Zork on eBook Readers (Kindle, etc.)

[KM3K]

Ars Technica is reporting on a website that allows you to play Zork I-III and Mini-Zork on your ebook reader, like a Kindle. It's actually just a website, but it's been designed to work well on Kindle. It's at http://www.portablequest.com Unfortunately, I have a Nook instead and it doesn't really work in the Nook's browser.

[MacCentris]

That's nice to know. But the fact that it doesn't work for clone devices, makes it clear, that's another attempt from Amazon to get people to buy a Kindle. If I already had one I would of course get the game, but I wouldn't buy the Kindle for the sole purpose of playing the Zork text adventures since I can do that in any computer. I was thinking about getting an iPad for carrying to short trips, there is so much more to do with them than reading books, plus it's full color. As far as I know Kindles are not color are they? To me color is everything when it comes to having a great experience with a device. Sad but true. I'm just driven by color, I just can't see myself enjoying much anything without color. My iBook is fairly tiny (12 inches) and I just love small devices, the ones you can take with you everywhere, in that sense my iBook is perfect for most everything I need, and it plays everything I need.

[Siriusstar]

I love my iPad! I have the 3G version and it goes with me everywhere. It is great to be able to check email on the road almost anywhere and and anytime.

The game I've enjoyed the most so far is 'Osmos'- a beautiful arcade type game. I just got Frotz for iPad recently. I will try to work out a way to get my Infocom games to work with it. (I haven't had a lot of chance to play with it yet.)

[MacCentris]

I am also in that "time" predicament, time is so limited and I'm afraid I wont give the iPad the time it deserves, which is another reason why I don't have one. Alex, my autistic son, is basically my life and the iBook is there for me when I need it. Money is also an issue, if it wasn't I'd get it right away and let my older kids use it.

About the Kindle, well, no color and it will be like that for at least another YEAR o_0 Well, I guess Amazon is not giving the Kindle that much priority... however, today I did see that now Kindles support connectivity with your computer (Windows and Mac) which is an improvement they announced a couple of months ago, but the color is something they'll be working on for the next few months.

I just don't understand. The Kindle has been out for quite a few years (since 2007) and it wasn't until the iPad came out that they "decided" (well, it is more like their customers said - "hey, the iPad can do color!") then all of a sudden "operation color" was an issue. Why would Amazon keep it that way for SO long? The Kindle, an ebook reader that looked like an oversized calculator... and the screen wasn't that big either. I mean this reminds me of the Xerox PARC Alto and how Steve Jobs turned the concept into the Macintosh, while they Xerox had the tools (and were way ahead of their time) they just didn't take interest in personal computing and Steve Jobs just took the lead of the personal computer industry GUI and WYSIWYG. Never seizes to amaze me, because you would think others would learn from that.

[MacCentris]

AND, the Nook wins the color battle: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews ... ag=nl.e539

Is Amazon taking a snooze? What the heck?

[KM3K]

Yeah, but it's just an LCD screen. It is a very nice IPS LCD screen that should give good viewing angles and color quality, but it's still not e-ink. I really like the e-ink screens, because they're very readable in lots of lighting conditions.

That said, I'm really glad Barnes & Noble is stepping up to compete with the Kindle. While I think Amazon is a great company, I don't want only them owning the ebook reader market.