Old Empire Source (Version 1.1) reposting
FisherTS
reposting this article (of 10/3/85) in case you're looking for Old Empire.
I am in the process of packaging the visual empire tool that I have
been using with this version for a long time. I'll post that to
net.games.emp in the next couple weeks. -TSF
Version 1.1 Old Empire (Empire Classic ?) source (!!) is ready for
distribution. In my article in late June, I promised that if there
were enough bugs reported (and I had the time to fix them !) there
would be another release ready about now. So....
For the uninitiated, here are a few excerpts from the original
article.
> Old Empire is a version of Peter Langston's empire game as it looked
> around 1980. The source for this version was obtained by
> decompiling the optimized PDP-11/70 object code.
>
> The empire source is about 11K lines of C. The output from the
> decompiler is ugly and shouldn't be discussed in front of young kids.
> There are zillion goto statements where you would normally find
> 'for' and 'while' loops (I straightened a few things out when doing
> the final editing of the decompiler output, but there are still a lot
> of goto's). There might be a few "original" bugs left, but I know
> there are an equal number introduced by the decompilation and triple
> porting operations.
>
> This version has the rectangular grid, unimplemented agribusiness, no
> nukes, and only the original 7 ship types (batt, carr, dest, sub, tend,
> pt, and freight). No new bells or whistles have been added. In fact,
> every effort was made to restore the game to its original condition,
> but with bugs exterminated.
>
> The distribution comes with Buglist and README files. I can post the
> Buglist to the net if people want to see it. It runs on a 5.0 VAX,
> 5.2 Amdahl UTS, and 5.2.2 3b [and now 4.2BSD]. The makefiles aren't
> the greatest, but I find them useful [now they're much better].
>
> Please direct all Old Empire flames and bug reports to me. I'll
> respond to bug reports as I find time.
Version 1.1 has the following improvements over Version 1.0:
1) It uses buffered I/O - faster
2) torp command gets mobility right, doesn't allow torp'ing from subs you
don't own, doesn't allow torp'ing sunken ships.
3) only tenders can tend
4) only capitals you own can build BTUs (in Version 1.0 an unowned fort
at 0,0 will do the trick!)
5) The shell command accepts more than one command
6) The shell command works!
7) redirection and piping work
8) dependencies on fcntl.h, time.h, termio.h are fixed so that it is
more compatible with 4.2BSD.
9) A new sread function for 4.2BSD
10) calls to rand() are fixed so that they will work regardless of 16 or
32-bit results. (Random() is better on 4.2, but it isn't available on
SysV).
11) checkpoints are cleared on collection
12) makefiles for SysV and 4.2 BSD are much better.
13) contracting research and tech centers works
14) ... and 12 other miscellaneous bug fixes.
If you want this fine antique, send a tape (200' will do) in a reusable
mailer (padded Jiffy, Dennison, Jet-pak, etc.), and sufficient return
postage (or check to cover the amount) to:
Tom Fisher
AT&T-ISL Room 31G32
11900 N. Pecos St.
Denver, CO 80234
Tom Fisher ihnp4!druxn!tsf (303)-538-4642