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Source Code for Seminal Adventure Game Zork on Dead Mainframe Exhumed Onto GitHub

posted by Fnord666 on Friday May 08 2020, @05:32PM   
from the frobizz dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Source code for seminal adventure game Zork on dead mainframe exhumed onto GitHub:

Source code for seminal adventure game has been Zork[sic] recovered and published on GitHub.

While classic adventure games (aka interactive fiction) are well represented in the Internet Archive - there's plenty of playable Zork versions here - this new trove is source code that's been retrieved from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tapes of Tech Square (ToTS) collection at the MIT Libraries Department of Distinctive Collections (DDC).

If you access the repo and its README you're told the source was written "in the MDL programming language written on a PDP-10 timeshare computer running the ITS operating system".

[...] The code in the repo comes from 1977, before the game was commercialised but at a time it was informally distributed.

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Original Submission

• Re:I wonder... Re:I wonder... (Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 08 2020, @09:08PM (1 child)

  by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday May 08 2020, @09:08PM (#991806)

  <PSETG SWIMYUKS
     '["I don't really see how."
       "I think that swimming is best performed in water."
       "Perhaps it is your head that is swimming."]>
  <GDECL (SWIMYUKS) <VECTOR [REST STRING]>>

  <DEFINE SWIMMER ("AUX" (SWIMYUKS ,SWIMYUKS))
      #DECL ((SWIMYUKS) <VECTOR [REST STRING]>)
      <COND (<RTRNN ,HERE ,RFILLBIT>
         <TELL
  "Swimming is not allowed in this dungeon.">)
        (<TELL <PICK-ONE .SWIMYUKS>>)>>

  <DEFINE GRUE-FUNCTION ("AUX" (PRSA <1 ,PRSVEC>))
      #DECL ((PRSA) VERB)
      <COND (<==? .PRSA ,EXAMI!-WORDS>
         <TELL
  "The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the
  earth.  Its favorite diet is adventurers, but its insatiable
  appetite is tempered by its fear of light.  No grue has ever been
  seen by the light of day, and few have survived its fearsome jaws
  to tell the tale.">)
        (<==? .PRSA ,FIND!-WORDS>
         <TELL
  "There is no grue here, but I'm sure there is at least one lurking
  in the darkness nearby.  I wouldn't let my light go out if I were
  you!">)>>

  --
  🌻🌻 [google.com]

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4

• Re:I wonder... (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday May 11 2020, @12:45PM

  by hendrikboom (1125) on Monday May 11 2020, @12:45PM (#992784) Homepage Journal

  MDL in XML?

  Parent