4 ms·

The Sumerian Game: The Most Important Video Game You've Never Heard Of (2021)

82 points by Bluestein 2y ago

einpoklum 2y ago
Ok, enough chit-chat, you want the mobile app, right? https://www.appbrain.com/app/hammurabi/com.papacut.hammurabi https://www.appbrain.com/app/hammurabi/com.papacut.hammurabi (also available on Google Play and Apple Store, although Sumerians wouldn't recommend using those companies' services.)
lostmsu 2y ago
There's a Russian take on that game with more features: http://akasoft.genliga.ru/index_e.php http://akasoft.genliga.ru/index_e.php The web site is also very old-school.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  (Very old-school, in the nicest possible way ... ... looks aside, so "information-dense", such little "padding", so little wasted space. Great stuff ...
zem 2y ago
i had the bbc version of that as a kid. it was surprisingly immersive and addictive.
grimgrin 2y ago
Friend of mine recently wrote up a fun little piece on Hamurabi/strategies https://www.jeffquast.com/post/hamurabi_bas/ https://www.jeffquast.com/post/hamurabi_bas/
mysterydip 2y ago
I was introduced to this game, as well as many others, in the excellent book "50 years of text games": https://if50.textories.com/ https://if50.textories.com/
- Bluestein 2y ago
  Great find :)
K0balt 2y ago
When I was about 6? I used to play this on a decwriter dot matrix terminal connected to the university’s DAX. My mom got free computer time every month that she never used, so I used it to play Sumer, trek, and program stupid stuff in Fortran.
xend3r76 2y ago
BTW I rebuilt the game and made it available for free on Steam. I'm also working on releasing my research with the rebuilding process step by step (so you can all rewrite it in any language you like) and comparing it to King of Sumeria (the FOCAL version by Dyment) and Hamurabi (the BASIC version by Ahl). If you have any questions about the game pls ask. I've been working on this project for 6 years :)
Bluestein 2y ago
"Long before Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego or The Oregon Trail, there was The Sumerian Game. Designed in 1964 for classrooms, it was as innovative as it is forgotten."
ahazred8ta 2y ago
Later rewritten as Hammurabi. Not to be outdone - the classic Old Testament Text Adventure game: You have 100 goats. You have pottage. https://old-testament-text-adventure.com/ https://old-testament-text-adventure.com/
- Bluestein 2y ago
  What more could one possibly want? :)
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    You, of course, have zero "boils" :)
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
com 2y ago
I played HMRABI on a DEC-10 with a teletype and a modem with an acoustic coupler when I was a kid - literally a game changer since affordable 8-bit computers came out shortly after and we could build rubbish games a bit similar to this. It was always a blast to script - in BASIC - the subservient computer advisor!
jhbadger 2y ago
Hammurabi (which as mentioned in another comment seems to be a later rewrite of this) was very popular in schools in the 1980s. As was "Lemonade Stand", which at first glance seems to have nothing to do with Hammurabi, but the style of the game (player enters a set of numbers reflecting various decisions to be made in the turn) and the computer returns the results (how much wheat harvested, how many cups of lemonade sold) according to its calculations, is very similar.
- egypturnash 2y ago
  The second half of the article deals with the evolution from a 1964 mainframe game to a simplified version that fit into 4k of FOCAL on a PDP-8, and then to the BASIC version found in David Ahl's well-known "BASIC Computer Games" books under the name "Hamurabi" (with one M).
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    > FOCAL Sounds like an interesting language.-
geoelectric 2y ago
I remember typing in the David Ahl version from the 1978 edition back in the 80s, on my TRS-80 CoCo. As soon as I started reading the article I realized they were referring to the same game. I don’t think I realized the game itself was so venerable though!
- Bluestein 2y ago
  > so venerable though Almost as old as the king himself ... PS. BASIC being involved and all gives a whole new meaning to the "code of Hammurabi" :)

82 points by Bluestein 2y ago

Ok, enough chit-chat, you want the mobile app, right? https://www.appbrain.com/app/hammurabi/com.papacut.hammurabi https://www.appbrain.com/app/hammurabi/com.papacut.hammurabi (also available on Google Play and Apple Store, although Sumerians wouldn't recommend using those companies' services.)

lostmsu 2y ago

There's a Russian take on that game with more features: http://akasoft.genliga.ru/index_e.php http://akasoft.genliga.ru/index_e.php The web site is also very old-school.

Bluestein 2y ago
(Very old-school, in the nicest possible way ... ... looks aside, so "information-dense", such little "padding", so little wasted space. Great stuff ...

zem 2y ago

i had the bbc version of that as a kid. it was surprisingly immersive and addictive.

grimgrin 2y ago

Friend of mine recently wrote up a fun little piece on Hamurabi/strategies https://www.jeffquast.com/post/hamurabi_bas/ https://www.jeffquast.com/post/hamurabi_bas/

mysterydip 2y ago

I was introduced to this game, as well as many others, in the excellent book "50 years of text games": https://if50.textories.com/ https://if50.textories.com/

Bluestein 2y ago
Great find :)

K0balt 2y ago

When I was about 6? I used to play this on a decwriter dot matrix terminal connected to the university’s DAX. My mom got free computer time every month that she never used, so I used it to play Sumer, trek, and program stupid stuff in Fortran.

xend3r76 2y ago

BTW I rebuilt the game and made it available for free on Steam. I'm also working on releasing my research with the rebuilding process step by step (so you can all rewrite it in any language you like) and comparing it to King of Sumeria (the FOCAL version by Dyment) and Hamurabi (the BASIC version by Ahl). If you have any questions about the game pls ask. I've been working on this project for 6 years :)

Bluestein 2y ago

"Long before Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego or The Oregon Trail, there was The Sumerian Game. Designed in 1964 for classrooms, it was as innovative as it is forgotten."

ahazred8ta 2y ago

Later rewritten as Hammurabi. Not to be outdone - the classic Old Testament Text Adventure game: You have 100 goats. You have pottage. https://old-testament-text-adventure.com/ https://old-testament-text-adventure.com/

Bluestein 2y ago
What more could one possibly want? :)
- Bluestein 2y ago
  You, of course, have zero "boils" :)

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

com 2y ago

I played HMRABI on a DEC-10 with a teletype and a modem with an acoustic coupler when I was a kid - literally a game changer since affordable 8-bit computers came out shortly after and we could build rubbish games a bit similar to this. It was always a blast to script - in BASIC - the subservient computer advisor!

jhbadger 2y ago

Hammurabi (which as mentioned in another comment seems to be a later rewrite of this) was very popular in schools in the 1980s. As was "Lemonade Stand", which at first glance seems to have nothing to do with Hammurabi, but the style of the game (player enters a set of numbers reflecting various decisions to be made in the turn) and the computer returns the results (how much wheat harvested, how many cups of lemonade sold) according to its calculations, is very similar.

egypturnash 2y ago
The second half of the article deals with the evolution from a 1964 mainframe game to a simplified version that fit into 4k of FOCAL on a PDP-8, and then to the BASIC version found in David Ahl's well-known "BASIC Computer Games" books under the name "Hamurabi" (with one M).
- Bluestein 2y ago
  > FOCAL Sounds like an interesting language.-

geoelectric 2y ago

I remember typing in the David Ahl version from the 1978 edition back in the 80s, on my TRS-80 CoCo. As soon as I started reading the article I realized they were referring to the same game. I don’t think I realized the game itself was so venerable though!

Bluestein 2y ago
> so venerable though Almost as old as the king himself ... PS. BASIC being involved and all gives a whole new meaning to the "code of Hammurabi" :)