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 Please note that Dungeon has been superceded by the game ZORK(tm).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