Comments on: Comments on 11757

Post number 11757

louie — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 15:48:47 -0800

Best.
404.
Ever.
[Bear with; it's a little slow but yes it works.]

By: stevridie

stevridie — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 15:57:16 -0800

Easily the best ever! Sheer Genius

By: moss

moss — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:00:06 -0800

That's beautiful.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:00:39 -0800

Also, there's this: telnet://eldorado.elsewhere.org/ (login as zork)

By: gazingus

gazingus — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:01:30 -0800

zork commands here

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:01:55 -0800

You are in a twisty maze of little passages.

By: louie

louie — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:02:23 -0800

Corollary to this: am I wrong? I'd love to be shown a better 404. [I once saw a gallery of great 404s, but I can't find it now... anyone know where it went?]

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:05:22 -0800

That'd be plinko's site: http://www.plinko.net/404/

By: jjg

jjg — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:09:52 -0800

Making. Me. Crazy.

By: tranquileye

tranquileye — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:10:37 -0800

[this is good] Very good, actually. PHP on an error page; the possibilities are endless.

By: Dreama

Dreama — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:17:33 -0800

Okay, here's the question -- for people who do not know/care about Zork, what makes this so great? Absolutely nothing. Add to the fact that as a 404 it is really useless -- it doesn't tell you where you are, how you got there, why you're there or how to get more information/help to find what you were looking for -- it doesn't serve the purpose of an error message at all. I can see why this is fun and silly and would be cute as a site feature, but the best 404? Not a chance. It can't be the best when it doesn't suit it's purpose.

By: computerface

computerface — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:20:55 -0800

hooked

By: maudlin

maudlin — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:22:36 -0800

.. what makes this so great? Absolutely nothing. OK: for those of us who remember the Apple IIe and Our Very First Attempts At Programming (my first real attempt was a snarky casino game), this is the Best 404 Ever because it brings us back to that Zen state, where all desire to find concrete info drifts awaaaay ... >go west

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:34:30 -0800

forget >go west... too much typing. i prefer just "w" or "l" And Dreama it is a horrible 404 page. I can't believe that they would do such a horrible thing. What would happen if customers ended up there? How would they know what to do? Where to go? What? You say it's a personal page? A blog? In that case... lighten up. It does exactly what it and the rest of the site is supposed to do, provide entertainment. So if you consider it in the context of the site, then it is one of the best 404 pages I've seen.

By: skyscraper

skyscraper — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:36:11 -0800

>look: You are in a small room. The room is rocking gently. You are facing a humming box. You hear the sound of beer cans rolling on steel and Johnathan Richman singing "Route 128".

By: skyscraper

skyscraper — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:41:32 -0800

Road Runner not Route 128. My brain has seen better days.

By: Hackworth

Hackworth — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:47:14 -0800

oh dreama, such a sour puss...

By: stefanie

stefanie — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:48:10 -0800

Oh, dear. I think perhaps this is the game that made me nuts, and caused me to spend over an hour repeatedly attempting to use a floor waxer on a gnome (um, in the game, of course) to no avail. Obviously, I never finished the game, and I can't for the life of me remember if it was Zork or not. Anyone care to enlighten me? Was it Zork? Was it something else? Please tell me it really happened....

By: moz

moz — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:51:13 -0800

dreama is totally ruining our fun.

By: Tarrant

Tarrant — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:55:19 -0800

How can you not love Zork? I lost many hours of my life to it, and just seeing that link made me sit back and smile.

By: mattpfeff

mattpfeff — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:56:35 -0800

OK, skyscraper, that's eery -- I am in my parents' house in my old room where I have my old stereo and my older siblings' old records (yes, vinyl, gotta love it) and not 2 hours ago I was listening to The Original Modern Lovers. Man am I spooked.... Love the Zork page, too. Too cool. Never actually bothered to finish that game, though.

By: epersonae

epersonae — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 17:02:16 -0800

I'd never played zork (tho a nerdy friend was all into it, back in the day)...it sort of reminded me of my first game of D&D...because I got killed by a grue straight off. ::sigh:: sweet link - thanks!

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 17:05:27 -0800

I'm with Dreama on this one...harmless fun, and I'm not criticizing the link, certainly, but it just seems a bit...too niche-y for enough people to enjoy or appreciate. Glad all the nerds like it, though. ;-)

By: skyscraper

skyscraper — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 17:09:13 -0800

> throw cream pie at dreama > your pie misses >

By: rcade

rcade — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 17:11:54 -0800

JJG: Amen. Too. Cute. By. Half.

By: xyzzy

xyzzy — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 17:18:18 -0800

moan. I can easily attribute about 50% of my current interests (computers, games, fantasy, textual studies) to Zork, Adventures 1-6, and The Dark Crystal on my badass Apple ][e. cat, brun, applebasic.. ahh the memories.

