Looking for old PDP11 game

Tim Shoppa

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Feb 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/10/98

to

In article <34e0ae3b...@nr1.vancouver.istar.net>,
James Davidson <james_d...@dynapro.com> wrote:
>I'm looking for the Fortran source code for an old game I played as a
>kid. It ran on a PDP11-40 using the RSTS operating system and was
>called $DND I think.
>The game was a dungeon adventure where you created a character (ala
...
>I've been told that maybe the DECUS SIG tapes may have this game, but
>I don't have access to them.

You *do* have access to the RT-11 and RSX-11 SIG tapes. Although DECUS
has dropped all distribution of these tapes, the contents are available via
anonymous ftp from "sunsite.unc.edu" in

/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/rt/decus

and

/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/rsx/decus

Many thanks to Billy Youdelman, Tom Wyantt, and Don Arrowsmith
for getting these tapes to me.

You'll note a particular lack of RSTS/E SIG tapes in the archive, and
that's because nobody's ever gotten the tapes to me to transfer. If
anyone reading has access to the tapes (or other media) with old PDP-11
SIG material, I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to make it available.
I can read most standard DEC media - everything from 7-track and 9-track
and RK05 packs to DLT cartridges.

Tim. (sho...@triumf.ca)

Tim Shoppa, TRIUMF theory group | Internet: sho...@triumf.ca
TRIUMF, Canada's National Meson Facility | Voice: 604-222-1047 loc 6446
4004 WESBROOK MALL, UBC CAMPUS | FAX: 604-222-1074
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., CANADA V6T 2A3

Dave Stevens

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Feb 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/10/98

to Tim Shoppa, James Davidson

James, you lazy SOB!

When I told your Dad I thought it was available from DECUS on a SIG
tape, I thought you knew how to use a search engine. The classis DEC
Dungeon and Dragons game from the 70's you want is on the U.S. DECUS
site in the OpenVMS games section which will lead you to the FTP files
you want. As I recall it ran as DUNGEO.SAV under the RT-11 run-time
system on RSTS. The source would be early FORTRAN-11 which was DEC's
attempt at FORTRAN-IV. This was indeed one of the classic text-based
adventure games around. Let me know if you're able to resurrect it.

Start here:
http://www.decus.org/libcatalog/description_html/vs0185.html#games

Cheers -Dave "I'll send my bill" Stevens

PS to Tim: Yes, I'd like to see the RSTS SIG tapes on-line too. Some
kind soul must have them. I can't figure out why there aren't more RSTS
types prowling the 'net. Maybe they're still trying to surf with
DECnet/E.

Kevin Handy

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Feb 12, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/12/98

to

I think that this is a different game from dungeon.
There was a game that I played with on a VAX at one time that
was called DND. Source code was BASIC if I remember correctly.
Displayed a part of a map on the screen and you wandered through
it that way. (Something akin to nethack).

I had it on a PC a long time ago too, but don't know where it
is any more.

In article <34E0DF80...@nospam.direct.ca>, lock...@nospam.direct.ca
says...

Jeff Makey

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Feb 15, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/15/98

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In article <6bvlc5$7b4$1...@usenet48.supernews.com>,

Kevin Handy <k...@srv.net> wrote:
>There was a game that I played with on a VAX at one time that
>was called DND. Source code was BASIC if I remember correctly.
>Displayed a part of a map on the screen and you wandered through
>it that way. (Something akin to nethack).

I have DND.EXE in my personal archives, but no VAX to run it on. At
the start of the game you choose one of three dungeons to explore:
(1) Telengard, (2) Svhenk's [sic] Lair, or (3) Lamorte. I believe
there was also a RSTS/E version.

On the subject of old VAX games, I am looking for the source to
EMPIRE: War Game of the Century. A link to the VAX/VMS binary is at
http://www.decus.org/libcatalog/description_html/v00012.html , but
that won't run on any of my UNIX machines :-(.

:: Jeff Makey
je...@sdsc.edu

Department of Tautological Pleonasms and Superfluous Redundancies Department

Megan

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Feb 16, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/16/98

to

je...@sdsc.edu (Jeff Makey) writes:

>In article <6bvlc5$7b4$1...@usenet48.supernews.com>,
>Kevin Handy <k...@srv.net> wrote:
>>There was a game that I played with on a VAX at one time that
>>was called DND. Source code was BASIC if I remember correctly.
>>Displayed a part of a map on the screen and you wandered through
>>it that way. (Something akin to nethack).

>I have DND.EXE in my personal archives, but no VAX to run it on. At
>the start of the game you choose one of three dungeons to explore:
>(1) Telengard, (2) Svhenk's [sic] Lair, or (3) Lamorte. I believe
>there was also a RSTS/E version.

I have a version of it for RT-11, along with the data files for the
three dungeons (they were essentially 20 x 20 x 20 cubes in which
one can find magic fountains, monsters, treasure, pits, thrones,
transporters and various other things)... The purpose of the game
was to locate 'The Orb' which would bestow immortality upon the
character... Your character had the 6 basic D&D characteristics,
and one or two others, and you either fought or cast spells as you
travelled through the dungeons. Experience gained in the dungeon
was only applied once you made it out of the dungeon.

