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This is part of a thread from alt.folklore.computers, between November 26 and December 8, 1990.
Rick Smith claims that "an extended form with new rooms and puzzles was
produced by Eric Roberts while at BBN around 1980." I don't know anything
about this version. Further down, Bernie Cosell challenges the Roberts
claim as well: Roberts was their D&D DM, but didn't code any "Adventure"
variants.
Art Evans worked at BBN contemporary with Crowther. He had a transcript
of some Long-descended game "in December 1982 on a DEC-20".
Robert E. Seastrom adds: "It should be noted that the UChicago version of
Adventure is specific to certain types of DEC hardware (probably '10 or '20,
but I do recall playing it on the 11/55 at Delta years ago)."
Paul Evans links to comp.sources.games/volume9/adven (that is, ANON0501).
Nothing directly relevant to Long or LONG0751 happens in this thread.
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From: smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com>
Date: 26 Nov 90 17:36:00 GMT
Organization: Secure Computing Technology Corporation
Lines: 58
Posted: Mon Nov 26 18:36:00 1990
Here's a patchwork of Adventure history I've pieced together over the years.
I try to note conjectures where appropriate. Please fill in holes, anyone..
Willie Crowther was a caver, as were several other BBNers back in the 70s.
I was once told that there's a Crowther Pass in one of the big caves (maybe
Mammoth Cave), though I think it was named after his (ex?) wife.
People at BBN became interested in developing computerized cave maps.
I remember Bill Mann with some version of a cave map at BBN around 1980.
Willie took the computerized map and made a sort of game out of it. You
could move between the rooms, using the names and directions for the
actual cave (Mammoth Cave?).
While I don't remember much about the Adventure source code myself, I vaguely
recall that it was heavily data dependent. The cave arrangement and the
things inside were all set up as program data. From this I'd conjecture
that Willie's first Adventure might well have lived on the PDP-1, since that
would have been a logical place for working on *visual representations* of
cave maps. After all, it had that nice, big CRT.
Since the cave map was a data structure rather than a chunk of code, moving
from the PDP-1 to Tenex and Fortran would not have been a major trauma.
In any case, people spoke reverently of Willie's programming prowess (though
not so reverently of his commenting/documentation skills).
The classic 350 point Adventure emerged after Don Woods at Stanford got his
hands on Willie's cave map game. According to legend, the Arpanet played
a crucial role in that development.
An extended form with new rooms and puzzles was produced by Eric Roberts while
at BBN around 1980. The last I heard he's now with DEC in their Silicon Gulch
facility, and is also a heavy with CPSR.
I've seen a few written things about Adventure. One of the Help or Info
commands in the classic 350 point game talks about Willie and Don.
There was also peculiar article by Scott Adams in Creative Computing around
1980. The article includes a photo of Scott that names him and calls him
the "creator of Adventure." The editors of Creative Computing added a
discreet box of comment to the article that doesn't call Scott a liar, but
strongly emphasizes the efforts of Willie and Don.
Another brief article appeared in "Buss, The Independent Newsletter of Heath
Computing" when Adventure began appearing on H8's and H89's (1982?). I believe
it was written by Walt Bilofsky, founder of Software Toolworks. This one
outlines some of the things I said above.
Gordon Letwin made his name writing OS software for Heathkit ("Type spaces
to determine baud rate"). As an "implementer" of Adventure, he probably
wrote the driver program for interpreting the Adventure database. I
remember he did a version for Heath in which the "Spelunker Today" magazine
was replaced by "REMark," Heath's user magazine.
If any of the folks mentioned above read this, accept my greetings and a
"long time no see" to many, and fill in or fix details as appropriate. Bye.
Rick.
smith@sctc.com Arden Hills, Minnesota
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From: m...@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Mark-Jason Dominus)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <MJD.90Nov26161926@saul.cis.upenn.edu>
Date: 26 Nov 90 21:19:26 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com>
Sender: ne...@netnews.upenn.edu
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 33
Posted: Mon Nov 26 22:19:26 1990
In-reply-to: smith@sctc.com's message of 26 Nov 90 17:36:00 GMT
In article <1990Nov26.1...@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) writes:
> Willie Crowther was a caver, as were several other
> BBNers back in the 70s. I was once told that there's a
> Crowther Pass in one of the big caves (maybe Mammoth
> Cave), though I think it was named after his (ex?) wife.
The Crowthers did some of the exploration of the Mammoth /
Flint Ridge system, which is the largest cave in the world; they were
there right about the time that the big breakthrough from the Flint
Ridge part to the Mammoth part happened. Part of the Flint Ridge
system is called `Colossal Cave', and there is in fact a building, a
Bedquilt, and a Y2. (Pat Wilcox says no breath-taking view with a
live volcano, though. Bummer.)
If you're interested, you can go read ``The Longest Cave''
(Roger Brucker and Richard Watson) and ``The Caves Beyond'' (Roger
Brucker). You can see a picture of Willie Crowther examining a
hardcopy of the cave map on some kind of a plotter. (Someone else may
be able to say what kind of plotter it is.) Thanks to Pat Wilcox for
putting me on to these references last time this subject cropped up in
alt.folklore.computers.
> I've seen a few written things about Adventure. One of the Help or Info
> commands in the classic 350 point game talks about Willie and Don.
The version I played about fourteen years ago told me to
report bugs to `don@su-ai'. Heh.
Is it time for alt.adventure yet?
--
In some sense a stochastic process can do better; at least it has a chance.
Mark-Jason Dominus m...@central.cis.upenn.edu
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From: a...@sei.cmu.edu (Arthur Evans)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <9665@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 26 Nov 90 21:31:54 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University (Software Engineering Institute), Pgh, PA
Lines: 38
Posted: Mon Nov 26 22:31:54 1990
In-reply-to: smith@sctc.com's message of 26 Nov 90 17:36:00 GMT
To: smith@sctc.com
Fcc: inbox
Rick Smith (smith@sctc.com) writes at length about the history of
Adventure. Herewith a few more comments.
Bill Mann was doing cave mapping on a computer when I arrived at BBN in
1975. Doing 3-dimensional mapping is hard enough; finding a useful way
to represent the resulting map is still more fun.
As Joel Levin has already remarked, Adventure never ran on the PDP-1. I
guesed wrong about that in an earlier post here.
I found over the weekend my file on the game, including a listing of
playing it. I quote:
Adventure was originally written by William Crowther, and later
substantially rewritten and expanded by Don Woods at Stanford Univ.
The latest additions were done throughout 1978 by David Long while
at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.
This listing was made in December 1982 on a DEC-20.
There's been some talk about xyzzy. A few rooms inside the entrance is
the Debris Room, which has on the wall a note reading "Magic Word
XYZZY". If you say the word there, you are back on the surface inside
the building; saying the word in the building takes you to to the Debris
Room. The word does nothing anything else. It's best to have light
before entering the cave.
BARREN moves you to the bear room, if you are already pretty close.
