MultiZork Release Notes
Lobby

Jermbob server fork

What changed beneath the white house?

This server began with MultiZork 0.0.9. The identifiers below preserve that origin and add a jb suffix for the Jermbob fork.

Current server release: 0.0.9-jb.18

0.0.9-jb.18

One invitation desk for every private service

  • Added Skippy AI to the existing administrator-only account invitation page alongside MultiZork and Audiobookshelf.
  • Skippy AI invitations are single-use, expire after seven days, and let recipients create their own private login.
  • Kept the Authentik administrative credential on Skippy AI behind a narrowly restricted private invitation broker; it is never sent to the browser or stored in MultiZork.

0.0.9-jb.17

Phone adventurers reach the dungeon

  • Fixed game creation, joining, returning, and invitation acceptance when players sign in through a different supported MultiZork hostname.
  • Game transitions now remain on the hostname that owns the player's login, preventing valid launches from becoming misleading 404 pages on phones.
  • Added a Continue game setup button for owned games left waiting when an earlier launch could not connect.
  • Kept shared invitations on the preferred public address while making authenticated play navigation same-origin.

0.0.9-jb.16

The glitch stays behind the glass

  • Moved the cyberpunk scanline and VHS distortion layers behind every readable interface panel instead of laying them over text.
  • Made the main access banner stable, opaque, and high-contrast while preserving animated glitches in the skyline, grid, rain, and background.
  • Removed chromatic splitting from headings and controls, reduced terminal glow, and increased panel opacity.
  • Enlarged tiny network, advertisement, threat-meter, radio, status-bar, and crawl text for easier reading.

0.0.9-jb.15

The Great Underground Grid comes online

  • Added a complete account-saved 80's Cyberpunk appearance template across the lobby, games, guides, profiles, Goodies, and release notes.
  • Built an animated neon skyline and perspective grid, CRT scanlines, digital rain, glitch typography, chrome-edged panels, pulsing controls, and a live GUE network crawl.
  • Added responsive network-control and advertising rails for Lantern//88, Flathead Cybernetics, Grue//Watch, underground synth radio, node status, and threat meters.
  • Restyled the game terminal and chat as high-contrast cyan phosphor displays while preserving each user's selected font and readable central layout.
  • Collapsed the cyberpunk HUD into compact stacked modules on phones and respected reduced-motion preferences.

0.0.9-jb.14

Aliens invade the GeoCities ticker

  • Moved the scrolling news ticker out of the bottom edge and placed it between the retro advertising area and the welcome sign.
  • Tripled the ticker's 1990s nonsense with cursor trails, download estimates, Netscape bookmarks, ICQ hours, broken images, hotlink warnings, FrontPage Express, and more dubious webmaster announcements.
  • Added two animated dancing aliens to the Zork advertisement rail.
  • Kept the new arrangement responsive so the ads, aliens, ticker, and welcome sign retain the same order on phones.

0.0.9-jb.13

The Great Underground Empire gets a GeoCities page

  • Added a complete 90's GeoCities appearance template that follows the user's account across MultiZork pages.
  • Rebuilt the whole visual language with a starfield background, neon text, beveled borders, classic gray form controls, visitor counter, Zork webring badges, animated navigation, and an always-scrolling news ticker.
  • Added crowded but useful side rails with direct links to the lobby, commands, maps, manuals, Goodies, release notes, and group-play help.
  • Added ridiculous fake Zork advertising for grue protection, mailboxes, lantern advice, 56K modems, and perpetual construction.
  • Made the font selector intentionally unavailable for this template because the webmaster has already chosen the period-correct font.
  • Kept the central lobby and game terminal readable on desktop and collapsed the side rails into compact navigation strips on smaller screens.
  • Respects reduced-motion browser preferences while preserving the theme's colors and layout.

