Glad you're enjoying it and thanks for the link! I had come across this story earlier in my research, and it's a fascinating one-- look for a game from this community to show up later in the series. =)
Thanks a lot. Those games were probably not so technicaly advaced, mostly developed by teenagers like me, because there was no market for commercial developers at all. But it was a combination of fun making jokes from the regime combined with some alerts kept in my mind to not cross the red line and provoke some ugly oppresion for the author. But 1 or 2 games were frontally attacking the regime and one of authors of such game stayed anonymous because the private security reason. Even until now we don't know the autor of that game where you bomb the statue of V.I.Lenin long before it was a popular in the soviet sattelite countries after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Hey Aaron, this is super cool! So many good memories from these adventures. Consider including the Wheel of Time MUD - it has been around since 1993 and is still in active development. It's a complete not-for-profit venture endorsed by the late RJ himself. You can check it out at https://wotmud.info - text games forever!
Thanks for the recommendation! It's been incredible to learn while researching this series how many MUDs from the 90s or even earlier are still going strong with communities stretching back decades. The history of MUDs/MOOs is not nearly as widely known as it should be-- hoping this series can be a small part in correcting that!
Interesting project. Hopefully you'll be one of the first to place the history of (text) games in the broader context of the trillion dollar gaming megalith, the evolving of comms into global internet, the leading role text played in multiplayer (online) games, prototype social media (gaming communities) etc etc. Look forward to reading when the book's out.
Dartmouth Time Sharing System came on line in 1963-64, and probably had some text-based games. I was at Dartmouth 15 years later, and I'm pinging my elders to see what they remember.
Last year I recreated, as an exercise in learning Python, a BASIC space war game, "Deep Space," that I first played in 1974 on a desk-sized "mini computer" at my cousin's high school. I/O was via teletype.
I entered the BASIC listing from Creative Computing, and reverse-engineered it. Not an easy task, with cryptic two-letter variable names and lots of GOTOs.
If you want a listing or screen-shots or whatnot, let me know.
Re-engineering those old BASIC programs is no mean feat. I was delving through the "Super Star Trek" code recently trying to reconstruct how parts of it worked, and the old-style BASIC's limitation that variables had to be a single letter + optional number is super painful for readability! I will ping you if my research steers me toward Deep Space (heh) but in the meantime congrats on the port.
Wow. Monster Island. Takes me back. I was at kjcgames in the UK (they ran the UK version of MI) from 1988-1990. I created their Quest game which is still run over the internet 30 years on.
Ahh that's so cool! From what I understand you folks at KJC really kept the game alive once the US version started flagging. I'm just a little too young to have really been part of the prime of PBM, but played the US Monster Island for about six months after seeing an ad in Dragon Magazine. Eventually my allowance money was reclaimed for something else, but I still have some of my old turn reports.
And what an incredible run for Quest, congrats! Nowadays a multiplayer game's lucky if it's still running 5 years after launch, let alone three decades...
I wanted to be sure you included the products of Flying Buffalo, Inc. in your lists. Last year I wrote up a timeline, and other articles, for a 50th anniversary book. (Unpublished, so far, because the pandemic cancelled plans for a convention tour .) Co-founder Rick Loomis (RIP) and his partner designed a computer-moderated play-by-mail text wargame, Battle Plan, starting in 1970.
Thanks Stefan, and good luck with your book, can't wait to read it! Battle Plan gets a mention in this series, although in the context of setting up the background for a later PBM game-- Loomis was so ahead of his time, that first game actually predates the start of this series! I love the anecdote from him that he may have been the very first person to buy a computer specifically to play games with. I think he very probably was! Amazing guy.
precisely what i wasn't looking for... but so glad i'm here.