The RSTS version was actually compiled on RSTS using a special
PASCAL compiler (the one from MicroPower/Pascal?) and then ran
using the RT-11 run-time system (RTS).

Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer

Leonor Lopez

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Feb 16, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/16/98

to

>I have a version of it for RT-11, along with the data files for the
>three dungeons (they were essentially 20 x 20 x 20 cubes in which
>one can find magic fountains, monsters, treasure, pits, thrones,
>transporters and various other things)... The purpose of the game
>was to locate 'The Orb' which would bestow immortality upon the
>character... Your character had the 6 basic D&D characteristics,
>and one or two others, and you either fought or cast spells as you
>travelled through the dungeons. Experience gained in the dungeon
>was only applied once you made it out of the dungeon.

Megan,

Is it available for download?

Max

Tim Shoppa

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Feb 16, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/16/98

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In article <6c7td5$j...@rosebud.sdsc.edu>, Jeff Makey <je...@sdsc.edu> wrote:
>On the subject of old VAX games, I am looking for the source to
>EMPIRE: War Game of the Century. A link to the VAX/VMS binary is at
>http://www.decus.org/libcatalog/description_html/v00012.html , but
>that won't run on any of my UNIX machines :-(.

The VMS SHAREd source code is available from

ftp://ubvms.buffalo.edu/maslib/games/empire

The encoding is rather simple; I think you should have no problem
figuring out how to decode the sources on a Unix machine. I think
there are even Unix scripts available for unpacking VMS SHAREd sources,
though I've never used them.

Tim. (sho...@triumf.ca)

Dr Ivan D Reid, muSR Facility

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Feb 17, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/17/98

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In article <6c9vot$3jd$1...@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>, Tim Shoppa wrote:
>In article <6c7td5$j...@rosebud.sdsc.edu>, Jeff Makey <je...@sdsc.edu> wrote:
>>On the subject of old VAX games, I am looking for the source to
>>EMPIRE: War Game of the Century. A link to the VAX/VMS binary is at
>>http://www.decus.org/libcatalog/description_html/v00012.html , but
>>that won't run on any of my UNIX machines :-(.

>The VMS SHAREd source code is available from

> ftp://ubvms.buffalo.edu/maslib/games/empire

You should have a slash at the end of that URL. BTW, the sources are
probably still hanging around there somewhere on ERICH, Tim.

>The encoding is rather simple; I think you should have no problem
>figuring out how to decode the sources on a Unix machine. I think
>there are even Unix scripts available for unpacking VMS SHAREd sources,
>though I've never used them.

When I was at TRIUMF I ported it to the PC and made some improvements.
It even works in the DOS box on my new Alpha, albeit slowly. David Maden
here also did a port to the Arari ST.

--
Ivan Reid, Paul Scherrer Institute, CH. re...@psi.ch
Support Jayne Hitchcock: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/6172/helpjane.htm

Jeff Makey

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Feb 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/21/98

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In article <6c9vot$3jd$1...@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>,

Tim Shoppa <sho...@alph02.triumf.ca> wrote:
>The VMS SHAREd source code is available from
>
> ftp://ubvms.buffalo.edu/maslib/games/empire

Got it. Thanks a bunch! For some reason, I had never stopped to wonder
what language Empire was written in, so I was surprised to see that it
is FORTRAN. In retrospect, however, I realize that it is consistent
with most other computer games of the era. It looks an old hacker like
myself should have little trouble decoding the VMS_SHARE format.

Paul Repacholi ( prep )

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Feb 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/22/98

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You are going to hate this, but EMPIRE is on the Redhat 4.2 linux kit.

--
~paul ( prep ) Paul Repacholi,
1 Crescent Rd.,
zrep...@cc.curtin.edu.au Kalamunda,
+61 (08) 9257-1001 Western Australia. 6076

Antonio Carlini

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Feb 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/23/98

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In article <6clrvu$3...@rosebud.sdsc.edu>, je...@sdsc.edu (Jeff Makey) writes:
|>In article <6c9vot$3jd$1...@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>,
|>Tim Shoppa <sho...@alph02.triumf.ca> wrote:
|>>The VMS SHAREd source code is available from
|>>
|>> ftp://ubvms.buffalo.edu/maslib/games/empire
|>
|>Got it. Thanks a bunch! For some reason, I had never stopped to wonder
|>what language Empire was written in, so I was surprised to see that it
|>is FORTRAN. In retrospect, however, I realize that it is consistent
|>with most other computer games of the era. It looks an old hacker like
|>myself should have little trouble decoding the VMS_SHARE format.
|>

Your VAX will have even less trouble: copy/append the files together in the
right order and @ the resulting .COM. It will run itself through TPU and
produce a set of output files (in this case, just EMPIRE.FOR an include file
and some docs).

Antonio

--
Antonio Carlini Mail: car...@marvin.enet.dec.com
DECnet-Plus for OpenVMS Engineering
Digital Equipment Corporation Worton Grange, Reading, England
(Reply-To: address mangled in header)