mirror of https://github.com/sean-m/zork
115 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
115 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
History of the C Implementation of Dungeon
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==========================================
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This version of dungeon has been modified from FORTRAN to C. The
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original was written in DEC FORTRAN, translated from MDL. It was then
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translated to f77 for UN*X systems, from which it was translated to C.
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The C translation was done with the help of f2c, the FORTRAN to C
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translator written by David Gay (AT&T Bell Labs), Stu Feldman
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(Bellcore), Mark Maimone (Carnegie-Mellon University), and Norm
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Schryer (AT&T Bell Labs).
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I. From the original documentation...
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To: Dungeon Players
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From: "The Translator"
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Subj: Game Information
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Date: 8-OCT-80
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This is the first (and last) source release of the PDP-11 version of
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Dungeon.
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Please note that Dungeon has been superceded by the game ZORK(tm).
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The following is an extract from the new product announcement for
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ZORK in the September, 1980 issue of the RT-11 SIG newsletter:
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"'ZORK: The Great Underground Empire - Part I' ...was developed
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by the original authors based on their ZORK (Dungeon) game for
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the PDP-10. It features a greatly improved parser; command
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input and transcript output files; SAVEs to any device and
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file name; and adaptation to different terminal types,
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including a status line on VT100s. Note: this is not the
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FORTRAN version that has been available through DECUS. This
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version has been completely rewritten to run efficiently on
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small machines - up to 10 times as fast as the DECUS version.
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...ZORK runs under RT-ll, HT-ll, or RSTS/E and requires as
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little as 20K words of memory and a single floppy disk drive.
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The game package, consisting of an RX01-format diskette and
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an instruction booklet, is available from Infocom, Inc.,
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P.O. Box 120, Kendall Station, Cambridge, Ma. 02142."
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ZORK(tm) is a trademark of Infocom, Inc. It is available for several
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popular personal computers as well as for the PDP-ll.
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SUMMARY
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-------
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Welcome to Dungeon!
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Dungeon is a game of adventure, danger, and low cunning. In it
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you will explore some of the most amazing territory ever seen by mortal
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man. Hardened adventurers have run screaming from the terrors contained
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within.
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In Dungeon, the intrepid explorer delves into the forgotten secrets
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of a lost labyrinth deep in the bowels of the earth, searching for
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vast treasures long hidden from prying eyes, treasures guarded by
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fearsome monsters and diabolical traps!
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No DECsystem should be without one!
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Dungeon was created at the Programming Technology Division of the MIT
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Laboratory for Computer Science by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce
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Daniels, and Dave Lebling. It was inspired by the Adventure game of
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Crowther and Woods, and the Dungeons and Dragons game of Gygax
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and Arneson. The original version was written in MDL (alias MUDDLE).
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The current version was translated from MDL into FORTRAN IV by
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a somewhat paranoid DEC engineer who prefers to remain anonymous.
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On-line information may be obtained with the commands HELP and INFO.
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II. DEC FORTRAN to f77 Conversion (17-nov-81)
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The conversion from DEC FORTRAN to Unix f77 was done by Randy
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Dietrich, Lynn Cochran and Sig Peterson. Much hacking was done to get
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it to fit in the limited address space of a PDP-11/44 (split I/D).
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Suffice it to say that by leaving out the debugging package and not
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linking in the f77 i/o library they managed to get it to run.
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III. PDP to VAX (dec-85)
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Based on the work of Randy, Lynn and Sig, Bill Randle folded in the
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full save/restore functions and the game debugging package (gdt) into
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the pdp version to create a Vax/Unix version. This version also uses
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f77 i/o, thus eliminating the extra speak and listen processes needed
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on the pdp.
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IV. Cleanup I (11-dec-86)
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John Gilmore (hoptoad!gnu) cleaned up the source files by moving
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most of the common declarations into include files and added
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comments from the original (FORTRAN or MDL?) source. His efforts
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are greatly appreciated.
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V. Cleanup II (9-feb-87)
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Bill Randle (billr@tekred.tek.com) added the pdp dependencies back
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into the Vax source files with #ifdefs in order to have just one
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set of sources. Previously, there were two sets of source: one for
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the pdp and one for the Vax. In addition, a shell escape of the
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form !cmd was added and the wizard can enter the gdt without having
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to recompile the source. Finally, a man page was generated, based
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on the dungeon.doc file.
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VI. f77 to C (11-mar-91)
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Ian Lance Taylor (ian@airs.com or uunet!airs!ian) used the f2c
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translator to generate C source code. The resulting code was modified
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to remove the FORTRAN I/O library, to add simple more processing, and
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to change the format of the database file. Andre Srinivasan
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(andre@cs.pitt.edu) help test it. Jonathan Mark
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(uunet!microsoft!jonm) made it work under MS-DOS and Microsoft C.
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