[game_preservation] Hunt the Wumpus - 1972 or 1973?
Henry Lowood
lowood at stanford.edu
Mon Mar 22 17:04:21 EDT 2010
Devin,
I have not been in touch with either for at least five years. Jim
famously lives at 345 Swett Road, Woodside, California, so that might
help. You'll see that address on documents now and again, so I'm not
revealing anything that's not public. Also, jwarren at well.com might do
the trick, as he was on The Well. Liza last I knew lived in Palo Alto,
California.
Oh, this is funny - I just found Liza on LinkedIn, here:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/loopcenter
Say hi if you reach them, please.
Henry
Devin Monnens wrote:
> BTW, where is Jim Warren's and Liza Loop's contact information? I'm
> not sure the sumeru.stanford.edu <http://sumeru.stanford.edu>
> addresses are working...
>
> -Devin
>
> On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com
> <mailto:dmonnens at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Henry,
>
> Indeed, that is the exact story that Yob tells in Creative
> Computing. Hurkle, Snark, and Mugwump are available in the 101
> BASIC Computer Games (well, Hurkle and Mugwump are...). He
> disliked that they were played on cartesian grids. Wumpus 2 plays
> around with all different kinds of maps, but that came out years
> later. These games were 'published' in the February 1973 PCC
> newsletter, but precious few of these newsletters seem to exist.
> The 'Best of' collections don't list publication date, but if you
> check the covers in the front of the book, it states 'Wumpus' very
> clearly on the October/November 1975 issue.
>
> http://www.atariarchives.org/bcc1/showpage.php?page=247
>
> I'm also snagging a copy of What to do after you hit RETURN from
> interlibrary loan. This is a collection of games made at the PCC;
> book was published in 1977. Hopefully, it has more information.
>
> -Devin
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 12:18 PM, Henry Lowood
> <lowood at stanford.edu <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>> wrote:
>
> Devin,
>
> from word-of-mouth stories, I have the impression that he did
> the work here, quickly (as you say) at the PCC. In fact, part
> of the story is that he noticed people playing certain kinds
> of games at the PCC and thought that other topologies would be
> intriguing. But again, this is just an impression I have from
> various conversations over the years. I have written about it
> just a bit from the available sources, which from your account
> must have been the same ones that you used.
>
> You might try asking people like Liza Loop or Jim Warren, who
> were around during the PCC days. They might know.
>
> I was not aware of Yob's passing nor his decision to be
> cryofrozen. Interesting.
>
> Henry
>
> Devin Monnens wrote:
>> Wikipedia states that Hunt the Wumpus "was noticed on
>> mainframe computers as early as 1972". However, in Gregory
>> Yob's article for Creative Computing (published Oct/Nov
>> 1975), he states that he designed that game "about two years
>> ago", placing it squarely in 1973. He says he dropped it off
>> at the People's Computer Company and about one month
>> afterward went to the Synergy Conference at Stanford (held
>> May 9-13, 1973). This would mean he built the game probably
>> in April 1973 - or at least dropped it off at PCC in late
>> March, early April. From the way he tells the story, it
>> sounds like he built it in one afternoon (which would make
>> more sense if he was visiting out of state - though I can't
>> get confirmation that he was a Dartmouth alumni because
>> Wikipedia is the sole source of info - and I think there it's
>> referencing Dot Eaters.). So...was this built on a teletype
>> at Dartmouth in 1972 or in California in 1973?
>>
>> Also...Greg Yob passed away in 2005, which I wasn't aware of.
>> However, he has been cryofrozen and so when the technology
>> becomes available, we can resurrect him and ask him more
>> about Wumpus. I can envision people from the future
>> resurrecting Yob to hunt real wumpuses (Wumpi?) that have
>> infested the Arizona desert after the apocalypse.
>>
>> --
>> Devin Monnens
>> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>
>>
>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> game_preservation mailing list
>> game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>
>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation
>>
>
> --
> Henry Lowood, Ph.D.
> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;
> Film & Media Collections
> HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
> Stanford University Libraries
> Stanford CA 94305-6004
> 650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu
> <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood
> <http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood>
>
> _______________________________________________
> game_preservation mailing list
> game_preservation at igda.org <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation
>
>
>
>
> --
> Devin Monnens
> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>
>
> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Devin Monnens
> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>
>
> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> game_preservation mailing list
> game_preservation at igda.org
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation
>
--
Henry Lowood, Ph.D.
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;
Film & Media Collections
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood
<http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/attachments/20100322/21fae25e/attachment.html>
More information about the game_preservation
mailing list