Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh
On 29/12/18 16:42, Will Senn wrote: I perused the code - oops! Should have heeded the author's advice. Sure enough my typed in code was good enough, my ancient text gaming skills were what were lacking. The solution is entirely encompassed by that little paragraph about the treasure, the pirate, and the passages. I have to differ with the author on one thing though, I really enjoyed finding the solution through both code and play. Make no mistake, Quest is not Adventure, it is much smaller and simpler, but it's still fun and given that it ran in less than 7k, it's pretty fun. Reading the source, I noticed too many things familiar, and I'm pretty sure a C=64 version was done, later translated in Italian somewhere mid-80s. This imply that a C=64 basic (that is, 8K m$ basic) version existed. Best regards from Italy, dott. Piergiorgio. ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh (Brett Bump)
On Sun, 30 Dec 2018, Paul Koning wrote: On Dec 30, 2018, at 4:07 PM, Brett Bump wrote: (Reply excluding photos) On Sun, 30 Dec 2018, Brett Bump wrote: Sorry Bob, that kit is a modified version which includes Paul's FORTH run time system ... With V6C? Interesting. I did that work around V9.0, though I don't remember if it was shipped with the kit at that time or only somewhat later. It doesn't do any real magic so it seems that it should work. It would be fascinating to find a copy of RSTS V5A and reconstruct the machinery (then totally undocumented and unsupported) for using additional runtime systems. It was pretty ugly but it worked well enough to enable us to run TECO in 1975 at my college. paul Yes, both your FORTH code and my Custom run-time-systems run with pretty much no issues. You can even set them as the permanent rts although you are then stuck with no CUSPS to continue (forced into Fig-Forth is cool) JOB MAX or SWAP MAX change? Any memory allocation changes? You currently have crash dump disabled. DD-MMM-YY? 23-FEB-85 12:00 PM? 12:01 FIG-FORTH V2.0+ The only thing you can do with mine is type help or shutup as V6C didn't come with CSPCOM and my rts depends on RSX CUSPS to bring it up if it is the default. I put your FORTH rts and my Custom rts's in the Kits I put up last year (V6C, V70, V72, V80 and V93). Was going to kit the rest of them but time got away from me. The V5 stuff would be interesting. The V3 code just confuses me completely and I can't make any of it run. Brett ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh (Brett Bump)
> On Dec 30, 2018, at 4:07 PM, Brett Bump wrote: > > > (Reply excluding photos) > > On Sun, 30 Dec 2018, Brett Bump wrote: > >> >> Sorry Bob, that kit is a modified version which includes Paul's FORTH run >> time system ... With V6C? Interesting. I did that work around V9.0, though I don't remember if it was shipped with the kit at that time or only somewhat later. It doesn't do any real magic so it seems that it should work. It would be fascinating to find a copy of RSTS V5A and reconstruct the machinery (then totally undocumented and unsupported) for using additional runtime systems. It was pretty ugly but it worked well enough to enable us to run TECO in 1975 at my college. paul ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh (Brett Bump)
(Reply excluding photos) On Sun, 30 Dec 2018, Brett Bump wrote: Sorry Bob, that kit is a modified version which includes Paul's FORTH run time system as well as my own Custom run time systems. If you follow the README.TXT file you can see the changes from a default V6C install. It's all there (but also a little extra). My run time systems were originally designed on a V8 system so a few features are missing in V6, but most of it is all the same (also the source tape is mounted so roll your own). Log into the 1,5 account with: SYSUSR Then (because there is no such animal as switching a default rts) type: CCL SW CUSTOM $` README (I think you will find there is a little more here to see) Brett PS. Most likely mailman will trim the photos I included but Bob sill see them. Enjoy and Happy New Year. On Sat, 29 Dec 2018, Robert G. Schaffrath wrote: Or you could grab the pre-genned V6C kit from: http://www.rsts.org/autoindex.php?dir=distros/RSTS_kits/&file=RSTS_V6C_Kit.zip I tried booting that, and it does boot, but the startup does not run. No system initialization is performed and I login as job 1 with no CCL's defined. The version at https://skn.noip.me/pdp11/rk2.dsk