meulenbr@cstw68.prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks) (06/05/90)
I peeked at the adventure sources posted to comp.source.games a few weeks ago. A few starting remarks: In the Readme file Bill Randle says: I know nothing about the history of this particular version of adventure, although the submitter claims that it is the original FORTRAN version. There are no copyright notices in any of the code and there is no author information either. I have not tried to compile this, but it has been around long enough that it shouldn't be a problem as long as you have a fortran compiler that understands this syntax. Note that there may be system specific routines (e.g., SRCH$$(), SAVE$$()) that would need to be renamed. (end of quote) I found the following in the adv.data file: 142 - *** THE HISTORY OF ADVENTURE (ABRIDGED) *** - 142 - ** By Ima Wimp ** - 142 ADVENTURE was originally developed by William Crowther, and later 142 substantially rewritten and expanded by Don Woods at Stanford Univ. 142 According to legend, Crowther's original version was modelled on an 142 a real cavern, called Colossal Cave, which is a part of Kentucky's 142 Mammoth Caverns. That version of the game included the main maze 142 and a portion of the third-level (Complex Junction - Bedquilt - 142 Swiss Cheese rooms, etc.), but not much more. 142 - - - 142 Don Woods and some others at Stanford later rewrote portions of 142 the original program, and greatly expanded the cave. That version 142 of the game is recognizable by the maximum score of 350 points. 142 At this writing (November, 1978), that version is by far the most 142 widely known. 142 - - - 142 The latest additions were done throughout 1978 by David Long while 142 at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business. 142 Long's additions include the seaside entrance and all of 142 the cave on the "far side" of Lost River (Rainbow Rm - Crystal 142 Palace - Blue Grotto - Rotunda - beyond Joshua's wall, etc., etc.). 142 The current cave is about 50% larger than the Woods/Stanford model. 142 In the process, the code was heavily rewritten to permit more 142 generalized handling of objects and to allow a far more complex 142 syntax. The current maximum score is 501 points. 142 - - - 142 Except for a couple of trivial subroutines (to get user-ID's for 142 logging purposes), ADVENTURE is written entirely in FORTRAN. This 142 not because Crowther/Woods/Long love FORTRAN, but because it is 142 almost infinitely portable. There were indeed moments when it took 142 great strength to withstand the temptation to whip out some character 142 handling routine in MACRO, instead of the furshlugginer compiler. 142 For example, there is an excellent rival game to Adventure, called 142 DUNGEON, developed at M.I.T., which is totally non-portable since 142 it is coded in an obscure variant of two initially obscure compilers, 142 and can only be transported in executable form between DEC-10's 142 and 20's. 142 - - - 142 Those interested in obtaining the latest releases of either the 142 source (FORTRAN IV) or executable code (DEC-20) should contact: 142 David E. Long, GSB Computing Services, University of Chicago, 142 5836 S. Greenwood Ave, Chicago IL 60637, (312) 753-4290. 142 To determine how out of date your version is, check the release date 142 and number printed in the opening line of each game. The version 142 number is parsed thusly: Version (say) 5.1/6 is major version 5, 142 release 1, bugfix 6. The release number is changed only when the 142 cave mapping is altered or when new items are added. The major 142 version number is incremented after adding extensions large enough 142 to affect the overall flavor of the game. To whet curious appetites, 142 major version 6 is projected to appear sometime around the summer 142 of 1979. It will contain a whole new wing to the cave (natch!) 142 plus a much enlarged surface area, including the Great Serbonian 142 Bog, the Castle of Aldor and the terrifying Passage of Fire. 142 Stay tuned! 142 - - - 142 Thanks are owed to Roger Matus and David Feldman, both of U. of C., 142 for several suggestions, including the Rainbow Room, the telephone 142 booth and the fearsome Wumpus. Further thanks go to J. R. Carlson 142 for many debugging suggestions. Most thanks (and apologies) 142 go to Thomas Malory, Charles Dodgson, the Grimm Brothers, Dante, 142 Homer, Frank Baum and especially Anon., the real authors of ADVENTURE. 142 - - - - This clearly states that this is not the original 350 point version, but the 501 point version. It looks like this is for some kind of dec hardware. I've not been able to determine from the .pma files what kind of hardware. Anyway, that brings me to the questions section: - on what hardware does this run? - Is the version 6 which is mentioned ever released? - are there newer versions? - has anyone gotten this to run on a SUN? f77 complains on a number of files. Also, I do not know what to do with the .pma files. Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.philips.nl) Centre for Software Technology ( or try: ...!mcsun!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr)
GMoretti@massey.ac.nz (Giovanni Moretti) (06/07/90)
>> Re What are the .pma files? The .pma files could be PRIME MACRO ASSEMBLER files. We used to have a Prime 9955 and PMA is (as I remember it) what its assembler was called. Hope this helps Giovanni -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | GIOVANNI MORETTI, Consultant | EMail: G.Moretti@massey.ac.nz | |Computer Centre, Massey University | Ph 64 63 69099 x8398, FAX 64 63 505607 | | Palmerston North, New Zealand | QUITTERS NEVER WIN, WINNERS NEVER QUIT | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------