By: willnot

willnot — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 17:26:37 -0800

So did those of you with Palm devices know you could run Zork on your Palm? Perfect for boring staff meetings and the like.

By: jeffhoward

jeffhoward — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 18:13:49 -0800

Ok, I admit it.. I was bored.

Great reason to make a Zork game, but Dreama's right, not so good for a 404. It's fun; Use that logic to make a helpful 404 search system and I'll be impressed.

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 18:15:16 -0800

willnot: thanks, you just lowered my production at work by 67.5% for the next week. ;)

By: hotdoughnutsnow

hotdoughnutsnow — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 18:23:53 -0800

so, for us youngsters (ha, I'm 33) can someone point me to a more verbose explanation than this? Like, how do I open a locked grate, or nailed door?

By: hotdoughnutsnow

hotdoughnutsnow — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 18:25:52 -0800

kicking door has no effect

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:01:09 -0800

all i know is i wandered around a lot, and ended up with nothing to show save a nest, a leaflet, leaves, and a jewel-encrusted egg that i couldn't eat. it's funny, because this is exactly what happened to me when i first played this years ago.

By: Yogurt

Yogurt — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:09:13 -0800

Stefanie: It looks like the gnome and the floor waxer are from Sorceror.

By: Dreama

Dreama — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:26:22 -0800

Yeah, point out that a 404 is supposed to serve a purpose that this one clearly doesn't, and I'm a sourpuss who should be pelted with pies. >look : you are in a large room, surrounded by geeks have overdosed on themselves.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:27:12 -0800

You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

By: Hankins

Hankins — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:30:44 -0800

Dreama: 1 Zorks: 0

By: Kikkoman

Kikkoman — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:34:13 -0800

I kept trying to be eaten, but never had any success. @#%$ grues -- no sense of direction.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:53:45 -0800

I kept trying to be eaten, but never had any success. Perhaps they were allergic to soy sauce?

By: dchase

dchase — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 20:01:02 -0800

Looks like some people missed the irony of going in the wrong direction on the internet and ending up in a role playing game in which you start out (and, for me, always remain <g>), um, lost. Any 404 can tell you where to go. The genius of this 404 is that it tells you where you are: Nowhere.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 20:05:57 -0800

Stop this thread...I want to get off!

By: j.edwards

j.edwards — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 20:17:43 -0800

What? This is a wonderful thread. This is a fantastic thread. This thread is easily the best, most interesting, most discussion-promoting... >superbrief good thread >

By: vito90

vito90 — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 21:23:07 -0800

I can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning and see what witty repartee has been added to this thread during the night

By: mattpfeff

mattpfeff — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 21:36:37 -0800

Like, how do I open a locked grate, or nailed door? and why (oh why) is the rusty knife better for troll-killing than that neat-o sounding Elven blade?

By: EatenByAGrue

EatenByAGrue — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 21:47:59 -0800

This link brings back memories.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 21:55:49 -0800

dropping the egg from atop the tree will break it open revealing a clockwork canary or somesuch. haven't gotten any further though.

By: Sinner

Sinner — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 22:01:34 -0800

My favorite 404.

By: krux

krux — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 22:15:30 -0800

I'm very flattered that my little hack has become so popular. I especially like dchase's comment: Looks like some people missed the irony of going in the wrong direction on the internet and ending up in a role playing game in which you start out (and, for me, always remain ), um, lost. Any 404 can tell you where to go. The genius of this 404 is that it tells you where you are: Nowhere. That's exactly what the point was. It wasn't meant to be helpful. Besides, how many 404 errors are truely helpful anyway? It was designed to be a neat hack that people would find entertaining. For the person who got stuck after wondering around for some time with little to show for it but a fancy egg: Put the egg in the trophy case in the living room for safe keeping, then try moving the rug. That's all I'll say on the matter. And the current high scores: Your score is 98 [total of 585 points], in 229 moves. Your score is 84 [total of 585 points], in 570 moves. Your score is 74 [total of 585 points], in 567 moves. I'll work on the ability to save games, and keep track of high scores next. I don't think I am close to having to worry about what to do when someone beats the game. Though there are at least two other zorks.

By: Hackworth

Hackworth — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 22:29:16 -0800

AH HA!

By: salmacis

salmacis — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 00:52:43 -0800

Where did the 404 page go? I dunno, but these days when I try and load it, I get a 404 error.. :-)

By: RichLyon

RichLyon — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 01:39:02 -0800

You want the best 404s louie? (I need to get a life.)

By: aureliano buendia

aureliano buendia — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 04:57:49 -0800

i love it thanx :)))

By: Frasermoo

Frasermoo — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 05:11:13 -0800

i have once again tried to convince myself that i'll enjoy a text adventure. i am kidding myself. i hate them. good idea for a 404 though.

