this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
292 points (98.0% liked)

RetroGaming

19617 readers
434 users here now

Vintage gaming community.

Rules:

  1. Be kind.
  2. No spam or soliciting for money.
  3. No racism or other bigotry allowed.
  4. Obviously nothing illegal.

If you see these please report them.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Zork is a text adventure where you enter text commands and then the game responds in text - to describe the surroundings, highlight items or places of interest, etc. Like, the game says "You are in a forest," and you type "go south," and the game updates to tell you what's in your new location. It's like the AI text adventures you see now (which are based on Zork-style games), but with every command and response hand-coded.

The Grues are monsters that eat you in Zork. "You were eaten by a grue" is a common bad ending.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

It's like the AI text adventures you see now

but actually good and written by a human with lots of warmth and humor, unlike the pale AI imitations

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Oh a floppy you are the hero so. Thanks for the explanation.

Edit : but why a non floppy ?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

5.25” floppy disk: information stored on non rigid disc with non-rigid protective covering.

3.5” floppy disk: information stored on non rigid disc with rigid casing.

The newer, smaller disks were also called floppy because the actual disc inside was just as floppy as its predecessor.

I think OP was reluctant to call it their disk a floppy despite it being historically referred to as such

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I always called the 3.5 a "diskette" (or an "A drive" which was incorrect but everyone knew what you meant).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The 5.25 inch floppy disk were actually very bendy (floppy), while the 3.5 inch one was rigid, so I guess that's why OP named it that?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

Yeah. Everyone I knew always called them floppies whether they were 8" (mostly before my time), 5¼" or 3.5". Op was probably just adding for humor or something.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I worked at a university computer lab in the late 90s, and soooo many people referred to the 3.5"ers as "hard disks."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

That one hurt! I don't know if it is because it was so wrong, or if it is because it was kind of logical.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Some people assumed that "floppy disk" referred to the disk's protective jacket, which was neither a disk nor (in the case of these smaller ones) floppy.

It's possible that OP understands that the disk inside is floppy, and is just making a joke.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Essentially artisanal AI. Hand made by proud hard working native developers of old silicon valley.