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."

THIS IS A HOAX

[Anonymous Coward]

4chan is responsible. Who else would call FORTRAN a "text adventure"?

The Holy Grail?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bad, bad Zoot. I'm sorry that's just the grail shaped light.

Found? When was it lost?

[Smallpond]

I once wrote a script to find and delete copies of this and the star trek game due to the limited disk space on our PDP-11/70. It had to compare file contents because the sneaky bastards would change the file names to something like TPSRPORT.DOC to hide them.

This sounds familiar

[thatskinnyguy]

I've never seen this game or anything like it. (too young) It sounds to me to be like one of those interactive books. It would seem to be a little easier to go the book route than to have to mess around with 70's era computers. How this was successful at all is a wonder.

Re:A good example of how coding has progressed

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy Grail? More like finding the Arc of the Covenant. As it's being opened.

Looking upon this madness leads only to ruin!

at last!

[pbjones]

I may print it out and use it for wall paper. or etch it on silicon.

Re:This sounds familiar

[Barny]

GIT OFFA MAH LAWN! /me waves a shotgun around menacingly

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.

I was at my wit's end

[phunctor]

but fortunately I had the source.

--
phunctor

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....

[PrescriptionWarning]

Q: "What is your quest?"

A> "To Seek the holy grail!"

Q: "what is your favorite text base adventure game?"

A> "Colossal Cave Adventure... NO wait, blue!"

*Gets launched into the death pit*

   tttttt
  t      t
t          t
t   R I P  t
t          t
t          t
tttttttttttt

Ironic

[Anonymous Coward]

Ironically, I used to have the source code to an adventure game called The Holy Grail. :-D

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:THIS IS A HOAX

[john_sheu]

// Still wouldn't use it unless forced to at gunpoint

You'd use it at gunpoint? Kids these days, they have no moral fiber...

At Last!

[corby]

Now, I will finally be able to unlock the Hot Coffee mod.

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.)

Re:A good example of how coding has progressed

[Mr. Underbridge]

Wow! Is that the opposite of self-documenting code or what?

Well...it doesn't *look* like Perl...

Re:Holy Grail

[FauxPasIII]

> I digged out my Transformers toys when the movie was out, but playing with them doesn't give me the same thrill as they did 20 years ago.

Then your fandom is WEAK.
/me cuddles his masterpiece edition Optimus Prime

You are in a maze...

[Anonymous Coward]

...of twisty FORTRAN spaghetti code, all alike. You are likely to be eaten by an IBM punchcard reader

Re:At Last!

[Gregg.Baker]

Does this mean the ESRB is going to retroactively give it an AO rating for ASCII boobies?

Re:A good example of how coding has progressed

[j00r0m4nc3r]

Wow! Is that the opposite of self-documenting code or what?

I would call it self-obfuscating.

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-----

Re:Found? When was it lost?

[Green Light]

Umm, I think you missed his joke. Did you get the memo about the TPSREPORT?

Re:Found? When was it lost?

[dmpyron]

I've got a box of cards (two, actually. Two and half, really. You could never get all the cards back into the box). All I need is a card reader and a 360/65 with OS 360 and TSO and I'm set for life.

I've also got a programming card for an 029 and COBOL.

We were the sneaky bastards that used to put random comments and unused character strings into the code to thwart people like you. Then I graduated and became a people like you. And was constantly thwarted by people like me.

OS 360, RSX11D, RSX11M, VMS. RIP.

I'm almost afraid to ask...

[Anonymous Coward]

No games, but I programmed a robot once.

A girl robot?

Re:Original Zork source code in MDL

[Just Some Guy]

I wore an onion on my belt

That was a great story the last time you told it [slashdot.org], too.

Re:A good example of how coding has progressed

[fm6]

...written by Woz...

Please. It's "The Woz".

Re:1976??

[somersault]

He was using an emulator, running on a binary abacus

Re:movie

[NickFitz]

I think to stay true to the period though Adventure The Movie should be in b&w.

To stay properly true to the original, it should just be a film of a roll of paper coming out of a Teletype.

Re: A good example of how coding has progressed

[fm6]

You sound younger than me...

Well, that's nice to know, but the fact is that I'm probably older than you. How old? Without being to specific, I'll just say that I once met Harpo Marx.