Re: Text Adventure Data Structures

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Paul Schlyter wrote:

>In article <ccpjvn$8uh$4@chessie.cirr.com>,
>Paul Allen Panks  <panks@sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
>
>> Since the mid-1970s, attempts have been made to write
>> text adventures using a variety of methods. Zork (to
>> use an early example) was originally written at M.I.T.
>> on a PDP series mainframe
>
>Weren't the PDP's minicomputers rather than mainframes?
>
>By the terminology of that time, a mainframe required a
>large room, while a minicomputer could fit in a closet.
>Of course the microcomputer hadn't appeared yet then.
>
>Naturally, that terminology doesn't work anymore, since
>even the supercomputers of today use microprocessors
>and are physically much smaller than the "dinosaurs"
>of those days.

While machines like the PDP-8 were relatively compact
machines, the PDP-1 and PDP-6 were distinctly bigger
than a closet.  While much smaller than, say, an IBM 7094,
they were on the size borderline between minicomputers and
"mainframes".

Of course, their _culture_ was pure minicomputer.

-michael

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