[Simh] 101 Basic Games for RSTS/E (was Re: PDP11 on Simh for public access)

[Tim Shoppa]

The spot-checks I've done show the DECTape to be identical in content and
spacing to the tapes I have containing DECUS RSTS-11-013 and RSTS-11-014.

As to which came first, the book or the tape, look at this comment in
GAMES.BAS from the tape:

100 &#1%:&#1%,"     CATALOG OF GAMES AND RECREATIONS ON RSTS":&#1%
110 &#1%,"FOR MAXIMUM ENJOYMENT OF THESE GAMES, YOU SHOULD HAVE A"
120 &#1%,"COPY OF THE BOOK, '101 BASIC COMPUTER GAMES' BY DAVID AHL.":&#1%

As to comments that seem to have shrunk, look at for example the shrinkage
of the original comment block from Mayfield's 1972 HP program library
version of STAR TREK, to the 1973 RSTS SPACWR version in the Ahl
collection. With most vintage BASIC interpreters there was a runtime
penalty to putting large comment blocks at the start of your program -
maybe the HP 3000 BASIC was a true compiler?

Tim


On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 9:14 PM Will Senn <will.senn at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I’m curious as to the provenance of
> the tape. Where’d you find it and do you know when it’s from? The reason
> I’m asking is that I just spent a day typing in and debugging/working to
> comprehend the program SPACWR.BAS from the not so great scanned pages of
> 101 BASIC Computer Games off of bitsaver. As I was running the result on my
> SIMH PDP 11 running RSTS/E V06C-03, I made another run at finding the
> original source and came across this thread. I downloaded the RL01 and
> mounted in my RSTS 9.6 environment which was sysgen’d with RL support,
> loaded up the code and printed it out for a comparison. I was shocked how
> close my read of the scans were to the version here. Part of my surprise
> was naturally related to the restoration process, but the other came from
> the fact that the code from this tape doesn’t mention David Ahl, Mary Cole
> or Ida Potel, whereas they are credited in the source code in 101 games for
> minor work and debugging. As far as I can tell, other than whitespace, the
> only differences between my restored version from the 101 games scan and
> this version, is the additional attribution- which makes me wonder if Ahl,
> et. al., made ANY meaningful contribution worthy of attribution to the
> program.
>
> So, when was the tape created, before 101 games or after and who, exactly
> should have credit for the version therein?
>
> Later,
>
> Will
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 23, 2018, at 6:00 PM, Tony Nicholson <tony.nicholson at computer.org>
> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 11:37 PM, Bryan Davies <bryan.e.davies at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> I just need to get it all in a nice neat box, connect up he VT100, and
>> download some games and things for the guests to use.
>>
>>
> Bryan (and all).
>
> I first encountered RSTS/E in 1975 on a PDP-11/45 when I was a student
> when I discovered a book "101 Basic Computer Games" with an accompanying
> DECtape.
>
> Recently I tracked down a copy of the book in PDF format and an image of
> the DECtape (that had to be fixed-up so that it was readable) on bitsavers .
>
> The book is at -
>
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/_Books/101_BASIC_Computer_Games_Mar75.pdf
>
> I now have this running on RSTS/E V10.1 and RSTS V06C-03 under SIMH -
> after some minor edits to fix changes to the Basic-Plus source file syntax
> (spaces between keywords etc).
>
> I've zipped-up the fixed DECtape image (DOS format) and an RL01 RSTS level
> 1.2 format disk image (label=GAMES) that you can copy the games from either
> and run them!
>
> The RL01 disk image is easiest (since DECtape support requires some
> fiddling and correct pdp11 unibus 18-bit model selection).
>
> In your SIMH .ini file (assuming you have sysgen'ed some RL type disks)
> you can -
>    set rl enable
>    set rl0 rl01
>    att rl0 rl01-games.dsk
>
> Then once RSTS/E is up as a privileged user just "MOUNT DL0: GAMES" and
> look in DL0:[100,100]
>
> The zip file is
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgZkafQABxWUXeuEkeq1GjkBe3sF2Zgx/view?usp=sharing
>
> Tony
>
>
>
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