Kes - Hunting the Asphynx: Roguelikes, Provenance, and You

NetHack and its associated variants are an incomprehensibly huge spiderweb of ideas: Decades of different programmers refining each other's concepts and code, rewriting each other's ideas, and building on each other's work. It's not a community that anyone could have ever envisioned or crafted intentionally, and that's what makes it so beautiful.
In the midst of this enormous game of programmer telephone, it's easy for wires to get crossed sometimes. What if someone were to, for example, cite a nonexistent book in their source code? How long might it take for someone to notice?
The answer is not measured in years, but decades.

[@Micr0chasm]

That was a really fun talk! I love the idea of coming across something like the Ashphynx and putting time and effort into engaging with it instead of just moving on. Seems like a roguelike-player kind of level of attention to detail. It is also nice to think about how contributing to the roguelike community might mean that your work is seen for decades to come.
I've had somewhat similar experiences trying to track down information about roguelike development, specifically questions about Sil and Angband development.

[@UliTroyo]

Loved this talk, and hearteningly, I don't think you have to convince anyone that stories like these are important. People love their stories about lost media and haunting nostalgia (liminal spaces) and internet mysteries, and all three are abundant here you UA-cam. And about the human-ness! A while back I was browsing through the System 7 source code in the Internet Archive, and found a number of preserved bits of casual workplace sexism in comments. I could just imagine whatever grandpa this person is now cringing at his younger self talking about the "hot new hire" who maybe went on to be a familiar coworker of years. Something about it tickles me. I love when bits of someone's identity are just accidentally left indelible through the ages.