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MC Frontalot - It Is Pitch Dark

MC Frontalot5 HN recommenders · recommended in 5 months, 2012-2026
YouTube
1.2M views · 19 years ago · music · evergreen

MC Frontalot's nerdcore rap about the text adventure Zork, made for Jason Scott's Get Lamp documentary and featuring a cameo by Steve Meretzky. It was filmed over an evening in a basement.

HN shares it whenever Zork or text adventures come up, as a fun tribute for geeks.

Music performance & songsGame history & retro gamingComputing culture (other)#zork#nerdcore#textadventures#getlamp#mcfrontalot

9 comments from Hacker News

@DonHopkins2026 · in “Show HN: I Wrapped the Zorks with an LLM”

In MOOLLM Adventures, you can have NPC characters with entire game mechanics, rules, and playing piece prototypes embedded in them, that can run cooperatively in parallel in the same game! The Grue — The Darkness That IS The Game: link Hint: GET LAMP link MC Frontalot - It Is Pitch Dark: ▶ this video Snorax the Patient — The Wumpus Who IS The Game link Bottomless Pit: link Superbats: link Hunt the Wumpus BASIC source code from 1973 to resolve any rule ambiguities: link With a classic Zork mailbox integrated with the postal system, including junk mail, stamp collecting, chain mail, and offers you can't refuse: link Postal System: link Not to be confused with the Postel System: link

CitesView on HN
@DonHopkins2026 · in “Gas Town's Agent Patterns, Design Bottlenecks, and Vibecoding at Scale”

I take it you never played The Sims? The simulation madness ship sailed 26 years ago, if not in 1986 with SimCity! ;) Palm is a fictional character in a text adventure — same tradition as Zork, LambdaMOO, and every MUD since 1978. The emojis are deliberate (navigation aids for LLMs, actually, and ethical simulated person flagging). The whimsy is intentional. I've been building simulated characters, world and city building tools since before The Sims shipped. This is just the next iteration. You may recognize tributes to many classic simulated characters in MOOLLM. MC Frontalot - It Is Pitch Dark: ▶ this video The Grue monster carries his own game mechanics with him, eating you if you go for long enough in the maze without your lamp lit: grue: link The Wumpus has prototypes for his game playing pieces in his character directory: link wumpus-snorax: link BOTTOMLESS-PIT.yml: link SUPERBATS.yml: link And yes, it works great, and is fun and easy to author, for much less money than Steve's costly "Infinite Number of Typewriters Communicating Via Carrier Pigeon" approach.

CitesView on HN
@DonHopkins2025 · in “Microsoft makes Zork open-source”

If this predicament seems particularly cruel, consider whose fault it could be: not a torch or a match in your inventory. MC Frontalot - It Is Pitch Dark ▶ this video Featuring Steve Meretzky! link

JokeView on HN
@DonHopkins2025 · in “Zork: The Great Inner Workings (2020)”

MC Frontalot - It Is Pitch Dark: ▶ this video >Front geeked around for an evening in a basement in Massachusetts. It got filmed in HD. Then Jason Scott made a whole video out of it. The song and the video are in service of Jason's upcoming documentary about text adventures, Get Lamp, but you get to enjoy it now. Peek the cameo by Steve Meretzky. "Get Lamp" documentary: link Trailers: link Full archive: link Interviews: link

RecommendsView on HN
@musicale2023 · in “Play the first ever text adventure game in your Linux terminal”

Wrong game, but I expect that's the joke! Now enjoy this immortal tribute: MC Frontalot - It is Pitch Dark ▶ this video

RecommendsView on HN
@sandymcmurray2020 · in “Zork source code, 1977”

"You are likely to be eaten by a Grue. If this predicament seems particularly cruel, consider whose fault it might be; not a torch or a match in your inventory." ▶ this video

JokeView on HN
@krapp2018 · in “A funny rap song about the pains of pair programming”

Rap can be as diverse in terms of subject matter and style as any other musical genre. If you want some more "nerd" or parody rap here's some MC Frontalot[0] and Optimus Rhyme[1] that HN might enjoy. [0] ▶ this video [1] link

RecommendsView on HN
@Intermernet2015 · in “Get Lamp”

I feel that this post also needs a link to MC Frontalot's It Is Pitch Dark[1]. Also starring Steve Meretzky. [1]: ▶ this video

RecommendsView on HN
@jmcnevin2012 · in “Indie artist trying to claim his domain name”

For those who aren't familiar with MC Frontalot, might I suggest you check out "It is Pitch Dark," his rap about Zork. ▶ this video

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