BUILDING moves you to the building from some places on the surface.
PHUCE is part of the puzzle just past the River Styx. (This is only in
a later, augmented, version of the game.)
PLUGH moves you from the building to Y2, deep in the cave. Y2 also
moves you to Y2, but only if you are already near to it.
Ah, I hate to think of the time I put into that game. Perhaps almost as
much as I spend now reading these news groups...
Eric Roberts is on the faculty at Stanford. He's still in CPSR.
Art Evans
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From: le...@bbn.com (Joel B Levin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <61113@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 26 Nov 90 21:55:25 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com>
Sender: ne...@bbn.com
Reply-To: le...@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 33
Posted: Mon Nov 26 22:55:25 1990
In article <1990Nov26.1...@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) writes:
Hi, Rick!
|Here's a patchwork of Adventure history I've pieced together over the years.
|I try to note conjectures where appropriate. Please fill in holes, anyone..
|
|While I don't remember much about the Adventure source code myself, I vaguely
|recall that it was heavily data dependent. The cave arrangement and the
|things inside were all set up as program data. From this I'd conjecture
|that Willie's first Adventure might well have lived on the PDP-1, since that
|would have been a logical place for working on *visual representations* of
|cave maps. After all, it had that nice, big CRT.
Our PDP-1 had no CRT. Further, Adventure was never anything but a
text game. Bill, Pat and Willy did the (real) cave plotting on the
PDP-1 and got software running that plotted the caves on a Calcomp
plotter attached to a terminal port on our prototype TIP.
|In any case, people spoke reverently of Willie's programming prowess (though
|not so reverently of his commenting/documentation skills).
(He gave me some pencilled flow charts of the Arpanet IMP from 1970
and before, which I still have...)
I suppose I could always call Willy up and ask him about some of this
stuff... as far as I know he doesn't read the network.
/JBL
=
Nets: le...@bbn.com | "There were sweetheart roses on Yancey Wilmerding's
or {...}!bbn!levin | bureau that morning. Wide-eyed and distraught, she
POTS: (617)873-3463 | stood with all her faculties rooted to the floor."
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From: bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Monte Bateman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Summary: How about Zork!?!
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 90 07:56:51 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM>
Sender: ne...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Nets)
Organization: National Severe Storms Laboratory
Lines: 33
Posted: Tue Nov 27 08:56:51 1990
I have really enjoyed reading about the folklore behind "Adventure".
I guess I'm such a neophyte - I never played it! I recently got a
copy for my PC from "overseas" (thanks, Magnus!) so I guess I'll
spend some time over Christmas break playing with it.
What I *DID* spend a lot of time on was the ZORK dungeon. Took me
several years to finish it all; seems like it was around 570 points
total. I first played it on a 11/44 running V7, then an 11/70
running RT-11. What fun. Now those guys have become InfoCom, and
are selling many of these types of games for $$$. I have about 20
of 'em!
Any good folklore on ZORK? What I do know (from the DECUS/RT-11 docs)
* credit was given to "Crowther & Woods 'Adventure' "
* written as a project at the MIT-AI lab (I think)
* written in a special language called MDL ("muddle") for
"mumble-dungeon-language".
* the DECUS/RT-11 version was converted to FORTRAN by "a somewhat
nervous DEC engineer, who prefers to remain nameless!"
Since we had the source, I compiled a version in which I knew the
"wizard" password, and could bring up the "GDT", the game debugger tool.
First time I had seen an interactive debuggin interface...learned alot
from that code! All the strings were in RADIX-50....never have figured that
out...just use a lookup table!
Anyone have any to add to all this rambling?
Monte Bateman
WB5RZX @ WB5RZX
bateman @ nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu
National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, OK! 73069
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Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!lth.se!newsuser
From: magnus%t...@Urd.lth.se (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.112510.6448@lth.se>
Date: 27 Nov 90 11:25:10 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com>
Sender: news...@lth.se (LTH network news server)
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden
Lines: 27
Posted: Tue Nov 27 12:25:10 1990
In article <1990Nov26.1...@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) writes:
>Gordon Letwin made his name writing OS software for Heathkit ("Type spaces
>to determine baud rate"). As an "implementer" of Adventure, he probably
>wrote the driver program for interpreting the Adventure database.
Probably, he didn't even do that. I've played the Letwin version on an IBM PC,
and it seems to be a rather exact copy of the 350 point Fortran version. The
only differences that I've seen was that there's a new room (the Computer
Room, next to the Soft Room, with "a centerfold of a nude supercomputer
hanging on a wall"), and that you got some cute messages when you restored a
saved game from disk, like "Did you have to interrupt me right now? I was
having an interesting diskussion with a bootstrap loader!".
May I guess that all Letwin did was to make a few changes to the code, add his
name and a copyright notice and compile it? As far as I know, the legislation
is like that; making some small modifications to a PD program entitles you to
copyright it as your own creation.
Note: This is just my guess, based on what I've seen of the program (I don't
own it myself and it's several years since I last played this version). I do
not intend any offence to Mr. Letwin.
Magnus Olsson | \e+ /_
Dept. of Theoretical Physics | \ Z / q
University of Lund, Sweden | >----<
Internet: mag...@thep.lu.se | / \===== g
Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52 | /e- \q
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Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!lth.se!newsuser
From: magnus%t...@Urd.lth.se (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.115437.6728@lth.se>
Date: 27 Nov 90 11:54:37 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <9665@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Sender: news...@lth.se (LTH network news server)
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden
Lines: 23
Posted: Tue Nov 27 12:54:37 1990
When discussing the magic teleportation words in Adventure (XYZZY and PLUGH),
sewveral people have mentioned things like
"BUILDIUNG takes you to the building if you're sufficiently close".
These words aren't really "magic words", it's just a feature of the game
(which is explained in the documentation): when it's reasonably clear how
you get to a place (i.e. if you are within a few rooms' distance of it),
it suffices to say the name of the room to get there. This is in contrast
to the "real magic words", which are totally counterintuitive and have to be
found out (it's not very difficult, but still...). Myself, I've always
imagined the first category, like BUILDING, just to be a kind of shorthand
for finding your way around, while the words like XYZZY really teleport you
in some magical way.
Btw, how do people pronounce XYZZY? I've always pronounced it the way it's
spelled [ksizzi], but in the 'Jargon File', it says that it's pronounced as
five separate letters X-Y-Z-Z-Y.
Magnus Olsson | \e+ /_
Dept. of Theoretical Physics | \ Z / q
University of Lund, Sweden | >----<
Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se | / \===== g
Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52 | /e- \q
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From: r...@eddie.mit.edu (Robert E. Seastrom)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.155329.4693@eddie.mit.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 90 15:53:29 GMT
Reply-To: r...@eddie.MIT.EDU (Robert E. Seastrom)
Organization: MIT EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 13
Posted: Tue Nov 27 16:53:29 1990
It should be noted that the UChicago version of Adventure is specific
to certain types of DEC hardware (probably '10 or '20, but I do recall
playing it on the 11/55 at Delta years ago). Anyway, if someone has
already gone to the trouble of porting it to Unix so it compiles
right, it would save a lot of work if you could advertise it...
