DUNGEON(6) UNIX Programmer's Manual DUNGEON(6) NAME dungeon - Adventures in the Dungeons of Doom SYNOPSIS dungeon dungeon [-r [savefile]] -- pdp-11 version only DESCRIPTION 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! 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. OPTIONS In the pdp-11 version, the -r flag allows restarting a saved game. The default savefile is _d_u_n_g_e_o_n._s_a_v which may be overriden on the command line. In the Vax version, the game is restored by using the restore command. DETAILS Following, is the summary produced by the info command: Welcome to Dungeon! You are near a large dungeon, which is reputed to con- tain vast quantities of treasure. Naturally, you wish to acquire some of it. In order to do so, you must of course remove it from the dungeon. To receive full credit for it, you must deposit it safely in the trophy case in the living room of the house. In addition to valuables, the dungeon contains various objects which may or may not be useful in your attempt to get rich. You may need sources of light, since Printed 8/23/88 February 9, 1987 1 DUNGEON(6) UNIX Programmer's Manual DUNGEON(6) dungeons are often dark, and weapons, since dungeons often have unfriendly things wandering about. Reading material is scattered around the dungeon as well; some of it is rumored to be useful. To determine how successful you have been, a score is kept. When you find a valuable object and pick it up, you receive a certain number of points, which depends on the difficulty of finding the object. You receive extra points for transporting the treasure safely to the living room and placing it in the trophy case. In addition, some particularly interesting rooms have a value associated with visiting them. The only penalty is for getting yourself killed, which you may do only twice. Of special note is a thief (always carrying a large bag) who likes to wander around in the dungeon (he has never been seen by the light of day). He likes to take things. Since he steals for pleasure rather than pro- fit and is somewhat sadistic, he only takes things which you have seen. Although he prefers valuables, sometimes in his haste he may take something which is worthless. From time to time, he examines his take and discards objects which he doesn't like. He may occa- sionally stop in a room you are visiting, but more often he just wanders through and rips you off (he is a skilled pickpocket). COMMANDS brief suppresses printing of long room descriptions for rooms which have been visited. superbrief suppresses printing of long room descriptions for all rooms. verbose restores long descriptions. info prints information which might give some idea of what the game is about. quit prints your score and asks whether you wish to continue playing. save saves the state of the game for later con- tinuation. restore restores a saved game. inventory lists the objects in your possession. look prints a description of your surroundings. Printed 8/23/88 February 9, 1987 2 DUNGEON(6) UNIX Programmer's Manual DUNGEON(6) score prints your current score and ranking. time tells you how long you have been playing. diagnose reports on your injuries, if any. The inventory command may be abbreviated i; the look command may be abbreviated l; the quit command may be abbreviated q. A command that begins with '!' as the first character is taken to be a shell command and is passed unchanged to the shell via _s_y_s_t_e_m(_3). CONTAINMENT Some objects can contain other objects. Many such con- tainers can be opened and closed. The rest are always open. They may or may not be transparent. For you to access (e.g., take) an object which is in a container, the con- tainer must be open. For you to see such an object, the container must be either open or transparent. Containers have a capacity, and objects have sizes; the number of objects which will fit therefore depends on their sizes. You may put any object you have access to (it need not be in your hands) into any other object. At some point, the pro- gram will attempt to pick it up if you don't already have it, which process may fail if you're carrying too much. Although containers can contain other containers, the pro- gram doesn't access more than one level down. FIGHTING Occupants of the dungeon will, as a rule, fight back when attacked. In some cases, they may attack even if unpro- voked. Useful verbs here are _a_t_t_a_c_k _w_i_t_h , _k_i_l_l, etc. Knife-throwing may or may not be use- ful. You have a fighting strength which varies with time. Being in a fight, getting killed, and being injured all lower this strength. Strength is regained with time. Thus, it is not a good idea to fight someone immediately after being killed. Other details should become apparent after a few melees or deaths. COMMAND PARSER A command is one line of text terminated by a carriage return. For reasons of simplicity, all words are dis- tinguished by their first six letters. All others are ignored. For example, typing _d_i_s_a_s_s_e_m_b_l_e _t_h_e _e_n_c_y_c_l_o_p_e_d_i_a is not only meaningless, it also creates excess effort for your fingers. Note that this truncation may produce ambi- guities in the intepretation of longer words. [Also note that upper and lower case are equivalent.] You are dealing with a fairly stupid parser, which Printed 8/23/88 February 9, 1987 3 DUNGEON(6) UNIX Programmer's Manual DUNGEON(6) understands the following types of things: Actions: Among the more obvious of these, such as _t_a_k_e, _p_u_t, _d_r_o_p, etc. Fairly general forms of these may be used, such as _p_i_c_k _u_p, _p_u_t _d_o_w_n, etc. Directions: _n_o_r_t_h, _s_o_u_t_h, _u_p, _d_o_w_n, etc. and their various abbreviations. Other more obscure directions (_l_a_n_d, _c_r_o_s_s) are appropriate in only certain situations. Objects: Most objects have names and can be referenced by them. Adjectives: Some adjectives are understood and required when there are two objects which can be referenced with the same 'name' (e.g., _d_o_o_r_s, _b_u_t_t_o_n_s). Prepositions: It may be necessary in some cases to include prepositions, but the parser attempts to handle cases which aren't ambiguous without. Thus _g_i_v_e _c_a_r _t_o _d_e_m_o_n will work, as will _g_i_v_e _d_e_m_o_n _c_a_r. _g_i_v_e _c_a_r _d_e_m_o_n probably won't do anything interesting. When a preposition is used, it should be appropriate; _g_i_v_e _c_a_r _w_i_t_h _d_e_m_o_n won't parse. Sentences: The parser understands a reasonable number of syn- tactic construc- tions. In particular, multiple commands (separated by commas) can be placed on the same line. Ambiguity: The parser tries to be clever about what to do in the case of actions which require objects that are not explicitly specified. If there is only one possible object, the parser will assume that it should be used. Otherwise, the parser will ask. Most questions asked by the parser can be answered. FILES dindx.dat - game initialization info dtext.dat - encoded messages rindx.dat - index into message file for pdp version dungeon.sav - default save file for pdp version Printed 8/23/88 February 9, 1987 4 DUNGEON(6) UNIX Programmer's Manual DUNGEON(6) dsave.dat - default save file for non-pdp versions listen, speak - co-process routines for pdp version BUGS For those familiar with the MDL version of the game on the ARPAnet, the following is a list of the major incompatabil- ties: -The first six letters of a word are considered signi- ficant, instead of the first five. -The syntax for _t_e_l_l, _a_n_s_w_e_r, and _i_n_c_a_n_t is different. -Compound objects are not recognized. -Compound commands can be delimited with comma as well as period. Also, the palantir, brochure, and dead man problems are not implemented. The pdp version is slightly stripped down to fit within the memory contraints. An overlayed pdp version might be made that would allow the complete game to be compiled and loaded, but I don't have the inclination (or machine) to do it. AUTHORS Many people have had a hand in this version. See the "His- tory" and "README" files for credits. Send bug reports to billr@tekred.TEK.COM (or ...!tektronix!tekred!billr). Printed 8/23/88 February 9, 1987 5