0.0.9-jb.12

Appearance settings stay in their place

  • Removed the appearance gear from the public entry page and signed-out login screen.
  • Placed the gear directly beside Player Portal in the authenticated lobby header.
  • Fixed the complete lobby header in place so the label and gear remain together instead of the gear floating over games and chat while scrolling.
  • Added regression coverage for public, signed-out, and authenticated states plus a real browser layout check that verifies unchanged header and gear coordinates after scrolling.
  • Updated the shared asset versions across MultiZork pages so browsers receive the corrected behavior without retaining an older cached settings script.

0.0.9-jb.11

Jermbob's Place gets a front door

  • Added the custom jermbobsplace.com domain with Cloudflare Tunnel, automatic TLS, and HTTPS-only redirects.
  • Published MultiZork at multizork.jermbobsplace.com, Audiobookshelf at audiobooks.jermbobsplace.com, and the Discord book-request list at requests.jermbobsplace.com.
  • Kept all existing tail59fc40.ts.net game, invitation, reconnect, and audiobook URLs working for backward compatibility.
  • Updated newly generated game and account links, audiobook setup instructions, and Homepage shortcuts to prefer the custom domain.
  • Added an isolated Cloudflare connector to Kubernetes without opening router ports and restricted its MultiZork access to the gateway port only.

0.0.9-jb.10

The Wizard enters beta

  • Added Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz as a clearly marked single-player beta in the lobby.
  • Zork II Beta games save, resume, and appear beside Zork I games in the existing Saved Games section.
  • Runs Zork II in an isolated, resource-limited engine with separate save storage so beta failures cannot damage Zork I adventures.
  • Added the officially released MIT-licensed Zork II story source build and attribution.
  • Fixed Zork II Beta games disconnecting before the opening screen, removed the unnecessary private save-link panel, and clarified the beta description in the lobby.
  • Removed Zork I multiplayer invitations and waiting-room copy from Zork II Beta games; Zork II now begins immediately with beta-specific information.
  • Added Zork II treasures, enemies, story milestones, and completion badges to player Accomplishments profiles.
  • Added Zork III: The Dungeon Master as a single-player beta with isolated saves, lobby save/resume support, beta-specific copy, and its own resource-limited engine.
  • Added Zork III discoveries, major puzzle milestones, Dungeon Master encounters, and completion badges to player Accomplishments profiles.
  • Added a members-only Goodies page where signed-in MultiZork users can create a restricted Audiobookshelf listening account and listen in a browser or phone app.
  • Audiobook accounts require either an existing MultiZork login or a dedicated single-use, seven-day audiobook invitation; audiobook passwords are sent directly to Audiobookshelf and are never stored by MultiZork.
  • Members can choose their own Audiobookshelf username during account creation instead of being assigned their MultiZork username.
  • Added browser-or-app listening choices plus a phone setup guide using the Audiobookshelf app's Server screen, the correct server address, and step-by-step login instructions.
  • Published Audiobookshelf at its own public HTTPS address and corrected the phone guide so invited listeners can connect without joining Tailscale.
  • Corrected provisioned Audiobookshelf accounts so they are active immediately and can sign in with the password chosen in the portal.
  • Aligned and compacted the Start a Game controls, removed the unnecessary Zork I description, and kept beta notes available only when Zork II or III is selected.
  • Added a trilogy Maps page with preserved guide maps for Zork I, II, and III, including a clear spoiler warning.
  • Added a Manuals page with the original manuals for all three Zork adventures and expanded the command guide with sequel-useful parser forms and the trilogy's shared recognized verbs.
  • Grouped Maps, Commands, and Manuals together in the lobby tools for quicker reference.
  • Added account-saved appearance settings on every page, opened from a gear button, with four classic color templates, custom colors, four font choices, live preview, and a reset option.
  • Fixed Lobby header buttons retaining cached default colors instead of following the selected appearance.
  • Added an Audiobook User Invites button to the Homepage dashboard, linking administrators directly to the secure single-use audiobook account invitation generator.
  • Kept audiobook invitation and invitation-management pages separate from the MultiZork Lobby by removing Lobby navigation and adding a regression check for recipient links.

