gjphw (11/15/82)
There have been several questions about the most recent version of
rogue that is existent. I cannot vouch for others but I can tell
you the version that is available to us.
Our VAX 780 currently runs UNIX 5.0; when first installed, it ran
UNIX 4.2. Under both versions of UNIX, we have had what is called
Super Rogue 6.5. This version has all upper and lower case letters
as monsters (that's right, 52 different ones), plus the usual collection
of scrolls, wands, food, and fruit. Most of the situations that people
have described in this newsgroup have occurred with this version. I have
not seen a case of negative gold, but occasionally the name of the monster
(usually the giant ant A) gets garbled. In this version, the option that
allows you to run entirely along a corridor, even with corners ("passgo"),
is the default. All other parameters can be set using ROGUEOPTS.
There are two aspects of our installation that are unpleasant. The
random numbers generated for the game do not appear very random at all.
It is nothing unusual to encounter the same monster 4 times in a row or
endue a long series where no one can land a blow (hit) on anyone else.
Also, the system administrator has the games turned off for a larger part
of the day than even the general purpose UNIX systems. It wasn't always
like this, but the new policy has significantly reduced the amount of CPU
time devoted to rogue (without increasing the CPU time devoted to work).
I am not aware of any total winners in this version. Will the total
winners in version 6.5 please send me their hints?
Patrick Wyant Bell Labs Indian Hill (Naperville, IL) *!iheds!gjphw