Please wait...
Hey IG - where's the source code for the text client to be found?
Same as the rest of the system:
Released version is at http://www.citadel.org/doku.php/installation:source
The source code repository is at http://code.citadel.org/
I actually seriously considered trying to set up a text-only BBS which would
allow the playing of interactive fiction (e.g. text adventures) from a command-line
client via a door mechanism. But I really didn't have the technical know-how
to evaluate the security implications of something like that, since the text
mode IF client was almost certainly not designed for that sort of use.
I liked the idea of a text-mode BBS to discuss old school text gaming.
But yeah, I totally would have put TW2002 on there, too.
I liked the idea of a text-mode BBS to discuss old school text gaming.
But yeah, I totally would have put TW2002 on there, too.
Over at Cascade Lodge Citadel I have a shell script that a few of us use that has a few games available:
1. Zork 1, 2, and 3.
2. Adventure
3. Boggle
4. Hack
5. Hangman
6. Trek
and
7. Worm
This can be run by selecting the script at any linux comand line. It also allows execution of a small subset of linux commands and access to Cascade, Dogpound2, and Uncensored via ssh.
The script can also run as a login shell, but I fear security issues so I just don't do that.
--Vince (K2NE)
Let me clarify that just a bit.
You cannot access the script from the BBS, so it really is not a "door game" system in the old original sense.
You need an account on the Cascade Lodge linux box from which you run the script. OR ... an account set up to use the script as its login shell (which, as I mentioned, is *not* currently implemented).
You cannot access the script from the BBS, so it really is not a "door game" system in the old original sense.
You need an account on the Cascade Lodge linux box from which you run the script. OR ... an account set up to use the script as its login shell (which, as I mentioned, is *not* currently implemented).
My game was "Land of Devastation", at one time the original writer was going to port it for the internet but I
don't think he ever did. That was a multi-player game.
don't think he ever did. That was a multi-player game.
I made some nifty stuff Back In The Day that wasn't exactly a door game, but had some amusing results.
I created a room, into which people could leave a witticism or some other such thing that one might find in a unix 'fortune' result.
I would filter out the rubbish (because, y'know, sometimes people aren't with the program), kick off a tool that looked at all the messages in that room, and added the new stuff to a growing file of this kind of thing.
Then, I had another tool create a new MOTD pulling from this collection of stuff every day, so your witticism could show up. I think I had options to pull from the growing file sequentially or randomly.
For the first 20 years or so, our Citadel implementation had the ability to
drop to an arbitrary external program (usually a menu of other programs) defined
by the site administrator. Having grown up in the Unix world I never got
excited about it, not appreciating the work that had to go into "doors" to
make them work over a modem connection. All we had to do was just run a program.
We passed along some information like the name of the user, screen dimensions etc but in our world, stdin/stdout was king already.
Does anyone here remember "Uncensored Underground" from around 1990/1991 or so? That was probably the single most exciting project we ever did here.
We passed along some information like the name of the user, screen dimensions etc but in our world, stdin/stdout was king already.
Does anyone here remember "Uncensored Underground" from around 1990/1991 or so? That was probably the single most exciting project we ever did here.
TW brings back memories :-)
An interactive fiction client or engine behind a door would be really cool.
Recently, I have played with running Citadel and Inform 7 on a raspberry pi... however I never considered a possible connection between a bbs and an interactive fiction game.
An interactive fiction client or engine behind a door would be really cool.
Recently, I have played with running Citadel and Inform 7 on a raspberry pi... however I never considered a possible connection between a bbs and an interactive fiction game.
This is the interactive shell we have running over at Cascade Lodge for folks with accounts on the machine:
===========================================================
Select from the following:
GAMES | BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEMS | COMMANDS
------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------
1: Zork I | 4: Cascade Lodge BBS | m: Show Current MOTD
2: Zork II | 5: Dogpound II BBS | w: Current Remote Users
3: Zork III | 6: UnCensored BBS | up: Full Uptime Report
G: More Games !! | 7: Quartz II BBS | ch: Run Gateway PING Test
------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------
Enter your choice or Q to quit:
===========================================================
It all lines up perfectly in a TTY session (for which it was designed).
--K2NE
And looks HORRIBLE when viewed from the text client!
One of these days I'll do that from the text client so it "looks correct."
One of these days I'll do that from the text client so it "looks correct."
Select from the following:
GAMES | BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEMS | COMMANDS
------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------
1: Zork I | 4: Cascade Lodge BBS | m: Show Current MOTD
2: Zork II | 5: Dogpound II BBS | w: Current Remote Users
3: Zork III | 6: UnCensored BBS | up: Full Uptime Report
G: More Games !! | 7: Quartz II BBS | ch: Run Gateway PING Test
------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------
Enter your choice or Q to quit:
====================
There - nice and pretty ASCII chart!
GAMES | BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEMS | COMMANDS
------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------
1: Zork I | 4: Cascade Lodge BBS | m: Show Current MOTD
2: Zork II | 5: Dogpound II BBS | w: Current Remote Users
3: Zork III | 6: UnCensored BBS | up: Full Uptime Report
G: More Games !! | 7: Quartz II BBS | ch: Run Gateway PING Test
------------------+--------------------------+-----------------------------
Enter your choice or Q to quit:
====================
There - nice and pretty ASCII chart!
and yet the text client still does not recognize "https://"
Support for https:// and even ftp:// was added on 2013-10-04. It just hasn't made it to your distribution yet :)
Recently, I have played with running Citadel and Inform 7 on a
raspberry pi... however I never considered a possible connection
between a bbs and an interactive fiction game.
That's kind of what "Uncensored Underground" was. It was a short-lived but *very* well received project we did back in 1990-1991 or so. The idea was that there was a secret underground network sitting directly beneath the BBS, and you could drop into it and explore and interact and stuff. Sort of like a MUD but *awesomer*
Our old buddy Ygorl did most of the creative work, and I did the programming.
At the time, our Citadel implementation was not yet client/server so I simply hacked right into the database. Underground rooms were actually real Citadel rooms hidden from the main implementation of the BBS. You could "write on the wall" and everything.
Something like that is what CrT (Comrade radical Terrorist) had in mind when he wrote the original Citadel code in 1981. Later on he discovered MUDs and abandoned Citadel, and began work on a mudserver called "MUQ" which became a very powerful platform, but never gained the folksy community feel that Citadels have.
Support for https:// and even ftp:// was added on 2013-10-04. It justWhat is the latest version? The "-v" argument isn't used, according the the package manager I am running
hasn't made it to your distribution yet :)
8.20-1.
dothebart can correct me on this, but I don't think that change ever got backported
to the stable track from which the debian packages are built. I know it's
your pet peeve and hopefully we'll fix that soon; I've got one of my own:
the output of only two lines when you read the list of who is online.
Really the whole Citadel suite is in need of a code freeze so we can push a major release out the door and eliminate the two tracks for a while.
Really the whole Citadel suite is in need of a code freeze so we can push a major release out the door and eliminate the two tracks for a while.
Sun Jan 11 2015 07:34:12 EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensoreddothebart can correct me on this, but I don't think that change ever got backported to the stable track from which the debian packages are built. I know it's your pet peeve and hopefully we'll fix that soon; I've got one of my own: the output of only two lines when you read the list of who is online.
Really the whole Citadel suite is in need of a code freeze so we can push a major release out the door and eliminate the two tracks for a while.
no, I didn't backport anything...
yes, we need to get it done, but we're definitely too late for jessie.