Zork crash

[13spacemen]

Zork (zork^k) crashes when going east (e) from the Loud Room. It's supposed to go to the Ancient Chasm I think, but it just crashes and asks user to submit a bug report, then *KILL itself.

In the MDL Zork C++ port https://github.com/jclaar/zork it does NOT crash, and goes to the Ancient Chasm

Isn't the source for both PDP-10 ITS Zork and C++ Zork the same 1981 MDL source code?

Why does it crash on ITS?

Notes for ITS:

I am running Zork in the GT40 which has done GTLOAD^K GT40;VT07 BIN29 beforehand

But even if I don't use a GUI terminal and just use the regular linux bash, it crashes

In Zork, do these commands from start of game:

• n
• e
• open
• w
• w
• take all
• turn on lamp
• move rug
• open trapdoor
• d
• e
• kill troll (repeat till he dies)
• n
• n
• d
• u
• e
• e
• s [we are now at Loud Room]
• e [CRASH ON PDP-10 ITS] {Ancient Chasm on C++ MDL Zork port}

It no longer crashes on ITS if I do "echo" before doing "e", while in Loud Room. Is this behavior accurate? Is it supposed to crash if you don't do echo first? Is the fact that C++ Zork does not crash without doing echo first, a bugfix/change by jclaar?

[eswenson1]

I can debug and fix this. I’ve played through the whole game but not with this exact sequence.

[larsbrinkhoff]

FYI @heasm66

[heasm66]

The Confusion version of this don't have this problem.

If I do the sequence in my version in PDP-10 ITS I get:

>s
Loud Room
This is a large room with a ceiling which cannot be detected from
the ground. There is a narrow passage from east to west and a stone
stairway leading upward.  The room is extremely noisy.  In fact, it is
difficult to hear yourself think.
There is a large platinum bar here.
get bar
get bar
e
I'm sorry, you seem to have encountered an error in the program.
^Z

But, if you do the echo first it works:

Damp Cave
This is a cave.  Passages exit to the south and to the east, but
the cave narrows to a crack to the west.  The earth is particularly
damp here.
>s
Loud Room
This is a large room with a ceiling which cannot be detected from
the ground. There is a narrow passage from east to west and a stone
stairway leading upward.  The room is extremely noisy.  In fact, it is
difficult to hear yourself think.
There is a large platinum bar here.
echo
echo
The acoustics of the room change subtly.
>e
Ancient Chasm
A chasm, evidently produced by an ancient river, runs through the
cave here.  Passages lead off in all directions.
>

[13spacemen]

I remember playing through Colossal Cave ADVENTure (original Crowther version, before Don Woods) on ITS a few months back And there is a crash there too, in one of the later areas, (swiss cheese rocks area IIRC)

Should this bug in Zork be fixed? Or left unfixed to be historically accurate and 1:1? It's not really a huge deal since you can echo, but it is annoying that it quits the game prematurely which may catch people off guard if they haven't saved in a while and end up here without knowing to echo

Thoughts?

[eswenson1]

I think it should be fixed. The “echo” thing is a solution to a puzzle and not necessarily known by a new player (who hasn’t read cheats or been told what to do). Tripping over the bug and losing your game state would be quite annoying to a new user who tried a very reasonable move at this point.

[eswenson1]

I have a fix for this bug and will commit soon.

[larsbrinkhoff]

Fixed by #2212.