4 ms·

There are multiple versions of mainframe Zork available on GitHub. See https://eblong.com/infocom/#zorkmdl https://eblong.com/infocom/#zorkmdl for this and ever

There are multiple versions of mainframe Zork available on GitHub. See https://eblong.com/infocom/#zorkmdl https://eblong.com/infocom/#zorkmdl for this and everything else Infocom.

082349872349872 3y ago
Just as an aside on how far we've come since the mid-1980s: back then I had heard of a "Dungeon Definition Language" for writing adventure games (IF) by someone at UCSD(?). I emailed him to ask for the source code, and he kindly granted me access. Instead of a 'git clone' or downloading a tarball, however, this involved me (a) snail mailing him a paper cheque covering the costs of a tape, operator time, and postage; (b) waiting a week or so; and (c) finally receiving a large puffy envelope in the mail, which I was able to have read into my account (for free, due to a friendly sysadmin) the next working day. Then, of course, there was the usual hour or so of (d) fixing up all the little places where your correspondent's unix didn't do things quite how your home system's unix did, before having a copy that actually built and ran. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-track_tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-track_tape
- larsbrinkhoff 3y ago
  Probably this, right? https://adl.sourceforge.net/ddldoc.html https://adl.sourceforge.net/ddldoc.html Do you still have that code?
  - 082349872349872 3y ago
    That was it! Unfortunately I definitely don't have it online. That was last century on a different continent; if I did still have it, it'd be on 9-track, in the bottom of a filing cabinet somewhere underneath less-rectangular-things on the back wall of my cellar, with two generations of my wife's family's stuff sitting in front of it, making the chances I'll ever get back there in the medium future ... rather low. Topology in the 21st century is funny: I'm 300 ms away from a server 12 time zones away, yet there are parts of my own house I haven't seen in over 3.156e+11 ms.
    - flyinghamster 3y ago
      > Topology in the 21st century is funny: I'm 300 ms away from a server 12 time zones away, yet there are parts of my own house I haven't seen in over 3.156e+11 ms. I resemble that remark. I'm about to embark on some major housecleaning and getting-rid-of-crap.
larsbrinkhoff 3y ago
To clarify, "Mainframe Zork" usually means the original MDL version for the PDP-10, Bob Supnik's Fortran translation thereof, or the C translation of the Fortran version. The other, "not mainframe" Zork, is Infocom's Zork series written in ZIL and running on microcomputers.

There are multiple versions of mainframe Zork available on GitHub. See https://eblong.com/infocom/#zorkmdl https://eblong.com/infocom/#zorkmdl for this and everything else Infocom.

082349872349872 3y ago

Just as an aside on how far we've come since the mid-1980s: back then I had heard of a "Dungeon Definition Language" for writing adventure games (IF) by someone at UCSD(?). I emailed him to ask for the source code, and he kindly granted me access. Instead of a 'git clone' or downloading a tarball, however, this involved me (a) snail mailing him a paper cheque covering the costs of a tape, operator time, and postage; (b) waiting a week or so; and (c) finally receiving a large puffy envelope in the mail, which I was able to have read into my account (for free, due to a friendly sysadmin) the next working day. Then, of course, there was the usual hour or so of (d) fixing up all the little places where your correspondent's unix didn't do things quite how your home system's unix did, before having a copy that actually built and ran. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-track_tape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-track_tape

larsbrinkhoff 3y ago
Probably this, right? https://adl.sourceforge.net/ddldoc.html https://adl.sourceforge.net/ddldoc.html Do you still have that code?
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  That was it! Unfortunately I definitely don't have it online. That was last century on a different continent; if I did still have it, it'd be on 9-track, in the bottom of a filing cabinet somewhere underneath less-rectangular-things on the back wall of my cellar, with two generations of my wife's family's stuff sitting in front of it, making the chances I'll ever get back there in the medium future ... rather low. Topology in the 21st century is funny: I'm 300 ms away from a server 12 time zones away, yet there are parts of my own house I haven't seen in over 3.156e+11 ms.
  - flyinghamster 3y ago
    > Topology in the 21st century is funny: I'm 300 ms away from a server 12 time zones away, yet there are parts of my own house I haven't seen in over 3.156e+11 ms. I resemble that remark. I'm about to embark on some major housecleaning and getting-rid-of-crap.

larsbrinkhoff 3y ago

To clarify, "Mainframe Zork" usually means the original MDL version for the PDP-10, Bob Supnik's Fortran translation thereof, or the C translation of the Fortran version. The other, "not mainframe" Zork, is Infocom's Zork series written in ZIL and running on microcomputers.