---Rob
--
Internet: r...@eddie.mit.edu | Copyright: Protecting your right to
Bitnet: RS@SESTAK | copy software.
X.25: PSI%0240200101905::KICKI::RS | ---gu...@cygnus.com
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From: gleason@mwk.uucp (Lee K. Gleason, Control-G Consultants)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <6946@mwk.uucp>
Date: 27 Nov 90 17:11:25 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Organization: M. W. Kellogg, Houston TX
Lines: 33
Posted: Tue Nov 27 18:11:25 1990
In article <1990Nov27.0...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Monte Bateman) writes:
>
> What I *DID* spend a lot of time on was the ZORK dungeon. Took me
> several years to finish it all; seems like it was around 570 points
.
.
.
>
> * the DECUS/RT-11 version was converted to FORTRAN by "a somewhat
> nervous DEC engineer, who prefers to remain nameless!"
>
That would have been Bob Supnik - in earlier versions it mentioned him
by name, later versions took it out, presumably because he got too many
calls and letters.
> Since we had the source, I compiled a version in which I knew the
> "wizard" password, and could bring up the "GDT", the game debugger tool.
In early versions, the password was Supnik's name, his cat's name, and
his zip code. Later versions used a prompt/response technique, which
was not susceptible to gussing, but easy enough to patch out.
Anyone ever figure out what all of the GDT commands did? Some were
easy, like TK for take object, and the one that would put you in any room,
but others I never could figure out...
Man, did I spend a lot of time playing this - never did get around
to getting all of the points, since I spent too much time taking it apart
to see what made it work...One amusing thing I recall, your rank was
determined by your score. If youyr score was high enough, it awarded
you the title of "CHEATER", since it was unlikely you could have gotten
that many points without dissasembly, etc.
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From: cos...@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <61127@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 27 Nov 90 17:37:10 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com>
Sender: ne...@bbn.com
Lines: 148
Posted: Tue Nov 27 18:37:10 1990
smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) writes:
}Here's a patchwork of Adventure history I've pieced together over the years.
}I try to note conjectures where appropriate. Please fill in holes, anyone..
OK... LOTS more than you, or anyone else wants to know....
}Willie Crowther was a caver, as were several other BBNers back in the 70s.
...
}People at BBN became interested in developing computerized cave maps.
}I remember Bill Mann with some version of a cave map at BBN around 1980.
Will was primarily working on this problem --- another out of the blue
crazy-seeming quest that Will set off on. Caving notebooks are huge
streams of incremental 'surveys', a smallish number of feet at a time,
of the passages of a cave. Errors creep in at every juncture [Ask any
student who has to take a course in surveying how hard it is to do it
carefully enough to survey a largish-loop and have it actually *close*
when you're done. And that's with a transit, plenty of time to set
things up, being able to stand up to take the measurement, having
adequate light, etc... You can imagine what a mess the caving data
points are. Will wanted to do two things: first was to actually draw
the maps from the raw data [not an easy task in itself], and beyond
that, he wanted the program to 'fix' the data. For example, he had
some kind of hack so that if you surveed between two known reference
points, he'd 'tune' the data to make them actualy _connect_ the two
references.
}Willie took the computerized map and made a sort of game out of it. You
}could move between the rooms, using the names and directions for the
}actual cave (Mammoth Cave?).
This is a mix of two things. YES, adventure was patterned on Colossal
cave [see below], but the mapping hackery was completely independent of
the genesis of Adventure [also see below]. I think that for the
purposes of the history-of-Adventure, the whole matter of Will's
mapping hack can be omitted --- it really doesn't figure in. [Will's
caving does, of course, though].
}While I don't remember much about the Adventure source code myself, I vaguely
}recall that it was heavily data dependent. The cave arrangement and the
}things inside were all set up as program data....
Just so: a programming technique that is quite common now, but was hardly
common back then. Even the puzzles were table-driven.
}.. After all, it had that nice, big CRT.
Unfortunately, our PDP-1 did *not* come with the nice type 30 display
that some PDP-1's did. It was born to be a timesharing system [and it
was!] and so mostly interacted with the outside world on Mod 33 TTYs on
its scanner [and a clumsy Soroban for a console that no one except the
system hackers [e.g, me] ever did much of anything with].
This PDP-1 was Serial #45. BBN at that time also had another pdp-1,
serial number *2* [and #1 stayed inside DEC, so I'm pretty sure this
was the *first* real PDP-1]. That one _did_ have the nice display, and
I logged a lot of hours over in the other building playing spacewar
when I should have been back in my own building fixing/finishing the
timesharing system.
}The classic 350 point Adventure emerged after Don Woods at Stanford got his
}hands on Willie's cave map game. According to legend, the Arpanet played
}a crucial role in that development.
Actually, Will's leaving BBN and going to PARC [and taking Adventure
with him] helped a *whole* lot. Don doesn't come into the picture
until after Will has arrived on the West Coast. On the other hand, I
never have quite understood how Don even heard about it, much less
tracked down a copy. Can anyone from PARC [or Stanford] fill in the
next steps? [I supposed I could break down and just _ask_ Will, but
that'd be cheating: this is a folklore newsgroup, not a
history-of-computing newsgroup....:-)]
The only figuring-in of the ARPANET that I know of, is that it spread
the program from coast to coast and brings it before the eyes of
hackers nearly everywhere [just like my "doctor" program. It was a
re-do of Wizenbaum's "Eliza" program, but as far as I know his never
travelled much outside of MIT, and being written in SLIP wasn't
particularly exportable, by contrast mine was written in BBNLisp and
travelled the country as TENEXes did]
}An extended form with new rooms and puzzles was produced by Eric Roberts while
}at BBN around 1980.
I don't remember this part. I didn't think Eric had anything to do
with the program, itself [but he does figure into its birth... see
below], and once it goes west [which is before 1980] nothing more that
I know of was ever done to it at BBN.
As for Eric's involvement, at the time, Eric was a new employee at BBN
and was also a house-resident or some such in a dorm at Harvard [at
which he was still a PhD candidate]. As such, he was a real 'bridge'
between the exciting world of the undergraduates and us dull, old
professionals. In particular, an odd new game had just appeared,
"Dungeons and Dragons", and a few intrepid gamers were discovering the
magic of one of the first of the 'role playing games'.
Eric was a born dungeonmaster, and was running a game at Harvard in his
dorm, and was *sure* it would be neat to try one out on us. And so it
happened: there were something like seven or eight of us, mostly the
IMP development team and a few others, as the merry band running
through Eric's Dungeon. Well, apparently unlike his dorm-team (and
D&D'ers in general, I gather), our team had no taste for real role
playing and questing and such. We weren't interesting in killing
things, or in having parts of the team plot against other parts.