does boot and has all commands installed. Looking at both environments there are two things I noticed as different from the V06C-03 I was using in high school back in 1978. On our system we had control-T available that was enabled and disabled along with control-R. What was interesting was that it would show the job priority for non-privileged users. Priority display was removed in 7.0 for non-privileged users. We hackers discovered that on a slow running system, one could repeatedly hit control-C during login and abort the change from logged out priority +0 to priority -8 by LOGIN (control-T let us see that we were still at +0). That gave our teacher and the county data center where we rented access to the PDP-11/70 system fits. Eventually they wrote a "guard" program that would drop the priority of any non-privileged job found to be greater -8. The problem with that check was that some jobs legitimately got bumped to -4 priority temporarily due to the set-special-run-priority syscall. The "guard" did not recognize that and pushed jobs back down to -8. The other difference I noticed is that SYSTAT in privileged mode does not show the runburst. In privileged mode, SYSTAT had a "Pri/RB" column whereas this V06C-03 only has "Priority". That was documented in the RSTS/E manual I had bought from DEC. I have to wonder if we were running a version of V06C-03 with those additional enhancements. It definitely was not 7.0. I graduated in June 1980 and I was told they upgraded to 7.0 that summer. ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh (Brett Bump)
On Sat, 29 Dec 2018, Paul Koning wrote: On Dec 29, 2018, at 3:29 PM, Robert G. Schaffrath wrote: Or you could grab the pre-genned V6C kit from: http://www.rsts.org/autoindex.php?dir=distros/RSTS_kits/&file=RSTS_V6C_Kit.zip I tried booting that, and it does boot, but the startup does not run. No system initialization is performed and I login as job 1 with no CCL's defined. The version at https://skn.noip.me/pdp11/rk2.dsk does boot and has all commands installed. Looking at both environments there are two things I noticed as different from the V06C-03 I was using in high school back in 1978. On our system we had control-T available that was enabled and disabled along with control-R. ... I have to wonder if we were running a version of V06C-03 with those additional enhancements. It definitely was not 7.0. I graduated in June 1980 and I was told they upgraded to 7.0 that summer. Control/T support was an optional feature, enabled during SYSGEN, for some time. I'm fairly sure it was never an undocumented feature, but it wasn't standard originally. paul I also am not sure if the "chasing snakes" code LIGHTS.OBJ was included in the V6 distributions or not (I haven't checked). I know we always genned that in our V8 machines and it was pulled from the V9 distributions. Brett ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh (Brett Bump)
> On Dec 29, 2018, at 3:29 PM, Robert G. Schaffrath > wrote: > > > Or you could grab the pre-genned V6C kit from: > > > > http://www.rsts.org/autoindex.php?dir=distros/RSTS_kits/&file=RSTS_V6C_Kit.zip > > I tried booting that, and it does boot, but the startup does not run. No > system initialization is performed and I login as job 1 with no CCL's > defined. The version at https://skn.noip.me/pdp11/rk2.dsk does boot and has > all commands installed. > > Looking at both environments there are two things I noticed as different from > the V06C-03 I was using in high school back in 1978. On our system we had > control-T available that was enabled and disabled along with control-R. ... > > I have to wonder if we were running a version of V06C-03 with those > additional enhancements. It definitely was not 7.0. I graduated in June 1980 > and I was told they upgraded to 7.0 that summer. Control/T support was an optional feature, enabled during SYSGEN, for some time. I'm fairly sure it was never an undocumented feature, but it wasn't standard originally. paul ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh (Brett Bump)