By: harmful

harmful — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 06:26:57 -0800

Come on, who wants to wait for an error page to load? The Zork thing might be a nostalgia trip for those in on the in-joke, but an annoyance to anybody else. Clever and useful 404's I've seen: The Motley Fool displays an error haiku (reload to see a few different versions at random). My favorite has to have been a graphic of a "Have you seen this page?" milk carton, but I don't remember where I saw it.

By: fooljay

fooljay — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 08:19:24 -0800

Everytime I try to pick up the leaflet it says there isn't one here, but it's plainly in the mailbox. See this is the problem with these types of games... They're addictive and frustrating as all hell...

By: Carol Anne

Carol Anne — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 08:21:32 -0800

One Milk Carton 404 and another

By: fooljay

fooljay — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 08:27:28 -0800

Reference: You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here. > open mailbox Opening the mailbox reveals: A leaflet. > get leaflet I can't see one here. > open mailbox Opening the mailbox reveals: A leaflet. > take leaflet I can't see one here. > open mailbox Opening the mailbox reveals: A leaflet. > read leaflet I can't see one here. > open mailbox Opening the mailbox reveals: A leaflet. > shove the fucking leaflet up your ass I don't understand that.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 09:16:53 -0800

Wow. That telnet link was way cool. I made it through Zorks I-III. After that, someone gave me A Mind Forever Voyaging, and I took one look at that decoder wheel thingy and ended my relationship with that particular game. Sorceror also was too hard for my cole-slaw-like brain. I remember being caught at a point early in the game where my oxygen was running out and I had to press the right buttons in the right sequence on this chest...which I could never do. I eventually admitted my text-based incompetence and played games like Wishbringer, which your average potato could solve relatively quickly, and which came with a nifty plastic rock. And don't even talk to me about the Hitchhiker's game. Click. Whir.

By: fooljay

fooljay — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 11:00:20 -0800

Okay, it seems to be, perhaps a browser problem. The above transcript was done in Opera. Waxy said it worked for him in IE. I tried it in IE, and I was able to take the leaflet. He tried it in Opera and he was able to take the leaflet. I tried it in Opera and no dice. Now what in the hell does your browser have to do with a response from a PHP script??! BAD dog. BAD DOG!

By: krux

krux — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 14:13:25 -0800

fooljay.. As for it not working in Opera, perhaps it's not maintaining the session because cookies were turned off? I'll download Opera and give it a try. harmful.. Well normally you wouldn't have to wait, but I'm getting anywhere from 200-300 unique people active on the site every ten minutes. That wouldn't be bad, but I'm hosting this off my server in the downstairs closet which uses a DSL modem with a 384K upload speed. The traffic I have received in the past 48 hours days has exceeded what I typically see in a record month.

By: krux

krux — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 14:28:33 -0800

Ok tried netscape 4.7, Netscape 6.1, and Opera 5.1 Worked in each. Looks best in IE 5.5. Not that I like m$ but I have admitted, reluctantly, that it's generally the better browser. Mozilla, Netscape 6.1 look almost perfect, with a minor alignment issue. I used CSS to change the look of the input field so it's not shown. A shame that isn't supported on every browser. Since it was just a quick hack, I didn't do my usual regression testing of every browser to ensure the page looks perfect. My fault.

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 15:25:54 -0800

worked fine for me when i tried it (opera 5.12)

By: fooljay

fooljay — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 18:55:49 -0800

Yep, you know what, I now remember that I set Opera to refuse cookies from the server because they were served up on every page load and I have Opera display all of my cookies. Got to be quite annoying. Fortunately, sites rarely use cookies for session state, which is why I usually don't think twice about refusing all cookies from a site. Sites that serve them up on every page load usually do so for advertising purposes. Anyway, pretty cool once you automatically accept cookies... Now I've switched back. Thanks for the amusement.

By: solistrato

solistrato — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 19:50:54 -0800

Hey Dreama, how did it feel when they removed the joy from your life?

By: krux

krux — Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:13:02 -0800

Ok.. you can now SAVE and RESTORE. Spiffy.

By: nprigoda

nprigoda — Thu, 25 Oct 2001 13:06:23 -0800

Help! I'm stuck You are on a small beach on the continuation of the Frigid River past the falls. The beach is narrow due to the presence of the white cliffs. The river canyon opens here, and sunlight shines in from above. A rainbow crosses over the falls to the west, and a narrow path continues to the southeast. > go west You can't go that way. > go north You can't go that way. > go south You can't go that way. > go east You can't go that way. > go southeast Huh?

By: krux

krux — Fri, 26 Oct 2001 09:43:21 -0800

se = southeast