Basically, we had no desire for any kind of 'every man for himself'
type of game and hardly cared about who "won", and instead cooperated
ruthlessly to 'beat' the dungeon. But for all of our dislike of
plotting and bloodshed, we were VERY good problem solvers and
planners.
This thrust of ours apparently sat just fine with Eric: the dungeon
became a set of puzzles, and a challenge for the wits. We essentially
did away with the 'dice', since the tedious probability tables were of
no interest to us. [I point this out because this is something of an
innovative side-excursion off of the typical D&D genre, where
ever-more-reality is the goal, with more and more complicated battle
systems, more weapons, etc, etc, but it is this excursion that gives
rise to Adventure].
We all loved the game: Eric kept making more and more complicated
dungeons and more and more complicated puzzles and obstacles therein,
and we'ed soldier along with it. Will saw two drawbacks to the game,
though, wonderful as it was: (a) it required a dungeon master to run
things, and (b) you needed to get a fairly large (and stable) group of
people to get together on a regular basis [which was getting trickier
at the time].
Well, as for (b), since we had pretty much done away with the
'individual persona' part of the game [we were a team,and that we had
different capabilities jsut meant that we added different strengths to
the mix... it was the *team* that was doing the questing], it hardly
made a difference that there was one or more than one of us. As for
(a), Will wondered if he could write a *program* that would serve as a
dungeon master for a one-player dungeon. [TA DAAAH]
Since he was deeply steeped his Mammoth caving exercise, it was a
natural for him to use the actual caves, more or less, as the locale
for the program. Strew about assorted puzzles and opponents and tricks
and traps, a pretty clever (albeit dumb as a rock) command-line parser,
and history is in the making...
/Bernie\
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!hagbard!eru!bloom-beacon!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!ap1i+
From: ap...@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew C. Plotkin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <kbIg9vm00VpEII3VNT@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 90 19:46:03 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>,
<9671@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 24
Posted: Tue Nov 27 20:46:03 1990
In-Reply-To: <9671@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Oh boy, Zork lore....
> Excerpts from netnews.alt.folklore.computers: 27-Nov-90 Zork (was
> Adventure) Arthur Ev...@sei.cmu.edu (776)
> Zork was a great game, and there are a few puzzles I never did solve. I
> hadn't made any progress for a while, went off and did other things, and
> then the game was no longer available. Bateman's message suggests that
> InfoCom has a commercial version. I hope it's available for the MAC.
> What I really want is something pretty much like what I used to play, so
> I can finally work out those last few puzzles.
Infocom did publish Zork for home computers. They split the original
game up, modified it somewhat, and added a considerable amount of stuff,
winding up with three games: Zork I, II, and III. I believe that all
of the original puzzles stayed in, albeit rearranged a little.
They later published several other games set in the same universe.
All of these were, and probably still are, available for just about
every home computer imaginable. Pure-text games are nice that way.
Infocom still exists, but it was taken over by Activision a few years
ago, and all of the original programmers have left by now. (As far as I
know.)
--Z
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From: rit...@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (David Ritchie)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <18390011@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com>
Date: 27 Nov 90 23:35:07 GMT
References: <9671@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Organization: Hewlett Packard - Boise, ID
Lines: 13
Posted: Wed Nov 28 00:35:07 1990
>Years ago DECUS (I think) published a double-page (11x14) color map of
>the Zork playing area. (I don't say "cave" as a lot of it was above
>ground.) I must have a copy somewhere, though I didn't find it the
>other day when I found my Adventure maps.
DEC Professional, actually. I still have that copy :^>.
What is the current status of Infocom games? I understand that the
programmers were all let go a few years ago. Did anyone pick up the
Infocom games line?
-- Dave Ritchie
ritchie@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com
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From: a...@sei.cmu.edu (Arthur Evans)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <9671@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 90 14:13:35 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University (Software Engineering Institute), Pgh, PA
Lines: 16
Posted: Tue Nov 27 15:13:35 1990
In-reply-to: bateman@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu's message of 27 Nov 90 07:56:51 GMT
Monte Bateman (bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu) has finally brought up
Zork. I've been waiting for that.
Years ago DECUS (I think) published a double-page (11x14) color map of
the Zork playing area. (I don't say "cave" as a lot of it was above
ground.) I must have a copy somewhere, though I didn't find it the
other day when I found my Adventure maps.
Zork was a great game, and there are a few puzzles I never did solve. I
hadn't made any progress for a while, went off and did other things, and
then the game was no longer available. Bateman's message suggests that
InfoCom has a commercial version. I hope it's available for the MAC.
What I really want is something pretty much like what I used to play, so
I can finally work out those last few puzzles.
Art Evans
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!hp4nl!charon!dik
From: d...@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <2615@charon.cwi.nl>
Date: 28 Nov 90 02:20:42 GMT
References: <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> <1990Nov27.175924.16098@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Sender: ne...@cwi.nl
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 24
Posted: Wed Nov 28 03:20:42 1990
In article <1990Nov27.1...@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> p...@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov writes:
> In article <1990Nov27.0...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Monte Bateman) writes:
> > Since we had the source, I compiled a version in which I knew the
> > "wizard" password, and could bring up the "GDT", the game debugger tool.
> > First time I had seen an interactive debuggin interface...learned alot
> > from that code! All the strings were in RADIX-50....never have figured that
> > out...just use a lookup table!
> Not necessary to have the source...
...
> PATCH>update
>
> Some of us were desperate enough...
Right, that is the spirit.
The version that was running on Unix V7 was in fact a patched RT11 version.
The version that was running on BSD 4.0 was in fact a patched V7 version.
And we had a version on V7 that was a patched BSD version, because it was
easier to do than to restore the original V7 patch (I know, I did it, on
purpose leaving in a security hole: ^A would give you a shell).
On the other hand, I decompiled the stuff to pseudo-Fortran (easy to do
because it was threaded code), recompiled it to some form of Pascal to
run it on a CDC Cyber. That version was a bit faster :-).
--
dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland
dik@cwi.nl
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!cs.ed.ac.uk!cs.edinburgh.ac.uk!nick
From: ni...@cs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <2632@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 28 Nov 90 11:59:38 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Sender: nn...@cs.ed.ac.uk
Reply-To: ni...@lfcs.ed.ac.uk
Organization: Wavetables 'R' Us
Lines: 19
Posted: Wed Nov 28 12:59:38 1990
In article <1990Nov27.0...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Monte Bateman) writes:
> Since we had the source, I compiled a version in which I knew the
> "wizard" password, and could bring up the "GDT", the game debugger tool.
>
> Anyone have any to add to all this rambling?
We disassembled the GDT password scheme - it was something pretty simple
(like add 1 to first character, 2 to second and so on). We also found the
flag it used to remember whether it had asked for the password already,
and set this directly (location 5978, if I recall...).
