If that nonsense word brings a nostalgic smile to your face then you are not only a computer geek but an old one and you will recognise this sentence

You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.

For the uninitiated XYZZY was the "magic word" in the first truely pervasive computer game, "Adventure" and that sentence is the start of a game that will lead you through a mysterious cave in search of precious items and adventure.

Adventure was initially deployed on a DEC PDP 10 but soon it could be found on most computer platforms (PCs weren't invented at the time this game originated); it was purely a text based system and relied on the fertile imagination of the players to supply the graphical images.

The software was based on the latest artificial intelligence software techniques available at the time and could interpret sentences typed by the user. The player typed in instructions which the computer interpreted and responded with a written description.

For those of you who are the veterans of the geekdom, like The Green Man himself, you can find some very nostalgic material on the history of this game at http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/a_history.html or if you would like to reenter the cave one last time click here.

(via j-walk)