carl@ncr-tp.UUCP (Carl Kuck) (05/09/85)
" You have just read a scroll of confuse programmer --more-- "
Merrily we scroll along, scroll along, scroll along ... Thanks to the
hackers who responded to my frantic plea for interest. My present and future
plans for Hack are:
1. Fix the worst of the existing bugs, or code around them.
2. Make the source (!) available at cost (floppy disk + postage).
3. Enhance the program up to the limits of my machine.
At present, I have noticed the following bugs. I am not sure if they are
bugs in the Hack source (ex PDP-11), or bugs in the Lattice compiler I'm
using, so the solutions may turn out to be difficult. If any hackers out
in NetLand are using Lattice and have seen these bugs, please let me know and
I'll deal with the bugs accordingly.
1. Only wizards can travel up stairs.
2. Sometimes, the panic message "Error: atl (xxx,yyy,z ..." where xxx and yyy
are *huge* numbers appears.
3. Zapping a wand of cold, sleep, etc. will bounce, and bounce, and bounce ...
The range seems to be some 30-40 dots (game locations)!
4. Save doesn't work at all.
5. Re-drawing the screen doesn't work. I think this is related to the command
used to re-draw the screen, and I'm thinking of changing it to '@'.
6. Giant eels are a pain in the ***. In wizard mode, I've spent 30 min. just
clearing the eels from the Graveyard to get to the stairs. (ho-hum...)
Any suggestions as to how to limit the number of eels created?
On the whole, though, the game is more or less (maybe less) playable - but
it seems to lend itself to a hard disk more so than floppies. The level files
take up *a lot* of room when you are down to level 20 or so ...
***** Personal notes to interested hackers follow *****
Sam: It works! I think you've found the path, all right...
John: Hi there! See above, re: source.
Dave: Are you still there?
--
Happy Hacking, Carl (carl@ncr-tp)
" Ask me no questions and I might not tell you any lies ... fnord ... "