Interesting to have a character wandering around the dungeon carrying
a rainbow and a window frame...
--
Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh.
ni...@lfcs.ed.ac.uk <Atlantic Ocean>!mcsun!ukc!lfcs!nick
~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
"You ain't seen nothing yet. I can take this floor out too, no trouble."
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!hagbard!eru!bloom-beacon!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bionet!uwm.edu!wuarchive!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!euclid.jpl.nasa.gov!pjs
From: p...@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter Scott)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.175924.16098@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 27 Nov 90 17:59:24 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Sender: ne...@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Usenet)
Reply-To: p...@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA/Caltech
Lines: 35
Posted: Tue Nov 27 18:59:24 1990
Nntp-Posting-Host: euclid.jpl.nasa.gov
In article <1990Nov27.0...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Monte Bateman) writes:
>
> Since we had the source, I compiled a version in which I knew the
> "wizard" password, and could bring up the "GDT", the game debugger tool.
> First time I had seen an interactive debuggin interface...learned alot
> from that code! All the strings were in RADIX-50....never have figured that
> out...just use a lookup table!
>
> Anyone have any to add to all this rambling?
Not necessary to have the source...
PATCH Version 3-00 15-Mar-1982
IMAGE FILE BEING PATCHED: "USER$DISK2:[PJS.MISC.DUNGEON]DUNGEON.EXE;1"
JOURNAL FILE: "USER$DISK2:[PJS.MISC.DUNGEON]DUNGEON.JNL;1"
DATE/TIME OF PATCH: 6-MAR-1984 15:44:53.23
%PATCH-I-NOGBL, some or all global symbols not accessible
PATCH>set modu/all
PATCH>set scope gdt
PATCH>dep/ins gdt+17
NEW> 'NOP'
NEW> 'NOP'
NEW> exit
old: GDT\GDT+17: BEQL GDT\GDT+1C
new: GDT\GDT+17: NOP
new: GDT\GDT+18: NOP
PATCH>update
Some of us were desperate enough...
--
This is news. This is your | Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech
brain on news. Any questions? | (p...@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov)
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekchips!tekgvs!toma
From: to...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <8499@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 28 Nov 90 18:47:20 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> <9671@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: to...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 49
Posted: Wed Nov 28 19:47:20 1990
In article <96...@fy.sei.cmu.edu> a...@sei.cmu.edu (Arthur Evans) writes:
>Monte Bateman (bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu) has finally brought up
>Zork. I've been waiting for that.
>Zork was a great game, and there are a few puzzles I never did solve. I
>hadn't made any progress for a while, went off and did other things, and
>then the game was no longer available. Bateman's message suggests that
>InfoCom has a commercial version. I hope it's available for the MAC.
>What I really want is something pretty much like what I used to play, so
>I can finally work out those last few puzzles.
Well, I have bad news. Infocom was bought out and their line of text
adventures was dropped. This was over a year ago. It seems that people don't
like to read -- they gotta play graphic adventures (inferior IMHO). You
might find someone with a copy to sell/lend/pirate (:-).
It is a shame there is no market for these anymore. I still have a few
Infocom games to finish up, and unfortunately didn't buy the remaining
titles when they closed them out. I also had all the Scott Adams games
(originally in Basic, then in assembler, for Apples and TRS-80's) and played
all but the last three before I lost my system. These were like Adventure,
were very clever, and made to fit in 16k!
Years ago Adventure hit our mainframe, and everyone had fun working on it
and comparing notes. When Dungeon (later called Zork) appeared one day,
a bunch of us came in that night to play it. When we went to compare notes
we were shocked -- we were in different parts of the cave. That room with
the strong magnetic field send us all off in different directions!
Incredible game!
Later the mainframe version was enlarged adding the Bank of Zork, the
Puzzle Room, and an endgame.
When Infocom was formed and Zork was ported to microcomputers (then the
Apple II, TRS-80, and CP/M) they had to split it in pieces to make it fit
on the small floppies. Thus there were three:
Zork I -- Every part was in the original mainframe Zork.
Zork II -- About half was from the mainframe version, including the Bank
of Zork.
Zork III -- The puzzle room and endgame from the mainframe version, the
machine room, plus a few additional puzzles.
The mainframe version was posted to the net several years ago (it is in
Fortran), and probably is available at various archive sites. I got it
running (successfully) on a PC.
Tom Almy
to...@tekgvs.labs.tek.com
Standard Disclaimers Apply
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!hagbard!eru!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn.com!nic!chaos.cs.brandeis.edu!chaos!zippy
From: zi...@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Patrick Tufts)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <ZIPPY.90Nov27195611@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 90 00:56:11 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM>
<1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Sender: @chaos.cs.brandeis.edu
Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept
Lines: 12
Posted: Wed Nov 28 01:56:11 1990
In-Reply-To: bateman@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu's message of 27 Nov 90 07:56:51 GMT
Any good folklore on ZORK? What I do know (from the DECUS/RT-11 docs)
* credit was given to "Crowther & Woods 'Adventure' "
* written as a project at the MIT-AI lab (I think)
* written in a special language called MDL ("muddle") for
"mumble-dungeon-language".
MDL is a lisp-like interpreter that I believe is still used with
Infocom games. When they port from one system to another, they just
write a MDL for the new machine.
--Pat
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!hagbard!eru!bloom-beacon!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bionet!agate!linus!linus!mwunix.mitre.org!jcmorris
From: jcmo...@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <jcmorris.659803427@mwunix.mitre.org>
Date: 28 Nov 90 14:43:47 GMT
References: <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> <1990Nov27.175924.16098@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Sender: use...@linus.mitre.org
Lines: 30
Posted: Wed Nov 28 15:43:47 1990
p...@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter Scott) writes:
>In article <1990Nov27.0...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Monte Bateman) writes:
>>
>> Since we had the source, I compiled a version in which I knew the
>> "wizard" password, and could bring up the "GDT", the game debugger tool.
>Not necessary to have the source...
[console listing for patching a cheap way to wizard mode]
>Some of us were desperate enough...
Way back in the dark ages (our lantern batteries were low) I was running
Adventure on a brand-new KL10 and a slightly older 370/148. The IBM
version was interesting in that you could not become a wizard if you were
running a 3278 terminal (the secret word was ^W^I^Z^Z^A^R, and the 3270
had no way to send control characters), but the corker was that our
TOPS-10 guru wasn't able to figure out the wizard-mode sequence for the DEC
version even with the FORTRAN source. We never really sat down to dedicate
real time to the question (there were a few things the university wanted us
to do, like keep the system up) and somehow the issue was never resolved. As
I recall it you had to deny that you were a wizard, then take a number
the system typed, manipulate it in some way dependent on the time of day
and return it on the next challenge.
Does anyone recall the procedure for declaring yourself a wizard on the
DECsystem-10 version of Adventure?
