] FOLLOW WATER

The stream leads to an underground graveyard.  Human remains and bones are scattered about the cavern.

] DIG UP MANDELA

The mandela calls you a racist.

] HIT MANDELA WITH SHOVEL

The mandela is already dead and seems unfazed by your shovel.

] 

It is amazing how few people know that Mandela (and indeed, Ghandi) - made Lennon look like a charming, progressive, and heartfelt individual with the best interests of humanity in mind - even if poorly executed. 

Sun Dec 28 2025 22:29:04 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

As for Mandela, we were always taught that he was some sort of hero, because that's how the folks who control the textbooks paint it.  It wasn't until adulthood that I learned what a horrible, atrocious person he was.  It's a shame he didn't actually die in prison.

It's funny how we reconstruct memories, some of which never existed, but some are a pastiche of other memories.

You inspired me to go looking for a memory that I'm sure I had made up.  I clearly remember, as a small child in the 1970s, seeing the cast of "ZOOM" dancing and singing about Dunkin Donuts.  I can even hear the jingle: "Dunkin doooo-nuts, dunkin doooo-nuts..." and later "dunk 'em in your coffee, dunk 'em in your milk..."   But that couldn't have been real.   With some help from a computer, I discovered that Dunkin Donuts actually did a bunch of commercials with kids wearing the same style play clothes and singing and dancing in the same "revue" style as the kids from ZOOM, promoting those tasty donuts and munchkins.

And so, after almost half a century, what I had assumed was a corrupted memory has had some clarity restored to it.

As for Mandela, we were always taught that he was some sort of hero, because that's how the folks who control the textbooks paint it.  It wasn't until adulthood that I learned what a horrible, atrocious person he was.  It's a shame he didn't actually die in prison.

Agreed. But... I also am not opposed to the idea that we don't understand reality and sometimes we skip timelines, collectively - because our current timeline ends. 

And so, the Fruit of the Loom really DID have a cornucopia at one point - but not in the timeline we are on after they turned on the Large Hadron Collider and ended the timeline when we used to all call dialup Citadels on our 2400 baud modems. 


But I also think that if that is true, there are (or could be) individual forks - and I most likely did NOT survive the bad acid trip in 1985 when I was a strung out punk to become an implausibly wealthy Phoenician with $250,000 of cars in my garage currently shopping around for a C8 Z06. That timeline does not make sense with THIS timeline where I'm posting this on a web based Citadel on my i7 in 2025. There is no real logical life pathway that leads me from there - which is true - to HERE, which is also true - except a split reality. A forked timeline. 

And t

Sun Dec 28 2025 00:50:44 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

There is *usually* a reason for mandela effects. Which is ironic, considering what a douchebag Mandela himself actually was. The idea of him being some sort of folk hero is the real mandela effect.

There is almost a reasonable reason for Mandela effects. 

Wed Dec 10 2025 17:48:31 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

MIT released the "original" Zork (not the trilogy) in 2020.

Before that, there was a "leak" of old Infocom source.

MIT released the "original" Zork (not the trilogy) in 2020.

Before that, there was a "leak" of old Infocom source.

I'm having a Mandela effect about this. I remember them releasing the Zork text adventures into the PD, including source code - 10 years ago. 

Fri Nov 21 2025 16:46:34 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Ironically, considering we're talking about this right now:

Microsoft (who bought Activision (who bought Infocom)) has released the Zork series as open source.

 

They also bought a 3D designer i really liked and was popular in that 'scene' ( both hobby and commercial ): Truespace. It competed against another product they bought.

We all knew it would be killed as it was the better product ( and was shortly after ) We had hoped it would have been opened or at least made free and still available, but no.   So we all stuck with Blender.

Fri Nov 21 2025 16:46:34 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Ironically, considering we're talking about this right now:

Microsoft (who bought Activision (who bought Infocom)) has released the Zork series as open source.

[ https://opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/11/20/preserving-code-that-shaped-generations-zork-i-ii-and-iii-go-open-source ]

This includes the famous "Z-Machine Parser" that powered most Infocom titles.

Ironically, considering we're talking about this right now:

Microsoft (who bought Activision (who bought Infocom)) has released the Zork series as open source.

[ https://opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/11/20/preserving-code-that-shaped-generations-zork-i-ii-and-iii-go-open-source ]

This includes the famous "Z-Machine Parser" that powered most Infocom titles.

Fri Nov 14 2025 14:15:07 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Fun fact: I've never played Zork.

I played Adventure (colossal cave), and a few Infocom titles later on, but I've never played Zork.

The furthest I ever got in a text adventure was Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. They were incredibly difficult. Now Internet Walk-throughs make everything easy. You should go back and complete those bastards. 

Fun fact: I've never played Zork.

I played Adventure (colossal cave), and a few Infocom titles later on, but I've never played Zork.

Also, you guys and your Zork text adventure are cracking me up. 

Maybe I don't need to be a sysop, maybe I just need to be content with being a CITazen. 

Shit... after how long I've been gone, I come back, and a reply to me, on Amiga (probably V4SA) getting a GURU meditation is the last post. It must have been awhile. 
I'm about to drop a blog about updating to the latest V4SA core and updating all my ApolloBoot cores to the latest OS images - and... how great it is. They've really made progress. ApolloOS, an Aros variant - is now itself pretty damn stable and compatible.

FPGA is still the tits. The Apollo guys with Vampire have really made some incredible progress on Amiga FPGA. They're about to drop something called the A6000 - it is just an V4 Stand alone in a 3d printed A600 care with a mechanical keyboard - but it adds easy access to the CF slots and SD card and a few other features - it is pretty incredible - at least, that in 2025 there is still a viable market case for an Amiga compatible clone that runs slower than an emulated Amiga on a Pi 5. 

