Crowther's Original Adventure Source Code Found

drxenos writes "I don't know how many of you are fans of old-school text adventures (interactive fiction), but Will Crowther's original Fortran source code has been located in a backup of Don Woods's old student account. For fans like me, this is like finding the Holy Grail."

Comments

Re:A good example of how coding has progressed

[SIGBUS]

So maybe the inspiration for the "maze of twisty little passages, all alike" wasn't Mammoth Cave, it was the code itself.

Re:A good example of how coding has progressed

[morgan_greywolf]

Um, could you repost that please? It seems your original post got corrupted somehow. All I see is gibberish where the code should be.

Re:THIS IS A HOAX

[pla]

Who else would call FORTRAN a "text adventure"?

Well, calling it a "programming language" certainly qualifies as "fantasy"... ;-)



/ Props to HPF, though
// Still wouldn't use it unless forced to at gunpoint

Re:Wow....

[Anonymous Coward]

"Someone mind finishing the work for me?"

Fine, fine.

For fans like me, this is like finding the Holy Grail.

Drxenos! Drxenos, King of the Nerds! Oh, don't grovel! If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people groveling! ...
[slightly later]

Behold! Drxenos, this is the Holy Grail of Computer Games. Look well, drxenos, for it is your sacred task to seek this Grail. That is your purpose, drxenos -- the Quest for the Holy Grail of Computer Games: Adventure. And it is written in FORTRAN.

Wait, FORTRAN? Lord, you're kidding right?

[significantly later]

He says they've already got one!

Yes, it's-a verry nice-a. It is-a coded in C.

[substantially later]

We are the Knights Who Say ... IP! IP! IP!

Augh!!!! Stop it!

[much later]

What is the net speed of an unladen TCP/IP data packet using PPP over a 1200 baud modem?
What do you mean? With or without parity, 7 or 8 bits, with or without flow control?
What? I don't know all that! Auuuuuugh!!!

[slightly later but a little further that the previously-mentioned "slightly later"]

The Castle Stanford. Once we brave its maze of twisty little passages, all alike, our quest is at an end!

Re:Why it was special...

[ian_mackereth]

I encountered it as an engineering undergrad, on a university Cyber 204 or 205 mainframe, the first computer I'd ever used. I had to hack extra console time via various means to complete it, using a mega flowchart I drew up as I went.

When I finally finished it, the screen cleared and an operator in the computer centre was typing to me and asking me to come over to the centre. I figured I'd been sprung for all the extra time I'd 'arranged', but instead they gave me printout and iducted me into the Order of Wizards!

A nerdy proud moment... (I wish I hadn't lost that printout in the intervening decades and moves.)

The Fortran gods shall smite thee

[White Yeti]

program smite_em
c-----
      IMPLICIT NONE      ! Catch typos and un-initialized variables.
      integer       IERR_smite
      character*200 ch_name
c-----
      write(6,1)
1     FORMAT(/,' This is one smiting program!',/,
     &   '   Enter name of smitee --> ',$)
      read(*,fmt='(A)') ch_name

      DO while(.TRUE.)   ! Endless smiting loop.
         call smite(ch_name, IERR_smite)
         if(IERR_smite.GT.0) goto 20
      End DO             ! smite loop.
20    CONTINUE

      write(*,*)' Done smiting.'
      if(IERR_smite.LT.0) then
         write(6,2) IERR_smite
2        FORMAT(' ***Possible smiting error, IERR_smite = ',I)
      endif
      STOP
      END
c-----
c End of Main.
c-----