• Zork as a door in Mystic

    From m.bushyager@gmail.com@3:770/3 to All on Mon Mar 11 14:43:50 2019
    Hi everyone!

    My google-fu isn't what it should be apparently.

    I'm trying to get Zork (I, II, III) running as doors in my Windows Server 2008 32bit Mystic BBS build running. I have LORD, Death, Wheel of Fortune, TW2002, and Jedi nights running just fine, but I can't get Zork working. I understand that the games I
    have working already were designed as door games, and Zork isn't a "door game" and requires DOS I/O redirection, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

    I'm using NetFoss v1.20.
    I've followed the instructions in the included with the NetFoss driver that I am successfully using for my other door games.

    When I launch Zork from the door games menu, Zork launches on the server in the
    Node window for the user who launches Zork, but the user never sees the game. I can play/quit the game from the Node window on the server but the user just sits on the Games
    screen in Mystic until the game is ended and none of the I/O is redirected to the user.

    Zork.bat:
    @echo off
    cd c:\mystic\doors\zork1
    nnansi.com
    c:\mystic\netfoss\netfoss.com /m /i /t%1
    _zork1.com
    nnansi.com /u
    c:\mystic\netfoss\netfoss.com /u

    Mystic Menu Command:
    DD "C:\mystic\doors\zork1\ZORK1.bat"


    I've tried with and without using nnansi with the same results.

    If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Zion Sysop

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Todd Yatzook@1:142/799 to m.bushyager@gmail.com on Tue Mar 12 13:10:45 2019
    On 11 Mar 2019, m.bushyager@gmail.com said the following...

    Hi everyone!

    My google-fu isn't what it should be apparently.

    I'm trying to get Zork (I, II, III) running as doors in my Windows
    Server 2008 32bit Mystic BBS build running. I have LORD, Death, Wheel
    of Fortune, TW2002, and Jedi nights running just fine, but I can't get Zork working. I understand that the games I
    have working already were designed as door games, and Zork isn't a "door game" and requires DOS I/O redirection, but I haven't been able to
    figure it out.

    Here's a how-to I wrote on how to get it done back in 2014. I had it working
    in Mystic first before I ported it over to Synchronet for DoorParty. It should work on any BBS package. The setup is the same for any BBS.

    http://throwbackbbs.com/dosbox_howto.html

    Of course, you can always just sign up for DoorParty and connect to the DOS adventure games I have setup already. Each user gets their own sandboxed save game. ;)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/02/23 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: http://www.throwbackbbs.com -\- meriden, ct -\- (1:142/799)
  • From Matthew no@3:770/3 to Todd Yatzook on Tue Mar 12 16:35:35 2019
    On Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at 1:57:19 PM UTC-4, Todd Yatzook wrote:


    Hi everyone!

    My google-fu isn't what it should be apparently.

    I'm trying to get Zork (I, II, III) running as doors in my Windows Server 2008 32bit Mystic BBS build running. I have LORD, Death, Wheel of Fortune, TW2002, and Jedi nights running just fine, but I can't get Zork working. I understand that the games I
    have working already were designed as door games, and Zork isn't a "door game" and requires DOS I/O redirection, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

    Here's a how-to I wrote on how to get it done back in 2014. I had it working in Mystic first before I ported it over to Synchronet for DoorParty. It
    should
    work on any BBS package. The setup is the same for any BBS.

    http://throwbackbbs.com/dosbox_howto.html

    Of course, you can always just sign up for DoorParty and connect to the DOS adventure games I have setup already. Each user gets their own sandboxed save game. ;)


    Thanks for the reply!!

    I stumbled across your how-to during my searching. Unfortunately, DoorParty won't work for me in this situation as this server needs to remain isolated from the rest of the world. (LAN only for me and the other old nerds in my office..hehe) I may spin
    up a publicly available BBS in the near future, and when I do, DoorParty all the way!!

    I may need to resort to using Doorway, but I really want to get it working using only NetFoss. NetFoss should be able to handle it on it's own, and there
    are instructions, specifically for Zork, in the NetFoss.txt help file included with the official .
    zip.

    The fact that I can't make it work is making me nuts.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Todd Yatzook@1:142/799 to Matthew no on Tue Mar 12 20:45:48 2019
    On 12 Mar 2019, Matthew no said the following...

    I stumbled across your how-to during my searching. Unfortunately, DoorParty won't work for me in this situation as this server needs to remain isolated from the rest of the world. (LAN only for me and the
    other old nerds in my office..hehe) I may spin
    up a publicly available BBS in the near future, and when I do, DoorParty all the way!!

