Re: Text Adventure Data Structures

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <20040711103216.25561.00001695@mb-m29.aol.com>,
Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:
> 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
> 
> Check out parallel computing for 8-bit Apples on my
> Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

Actually, the PDP10 on which Zork (or Dungeon as it was first called)
was about as large as five refrigerators.... and that did not include
the disks!

http://struckus.tripod.com/Legacy_of_zork.htm

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