Such a great idea to focus on the history of text games. English speaking world is probably the centre for creation of them, but in 80s existed some not so free countries, where text games made a subtle but visible subversive role in fight against dictatorship regimes. Most notably games from that part of world and era are described here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/10/how-indiana-jones-fought-the-communists-and-led-an-era-of-activist-video-games/
Glad you're enjoying it and thanks for the link! I had come across this story earlier in my research, and it's a fascinating one-- look for a game from this community to show up later in the series. =)
Thanks a lot. Those games were probably not so technicaly advaced, mostly developed by teenagers like me, because there was no market for commercial developers at all. But it was a combination of fun making jokes from the regime combined with some alerts kept in my mind to not cross the red line and provoke some ugly oppresion for the author. But 1 or 2 games were frontally attacking the regime and one of authors of such game stayed anonymous because the private security reason. Even until now we don't know the autor of that game where you bomb the statue of V.I.Lenin long before it was a popular in the soviet sattelite countries after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Hey Aaron, this is super cool! So many good memories from these adventures. Consider including the Wheel of Time MUD - it has been around since 1993 and is still in active development. It's a complete not-for-profit venture endorsed by the late RJ himself. You can check it out at https://wotmud.info - text games forever!
Thanks for the recommendation! It's been incredible to learn while researching this series how many MUDs from the 90s or even earlier are still going strong with communities stretching back decades. The history of MUDs/MOOs is not nearly as widely known as it should be-- hoping this series can be a small part in correcting that!
Interesting project. Hopefully you'll be one of the first to place the history of (text) games in the broader context of the trillion dollar gaming megalith, the evolving of comms into global internet, the leading role text played in multiplayer (online) games, prototype social media (gaming communities) etc etc. Look forward to reading when the book's out.
You should consider the Sumerian game. Text-based city builder written in the mid-60s as an educational game. Written by a woman, btw
Dartmouth Time Sharing System came on line in 1963-64, and probably had some text-based games. I was at Dartmouth 15 years later, and I'm pinging my elders to see what they remember.
LMK if you want to hear about what they remember.
Thanks Barry! That would have been pre-ELIZA even, and very early days for interactive terminals. Curious what your contacts remember!
Last year I recreated, as an exercise in learning Python, a BASIC space war game, "Deep Space," that I first played in 1974 on a desk-sized "mini computer" at my cousin's high school. I/O was via teletype.
I entered the BASIC listing from Creative Computing, and reverse-engineered it. Not an easy task, with cryptic two-letter variable names and lots of GOTOs.
If you want a listing or screen-shots or whatnot, let me know.
Re-engineering those old BASIC programs is no mean feat. I was delving through the "Super Star Trek" code recently trying to reconstruct how parts of it worked, and the old-style BASIC's limitation that variables had to be a single letter + optional number is super painful for readability! I will ping you if my research steers me toward Deep Space (heh) but in the meantime congrats on the port.
Where did you find the Super Star Trek listing? I'd have a go at it.
There are a number of different versions floating around. There is a huge list of variants here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150301203629/http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/startrek/
I believe the one I focused on was the oldest version of Mike Mayfield's original, which you can find here: https://web.archive.org/web/20120719123315/http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/startrek/STTR1
Wow. Monster Island. Takes me back. I was at kjcgames in the UK (they ran the UK version of MI) from 1988-1990. I created their Quest game which is still run over the internet 30 years on.
Ahh that's so cool! From what I understand you folks at KJC really kept the game alive once the US version started flagging. I'm just a little too young to have really been part of the prime of PBM, but played the US Monster Island for about six months after seeing an ad in Dragon Magazine. Eventually my allowance money was reclaimed for something else, but I still have some of my old turn reports.
And what an incredible run for Quest, congrats! Nowadays a multiplayer game's lucky if it's still running 5 years after launch, let alone three decades...
Hey Aaron!
I wanted to be sure you included the products of Flying Buffalo, Inc. in your lists. Last year I wrote up a timeline, and other articles, for a 50th anniversary book. (Unpublished, so far, because the pandemic cancelled plans for a convention tour .) Co-founder Rick Loomis (RIP) and his partner designed a computer-moderated play-by-mail text wargame, Battle Plan, starting in 1970.
Looking forward to more,
Stefan
Thanks Stefan, and good luck with your book, can't wait to read it! Battle Plan gets a mention in this series, although in the context of setting up the background for a later PBM game-- Loomis was so ahead of his time, that first game actually predates the start of this series! I love the anecdote from him that he may have been the very first person to buy a computer specifically to play games with. I think he very probably was! Amazing guy.