Welcome to
Modernism.
This mailware game enables you to experience all the frustration and boredom of modernist drama, without leaving your computer.
Modernism
A Text-Adventure MailWare Game
by Jacob Weinstein
based on the works of Samuel Beckett and Jean-Paul Sartre
Version 1.0
Copyright (c) 1993 by Jacob Weinstein. All Rights Reserved.
Developed with TADS: The Text Adventure Development System.
Although choice is an illusion, your options are:
1) See the legal details of MailWare
2) Play "Waiting for Godot"
3) Play "No Exit"
4) Quit
Enter 1, 2, 3, or 4: 2
If you become bored with this setting, and would like an opportunity to revise your decision, type "restart."
Unfortunately, this option is not available in real life.
A Vast Plain
You are on a vast, featureless plain.
>s
A Barren Wasteland
You are in a place without hope.
You see a leafless tree here.
>look at tree
The barrenness of the leafless tree serves only to heighten the emptiness of your surroundings.
>inventory
You are empty-handed.
>w
Ditch
You are standing in a muddy ditch.
>n
A Vast Plain
You are suddenly struck with amazement at the thought that pretentious intellectuals will pay good money to go to the theater and experience this sort of ennui.
>s
You do not move.
You suddenly realize that life is a meaningless wasteland in which we all stand alone, and redemption is only to be found in meaningless acts of kindness, such as sending large sums of cash to the author of this game.
>wait
Time passes...
You think for a moment you spy Godot, but it is only a trick of the fading light. There is no one there.
>wait
Time passes...
A small boy appears. "Go east twice, and west once, and Godot will meet you there," he instructs you. He leaves as suddenly as he came.
>wait
Time passes...
A small boy appears. "Godot cannot come tonight," he says apologetically, "but he will be here tomorrow." He leaves as crypticly as he appeared.
>wait
Time passes...
Lucky and Pozzo pass by you, moving swiftly. Within moments, they have vanished into the horizon.
>wait
Time passes...
You wonder for a moment if you are Vladimir or Estragon.
>wait
Time passes...
It occurs to you that you are both Vladimir and Estragon, as are all men.
>wait
Time passes...
A large, hearty man appears, tugging a thin, sickly man at the end of a rope. "I am Pozzo," the large man proclaims. Then he leaves you.
>
Your silence speaks volumes.
(restart)
A Barren Room
You are in an room which you recognize as Hell. Strangely, even your fellow sufferers seem absent.
>w
There is no exit.
>e
There is no exit.
>n
There is no exit.
>s
There is no exit.
>help
The word "help" is a meaningless construction that refers only to other words.
>quit
You have not gotten any points. This makes you a Christ symbol.
Do you really want to quit? (YES or NO) > no
Okay.
>quit
You have not gotten any points. This makes you without hope.
Do you really want to quit? (YES or NO) > n
Okay.
>quit
You have not gotten any points. This makes you baffled.
Do you really want to quit? (YES or NO) > n
Okay.
>quit
You have not gotten any points. This makes you impressed by the intellectual superiority of the author.
Do you really want to quit? (YES or NO) > n
Okay.
>quit
You have not gotten any points. This makes you question the existence of God.
Do you really want to quit? (YES or NO) > n
Okay.
>quit
You have not gotten any points. This makes you aware of the meaningless of life.
Do you really want to quit? (YES or NO) > yes
(The game has ended.)