"Congratulations on bringing
light to the
dark room!"
Also known as
pyramid, one of the many treasures to be collected in the game Adventure (or
ADVENT)..
Because the original version of
Adventure was written in such a way that only the first 4 characters of each word were
significant,
old hands at the game tended to zip through parts by only typing said first four letters. Thus, "pyramid" was shortened to "pyra".
This scheme had certain drawbacks. For example,
north and
northwest were recognized by the computer as being the same command (sepecifically, "north") because the first four letters (
nort) were
indistinguishable. This meant that to issue the "northwest" command, one had no choice but to shorten it to "
nw". Such constructions were poorly documented, leading to some confustion for
newbies.
The pyra was found in a room that was completely dark, and due to a small
entrance, was difficult to get a light into (unless you knew the
secret word). Anyone managing this feat was rewarded with the phrase at the top of this writeup.