep meaning to play through giant mainframe Zork one day. I got "The Lost Treasures of Infocom" when I was 14 or so a few months after buying and beating Return to Zork (floppy disk version). Before that I had only heard of this legendary game.. which is why I bought RTZ. Still have those maps and both the books that came with Lost Treasures. Zork I was definitely the first I played through out of the box.
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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by Roody_Yogurt »

Sadly, I am out of date on all of these blogs, but yeah, I have really enjoyed Renga in Blue's angle.

Also, the other day, the Myst Digital Antiquarian post showed up in my Google News feed. I was like, wow, Jimmy's really made it.

Funnily enough, I have no ill will towards the Bank of Zork puzzle as it was one of the only puzzles I actually solved on my own, and I think some non-US players might hate a different puzzle more.

Zork II is the Pitfall II of Zorks- adding some more popcorn adventure. Really cool, too, how it gets an extra layer of cool by the way you "revisit" it from a couple other games.

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Re: Renga in Blue: Zork II

Post by Jizaboz »

Roody_Yogurt wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2020 11:51 pm Really cool, too, how it gets an extra layer of cool by the way you "revisit" it from a couple other games.
I loved that aspect of Zork II as well! In contrast.. I can only imagine the groans of veteran Zork players that played RTZ and made it to Flood Control Dam #3. While the graphics of the area are pretty tight, it in now way comes close to depicting the massive area that this was in Zork I.
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