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
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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.
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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 <villain> _w_i_t_h
<weapon>, _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
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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
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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).
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