> Or you could grab the pre-genned V6C kit from: > > http://www.rsts.org/autoindex.php?dir=distros/RSTS_kits/&file=RSTS_V6C_Kit.zip I tried booting that, and it does boot, but the startup does not run. No system initialization is performed and I login as job 1 with no CCL's defined. The version at https://skn.noip.me/pdp11/rk2.dsk does boot and has all commands installed. Looking at both environments there are two things I noticed as different from the V06C-03 I was using in high school back in 1978. On our system we had control-T available that was enabled and disabled along with control-R. What was interesting was that it would show the job priority for non-privileged users. Priority display was removed in 7.0 for non-privileged users. We hackers discovered that on a slow running system, one could repeatedly hit control-C during login and abort the change from logged out priority +0 to priority -8 by LOGIN (control-T let us see that we were still at +0). That gave our teacher and the county data center where we rented access to the PDP-11/70 system fits. Eventually they wrote a "guard" program that would drop the priority of any non-privileged job found to be greater -8. The problem with that check was that some jobs legitimately got bumped to -4 priority temporarily due to the set-special-run-priority syscall. The "guard" did not recognize that and pushed jobs back down to -8. The other difference I noticed is that SYSTAT in privileged mode does not show the runburst. In privileged mode, SYSTAT had a "Pri/RB" column whereas this V06C-03 only has "Priority". That was documented in the RSTS/E manual I had bought from DEC. I have to wonder if we were running a version of V06C-03 with those additional enhancements. It definitely was not 7.0. I graduated in June 1980 and I was told they upgraded to 7.0 that summer. ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh
On 12/29/18 11:12 AM, Al Kossow wrote: > > > On 12/29/18 10:38 AM, Brett Bump wrote: > >> No, you are correct. Try as we may, there has never been found a copy for >> RSTS/E prior to the (non functional) V06C-03 tape that sat dormant in my >> closet for the last 35 years. Paul Nankervis >> found the 1 block error in >> the INIT.SYS file in 2017 and so V6C got resurrected. > > here is the story.. > https://skn.noip.me/pdp11/RSTSv06c.html > > I don't know if it has been documented on the list before he also wonders why bitsavers has the docs for 5 and 6 but no tapes. well, people keep paper in boxes in their garage and forget about it. tapes are rarely so lucky. ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh
On 12/29/18 10:38 AM, Brett Bump wrote: > No, you are correct. Try as we may, there has never been found a copy for > RSTS/E prior to the (non functional) V06C-03 tape that sat dormant in my > closet for the last 35 years. Paul Nankervis > found the 1 block error in > the INIT.SYS file in 2017 and so V6C got resurrected. here is the story.. https://skn.noip.me/pdp11/RSTSv06c.html I don't know if it has been documented on the list before ___ Simh mailing list Simh@trailing-edge.com http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh
On Sat, 29 Dec 2018, Will Senn wrote: All, I had some fun over the past few days playing around with BASIC-PLUS and thought I would share it with you. I resurrected an old BASIC game and played it on SIMH running RSTS/E V06C-03 and BASIC-PLUS mostly to learn more about BASIC, my first language back in the day, but also to play an old style adventure inspired game that was originally written for a Commodore Pet 2001, the first computer I ever programmed. Read on for some old time fun and reminiscence. TLDR (links at bottom of email): 1. Grab SIMH 2. Grab RSTS/E V06C-03 Or you could grab the pre-genned V6C kit from: http://www.rsts.org/autoindex.php?dir=distros/RSTS_kits/&file=RSTS_V6C_Kit.zip 3. Grab the source code 4. Fire up RSTS/E 5. Paste the source code into the BASIC-PLUS runtime 6. Play the game until you're weary of being lost 7. Read the code to 'cheat' I wanted to learn BASIC "over the weekend". I found two books at the used bookstore that looked interesting on the subject: 1. Introduction to BASIC, by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), 1978. 