All Hail Ben Burry’s Prakbot
by danhon
So my mate Ben, senior uber developer at Mind Candy has written this here thing called PrakBot.
It goes a bit like this:
- Take, say, Skype
- (in fact, don’t take Skype. Its API is pants and requires you to run a fucking client, the full client, in order to do anything. Use something more sensible, like Jabber)
- Have Ben “accidentally” hook Skype up to, say, a Z-machine interpreter.
- If you know what a Z-machine interpreter is, then you’re probably wetting your pants right now.
- “Accidentally” come across a copy of the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Z machine file
- Let it loose in the office
- Give it a weekend
- Have Ben re-implement the whole thing in something slightly saner, like, say, XMPP
You get The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy over Jabber. Or, really, any Z-machine game. HA!