Joe Morris
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!uupsi!psivax!woof
From: wo...@Pacesetter.COM (Harold C. ( Hal ) Schloss)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <1990Nov28.170408.8319@Pacesetter.COM>
Date: 28 Nov 90 17:04:08 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <1990Nov27.075651.13819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> <1990Nov27.175924.16098@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 50
Posted: Wed Nov 28 18:04:08 1990
In article <1990Nov27.1...@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> p...@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov writes:
>In article <1990Nov27.0...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Monte Bateman) writes:
>>
>> Since we had the source, I compiled a version in which I knew the
>> "wizard" password, and could bring up the "GDT", the game debugger tool.
>> First time I had seen an interactive debuggin interface...learned alot
>> from that code! All the strings were in RADIX-50....never have figured that
>> out...just use a lookup table!
>>
>> Anyone have any to add to all this rambling?
>
>Not necessary to have the source...
>
> PATCH Version 3-00 15-Mar-1982
etc. etc.
Sigh. I remember spending many hours/days/weeks working on adventure. As a
high school student I used to dial into the ARPANET and find various friendly
computers that would allow one to play it. In college (Harvard) there were
several of us at that time (ca. 1979-1980) that would exchange hints and maps.
It seems to me that the gdt command was part of "zork" though, and not
adventure. (I still have a hard copy of the Fortran source to adventure
somewhere.) To make a long story short, after many intense days of us playing
zork my junior year (instead of studying for finals) my roommate typed
"gdt" instead of "get" when trying to get some object. We immediately realized
what he had stumbled into, since we couldn't figure out any other meaning
for "gdt". Now one when issues the gdt command, it issues a challenge and
then asks for a response. If my memory serves me right, when one enters the
end game of the original zork, one was asked to create such a challenge and
response pair so that one could easily get back to the end game in the
future. (I think one would have to "incant" the challenge or something
like that.) Through either the end game or the help of a friendly
wizard (it has been a LONG time since this happenned) we discovered that if one
typed gdt as the FIRST command to zork, that the challenge was always
"DNZHUO", and that the correct response was "IDEQTQ".
There were many different things one could do in gdt mode, and I spent
a very happy summer that year at TRW writing the equivalent of shell
scripts (in TECO!) to talk to a zork process, put it into gdt mode,
and dump everything I could think of. I still the printouts somewhere.
(No the system at TRW was not a UNIX system, it was some kind of DEC
system though, I think a DECSYSTEM-10 which actually resided at Boeing
in Washington, and was accessed through phone lines from Manhattan Beach
in California, but that is another story.)
--
Hal Schloss Pacesetter Systems Inc., A Siemens Company
{uupsi|siemens|hoptoad|hacgate|bellcore|harvard|quad1|mtxinu|
ashtate|cetacea|otto|uunet}!psivax!woof
Internet: wo...@pacesetter.com or wo...@psi.siemens.com
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!hagbard!eru!bloom-beacon!bu.edu!shelby!apple!bbn.com!levin
From: le...@bbn.com (Joel B Levin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure (forwarded message)
Message-ID: <61185@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 29 Nov 90 15:06:52 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM>
Sender: ne...@bbn.com
Reply-To: le...@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 32
Posted: Thu Nov 29 16:06:52 1990
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 90 21:21:34 PST
From: p...@ama.caltech.edu (Paul Hardy)
Message-Id: <9011290521.AA07468@ama>
To: le...@bbn.com, a...@sei.cmu.edu
In-Reply-To: le...@bbn.com's message of 21 Nov 90 16:00:37 GMT
Subject: Re: Adventure
You can download what claims to be the original Tenex adventure via
anonymous ftp from uunet.uu.net, in the directory
comp.sources.games/volume9/adven. I'm bringing up a new version of
news on this machine and don't seem to be able to post right now; pass
this along to alt.folklore.computers if you feel like it. This sort
of thing should be propogated, especially to that group!
--Paul
I have looked at the source code there. I found at least one comment
with an author's name and a date in 1978, which is certainly later
than Will's code. It is not compatible with Sun 3.4 f77, which is
what I have handy. If it was is in fact Tenex fortran compatible, it
is probably DEC's F40 (Fortran IV); I think their extended F10 was
still pretty new (and maybe a little buggy) at that time. I didn't
check to see if f77 has a compiler switch to compile fortran IV, but I
doubt it.
/JBL
=
Nets: le...@bbn.com | "There were sweetheart roses on Yancey Wilmerding's
or {...}!bbn!levin | bureau that morning. Wide-eyed and distraught, she
POTS: (617)873-3463 | stood with all her faculties rooted to the floor."
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!hagbard!eru!bloom-beacon!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a218
From: a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <3993@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 29 Nov 90 21:18:51 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 23
Posted: Thu Nov 29 22:18:51 1990
In article <90334.021...@psuvm.psu.edu> KXH...@psuvm.psu.edu
(Ken Hornstein) writes:
>Here's something that I've always wanted ... does anyone have the source
>to Zork? I've love to port it to our IBM mainframe, if someone hasn't
already
>done it.
>
>Does anyone know where I could get the source? Hopefully it would be in
>Fortran ..
I managed to get my hands on the source, and after removing all
the PDP-11-specific extensions managed to get it running on our small
mainframe. I've still got it around here somewhere...
>Hypocrisy is the Vaseline of social intercourse.
>
>Ken Hornstein kxh...@psuvm.psu.edu Phone: 814/862-7007
Bureaucracies are the epoxy which lubricates the wheels of government.
-- James Boren: Fuzzify!
Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.UUCP
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!nuchat!lobster!mwk!gleason
From: gleason@mwk.uucp (Lee K. Gleason, Control-G Consultants)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <7092@mwk.uucp>
Date: 30 Nov 90 11:29:22 GMT
References: <9671@fy.sei.cmu.edu> <18390013@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com>
Organization: M. W. Kellogg, Houston TX
Lines: 64
Posted: Fri Nov 30 12:29:22 1990
For those of you who never saw the Game Debugging Tool in
Dungeon, here's the help menu from my patched version that
doesn't require a password...
BTW, SUpnik's cat was named Barney, if I recall from the earlier version.
Welcome to Dungeon. This version created 3-NOV-78.
You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded
front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
>GDT
GDT>HE
Valid commands are:
AA- Alter ADVS
AC- Alter CEVENT
AF- Alter FINDEX
AH- Alter HERE
AN- Alter switches
AO- Alter OBJCTS
AR- Alter ROOMS
AV- Alter VILLS
AX- Alter EXITS
AZ- Alter PUZZLE
DA- Display ADVS
DC- Display CEVENT
DF- Display FINDEX
DH- Display HACKS
DL- Display lengths
DM- Display RTEXT
DN- Display switches
DO- Display OBJCTS
DP- Display parser
DR- Display ROOMS
DS- Display state
DT- Display text
DV- Display VILLS
DX- Display EXITS
DZ- Display PUZZLE
D2- Display ROOM2
EX- Exit
HE- Type this message
NC- No cyclops
ND- No deaths
NR- No robber
NT- No troll
PD- Program detail
RC- Restore cyclops
RD- Restore deaths
RR- Restore robber
RT- Restore troll
TK- Take.
