I took a quick peek, and most of the code looked very straight forward.
A caveat is that most any Fortran compiler I've seen or heard of for
Linux is not so good. So, if you have problems on the Linux side, I'd
probably blame that compiler sooner than the code... :-)
I didn't spot where any multiplayer-handling was done in the code, so I
can't comment much. But the TCP/IP package I have for RSX allows you to
just do you normal READ/WRITE/TYPE/ACCEPT stuff in your Fortran code,
and it just ends up on a TCP socket. So essentially nothing would need
changing in the code, apart from just opening the connection. And
opening a connection is really just one simple function call as well.
But as far as I can tell, this game is turn based, so essentially one
user at a time enters a set of commands, and then everything is done in
order once commands have entered. Which makes it easier when writing the
code, I guess, but also a bit less fun when multi-user, since everyone
might have to wait for others to complete commands before they can do
anything.
But I might have missed or misunderstood things here.
Anyway, I don't really have time to play around with this and actually
help you rewrite or test code. I can possibly help with giving access to
a machine where I have both FORTRAN IV and FORTRAN-77, along with a
library that makes it dead easy to write code that also talks over
TCP/IP. But it is under RSX, so if you use loads and loads of memory, it
will probably not be possible.
Johnny
On 2018-02-04 02:28, Dan Gahlinger wrote:
It may likely have been that plus version, hard to say.
the code in the vms directory should compile on a vms (or simh) 7.3
using compaq fortran or whatever packages with it.
that code is likely workable to multi-player on vax,
but I'd like to find a way to get the linux code to do multiplayer.
with terminal privileges it's possible to open devices like pts/8 and so
forth
i'm wondering if the vms "hack" for opening terminals could be modified
to do that?
certainly seems it'd be a lot easier than adding a ton of tcp code,
don't you think?
i mean with tcp, every read and write would have to be redone.
but I think step one is still to go through and fix the vax "odd-isms"
as it were, stuff that doesn't translate to modern fortran.
i'm useless for any of this.
but would appreciate if people could
Dan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Simh <simh-boun...@trailing-edge.com> on behalf of Johnny
Billquist <b...@softjar.se>
*Sent:* February 3, 2018 8:20 PM
*To:* simh@trailing-edge.com
*Subject:* Re: [Simh] Crowther's Adventure game
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 <ba...@usgs.gov>
*Sent:* February 3, 2018 5:00 PM
*To:* dgahl...@hotmail.com
*Cc:* simh@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
ba...@usgs.gov <mailto:ba...@usgs.gov>
On Feb 3, 2018, at 11:13 AM, simh-requ...@trailing-edge.com
<mailto:simh-requ...@trailing-edge.com> wrote:
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2018 17:51:47 +0000
From: Dan Gahlinger <dgahl...@hotmail.com <mailto:dgahl...@hotmail.com>>
To: Quentin North <quen...@quentin.org.uk
<mailto:quen...@quentin.org.uk>>, Bob Nelson
<rmkri...@gmail.com <mailto:rmkri...@gmail.com>>
Cc: "simh@trailing-edge.com <mailto:simh@trailing-edge.com>"
<simh@trailing-edge.com <mailto:simh@trailing-edge.com>>
Subject: Re: [Simh] Crowther's Adventure game
Message-ID:
<dm3pr16mb0813e647eb83d26d6d6bef95c9...@dm3pr16mb0813.namprd16.prod.outlook.com
<mailto:dm3pr16mb0813e647eb83d26d6d6bef95c9...@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.
_______________________________________________
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
_______________________________________________
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
_______________________________________________
Simh mailing list
Simh@trailing-edge.com
http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
