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Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

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Re: Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

#61

Post by spacedcowboy »

mmooss wrote: post #54
cbm-vic-20 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The creator of this game is a frequent contributor on this site. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=WalterBright

Is that the same Empire? The version I've seen has no BTUs. Just basics: random continents, cities produce military units, units require different numbers of turns for production, etc. However, I saw a modern-ish decendent called Empire Deluxe, so maybe the original had more features?

The version I played all those years ago definitely had BTUs. I remember planning ahead of time what the most efficient use of them would be, before actually doing things between updates; not to mention setting alarms to wake me up, log on, and use up the (otherwise wasted because I was at max) ones at times in the night, if I was doing something, er… sneaky :)

Re: Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

#62

Post by anthk »

vejeta wrote: post #49
anthk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trek lives in every OpenBSD install. And OFC with any Basic interpreter running the original game. I translated a Zmachine port into Spanish, too. ZTrek.

Hey Anthk, if you ported it to a Zmachine, does it mean is it like an interactive fiction game (aventura conversacional in spanish). Is it in the CAAD archive?

No is not a text adventure game; it just runs under the ZMachine. You have several other examples at IFDB, such as Tetris, Robots Find Kitten, Madbomber... I did internally as a translation at https://caja.texto-plano.xyz/anthk/zgames/spa/trek/ in order to provide a quick translated Trek game. Yes, I could use some Basic SST port but this made the game universally playable. It isn't a IF game because it doesn't use the INFSP6 Spanish grammar (the counterpart to the English Inform6 one). That's it, it uses raw Inform instructions.

The game is not at CAAD because they woudn't accept as it a text adventure game.

Re: Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

#63

Post by anthk »

vejeta wrote: post #53
shevy-java wrote: post #34

That's pretty cool. I think it should all be bundled into scummvm, or an extension of this such as scummvm-history or scummvm-preservation. We could bundle all games ever written, with a focus on older games; and ensure they are playable (be it either by released-to-the-public, or people having privately owned copies - the point is more than an engine should be able to make them playable on a modern computer. And yes…

Not exactly what you ask, but for example, for unix textual games, Debian (the GNU/Linux distribution I know best) provides the package called bsdgames: https://packages.debian.org/source/sid/bsdgames where many games like this are provided https://salsa.debian.org/games-team/bsdgames The thing is that list is not constant and is changing overtime, depending on the usage, demand, and effort to maintain them from the…

BSD games are part of the base TGZ's from OpenBSD. They are perfect to test new cases (pledge, unveil...) without making dangerous experiments with core OS tools.

Re: Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

#64

Post by anthk »

xenophonf wrote: post #25

Stories like these make me want to give modernizing vtrek another try. I'd originally played it on my cousin's 3B2 in the late 1980s after being introduced to the CP/M port of classic trek, which I played on my family's IMS 5000SX. (Oh, how I wished at the time that we'd gotten an Apple II! But that's a story for another time.) I have distinct memories of playing vtrek on my dad's VT220, dialed into my cousin's BBS o…

I's trivial to add hjkl keys to trek, in any port. But bear in mind you would lose warp scalars.

OTOH, Trek for the ZMachine issues hotkeys for the both LRS and LRS.

System V trek it's at GH, but I find it's pretty much the same as BSD trek(6) from OpenBSD.

https://github.com/cculianu/trek

Re: Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

#65

Post by pbalau »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #60
drob518 wrote: post #45

We’re hitting that point in time when key figures in the history of early computing are starting to leave us. It’s nice to see these early applications preserved. If we can get this code off old disks and tapes and into modern cloud-based repositories, with open source licenses, we might be able to enjoy these programs for a long time, whether for actual amusement or just historical significance. The digital age is b…

Someone should start a museum where you can walk in and play these ancient games and fiddle with ancient software (probably using virtual machines and emulators for the sake of hardware preservation). They could use donations and admission tickets to fund the restoration of more and more old stuff, in a virtuous cycle.

It is my very strong opinion that brits excel at museums.

https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/

https://www.tnmoc.org/

https://www.museumofcomputing.org.uk/

Re: Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

#66

Post by ww520 »

spot wrote: post #5

Before xtrek and eventually netrek, there was hunt: https://techtinkering.com/2009/08/11/my-top-10-classic-text-... you might think that games back then were slow but this one was fast paced mayhem. using the vi commands was perfect.

I wasted so much late night hours on Netrek in the computer lab.

Re: Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

#67

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

pbalau wrote: post #65
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone should start a museum where you can walk in and play these ancient games and fiddle with ancient software (probably using virtual machines and emulators for the sake of hardware preservation). They could use donations and admission tickets to fund the restoration of more and more old stuff, in a virtuous cycle.

It is my very strong opinion that brits excel at museums. https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/ https://www.tnmoc.org/ https://www.museumofcomputing.org.uk/

No doubt, but one could also argue that the UK is oversupplied with computer museums and other regions are undersupplied =)

Re: Reviving Classic Unix Games: A 20-Year Journey Through Software Archaeology

#70

Post by anthk »

Razengan wrote: post #37
spacedcowboy wrote: post #2

I remember something similar from my university days (30-odd years ago) called Empire. This still lives on here [1]. There was many a map printed out on the laser printer (and my prof wanted to know why his budget was so much higher that term...) back in the day. We played against other colleges of the university of Londone over JANet, and I ran the server on a DECstation 5000, somewhat less powerful than my watch th…

"Play-by-Mail" games could make a comeback now: An AI could maintain the state of a world in its "mind", take text commands from a bunch of players, and update the state the next day.

AI's suck against the most simple game daemon or MUDs sendings emails over SMTP.
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