    Oh, yeah, it'll work for your local BBS as well. Like I said, I had it
    working on my local BBS, and I just ported it to DoorParty afterwards. So
    it'll work on just a local setup as well.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/02/23 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: http://www.throwbackbbs.com -\- meriden, ct -\- (1:142/799)
  • From nathanael culver@3:712/886 to Todd Yatzook on Wed Mar 13 21:32:01 2019
    DOS adventure games I have setup already. Each user gets their own sandboxed save game. ;)

    I've got the full corpus of Infocom games (minus the V6 graphical ones), all
    of Scott Adams and Brian Howarth's stuff, and currently about fifty other
    text adventures on my board, with more continuously added. Ditto with the
    user sandboxing.

    ╓─────────────────────╖ ╓───────╖ ╓─────────────────────────────────────╖
    *H·U·M·O·N·G·O·U·S* B·B·S nathanael : jenandcal.familyds.org:2323
    ╙─────────────────────╜ ╙───────╜ ╙─────────────────────────────────────╜

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: *HUMONGOUS* BBS (3:712/886)
  • From nathanael culver@3:712/886 to m.bushyager@gmail.com on Wed Mar 13 21:40:21 2019
    I'm trying to get Zork (I, II, III) running as doors in my Windows
    Server 2008 32bit Mystic BBS build running. I have LORD, Death, Wheel

    My system runs on Linux. There's a Linux version of the Frotz interpreter, so setting Infocom stuff up as a door is as simple as executing "frotz
    zork1.dat".

    Checking ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/frotz/ there
    is a Windows compile of Dumb Frotz (dfrotz.zip) which is described as a command-line interpreter that uses standard i/o. if that runs inside a
    Windows command window, maybe that'll avoid have to mess around with
    DOSBox.

    ╓─────────────────────╖ ╓───────╖ ╓─────────────────────────────────────╖
    *H·U·M·O·N·G·O·U·S* B·B·S nathanael : jenandcal.familyds.org:2323
    ╙─────────────────────╜ ╙───────╜ ╙─────────────────────────────────────╜

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: *HUMONGOUS* BBS (3:712/886)
  • From Android8675@3:770/3 to All on Wed Mar 13 08:22:48 2019
    To: m.bushyager
    Re: Zork as a door in Mystic
    By: m.bushyager to alt.bbs.mystic on Mon Mar 11 2019 02:43 pm

    Hi everyone!
    I'm trying to get Zork (I, II, III) running as doors in my Windows Server Games screen in Mystic until the game is ended and none of the I/O is redirected to the user.

    Zork.bat:
    @echo off
    cd c:\mystic\doors\zork1
    nnansi.com
    c:\mystic\netfoss\netfoss.com /m /i /t%1 _zork1.com
    nnansi.com /u
    c:\mystic\netfoss\netfoss.com /u

    I've tried with and without using nnansi
    with the same results. If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Zion Sysop

    I'm on Synchronet, but my IF Infocom games I'm running with a program for Waffle BBS called "WINFOCOM". The program ticks off like 2 of the 4 needs I had for this game, but the important one (user saves) was there so I like it.

    So my big needs for an IF door are...

    1. Users can Save/Restore their game.
    2. Interpret a large variety of IF formats.
    3. Scoreboards
    4. native code or open source or something supported.

    So WInfocom checks off #1 and #3, which ain't bad. I like having a top scores for the month or what have you, and users can save in 10 slots per game.

    Downsides is it only supports v4 of the Infocom Z files, so Zork I and about 20 other games from Infocom are supported before Infocom started using v5. Also modern IF games don't use v4, I found like 8 indie stories on ifdb.org and a translation of Colossal Cave, which is amazing. Colossal Cave with save slots!

    Interested? I could post my .bat file and setup if you like. It's pretty ghetto, but it works. They are 16-bit dos apps, so no Win x64 support.

    Until I figure out how to make a proper .js interpreter for Synchronet, it works fine.
    --
    Android8675@ShodansCore



    ... A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired of thinking.
    --- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.110
    * SHODANs Core - Prunedale, CA - telnet://shodanscore.com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Marisag@3:770/3 to All on Thu Mar 14 04:10:29 2019
    To: nospam.nathanael.culver
    Re: Re: Zork as a door in Mystic
    By: nospam.nathanael.culver to m.bushyager on Wed Mar 13 2019 21:40:21

    If you are on linux you may want to use my fork of frotz so people can't redirect or save/load to the global filesystem....

    Marisa
    --- https://AmigaCity.xyz - Portal for the Amiga - More than 3,500 free DLs
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  • From nathanael culver@3:712/886 to Marisag on Thu Mar 14 22:37:03 2019
    If you are on linux you may want to use my fork of frotz so people can't redirect or save/load to the global filesystem....

    I'd be interested in taking a look, but you didn't provide a link :-)

    I'm using frotz-2.44.tar.gz compiled for Linux.