2. BASIC, by M. Boillot and W. Horn, 1976 In preparing to go through the books, I wanted to find an environment that would allow me to just type in the examples, as written, and obtain the results, as written. So, I skimmed them looking for clues. I found the following in the DEC book on page xv: Because it is beyond the scope of this manual to describe each system and BASIC version, it is necessary to choose a representative pair for the presentation of examples. The examples in this manual are the result of using BASIC-PLUS on the RSTS/E system. Further down the page, was an even more helpful bit: In response to the HELLO input, RSTS/E prints a line of indentification such as: RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing Job 28 KB33 01-Dec-76 09:57 AM The Boillot mentioned Dartmouth BASIC and it had pictures of DEC equipment, so I was hopeful I could find a DEC BASIC-PLUS environment to run examples from. So I went looking for a PDP11 compatible RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing environment. Well, RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing doesn't appear to exist in accessible places on the internet. However, RSTS V06C-03, does. I downloaded the preconfigured RK disk image, fired up SIMH, and started a session: No, you are correct. Try as we may, there has never been found a copy for RSTS/E prior to the (non functional) V06C-03 tape that sat dormant in my closet for the last 35 years. Paul Nankervis found the 1 block error in the INIT.SYS file in 2017 and so V6C got resurrected. The list of missing distros still unaccounted for are: RSTS/E V5A, V5B, V5C RSTS/E V6A, V6B RSTS/E V7.1 Let me know if anyone finds any of these in an old dusty closet somewhere. Brett pdp11 PDP-11 simulator V4.0-0 Beta git commit id: 0a00d806 sim> attach rk1 rk2.dsk sim> b rk1 Device DP23: does not interrupt - device disabled. Device DP26: does not interrupt - device disabled. Device DP27: does not interrupt - device disabled. Device DP30: does not interrupt - device disabled. Device DP31: does not interrupt - device disabled. RSTS V06C-03 Vixen (DK1) Option: START JOB MAX or SWAP MAX changes? N Table suboption? EXIT DD-MMM-YY? 10-MAR-88 12:03 AM? 12:00PM Command File Name? HELLO 11/70 Password: PDP (won't echo) Fix a few annoyances in RSTS: RUN $TTYSET TTYSET V06C-03 RSTS V06C-03 Vixen Terminal characteristics program ? LC INPUT ? lc output ? scope ? exit Ready 5 REM THE OBLIGATORY CONFIRMATION THAT THE WORLD IS OK 10 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD." RUN NONAME 12:18 AM 10-Mar-88 HELLO, WORLD. Ready Next, I found and downloaded DEC-11-ORBPB-A-D_BASIC-PLUS_LangMan_Jul75 and learned a bit about RSTS's dialog of BASCIC. I tried some code from different sections of Boillot and they all worked as written. I tried a few from the DEC book and the manual and decided the environment was sufficient for learning BASIC. I then worked through both books and the manual. It's amazing how well written these books from a nearly forgotten era are compared to today's. Once I got the hang of the language, I decided to go after a bigger fish - a 'real' program, a game, of course. The game I chose was Quest, by Roger Chaffee, originally published in Byte magazine in July of 1979. I had heard of Quest through another BASIC game I had played extensively back in the day, called Treasure, by James L. Dean. Dean wrote Treasure in 1980 and he credited Quest as inspiration for his game. I downloaded archive.org's copy of the original article and printed out the source code. I spent a day typing it in line by line and another fixing my typos and misinterpretations (try reading a scan of a 40 year old magazine page and see if you do any better). But, eventually, I was able to fire it up: QUEST 01:13 AM 10-Mar-88 QUEST YOU WERE WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS, AND YOU CAME ACROSS THE ENTRANCE OF A CAVE, COVERED WITH BRUSH. PEOPLE SAY TH
Re: [Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh
Thanks, Will! I played "Adventure" on RSTS/E back in the seventies. Now I'll give "Quest" a shot on SIMH (or my 11/83 w/RSTS/E)... Cheers, Lyle -- On Sat, 29 Dec 2018 09:42:49 -0600 Will Senn wrote: > All, > > I had some fun over the past few days playing around with BASIC-PLUS > and thought I would share it with you. I resurrected an old BASIC > game and played it on SIMH running RSTS/E V06C-03 and BASIC-PLUS > mostly to learn more about BASIC, my first language back in the day, > but also to play an old style adventure inspired game that was > originally written for a Commodore Pet 2001, the first computer I > ever programmed. > > Read on for some old time fun and reminiscence. > > TLDR (links at bottom of email): > 1. Grab SIMH > 2. Grab RSTS/E V06C-03 > 3. Grab the source code > 4. Fire up RSTS/E > 5. Paste the source code into the BASIC-PLUS runtime > 6. Play the game until you're weary of being lost > 7. Read the code to 'cheat' > > I wanted to learn BASIC "over the weekend". I found two books at the > used bookstore that looked interesting on the subject: > > 1. Introduction to BASIC, by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), > 1978. 