Adam Sommerfield just announced on Twitter that he found, amidst the directories of the Infocom Hard Drive, an unreleased game. The author is unknown.
He managed to compile the source code into a playable game. The announcement video is here, which has a download link in the video description.
UPDATE: The video was taken down, but Adam managed to find the author Tomas Bok who is happy to have the game distributed. A direct link to the directory with all the source code and the compiled game is here.
It seems to be just a test game of sorts, but it is genuinely playable. (I did get a crash — probably an “authentic” one — so beware of bugs.)
“Hypochondriac”? Sounds more like “Malingerer”, from this setup.
Ouch!
What didn’t you like? The video? The game? The code? (Me!)
Pretty sure she is referring to the in person character (and the fact they would be better described as a malingerer, since a hypochondriac thinks they are genuinely sick as opposed to faking it).
Ah ok, thanks!
Jason’s got it right, yeah.
Hi all … Adam here.
Ok so, it turned out that this was an internal test game created by a 16yr old summer intern worker called Tom Bok; working with Hollywood Anderson. It seems after playing with ZIL and Zork he had a natural ability for it; they created a game called ZOK (blending Bok and Zork) which had the in-game name of Hypochondriac. It was never intended for public release, and sat in the USR/WOOD/ZOK directory where I found it 30 years later!
With hindsight I probably jumped too quick, but as explained elsewhere I’m a Fan first and foremost, and in sheer excitement and enthusiasm I goofed and released it to the public when really I probably should have tried to track down Tom and ask his permission first.
As such, although it’s a little moot as the file is now out there, I’ve removed all posts, killed the link and removed the video.
So no, it wasn’t a joke or a hoax, it is a genuine Infocom game that has never been discussed or seen before, BUT as it wasn’t intended for public release I probably shouldn’t have shared it so quickly. My bad!
Now, I will say this, there were some concerns that the files may have contained private/personal info …. It definitely doesn’t. It contains ZIL, objects, routines, totally boring and unexciting to the non-ZILFer!
I’ve attempted contact with Tom Bok and if he responds favourably then I will reshare everything. 🙂👍
Bear with me! Hoping to share it again soon (this time with the creators permission!)
Adam
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Free drugs, a Swedish maid and bored? Obviously wasted on the protagonist in this one.
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