pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) (06/02/88)
In the README for the excellent mahjongg solitaire game recently posted to comp.sources.games, Mark Holm says: >Copyright 1988 Mark A. Holm >Permission is given to copy and distribute for non-profit purposes. >[...] >I have distributed the tiles as a compressed .o file to save on file >sizes and to preserve the artistic license of the game. If you would >like the source to the icons and the patches to iconedit so you can >modify them send a request (and possibly a small donation ;^) to the >address below. I spent about half an hour and wrote a program that links with Mark's icon.o file and dumps out all the tiles as portable bitmaps. I have absolutely no idea what Mark means by "preserve the artistic license of the game", so I'm going to distribute these bitmaps the same way he is: if you want them, send me mail. Include an Internet address or a uucp path relative to ucbvax. The compressed uuencoded tar file of X11-format bitmaps is 37 kilobytes, so please don't ask for them if you don't really want them. Note that I am NOT putting these bitmaps into the official Poskanzer Bitmap Collection, since they are copyrighted. --- Jef Jef Poskanzer jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa ...well!pokey Wasting time is an important part of living.
markh@cvedc.UUCP (Mark Holm) (06/09/88)
In article <6150@well.UUCP>, pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) writes: > >Copyright 1988 Mark A. Holm > >Permission is given to copy and distribute for non-profit purposes. > >[...] > > I spent about half an hour and wrote a program that links with Mark's > icon.o file and dumps out all the tiles as portable bitmaps. I have > absolutely no idea what Mark means by "preserve the artistic license > of the game", so I'm going to distribute these bitmaps the same way > he is: if you want them, send me mail. Include an Internet address > or a uucp path relative to ucbvax. The compressed uuencoded tar file > of X11-format bitmaps is 37 kilobytes, so please don't ask for them > if you don't really want them. > > Note that I am NOT putting these bitmaps into the official Poskanzer > Bitmap Collection, since they are copyrighted. > --- > Jef > > Jef Poskanzer jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa ...well!pokey > Wasting time is an important part of living. "Preserving the artistic license of the game" was possibly a bad way to state it. "Preserving the look and feel of the game" may be better. The lady that I had make these icons for me went to a lot of time and effort to produce them (and I thank you for your efforts Dorothy) and I beleive she did a wonderful job on them. Since 98% of this game is the icons, I was attempting to keep them from being mutilated and then propagated, thus spoiling the game for others. As I stated before, if you want them, ask for them, and I will gladly send them to you. I don't mind Jef disasembling them for his own use but they should be sent to me for propagation. As he said they are copyrighted. As it stand now, there exists 126 tile icons (1 set color, 1 set B/W, 1 set color for 386) plus misc. cursor and closed icons. I am still working on the color icon editor patches to remove as many glitches as possible. FYI, when I finish this I will post the first "bug" fix and the icons.o file for the 386. Anyone in the Portland OR area willing to let me spend ~2 hours getting it running on the SPARC machines ;-) ?? =========================================================================== Mark Holm ..tektronix!ogcvax!cvedc!exc!markh Exceptions ..sun!cvbnet!cvedc!exc!markh 126 NE Grant Phone (503)648-8307 Hillsboro, Oregon 97124 Messages only until after 6:00 PM It's amazing what you can do on outdated equipment!!
pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) (06/11/88)
In the referenced message, markh@cvedc.UUCP (Mark Holm) wrote: >"Preserving the artistic license of the game" was possibly a bad way to state >it. "Preserving the look and feel of the game" may be better. The lady that I >had make these icons for me went to a lot of time and effort to produce them >(and I thank you for your efforts Dorothy) and I beleive she did a wonderful >job on them. Since 98% of this game is the icons, I was attempting to keep >them from being mutilated and then propagated, thus spoiling the game for >others. As I stated before, if you want them, ask for them, and I will gladly >send them to you. I don't mind Jef disasembling them for his own use but they >should be sent to me for propagation. As he said they are copyrighted. Nope, sorry, I still don't understand what you're getting at. Why would anyone want to "mutilate" the icons? What exactly are you talking about? Replacing Chung with a little doggy? Or perhaps just fixing the number tiles so you can tell which number it is when the arabic digit is covered up? And why will making people send mail to you make them any less likely to do "mutilation"? Considering that your connectivity to the net is via the proverbial "twisty little path of uucp connections", all that you're really accomplishing is making it gratuitously hard for people to run your game on different architectures. I've already had two requests for my re-sourced icons for the purpose of compiling on a Sun 4. I turned these requests down, because X11 form is not what they needed, and I suggested that they send mail to you. That's two people who can't run your game FOR NO GOOD REASON. Ya know, I almost never run publically-distrubited binaries, whether from floppies or the net, for fear of trojan horses and viruses. Your reluctance to distribute source is beginning to make me suspicious. Perhaps I should take a closer look at what's in that object file? --- Jef Jef Poskanzer jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa ...well!pokey Teaching new dogs old tricks.