    ╓─────────────────────╖ ╓───────╖ ╓─────────────────────────────────────╖
    *H·U·M·O·N·G·O·U·S* B·B·S nathanael : jenandcal.familyds.org:2323
    ╙─────────────────────╜ ╙───────╜ ╙─────────────────────────────────────╜

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: *HUMONGOUS* BBS (3:712/886)
  • From Marisag@3:770/3 to All on Thu Mar 14 09:52:42 2019
    To: nospam.nathanael.culver
    Re: Re: Zork as a door in Mystic
    By: nospam.nathanael.culver to Marisag on Thu Mar 14 2019 22:37:03

    I'd be interested in taking a look, but you didn't provide a link :-)

    Oops! Here you go: https://sourceforge.net/projects/frotzdoor/

    Marisa
    --- https://AmigaCity.xyz - Portal for the Amiga - More than 3,500 free DLs
    --- https://amigacity.xyz/index.php/downloads/ourtorrents - Amiga Torrents
    --- https://BBSlist.SynchronetBBS.org - Active BBS List for all BBS types
    --- https://SynchronetBBS.org/OurServers - A list of all our websites
    --- https://gamenet.SynchronetBBS.org - GameNet BBS Network
    --- https://PocketGames.online - Handheld gaming emaulation players
    --- https://SynchronetBBS.org/HostSplash - SBBS hosting for $14/month
    --- Synchronet 3.17b-Linux NewsLink 1.110
    Message from the AmigaCity BBS. Join us at: telnet://amigacity.xyz

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From nathanael culver@3:712/886 to Marisag on Fri Mar 15 11:38:36 2019
    Oops! Here you go: https://sourceforge.net/projects/frotzdoor/

    Ah, I'm intrigued, but unfortunately my board runs on a 32-bit Pi and so doesn't have /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, just /lib/ld-linux*.so.3.

    ╓─────────────────────╖ ╓───────╖ ╓─────────────────────────────────────╖
    *H·U·M·O·N·G·O·U·S* B·B·S nathanael : jenandcal.familyds.org:2323
    ╙─────────────────────╜ ╙───────╜ ╙─────────────────────────────────────╜

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: *HUMONGOUS* BBS (3:712/886)
  • From Marisag@3:770/3 to All on Thu Mar 14 22:51:20 2019
    To: nospam.nathanael.culver
    Re: Re: Zork as a door in Mystic
    By: nospam.nathanael.culver to Marisag on Fri Mar 15 2019 11:38:36

    Ah, too bad...

    Marisa
    --- https://AmigaCity.xyz - Portal for the Amiga - More than 3,500 free DLs
    --- https://amigacity.xyz/index.php/downloads/ourtorrents - Amiga Torrents
    --- https://BBSlist.SynchronetBBS.org - Active BBS List for all BBS types
    --- https://SynchronetBBS.org/OurServers - A list of all our websites
    --- https://gamenet.SynchronetBBS.org - GameNet BBS Network
    --- https://PocketGames.online - Handheld gaming emaulation players
    --- https://SynchronetBBS.org/HostSplash - SBBS hosting for $14/month
    --- Synchronet 3.17b-Linux NewsLink 1.110
    Message from the AmigaCity BBS. Join us at: telnet://amigacity.xyz

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From James Coyle@1:129/215 to Android8675 on Sun Mar 17 20:49:18 2019
    Zork.bat:
    @echo off
    cd c:\mystic\doors\zork1
    nnansi.com
    c:\mystic\netfoss\netfoss.com /m /i /t%1 _zork1.com
    nnansi.com /u
    c:\mystic\netfoss\netfoss.com /u

    Along these lines, there are several InfoCom interpreters written in Python that could be ported to run under Mystic Python probably pretty easily.

    I have no idea how complete they are or if what I am saying is truly accurate but Mystic Python should be able to run them.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Sector 7 (1:129/215)
  • From nathanael culver@3:712/886 to James Coyle on Fri Mar 22 07:49:05 2019
    Along these lines, there are several InfoCom interpreters written in Python that could be ported to run under Mystic Python probably pretty

    There are Infocom interpreters available for pretty much every platform you could imagine -- even a couple of javascript ones and one written entirely in emacs -- so while there's nothing wrong with running a DOS door, it may simplify things to find one directly for your platform instead.

    ╓─────────────────────╖ ╓───────╖ ╓─────────────────────────────────────╖
    *H·U·M·O·N·G·O·U·S* B·B·S nathanael : jenandcal.familyds.org:2323
    ╙─────────────────────╜ ╙───────╜ ╙─────────────────────────────────────╜

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: *HUMONGOUS* BBS (3:712/886)