[net.games.rogue] negative gold in 5.2

kevin (09/16/82)

Could someone please clue me in on why some '*' spaces subtract rather than
add to your gold score in version 5.2?  This seems to happen anytime after
my gold points get over 1000 or so--usually around level 6 or 7.  Is there
a way to predict when this will happen, or is it just an unpredictable bug?
I find it difficult to get more than 2500 gold points even after 17 or 18
levels because of this!
                                           Kevin R. Sanders
                                           sdcsvax!kevin

dan (09/21/82)

References: sdcsvax.2334

Negative gold is a bug in version 5.2.  The value of a pile of gold is
stored in a byte when the pile is created and later accessed via a
signed move instruction.  I published a binary patch a few months back
that unsigns the value but doesn't avoid the overflow.  I understand
that Ken Arnold has fixed the bug in his version and has redistributed
version 5.2.

I have not been able to obtain a new copy of rogue, probably because
of unreliable uucp connections at overloaded intermediate sites.
Since all of my neighbors seem to have the same problem, I have decided
to give up and wait for version 5.3.

emrath (09/23/82)

#R:sdcsvax:-233400:uiucdcs:9500019:000:239
uiucdcs!emrath    Sep 22 17:18:00 1982

I've never noticed negative goldpots in 5.2, and I have played quite a bit.
The rule of thumb for gold around here (UofIL) is (after say levels 10-15),
300 per level is very good. 200 per level is average. 100-150 per level is
pretty bad.