markh@cvedc.UUCP (Mark Holm) (06/14/88)
I have had enough request to warrent posting them anyway! I will post them to comp.sources.games this afternoon along with the patches to get rid of the ability to cheat while sneeking peaks at the board as it is building. FYI, my personal opinion of people who deliberatly build viruses into their programs is that they should be slow roasted over an open fire. I am offended by your enuendo. I was simply trying to cut down on net load. I had no idea that there was that many 386's and Sun4 already in use. I have been trying to get one of each into here since December, but you know how red tape works! =========================================================================== Mark Holm ..tektronix!ogcvax!cvedc!exc!markh Exceptions ..sun!cvbnet!cvedc!exc!markh 126 NE Grant Phone (503)648-8307 Hillsboro, Oregon 97124 Messages only until after 6:00 PM Beezlenut! rah! rah! Beezlnut! rah! rah! Boil that virus! Boil that virus!
markh@analogy.UUCP (Mark Holm) (06/18/88)
Well folks, you asked for it so here they come. I posted the icons to the moderator of comp.games.sources for mahjongg along with a patch to hide the covered tiles while the board gets redrawn. He is going to integrate the patch and do another complete posting of mahjongg (mahjongg2). It will trickle out over the next few weeks. There are ~34 parts when all the icons are included. Now do you understand why I did not post them the first time?? 3 Mbytes of data take a long time to propagate. Anybody have any suggestions for improvment?? I am currently working on a better shuffling algorithm and a solve button for those of you who can't quite figure out how to win. Anything else wanted?? =========================================================================== Mark Holm ..tektronix!ogcvax!cvedc!exc!markh Exceptions ..sun!cvbnet!cvedc!exc!markh 126 NE Grant Phone (503)648-8307 Hillsboro, Oregon 97124 Messages only until after 6:00 PM Parkinson's Fifth Law: If there is a way to delay in important decision, the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it.
pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) (06/20/88)
In the referenced message, markh@analogy.UUCP (Mark Holm) wrote: > There are ~34 parts when all the icons >are included. Now do you understand why I did not post them the >first time?? 3 Mbytes of data take a long time to propagate. Ahem. Is this 3 megabytes before or after you tar'ed, compressed, and uuencoded the icons? --- Jef Jef Poskanzer jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa ...well!pokey For indoor use only.
urban@spp2.UUCP (Michael Urban) (06/20/88)
In article <319@opus.analogy.UUCP> markh@analogy.UUCP (Mark Holm) writes: >Well folks, you asked for it so here they come. I posted the >icons to the moderator of comp.games.sources for mahjongg along >with a patch to hide the covered tiles while the board gets >redrawn. He is going to integrate the patch and do another >complete posting of mahjongg (mahjongg2). It will trickle out >over the next few weeks. There are ~34 parts when all the icons >are included. Now do you understand why I did not post them the >first time?? 3 Mbytes of data take a long time to propagate. > >Anybody have any suggestions for improvment?? I am currently >working on a better shuffling algorithm and a solve button >for those of you who can't quite figure out how to win. Anything >else wanted?? > This seems extreme. Why do you not instead post a relatively short C program which can be linked with the ".o" file you distributed for the tiles, and which will spit the source code for the desired set of tiles onto standard output? As for the program itself: it does not play the game that I know by the name of Mah-jongg. It does play the game which is sold by Activision under the name "Shanghai". To the best of my knowledge, this game is original to Activision, although they have apparently done nothing to protect the game from duplication. You may want to change the name of the program to something else to avoid misleading Mah-jongg fans. (A networked mah-jongg game would be a nice project for someone, by the way). Yes, the original shuffling algorithm with the game is definitely deficient. Several reasonable substitutes have been posted in rec.games.programmer recently. I have used one of these in the "Mah-jongg" game with apparent success. Incidentally, the tone of this reply seems, on re-reading, to be rather grouchy. So it seems obligatory to observe that I have very much enjoyed the mahjongg game and have blown several lunch hours with it already. -- Mike Urban ...!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban "You're in a maze of twisty UUCP connections, all alike"