2. BASIC, by M. Boillot and W. Horn, 1976 > > In preparing to go through the books, I wanted to find an environment > that would allow me to just type in the examples, as written, and > obtain the results, as written. So, I skimmed them looking for clues. > > I found the following in the DEC book on page xv: > > Because it is beyond the scope of this manual to describe each system > and BASIC version, it is necessary to choose a representative pair > for the presentation of examples. The examples in this manual are the > result of using BASIC-PLUS on the RSTS/E system. > > Further down the page, was an even more helpful bit: > > In response to the HELLO input, RSTS/E prints a line of > indentification such as: > > RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing Job 28 KB33 01-Dec-76 09:57 AM > > > The Boillot mentioned Dartmouth BASIC and it had pictures of DEC > equipment, so I was hopeful I could find a DEC BASIC-PLUS environment > to run examples from. > > So I went looking for a PDP11 compatible RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing > environment. Well, RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing doesn't appear to exist > in accessible places on the internet. However, RSTS V06C-03, does. I > downloaded the preconfigured RK disk image, fired up SIMH, and > started a session: > > pdp11 > > PDP-11 simulator V4.0-0 Beta git commit id: 0a00d806 > sim> attach rk1 rk2.dsk > sim> b rk1 > Device DP23: does not interrupt - device disabled. > Device DP26: does not interrupt - device disabled. > Device DP27: does not interrupt - device disabled. > Device DP30: does not interrupt - device disabled. > Device DP31: does not interrupt - device disabled. > > > RSTS V06C-03 Vixen (DK1) > > Option: START > JOB MAX or SWAP MAX changes? N > Table suboption? EXIT > DD-MMM-YY? 10-MAR-88 > 12:03 AM? 12:00PM > Command File Name? > > HELLO 11/70 > Password: PDP (won't echo) > > Fix a few annoyances in RSTS: > RUN $TTYSET > TTYSET V06C-03 RSTS V06C-03 Vixen > Terminal characteristics program > ? LC INPUT > ? lc output > ? scope > ? exit > > Ready > > 5 REM THE OBLIGATORY CONFIRMATION THAT THE WORLD IS OK > 10 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD." > > RUN > NONAME 12:18 AM 10-Mar-88 > HELLO, WORLD. > > Ready > > Next, I found and downloaded > DEC-11-ORBPB-A-D_BASIC-PLUS_LangMan_Jul75 and learned a bit about > RSTS's dialog of BASCIC. > > I tried some code from different sections of Boillot and they all > worked as written. I tried a few from the DEC book and the manual and > decided the environment was sufficient for learning BASIC. I then > worked through both books and the manual. It's amazing how well > written these books from a nearly forgotten era are compared to > today's. > > Once I got the hang of the language, I decided to go after a bigger > fish > - a 'real' program, a game, of course. The game I chose was Quest, by > Roger Chaffee, originally published in Byte magazine in July of 1979. > I had heard of Quest through another BASIC game I had played > extensively back in the day, called Treasure, by James L. Dean. Dean > wrote Treasure in 1980 and he credited Quest as inspiration for his > game. > > I downloaded archive.org's copy of the original article and printed > out the source code. I spent a day typing it in line by line and > another fixing my typos and misinterpretations (try reading a scan of > a 40 year old magazine page and see if you do any better). But, > eventually, I was able to fire it up: > > QUEST 01:13 AM 10-Mar-88 > QUEST > > YOU WERE WALKING THROUGH THE > WOODS, AND YOU CAME ACROSS THE ENTRANCE > OF A CAVE, COVERED WITH BRUSH. > > PEOPLE SAY THAT MANY YEARS AGO A > PIRATE HID HIS TREASURE IN THESE > WOODS, BUT NO ONE HAS EVER FOUND IT. > IT MAY STILL BE HERE, FOR ALL I KNOW. > > WHEN YOU ANSWER A QUESTION, I LOOK AT > ONLY THE FIRST LETTER, A
[Simh] Quest from 1979 on RSTS/E V06C-03 in Simh