0.0.9-jb.9

The party stays in the same story

  • Fixed grouped players becoming stuck after another party member moved.
  • Fixed the open kitchen window appearing boarded or refusing entry for the next player in turn.
  • Grouped movement now synchronizes both the location global and each player object’s parent room while preserving individual identity and inventory.
  • Late joiners now receive a valid current-room player object before taking their first turn.
  • Reserved late-join placeholders now remain off-map, invisible, and outside the party until a real player claims the slot.
  • The game command field now supports terminal-style Up and Down arrow history, including restoration of an unfinished draft.
  • Online player names now open achievement profiles with high scores, treasures discovered, enemies encountered, story milestones, and shared credit for group accomplishments.
  • Fixed stale lobby files preventing online player names from opening achievement profiles.
  • Fixed the winning Stone Barrow turn crashing the game service and rolling the adventure back to its previous save.
  • Completed games now close gracefully, auto-archive with a Won status, and no longer suggest reconnecting.
  • Corrected Troll victory recognition for the game's actual fatal-blow messages.
  • Reconnect codes echoed during a join are ignored instead of being passed to Zork as gameplay commands.
  • Strengthened fatal-error containment so one damaged game cannot restart the whole server.
  • Corrected custom respawn and ghost values for Zork’s big-endian storage format.

0.0.9-jb.8

Guides, status, and housekeeping

  • Added in-lobby links for the map, command guide, original manual, group-play handbook, Discord, and these release notes.
  • Added live Homepage cards for accounts, online players, active games, saved games, archived games, and backup age.
  • Corrected saved-game totals so unfinished empty lobbies are not counted.
  • Added automated backups and a private GitHub infrastructure backup.

0.0.9-jb.7

The afterlife update

  • Added three death choices: rejoin a living player, use the normal forest respawn, or return as a ghost.
  • Made rejoining a living player the default; solo players fall back to the normal forest respawn.
  • Ghosts rise where they died, cannot manipulate physical objects, and can pass through closed or locked doors while independent.
  • Added ghost light controls and eerie-whisper chat, plus a custom haunting message.
  • Living party members keep normal movement restrictions when grouped with a ghost.

0.0.9-jb.6

All for one and one for all

  • Added optional Group Movement: party members share location and story output while taking turns.
  • Added leave group, return to group, join party, and join party member <name>.
  • Hosts can allow or disable party changes before starting.
  • Players joining an active game arrive beside a randomly selected active player.
  • Independent play remains available for classic MultiZork-style exploration.

0.0.9-jb.5

Games that remember

  • Added Back to Lobby without abandoning the adventure.
  • Players can return to an active game from the lobby.
  • Empty adventures move into Saved Games and can be resumed later.
  • Game creators can archive completed or retired saves in the Archived folder.
  • Removed the extra resume URL; each adventure now uses one stable game link.

0.0.9-jb.4

The community lobby

  • Added a persistent public lobby chat and user-created public chatrooms.
  • Chat history is retained, and the lobby shows who is online or currently playing.
  • Added a Discord shortcut and Discord notifications when a new account is created.
  • Added Logout and simplified game creation to public games only.

0.0.9-jb.3

Accounts and invitations

  • Added usernames, passwords, login sessions, and one-use registration invitations.
  • Logged-in players can create games, discover open games, and join them from the lobby.
  • A game link sends existing users directly to the game and returns new users there after login.
  • Players may join after go instead of requiring a full party at the start.

0.0.9-jb.2

Everyone hears the story

  • Shared complete Zork responses with grouped players, not only notices about another player’s actions.
  • Added Chat: <message> for conversation without advancing the game.
  • Improved reconnect behavior and reduced browser disconnections.
  • Removed placeholder late-join player names and noisy connection messages from story output.

0.0.9-jb.1

Jermbob’s server goes public

  • Wrapped the original telnet game in a browser interface and added Jermbob server branding.
  • Published the service through a secure Tailscale Funnel address for invited players outside the home network.
  • Simplified the waiting-room text, removed legacy onboarding prompts, and added a clear share link.
  • Added health checks, connection limits, monitoring, alerting, and recurring game-data backups.

MultiZork 0.0.9 remains the foundation. The -jb.N releases describe changes made specifically for Jermbob’s MultiZork Server.