markh@cvedc.UUCP (Mark Holm) (06/23/88)
> Ahem. Is this 3 megabytes before or after you tar'ed, compressed, and > uuencoded the icons? > --- > Jef At the request of the moderator, I posted the files to him untouched and he repackaged them. They occupy ~3 Mbytes in my files system. This doesn't include the second set of icons that have the numbers on the left that I am building an icon patch file with. > This seems extreme. Why do you not instead post a relatively short > C program which can be linked with the ".o" file you distributed > for the tiles, and which will spit the source code for the > desired set of tiles onto standard output? > > As for the program itself: it does not play the game that I > know by the name of Mah-jongg. It does play the game which is > sold by Activision under the name "Shanghai". To the best of > my knowledge, this game is original to Activision, although > they have apparently done nothing to protect the game > from duplication. You may want to change the name of the > program to something else to avoid misleading Mah-jongg fans. > (A networked mah-jongg game would be a nice project for someone, > by the way). > -- > Mike Urban Because the .o file that I distributed did not contain all the icons (386 and blanks were lacking). It was not my choice to put out 38 shar files. I posted them to the moderator as only 4 shar files (granted they were 800k apeice ;-) and he broke them down to the ones that have been trickling to you. Besides, for some reason people seem to have this thing about original source ... You are right, this is not mahjongg as we know it. I called it that because the PC game (shareware) that inspired it was called that. While I was developing this one, one of the other engineers where I work brought in his Mac and showed me Shanghai. A networked (real) mahjongg has been running around in the back of my mind, or at least a computer vs. player version (I have no network at home). First I need to finish learning how to play the game ... The shuffling algorithm will be updated soon with a patch file as soon as I get the solve working. It has been to hot to run the computer at home (no AC) and for some reason they want me to work when I come to work ;-). =========================================================================== Mark Holm ..tektronix!ogcvax!cvedc!exc!markh Exceptions ..sun!cvbnet!cvedc!exc!markh 126 NE Grant Phone (503)648-8307 Hillsboro, Oregon 97124 Messages only until after 6:00 PM
mst@csun.UUCP (Mike Temkin) (06/24/88)
>> It does play the game which is >> sold by Activision under the name "Shanghai". To the best of >> my knowledge, this game is original to Activision, although >> they have apparently done nothing to protect the game >> from duplication. >> -- >> Mike Urban A friend of mine played a similar game on the Plato system (CMU system I believe) about 4 years ago. I don't recall the name, but the board was set up the same as the Activision game. It was played using a CDC-721 touch screen terminal. Does anyone else know of an older version of this game? It might be interesting just how far it (the computer version) goes back. -- Mike Temkin ...!{ihnp4,sdcrdcf,hplabs,psivax,ttidca}!csun!mst Cal. State U. Northridge, School of Engineering and Computer Science
slocum@hi-csc.UUCP (Brett Slocum) (06/27/88)
In article <1321@csun.UUCP> mst@mx.UUCP (Michael Temkin) writes: >>> It does play the game which is >>> sold by Activision under the name "Shanghai". To the best of >>> my knowledge, this game is original to Activision, although >>> they have apparently done nothing to protect the game >>> from duplication. > >A friend of mine played a similar game on the Plato system (CMU system >I believe) about 4 years ago. I don't recall the name, but the board >was set up the same as the Activision game. It was played using a >CDC-721 touch screen terminal. > >Does anyone else know of an older version of this game? It might be >interesting just how far it (the computer version) goes back. I remember playing this on PLATO at least 6 or 7 years ago. On one of the 'ancient' Magnavox plasma panel screens with IR touch panel. I don't remember if that was the same as the 721 or not. -- Brett Slocum UUCP: ...uunet!hi-csc!slocum Arpa: hi-csc!slocum@umn-cs.arpa "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
rabbit@psivax.UUCP (Joe Kwan) (06/28/88)
In article <1321@csun.UUCP> mst@mx.UUCP (Michael Temkin) writes:
)>> It does play the game which is
)>> sold by Activision under the name "Shanghai". To the best of
)>> my knowledge, this game is original to Activision, although
)>> they have apparently done nothing to protect the game
)>> from duplication.
