xyzzy reference

Video game concept

xyzzy was a magic word in Adventure but seemingly didn't do anything. Since, coders use it in place of unimplemented features & games jokingly reference it

31
games
20
platforms
xyzzy cannot be used in Adventure until the proper actions have been taken first and the word is used in the proper place. Which makes the "Nothing happens" response that mych more of a mystery.
It is in fact a teleport spell.


Historians have noted that Xyzzy may actually have it's origins in the "Wizard of Oz" (the book, not the movie); where Dorthy says "Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!


Xyzzy is a no-op command for several OSes.

Data General's AOS/VS responds to xyzzy to say "Nothing happens" (just like the original game)
On 32-bit architectures it says, "Twice as much happens".

Popular tags

interactivefiction lifesimulation roguelike sims socialsimulation zork zorkverse

Parent group

Computer In-Jokes

Related group

Culture
References the number 69,105

Games by year

7678808284868890929496980002040608 82460

The first xyzzy reference video game was released in 1975.

Infocom, Aspyr and Microsoft published most of these games.

Platforms

Windows 3
Linux 3
MS-DOS 3
Mac OS Classic 3
BeOS 2
TRS-80 2
OS/2 2
Amstrad PCW 1
Tatung Einstein 1
Nascom 1
Mega Drive 1
BSD 1
Mac OS X 1
Amstrad CPC 1
Tandy Coco 1
Apple IIGS 1
HP3000 1
Win3.1 1
Internet Only 1
DEC PDP-1 1