I just like the retro things. So for me - it is pretty cool what those Germ

> EXAMINE WALLS

There are four of them!  Kind of rustic ... after all, it's a farmhouse.  The windows have basic trim and framing and there are signs of slight water damage.

> EXAMINE FLOOR

The floor is made of wooden boards about 20 cm wide.  Years of wear and poor maintenance have raised the grain and added a few damaged spots.  Some of the floorboards are loose and need repair.

> LIFT FLOORBOARD

Oh, a wise guy, eh?  You think that just because this is a text adventure there's going to be a secret cavern under the floor?

> YES

Congratulations!  You have discovered a secret cavern under the floor.

> DOWN

You are in a crawl space about 2 meters high.  Concrete block walls frame the farm house above.  On the north face of the foundation there are some damp boulders covering what sounds like running water behind them.  To the east there is a gap in the wall leading to what looks like a hand dug tunnel.

> _

Atari for the win.

Wed Feb 19 2025 21:10:36 UTC from SamuraiCrow

 

You see a destroyed Amiga 500 that couldn't have run Farmville without a graphics card and a network adapter in the first place.

 

Tue Feb 18 2025 23:44:03 UTCfrom LoanShark

PLAY FARMVILLE

You just shot the computer, Tex.

 

Inventory

You have a shotgun with expended shells.

look

You see a destroyed Amiga 500 that couldn't have run Farmville without a graphics card and a network adapter in the first place.

You see a floppy disk containing the iBrowse web browser.

You see a manual for iBrowse indicating you need more RAM to run it and AmigaOS 3.1 or newer.

You see an Amiga Workbench 1.3 floppy disk.

You are in a farmhouse.

plugh

You are still in the farmhouse.  The computer continues to flash a Guru Meditation screen.

> SHOOT COMPUTER

The computer explodes in a hailstorm of plastic and silicon as the shotgun blast hits the system cabinet.

You are in a farmhouse.

There are bits of plastic and silicon on the floor.

> _

Wed Feb 09 2022 03:28:29 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

Kickstart 1.3 was so 80's. Kickstart 3.1, now that's 90's and soooo much better. ;-) (Though the flashing system error isn't an improvement over the galloping guru...)

And did it again, this time. 

Tue Apr 12 2022 15:59:08 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

I still translate GOMF into its non-acronym meaning instantly in my head. 

 

I still translate GOMF into its non-acronym meaning instantly in my head. 

since we are talking error codes...

( my 2nd ST always did this on powerup, had to hard reset then it worked fine.  Something to do with the ram expansion i installed that pissed off the bios.. Common 'issue'. 

2099294339@Uncensored

> GOMF

Grab the shotgun with what? 

Mon Oct 05 2020 18:35:49 EDT from zooer

Grab the shotgun and shoot the ranch seasoning.

I walked past a lottery scratch off vending machine.  they have scratch off games that cost $30 to play.  WTF.  

Grab the shotgun and shoot the ranch seasoning.

> W

You are on a path outside the barn.

> W

You are on the other end of the path.  To the east is a wooden barn.  To the west is a farmhouse.  The area is flanked with shrubs on either side.

> ENTER

You are in a rustic farmhouse.

There is a bottle of "Kent Rollins Original Red River Ranch Seasoning" here.

There is a loaded 12 gauge shotgun here.

> 

Bring back Adventure shell.

A barn door closes discretely.

A barn door closes discretely.

YKK

Nothing happens.

"YZZYX"

I don't know where the discussion of elevators was so for the pleasure of Ignat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdTsbFS4xmI

hmmph.  I suppose he's not ALL bad. 

The Donald saves Shazam, gets Mexico to pay for it, and the liberals protest in the streets.

The russian hackers (who are actually in Sacramento) tell you that they have kidnapped Shazam and encrypted her, and to get her back in cleartext you need to give them 1,543 in Bitcoin.

> _

PLUGH!, PLUGH! 

Why 2?  Because I still feel hollow inside.

XYZZY!!!!!

XYZZY!!!!!

XYZZY!

XZZYY!

XZZYZ!

Please transport me somewhere else!

nothing happens

xyzzy!

Pufff!!

You are in a restaurant staring into your bowl of soup. The soup whirls around in the bowl, which the waiter set in front of you just a minute ago. You look up at your boss sitting opposite you. He is about to fire you, in the nicest possible way  - after you have eaten your lunch,

I don't understand that!

> _ 

Sit Coppertone, sit!

The little dog bites you in the butt!

Thanks Zooer. I had previously wiped that from my memory.  I am glad you brought it up again :-)

North: Curly gets his genitals hacked. Curly wakes up in a dark room, dawn is just breaking outside. It is 5:59 am.

6:00am: Curly's pants light up, two nixie tubes start flashing and a cukoo pops out of his zipper: "cukoo, cukoo!"

Curly's head spins off, clockwise, and rolls around the floor, making suprising a convincing impression of a goldfish: (), |, (), |,().

Curly reappears, and tells you that you are clinically insane for not being an asshole atheist like him.

(He's a recurring villain, you know.)

> _

sauerkraut? What am I supposed to do with sauerkraut?

It's about being able to tell whether a mark is or isn't a star on rusty rods....

(Now THAT takes me back....)

You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Thu Jan 23 2014 01:01:34 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

LEWD

Rosie O'Donnell materializes out of thin air.

*SNERK*

(yes, AI can too snerk)

LEWD

Thu Jan 16 2014 07:36:43 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

INVENTORY

You have a yellow pencil.

>>