All, I had some fun over the past few days playing around with BASIC-PLUS and thought I would share it with you. I resurrected an old BASIC game and played it on SIMH running RSTS/E V06C-03 and BASIC-PLUS mostly to learn more about BASIC, my first language back in the day, but also to play an old style adventure inspired game that was originally written for a Commodore Pet 2001, the first computer I ever programmed. Read on for some old time fun and reminiscence. TLDR (links at bottom of email): 1. Grab SIMH 2. Grab RSTS/E V06C-03 3. Grab the source code 4. Fire up RSTS/E 5. Paste the source code into the BASIC-PLUS runtime 6. Play the game until you're weary of being lost 7. Read the code to 'cheat' I wanted to learn BASIC "over the weekend". I found two books at the used bookstore that looked interesting on the subject: 1. Introduction to BASIC, by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), 1978. 2. BASIC, by M. Boillot and W. Horn, 1976 In preparing to go through the books, I wanted to find an environment that would allow me to just type in the examples, as written, and obtain the results, as written. So, I skimmed them looking for clues. I found the following in the DEC book on page xv: Because it is beyond the scope of this manual to describe each system and BASIC version, it is necessary to choose a representative pair for the presentation of examples. The examples in this manual are the result of using BASIC-PLUS on the RSTS/E system. Further down the page, was an even more helpful bit: In response to the HELLO input, RSTS/E prints a line of indentification such as: RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing Job 28 KB33 01-Dec-76 09:57 AM The Boillot mentioned Dartmouth BASIC and it had pictures of DEC equipment, so I was hopeful I could find a DEC BASIC-PLUS environment to run examples from. So I went looking for a PDP11 compatible RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing environment. Well, RSTS V06B-02 Timesharing doesn't appear to exist in accessible places on the internet. However, RSTS V06C-03, does. I downloaded the preconfigured RK disk image, fired up SIMH, and started a session: pdp11 PDP-11 simulator V4.0-0 Beta git commit id: 0a00d806 sim> attach rk1 rk2.dsk sim> b rk1 Device DP23: does not interrupt - device disabled. Device DP26: does not interrupt - device disabled. Device DP27: does not interrupt - device disabled. Device DP30: does not interrupt - device disabled. Device DP31: does not interrupt - device disabled. RSTS V06C-03 Vixen (DK1) Option: START JOB MAX or SWAP MAX changes? N Table suboption? EXIT DD-MMM-YY? 10-MAR-88 12:03 AM? 12:00PM Command File Name? HELLO 11/70 Password: PDP (won't echo) Fix a few annoyances in RSTS: RUN $TTYSET TTYSET V06C-03 RSTS V06C-03 Vixen Terminal characteristics program ? LC INPUT ? lc output ? scope ? exit Ready 5 REM THE OBLIGATORY CONFIRMATION THAT THE WORLD IS OK 10 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD." RUN NONAME 12:18 AM 10-Mar-88 HELLO, WORLD. Ready Next, I found and downloaded DEC-11-ORBPB-A-D_BASIC-PLUS_LangMan_Jul75 and learned a bit about RSTS's dialog of BASCIC. I tried some code from different sections of Boillot and they all worked as written. I tried a few from the DEC book and the manual and decided the environment was sufficient for learning BASIC. I then worked through both books and the manual. It's amazing how well written these books from a nearly forgotten era are compared to today's. Once I got the hang of the language, I decided to go after a bigger fish - a 'real' program, a game, of course. The game I chose was Quest, by Roger Chaffee, originally published in Byte magazine in July of 1979. I had heard of Quest through another BASIC game I had played extensively back in the day, called Treasure, by James L. Dean. Dean wrote Treasure in 1980 and he credited Quest as inspiration for his game. I downloaded archive.org's copy of the original article and printed out the source code. I spent a day typing it in line by line and another fixing my typos and misinterpretations (try reading a scan of a 40 year old magazine page and see if you do any better). But, eventually, I was able to fire it up: QUEST 01:13 AM 10-Mar-88 QUEST YOU WERE WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS, AND YOU CAME ACROSS THE ENTRANCE OF A CAVE, COVERED WITH BRUSH. PEOPLE SAY THAT MANY YEARS AGO A PIRATE HID HIS TREASURE IN THESE WOODS, BUT NO ONE HAS EVER FOUND IT. IT MAY STILL BE HERE, FOR ALL I KNOW. WHEN YOU ANSWER A QUESTION, I LOOK AT ONLY THE FIRST LETTER, ALTHOUGH YOU CAN TYPE THE WHOLE WORD IF YOU WANT. TYPE N,S,E,W,U, OR D FOR NORTH, SOUTH, EAST,WEST, UP OR DOWN. TYPE P FOR SCORE YOU'RE OUTSIDE THE CAVE. GO SOUTH TO ENTER. WHICH WAY? Yeeha! Three and a half hours later, I had had found the treasure and was wandering around trying to find my way out. I scoured the article for hints and found: It is possible to get through the cave by reading the program and decoding