GDT>EX
>
WHat some of these do is pretty obvious...some are more cryptic. I'd
like to hear from other GDT hackers if they figured out some of the
tougher ones...
Lee K. Gleason
Control-G Consultants
gleason@mwk.uucp
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From: s...@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca (Stuart Lynne)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure (forwarded message)
Message-ID: <720@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 1 Dec 90 09:14:45 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <61185@bbn.BBN.COM>
Organization: USENET Public Access, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 20
Posted: Sat Dec 1 10:14:45 1990
In article <61...@bbn.BBN.COM> le...@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin) writes:
} You can download what claims to be the original Tenex adventure via
} anonymous ftp from uunet.uu.net, in the directory
} comp.sources.games/volume9/adven. I'm bringing up a new version of
} news on this machine and don't seem to be able to post right now; pass
} this along to alt.folklore.computers if you feel like it. This sort
} of thing should be propogated, especially to that group!
There is also a C version of the 550 point version on uunet in:
/usr/spool/ftp/games/adventure.[0-7].Z
It only took a few minutes to get running under XENIX with gcc (a few odd
bsd'isms cropped up).
Lots of fun.
--
Stuart Lynne Unifax Communications Inc.
...!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) s...@wimsey.bc.ca
===========================================================================
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From: cos...@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <61269@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 2 Dec 90 14:06:21 GMT
References: <92924@aerospace.AERO.ORG>
Sender: ne...@bbn.com
Lines: 24
Posted: Sun Dec 2 15:06:21 1990
gold...@arecibo.aero.org (Fogbound Child) writes:
}In article <84...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>, to...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes...
}>
}>The mainframe version was posted to the net several years ago (it is in
}>Fortran), and probably is available at various archive sites. I got it
}>running (successfully) on a PC.
}>Tom Almy
}>to...@tekgvs.labs.tek.com
}>Standard Disclaimers Apply
}I remember playing a tweaked version (still called Dungeon) on one of JPL's
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
}machines ...
I think you are mistaken here. Far as I know [and we [BBN] were pretty
well wired into Laibling and friens [some of us were virtually
beta-testers for some of the hackery], zork was *born* named "zork" and
never existed under any other name. There _was_ an adventure-like game
called 'dungeon', but i don't think it had anything to do wither with
Zork or with Adventure.
/Bernie\
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!ap1i+
From: ap...@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew C. Plotkin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <kbKKK9u00Vp00nsUoX@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 2 Dec 90 20:35:21 GMT
References: <92924@aerospace.AERO.ORG>,
<61269@bbn.BBN.COM>
Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 20
Posted: Sun Dec 2 21:35:21 1990
In-Reply-To: <61269@bbn.BBN.COM>
> Excerpts from netnews.alt.folklore.computers: 2-Dec-90 Re: Zork (was
> Adventure) Bernie Cos...@bbn.com (932)
> }I remember playing a tweaked version (still called Dungeon) on one of
> }JPL's machines ...
> I think you are mistaken here. Far as I know [and we [BBN] were pretty
> well wired into Lebling and friens [some of us were virtually
> beta-testers for some of the hackery], zork was *born* named "zork" and
> never existed under any other name.
No, we've got it here at CMU. At least, the filename is "dungeon"; I
don't recall what the game says when you run it. (I'd check now, but I'm
logged onto a decstation and it's only compiled for the sun-3 and ibm
RT.)
I haven't played it much, but it's the same as Zork as far as the
axe-wielding nasty in the cellar.
--Z
===========================================================================
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From: bat...@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Monte Bateman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <1990Dec3.064534.11819@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Date: 3 Dec 90 06:45:34 GMT
References: <92924@aerospace.AERO.ORG> <61269@bbn.BBN.COM>
Sender: ne...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Nets)
Organization: National Severe Storms Laboratory
Lines: 103
Posted: Mon Dec 3 07:45:34 1990
>>The mainframe version was posted to the net several years ago (it is in
>>Fortran), and probably is available at various archive sites. I got it
>>running (successfully) on a PC.
>>Tom Almy
>>to...@tekgvs.labs.tek.com
>>Standard Disclaimers Apply
>>I remember playing a tweaked version (still called Dungeon) on one of JPL's
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>machines ...
>
>I think you are mistaken here. Far as I know [and we [BBN] were pretty
>well wired into Laibling and friens [some of us were virtually
>beta-testers for some of the hackery], zork was *born* named "zork" and
>never existed under any other name. There _was_ an adventure-like game
>called 'dungeon', but i don't think it had anything to do wither with
>Zork or with Adventure.
>
> /Bernie\
Whoa /Bernie\....here is an excerpt from the Dungeon Text data file...
The first line is the greeting the player gets when the game is started:
Welcome to Dungeon. This version created 17-SEP-87.
And here are some lines from later on in the file....
%%%%%%% reminisce mode ON %%%%%%%%
US NEWS & DUNGEON REPORT
17-SEP-87 Late Dungeon Edition
--- LATE NEWS FLASH!! ---
The endgame is here! (Somewhere)
There have been some puzzling new discoveries near the Thief's hideaway.
--- BACKGROUND INFORMATION ---
This version of Dungeon for the PDP-11/VAX-11 has been completely
reimplemented in FORTRAN-IV from the original MDL sources created
at MIT. The parser in this version is somewhat simpler than the
parser in the ARPAnet version; within this limit, this version
is fully congruent with the current version on the ARPAnet.
If you encounter problems, please report them IN WRITING to:
Digital Equipment Computer Users Society (DECUS)
One Iron Way, MR2-3/E55
Marlboro, Mass. 01752
Attention: Dungeon Maintenance
PHONE CALLS AND IN-PERSON VISITS WILL BE RUDELY REJECTED!
This version has been converted from FORTRAN-IV to f77 suitable for
Unix Vaxen and PDPs. If you have any problems, please report them to:
bi...@tekred.tek.com (Bill Randle)
Welcome to Dungeon!
Dungeon is a game of adventure, danger, and low cunning. In it
you will explore some of the most amazing territory ever seen by mortal
man. Hardened adventurers have run screaming from the terrors contained
within.
In Dungeon, the intrepid explorer delves into the forgotten secrets
of a lost labyrinth deep in the bowels of the earth, searching for
vast treasures long hidden from prying eyes, treasures guarded by
fearsome monsters and diabolical traps!
No DECsystem should be without one!
Dungeon was created at the Programming Technology Division of the MIT
Laboratory for Computer Science by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce
Daniels, and Dave Lebling. It was inspired by the Adventure game of
Crowther and Woods, and the Dungeons and Dragons game of Gygax
and Arneson. The original version was written in MDL (alias MUDDLE).