)
)A friend of mine played a similar game on the Plato system (CMU system
)I believe) about 4 years ago. I don't recall the name, but the board
)was set up the same as the Activision game. It was played using a
)CDC-721 touch screen terminal.
I played this version on the CSU (California State University) PLATO
(Control Data Corporation) system a few years ago. It was also called
"mahjongg" on that system and played in the same way. As I remember,
a few months after I played that, the Macintosh "Shanghai" game came
out which seemed to play the same turtle solitary mahjongg game.pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) (06/29/88)
Well, the last part of mahjongg2 has finally arrived. Thirty-eight parts,
about 50K per part, total size 2,011,435 bytes. It took a week to dribble
out. Amazing. And now for the next few weeks, those two megabytes will
sit around in EVERY SPOOL PARTITION ON THE NET taking up space. Whether
anyone on that system wants to play mahjongg or not. Whether they have
a Sun or not.
On the other hand, if either the author, opus!markh, or the moderator of
comp.sources.misc, billr@tekred.TEK.COM, had taken my suggestion of tarring
and compressing the tiles, things would have been noticeably different.
Instead of the tiles taking up 1.88 meg out of 2.01 meg, they would have
taken up 207K out of 340K. That's a factor of 9 compression for the tiles,
and a factor of 6 reduction in the total space used. Instead of 38
installments, there would have been 7.
Here's how it should have been done:
tar cvf tiles.tar tiles
compress tiles.tar
uuencode tiles.tar.Z tiles.tar.Z > tiles.tar.Z.uu
rm tiles.tar.Z
split -840 tiles.tar.Z.uu tiles.tar.Z.uu
rm tiles.tar.Z.uu
And here's how the files would have been unpacked on the receiving end:
cat tiles.tar.Z.uu?? | uudecode
zcat tiles.tar.Z | tar xvf -
rm tiles.tar.Z.uu?? tiles.tar.Z
Simple, eh? So why wasn't it done this way??? Is someone a BOZO???
And is it going to be done this way in the future????
---
Jef
Jef Poskanzer jef@rtsg.ee.lbl.gov ...well!pokey
If entropy is increasing, where is it coming from?markh@cvedc.UUCP (Mark Holm) (07/08/88)
[Flame on] And again, Jef posts to the net instead of to the author so he might get some recognition for something other than bad mouthing people who are just following the system. For your information, I had several long phone conversations with Bill over how to (re)post mahjongg. I started out by sending him a patch file and the source to the icons. We then discussed cutting net bandwidth by compressing and uuencoding the files, but Bill said that the GENERALLY ACCEPTED PRACTICE was to send source out clear and he decided to do it that way and include a complete (patched) source set as well. I personally think that Bill is doing a great job given the volume of source that he has to clear, and I think he should be commended on a job well done. So if you do not like the way the job is getting done, either get in a position of influence or do it yourself! [Flame off] Now that I have that off my chest, please check comp.sources.bugs for the first official patch to the icon files. This patch moves that numbers and letters that get covered by stacking to the lefthand side of the tiles. For those of you who like the tiles the way they appear in a real set ignore this patch (I did ;-). The nice people at Sun went through my code and changed a goodly portion (most) of event.c to change from up buttons to down buttons for selecting tiles and extended the single help to show multiple matches. I like it! I really did not want to finish figuring out the button down drag algorithm anyway, as nobody was using it (except me) in the beta version. Which was why it was (almost) stripped out anyway. I also have a (real nice) shuffling algorithm that was contributed through channels. Gives a nice even distribution of tiles. Games are a little harder, but what the heck! I will try to get that patch together and out tomorrow. If not, it will be two weeks before I get back from Sun training and I will post it then. So, you might want to hold out for the official version as opposed to rogue patches ;-). =========================================================================== Mark Holm ..tektronix!ogcvax!cvedc!exc!markh Exceptions ..sun!cvbnet!cvedc!exc!markh 126 NE Grant Phone (503)648-8307 Hillsboro, Oregon 97124 Messages only until after 6:00 PM