[From the INFO-VAX mailing list] From: mjl@uk.ac.oxford.vax (Martin Loach at CCRG) Date: 28 Feb 94 16:30:35 GMT Many (10?) years back a certain Vax system I knew had an adventure game running on VMS called 'adventure'. I think this is more widely known on other machines now, but does anyone know where one might find a VMS version of this if it is in the public domain? I remember it started 'outside a large white house' or words to that effect, and involved the usual dungeon labyrinth activities. Thanks for any help. Martin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rc32313@com.lilly.d48.mcvax4 Date: 1 Mar 94 08:11:11 EST I believe you are talking about the original text adventure known as "Zork". It was published by InfoCom if I remember rightly, and was at one time claimed to have sold more copies than any other software product. I am certain that it is in the public domain. As to the possible sources for VMS, someone else will have to answer that. ******************************************************************** Randy Hawley | All opinions expressed | John 3:16 Eli Lilly & Co | are mine, not theirs | He's Alive ! ******************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: lionel@com.dec.enet.quark (Steve Lionel) Date: 1 Mar 1994 14:42:04 GMT Adventure was the original descriptive-text game in which you explored a series of caves. Somewhat later came Dungeon, also sold commercially as Zork. (My all-time favorite SPR was a complaint from a university in England, with a customer-assigned priority of 1 (Severe system impact, cannot get any work done), that after they had installed VAX/VMS V1.6 the DUNGEON game failed with an integer overflow! I responded that I could not reproduce the problem and that they should try some more magic words.) Both Adventure and Dungeone have been available through the DECUS Library for VAX systems in the past. Adventure is written in Fortran, and starts out as follows: You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully. And here's how it ends: The sepulchral voice entones, "The cave is now closed." As the echoes fade, there is a blinding flash of light (and a small puff of orange smoke). . . . As your eyes refocus, you look around and find... You are at the northeast end of an immense room, even larger than the Giant Room. It appears to be a repository for the "Adventure" program. Massive torches far overhead bathe the room with smoky yellow light. Scattered about you can be seen a pile of bottles (all of them empty), a nursery of young beanstalks murmuring quietly, a bed of oysters, a bundle of black rods with rusty stars on their ends, and a collection of brass lanterns. Off to one side a great many dwarves are sleeping on the floor, snoring loudly. A sign nearby reads: "Do not disturb the dwarves!" An immense mirror is hanging against one wall, and stretches to the other end of the room, where various other sundry objects can be glimpsed dimly in the distance. You are at the southwest end of the repository. To one side is a pit full of fierce green snakes. On the other side is a row of small wicker cages, each of which contains a little sulking bird. In one corner is a bundle of black rods with rusty marks on their ends. A large number of velvet pillows are scattered about on the floor. A vast mirror stretches off to the northeast. At your feet is a large steel grate, next to which is a sign which reads, "Treasure vault. Keys in main office." There is a loud explosion, and a twenty-foot hole appears in the far wall, burying the dwarves in the rubble. You march through the hole and find yourself in the main office, where a cheering band of friendly elves carry the conquering adventurer off into the sunset. I've also played a much "larger" game called HAUNT, but that only ran on a DECsystem-20. -- Steve Lionel lionel@quark.enet.dec.com or SDT Languages Group lionel@quark.zko.dec.com Digital Equipment Corporation 110 Spit Brook Road, ZKO2-3/N30 Nashua, NH 03062-2698 "Free advice is worth every cent" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 01 Mar 1994 11:14:50 EST From: Mighty Firebreather I have source for a version of Adventure. I *think* it's a PDP10 version. It will not run (or even compile) under VAX/VMS. There are heavy dependencies on six bit characters and thirty-six bit words. Porting it will take a great deal of work. ************************************************************************* * Here, there be dragons! * * dragon@nscvax.princeton.edu * * * * I'm job hunting. Any offers or leads will be appreciated. * * Thanks! * * Richard B. Gilbert * *************************************************************************