The current version was translated from MDL into FORTRAN IV by
a somewhat paranoid DEC engineer who prefers to remain anonymous.
On-line information may be obtained with the commands HELP and INFO.
And, from the beginning of the endgame,
Suddenly, as you wait in the dark, you begin to feel somewhat
disoriented. The feeling passes, but something seems different.
As you regain your composure, the cloaked figure appears before you
and says, "You are now ready to face the ultimate challenge of
Zork. Should you wish to do this somewhat more quickly in the
future, you will be given a magic phrase which will at any time
transport you by magic to this point. To select the phrase, say
INCANT, <word>
and you will be told your own magic phrase to use by saying
INCANT, <phrase>
Good luck, and choose wisely!"
%%%%%%% reminisce mode OFF %%%%%%%%%%%
many more great things in this file....maybe more later, if I don't
get flamed too much for this LOOONG rambling!
Monte
--
Monte Bateman
WB5RZX @ WB5RZX
bateman @ nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu
National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, OK! 73069
===========================================================================
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekchips!tekgvs!toma
From: to...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <8531@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 3 Dec 90 19:40:24 GMT
References: <92924@aerospace.AERO.ORG> <61269@bbn.BBN.COM>
Reply-To: to...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 37
Posted: Mon Dec 3 20:40:24 1990
In article <61...@bbn.BBN.COM> cos...@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) writes:
>gold...@arecibo.aero.org (Fogbound Child) writes:
>
>}In article <84...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>, to...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes...
>}>
>}>The mainframe version was posted to the net several years ago (it is in
>}>Fortran), and probably is available at various archive sites. I got it
>}>running (successfully) on a PC.
>}I remember playing a tweaked version (still called Dungeon) on one of JPL's
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>}machines ...
>I think you are mistaken here. Far as I know [and we [BBN] were pretty
>well wired into Laibling and friens [some of us were virtually
>beta-testers for some of the hackery], zork was *born* named "zork" and
>never existed under any other name. There _was_ an adventure-like game
>called 'dungeon', but i don't think it had anything to do wither with
>Zork or with Adventure.
Well in the formentioned version I have, if you type the command "zork"
it responds:
That word is henceforth replaced with DUNGEON.
and if you type "dungeon" it says:
At your service!
plus as has already been pointed out, the on-line documentation refers
to it as dungeon. When we got it (about 1978-1979?) it was called dungeon.
I never heard it referred to as Zork until the Infocom version came out.
As far as I know, Zork was just the name of the Great Underground Empire.
Tom Almy
to...@tekgvs.labs.tek.com
Standard Disclaimers Apply
===========================================================================
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From: sim...@ingres.com (John Simutis )
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <1990Dec5.203930.22805@ingres.Ingres.COM>
Date: 5 Dec 90 20:39:30 GMT
References: <92924@aerospace.AERO.ORG> <61269@bbn.BBN.COM>
Reply-To: sim...@ws80s.Ingres.COM (John Simutis )
Organization: Ingres Corporation, Alameda CA 94501
Lines: 11
Posted: Wed Dec 5 21:39:30 1990
In 1979, my PDP 11/70, RSTS 6.3 had a FORTRAN .TSK called DUNGEO -
when I ran it, it responded to the command "zork" with something
akin to "That word is hearby replaced by DUNGEON". As nearly as I
can tell, it was the full zork game ( without the 'endgame' one was supposed
to find past the Gates of Hell - _I_ never got that far.
JS
--
--------
< standard disclaimer >
John Simutis, simutis @ingres.com Alms! Alms for the vi-impaired!
===========================================================================
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From: dpge...@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (Dave Gerdes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <1990Dec5.192843.4917@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 5 Dec 90 19:28:43 GMT
References: <61113@bbn.BBN.COM> <61185@bbn.BBN.COM> <720@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca>
Sender: ne...@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 7
Posted: Wed Dec 5 20:28:43 1990
I was just looking through some old 80-Micro mags that had some reviews
on the Pyramid program that RS sold. It basically a clone of Adventure,
only the names were changed to protect RS.
That got me thinking, I used to have a nice hand drawn map to the
entire dungeon of Adventure, and managed to lose it during my college
days. Where could one get their hands on a good map of Adventure?
===========================================================================
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From: cos...@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork (was Adventure)
Message-ID: <61346@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 5 Dec 90 12:05:10 GMT
References: <92924@aerospace.AERO.ORG> <61269@bbn.BBN.COM> <8531@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Sender: ne...@bbn.com
Lines: 35
Posted: Wed Dec 5 13:05:10 1990
to...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes:
}In article <61...@bbn.BBN.COM> cos...@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) writes:
}>gold...@arecibo.aero.org (Fogbound Child) writes:
}>
}>}In article <84...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>, to...@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes...
}>}>
}>}>The mainframe version was posted to the net several years ago (it is in
}>}>Fortran), and probably is available at various archive sites. I got it
}>}>running (successfully) on a PC.
}>}I remember playing a tweaked version (still called Dungeon) on one of JPL's
}> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
}>}machines ...
}>I think you are mistaken here. Far as I know [and we [BBN] were pretty
}>well wired into Laibling and friens [some of us were virtually
}>beta-testers for some of the hackery], zork was *born* named "zork" and
}>never existed under any other name. There _was_ an adventure-like game
}>called 'dungeon', but i don't think it had anything to do wither with
}>Zork or with Adventure.
}Well in the formentioned version I have, if you type the command "zork"
}it responds:
} That word is henceforth replaced with DUNGEON.
} ...
I stand corrected. Apparently, the original Zork developed in two
directions: one was done by DEC [by someone at DECUS perhaps?
dunno...], and survived as "dungeon". The other was the rewrite that
pdl and friends did that became 'zork' for the IBMPC and "Infocom".
/Bernie\
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From: mzellers@starnet.uucp (Mark Zellers)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Adventure
Message-ID: <1990Dec8.190159.9787@starnet.uucp>
Date: 8 Dec 90 19:01:59 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.173600.25607@sctc.com> <MJD.90Nov26161926@saul.cis.upenn.edu> <16721@paperboy.OSF.ORG>
Reply-To: mzellers@starnet.UUCP (Mark Zellers)
Organization: Starnet Connections---Public Access UNIX
Lines: 18
Posted: Sat Dec 8 20:01:59 1990
In article <16...@paperboy.OSF.ORG> dbr...@osf.org (David Brooks) writes:
>
>I just found the map I made, though. There are three places in the
>maze off the Hall of Mists where it's not quite "right". If you go
>North from either of two nodes (South from another), you end up at
>the same node. Now, either the tunnel branches and loops back, which
>would be another node, or there are two exits North, connected to
>each other. Not quite orthogonal.
>
I am reminded of the mnemonic we used to use to get to the Pirate's
chest once you get into the maze:
"Even Silly Sleepy Slugs Never Ever Eat Bannanas"
Where bannanas = North West.
Mark H. Zellers
decwrl.dec.com!batgirl!mark