xyzzy

games The canonical "magic word" from the ADVENT

adventure game, in which the idea is to explore an underground

cave with many rooms and to collect the treasures you find

there. If you type "xyzzy" at the appropriate time, you can

move instantly between two otherwise distant points. If,

therefore, you encounter some bit of magic, you might remark

on this quite succinctly by saying simply "Xyzzy!"

"Ordinarily you can't look at someone else's screen if he has

protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-clear the system

will let you do it anyway." "Xyzzy!" Xyzzy has actually been

implemented as an undocumented no-op command on several OSes;

in Data General's AOS/VS, for example, it would typically

respond "Nothing happens", just as ADVENT did if the magic

was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player had performed

the action that enabled the word. In more recent 32 bit

versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds "Twice as much happens".

See also plugh.

[Jargon File]