[Simh] Crowther's Adventure game

Sat Feb 3 20:20:59 EST 2018

Um... FORTRAN IV and FORTRAN-77 are as much standard as anything you 
could ever come up with. Now, DEC did do extensions, which, if you used, 
made it difficult to compile using other compilers, but FORTRAN IV 
itself, along with FORTRAN-77 is very much standards.

The biggest oddball non-standard variant would be DEC's FORTRAN-IV-PLUS.
It's sortof a hybrid between FORTRAN IV and FORTRAN-77.

All that said, if the code can be made to compile and link under FORTRAN 
IV or FORTRAN-77 under RSX, then I can offer a machine to do it on, 
that's on the internet. And I even have a library for talking TCP/IP 
from FORTRAN which is really easy to use.

Let me know if you're interested.

On 2018-02-03 23:32, Dan Gahlinger wrote:
> weird - http://trek7.sourceforge.net/
> Works perfectly for me
> 
> but yes, it's Fortran on the Vax from 1976-1978 timeframe
> it was Fortran/IV and/or/mixed Fortran/77
> so not "standard" fortran at all.
> actually the code wouldn't compile at all with compaq fortran (IBM) or 
> even on a vax with newer versions,
> which led to a lot of speculation that it was Fortran/IV or some hybrid.
> 
> there are several repositories of the trek7 code under that link,
> in the vms directory you'll find code for the vax, that does compile and 
> link, and the vax EXE is there, supplied.
> 
> the linux directory has the code for linux, with compiled binary
> as does the does version (compiled with Intel Fortran I think, it's been 
> a while)
> and then there's the newest directory - not sure which "strain" that was.
> 
> Hey, I've been working on that project since around 1978, it's been a 
> very long time, details escape.
> 
> It went through cycles, scanning in, and correcting, but then later 
> cycles actually ended up being hand-typed.
> you'll notice comments in the code about it being hand-checked and 
> type-correct exact to the printout that was being worked from.
> 
> the code in the various dirs (dos, linux, vms) does all compile, the 
> binaries are there, and they do run.
> 
> This project is about as close to end of life as you can get, I really 
> only posted it so it would survive me, when that day comes.
> I wanted it passed on to future generations. it really is the best trek 
> game I've ever played, and I do mean best, and I do mean ever.
> Nothing else comes close.
> 
> One final thing I always wanted to complete, but not sure it's even 
> possible any more, is the multi-player aspect.
> 
> on the vax/vms version you could assign terminals (if you had the 
> privileges) to have up to four players at once.
> 
> You can do the same sort of thing in linux in a different way - but I'd 
> like to make that work again, on linux.
> 
> And for Dos/Windows or possible Mac port (hah) someday - I'm not sure 
> that will ever be possible.
> Dos/Windows doesn't have any concept of "terminals", and I'm totally 
> incapable of writing a TCP/Socket interface for it, way beyond me.
> and it being fortran, well, that might be impossible too. I have no 
> idea. and I'm not capable, so there we are.
> 
> I own several vaxstation 3100/78's and I have vms on simh as well, so 
> that's how I test.
> I miss my favorite trek game.
> 
> And BTW for another trip down memory lane check out: 
> http://trek7.sourceforge.net/files/castle/
> This is "The New Castle" from Vax/VMS circa 1978, the project I finally 
> completed after 38 years.
> 
> I can't find any. testers to weed out any remaining bugs in Castle, so 
> it is what it is.
> 
> I'd appreciate if you could give Trek7 a once-over (or something).
> The idea of converting the code to something reasonable has been toyed 
> with, but most important to me is the "feel" of the game,
> without that, it's just not trek7 any more.
> Please dont compare it to net-trek, it's not even close. shudder.
> 
> I used to be fluent in fortran, many moons ago, but I've forgotten 
> almost all of it.
> 
> Again, primary purpose - pass it on, maybe someday someone will enjoy it 
> as much as I did.
> Networking multi-player in linux would be really cool.
> 
> I'd love to have another multi-player game some day.
> 
> And give Castle a whirl, I left all the debugging in place just in case.
> 
> thanks, and hope you enjoy
> 
> Dan.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Larry Baker <baker at usgs.gov>
> *Sent:* February 3, 2018 5:00 PM
> *To:* dgahling at hotmail.com
> *Cc:* simh at trailing-edge.com
> *Subject:* Re: [Simh] Crowther's Adventure game
> Dan,
> 
> The link to your Source Forge page you posted does not work for me.  I 
> found TREK7 it at https://sourceforge.net/projects/trek7/.
> 
> I tried to find the sources you started with.  I found a ZIP file called 
> trk7fsrc.zip 
> <https://sourceforge.net/projects/trek7/files/trek7/status/trk7fsrc.zip/download>. 
>   When I compiled the first file, TREKA.FOR, I can see typos and lines 
> extending past column 72.  This could not be the original source code 
> that worked at one time.  Was this scanned?  Has this been altered from 
> a known working version, other than the scanning errors?  Like, the 
> lines that extend past column 72?  The code clearly expects column 72 to 
> wrap to column 7 of a continuation line, which is how Fortran 
> fixed-format source works.
> 
> Ancient Fortran should not be that hard to convert, especially if you 
> know the original platform.  I saw LIB$ calls, which leads me to believe 
> this was maybe VAX Fortran?  I see the use of FORMAT specifiers without 
> lengths, like F, not F7.2.  It would be nice to know the precise meaning 
> of that non-standard Fortran.  But, very new Fortran sill also accept 
> FORMAT specifiers without lengths now.  And, there is non-advancing 
> support for Fortran I/O now.  Fortran INTRINSICS should be 
> straightforward.  The library calls will be harder.
> 
> Want help?  What platform do you want to run the code on?
> 
> Larry Baker
> US Geological Survey
> 650-329-5608
> baker at usgs.gov <mailto:baker at usgs.gov>
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On Feb 3, 2018, at 11:13 AM, simh-request at trailing-edge.com 
>> <mailto:simh-request at trailing-edge.com> wrote:
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2018 17:51:47 +0000
>> From: Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com <mailto:dgahling at hotmail.com>>
>> To: Quentin North <quentin at quentin.org.uk 
>> <mailto:quentin at quentin.org.uk>>, Bob Nelson
>> <rmkrider at gmail.com <mailto:rmkrider at gmail.com>>
>> Cc: "simh at trailing-edge.com <mailto:simh at trailing-edge.com>" 
>> <simh at trailing-edge.com <mailto:simh at trailing-edge.com>>
>> Subject: Re: [Simh] Crowther's Adventure game
>> Message-ID:
>> <DM3PR16MB0813E647EB83D26D6D6BEF95C9F80 at DM3PR16MB0813.namprd16.prod.outlook.com 
>> <mailto:DM3PR16MB0813E647EB83D26D6D6BEF95C9F80 at DM3PR16MB0813.namprd16.prod.outlook.com>>
>>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> I have an original printout of Adventure from the mid 70's, taken from 
>> a Vax though,
>> It's not a version I've found on the archives, the version ID on mine 
>> is different.
>> I've been meaning to scan it and post it.
>>
>> Ancient fortran is very hard to convert, as I found out trying to 
>> convert trek7 (https://trek7.sourceforge.net 
>> <https://trek7.sourceforge.net/>)
>>
>> And I spent 38 years or so converting "the new castle" from Vax to 
>> Linux/Dos/Mac.
>>
>> Dan.
> 
> 
> 
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