Ya think you know someone...
Nov. 24th, 2004 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcepsaLast night (or possibly early this morning) I discovered that Judy is a far bigger geek than I had suspected. XD Somehow we had gotten on the subject of computers and programming and she told me about how back in high school, she and her group had basically written a game in BASIC for one of her assignments, and we got off on the subject of text adventures that she had been playing back then. I (being the sucker that I am for text adventures) asked her what it was called. She said she couldn't remember, just that it was something about trying to get into a building and that she'd had a hell of a time just getting past the guard from the first room into the second room. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I just wrote it off as coincidence; there must be dozens of text adventures that require you to sneak/break into a building at some point or other, right? Well, as it turns out, later in our conversation she remembered something about it being a government building or something. That was enough to get my curiosity going, because I could also remember a similar game, where you were a spy or something and had to try to get through this building. It was probably about 1 AM at this point, and the smart thing to do probably would have been to go to bed.
Go to bed when I've just discovered that my girlfriend may have coincidentally played one of the same obscure text adventures in high school that I had played when I was in high school? I don't think so! I had to know... so I started searching. I didn't have any luck searching for stuff that she could remember (which was not much--pretty much just that bit about the government building and trying to get in) so I tried looking for some of the things that I thought I recalled from the game--all the time with her on the phone going, "There's no way you'll find it; it was so long ago, it's probably completely gone by now--besides, what are the odds that it's even the same game?!"
As it turns out, she underestimated my search ability and the tenacity of text adventure addicts. As if text adventures were baseball cards containing mazes with twisty little passages, all different, enthusiasts tend to collect them. It took some work, but I eventually did find the name of the game that I was pretty sure was the one that I had played all those years ago: C.I.A. Adventure.
I also found a copy of it.
So here I am, sometime really early in the morning, have to get up around 6 to go to work, and I've just found a copy of a game that she and I may or may not have in common from our high school years.
Naturally I started playing it!
Our conversation for the next few minutes went something like this:
Me: Hey Judy, I got it loaded! Listen to this! "You are on a busy street. You can see a tall office building. Exits are: South"
Her: Ohmygod! That's not possible!
Me: Hehehe, want me to go south?
Her: Hell yes!!!
Me: South... shit. "You are in the lobby of the building. You can see a sculpture. You can see a pair of sliding doors. Exits are: North, South, East, West. The door man looks at your badge and then throws you out. You are on a busy street..."
Her: Oh My GOD, I remember that! I spent days trying to get past that guy!
Me: *trying a few different ways to get past the door guard with no luck*
Me: Hmmm... [spoiler text removed ;) ] "south" "You are in the lobby of the building [the rest of the description, minus getting thrown back out to the street]"
Her: You got in?
Me: Looks like it.
Her: You little shit! Do you realize how long it took me to get past him?! [Note: That was her first experience with text adventures back then--go easy on her]
Me: Tee hee!
Her: *laughing* Don't you "tee hee" at me!
Me: Want me to keep going?
Her: Uh, YEAH!
And so on, with at least one of us going, "Oh, I remember this!" or "Man, I know I got past this but I can't remember how!" or "I can't believe that we've both played this!!!" with every new room we got into. We finally stopped because we got stuck and decided to call it a night--er, morning. It was about 2:30 O:) So yeah, now I'm thoroughly excited that I have someone to play text adventures with--doubly so because she just happens to be my girlfriend. Though if anybody else wants in, we could probably arrange something ;)
I learn something every day... Let's just hope that us trying to play together doesn't turn into my icon for this entry. I guess there are some benefits to living 2000 miles apart XD
Go to bed when I've just discovered that my girlfriend may have coincidentally played one of the same obscure text adventures in high school that I had played when I was in high school? I don't think so! I had to know... so I started searching. I didn't have any luck searching for stuff that she could remember (which was not much--pretty much just that bit about the government building and trying to get in) so I tried looking for some of the things that I thought I recalled from the game--all the time with her on the phone going, "There's no way you'll find it; it was so long ago, it's probably completely gone by now--besides, what are the odds that it's even the same game?!"
As it turns out, she underestimated my search ability and the tenacity of text adventure addicts. As if text adventures were baseball cards containing mazes with twisty little passages, all different, enthusiasts tend to collect them. It took some work, but I eventually did find the name of the game that I was pretty sure was the one that I had played all those years ago: C.I.A. Adventure.
I also found a copy of it.
So here I am, sometime really early in the morning, have to get up around 6 to go to work, and I've just found a copy of a game that she and I may or may not have in common from our high school years.
Naturally I started playing it!
Our conversation for the next few minutes went something like this:
Me: Hey Judy, I got it loaded! Listen to this! "You are on a busy street. You can see a tall office building. Exits are: South"
Her: Ohmygod! That's not possible!
Me: Hehehe, want me to go south?
Her: Hell yes!!!
Me: South... shit. "You are in the lobby of the building. You can see a sculpture. You can see a pair of sliding doors. Exits are: North, South, East, West. The door man looks at your badge and then throws you out. You are on a busy street..."
Her: Oh My GOD, I remember that! I spent days trying to get past that guy!
Me: *trying a few different ways to get past the door guard with no luck*
Me: Hmmm... [spoiler text removed ;) ] "south" "You are in the lobby of the building [the rest of the description, minus getting thrown back out to the street]"
Her: You got in?
Me: Looks like it.
Her: You little shit! Do you realize how long it took me to get past him?! [Note: That was her first experience with text adventures back then--go easy on her]
Me: Tee hee!
Her: *laughing* Don't you "tee hee" at me!
Me: Want me to keep going?
Her: Uh, YEAH!
And so on, with at least one of us going, "Oh, I remember this!" or "Man, I know I got past this but I can't remember how!" or "I can't believe that we've both played this!!!" with every new room we got into. We finally stopped because we got stuck and decided to call it a night--er, morning. It was about 2:30 O:) So yeah, now I'm thoroughly excited that I have someone to play text adventures with--doubly so because she just happens to be my girlfriend. Though if anybody else wants in, we could probably arrange something ;)
I learn something every day... Let's just hope that us trying to play together doesn't turn into my icon for this entry. I guess there are some benefits to living 2000 miles apart XD
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Date: 2004-11-25 10:20 am (UTC)I tried to just blow this one up, but it didn't look good, I was hoping you had a larger copy of this somewhere...
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Date: 2004-11-28 01:10 pm (UTC)Reply to this and pester me if you haven't gotten anything from me by Tuesday O:)
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Date: 2004-11-28 01:28 pm (UTC)(if I wasn't clear it can be the same picture, just not pixely and mildly distorted from having been blow up in size by a shitty graphics package)