Zork in Slack
┌─ NOTICE ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ This post was originally written in 2015 and is very out of date. │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Howdy! Five years ago I built a system called Restful Frotz (yeah, I know, a
terrible name) which gave users the ability to play Infocom games within Slack
(with a plugin system allowing interfaces to other systems). This integration
was initially built as an April Fools joke in 2014 appearing on the tail of the
original public launch of Slack, and here we are five years later, and there are
still many teams playing games like “Zork” daily, with new teams installing the
service weekly.
Below are the original setup instructions to get your workspace up and running
with Zork 1, 2 or 3 using my hosted server (updated as of Feb 2019). Please
have any questions or comments.
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Setup Instructions
Create or choose a channel
Within Slack, choose a channel to play Zork. I would recommend a new channel,
maybe something like #zork.
Create an incoming webhook
- Set the channel to the one you chose above (#zork)
- Give your bot a name (something like ‘zork’)
- Upload an icon for your bot (um)
- Copy the incoming webhook token for use in the next step
- Copy the incoming webhook URL for use in the next step
Build your outgoing-webhook URL
Determine the following parameters:
- session_id - A unique string. I recommend the incoming webhook token you
copied earlier
- data_id - The game you want to play (values can be zork1, zork2 or zork3)
- output-webhook - This must be the incoming webhook URL you copied earlier
With this data, build your URL: https://frotz.tlef.ca/?play&session_id=<your
session_id value>&data_id=<your data_id
value>&handler=slack&output-webhook=<your output-webhook value>
Create an outgoing webhook
- Create a new Outgoing Webhook integration from within Slack
- Select the same channel as in the previous steps (#zork)
- Choose a bot-name and upload an icon (optional, as you’ll only see this if an
error occurs)
- Choose a trigger word. I recommend just using z. (You want something short, as
you’ll need to type it before every command).
- Copy the URL you created above as the webhooks URL
How to play
Using your trigger word (z) in the channel (#zork) you set up will send the
command to Zork. Leaving off the trigger word will not do anything, so normal
discussions can still happen.
For example, to look, type:
┌─ code ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ > z look │
│ │
│ You are standing on the top of the Flood Control Dam #3, │
│ which was quite a tourist attraction in times far distant. │
│ There are paths to the north, south, and west, and a scramble down. │
│ │
│ > Damn! Look at that │
│ │
│ > z south │
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Legalish & Serviceness
I don’t own the rights to Zork, and this integration is not affiliated with or
endorsed by Slack.
This integration comes with no guarantee of uptime, compatibility or support,
and may be taken down at any time. Abuse it and it will simply be removed.