[game_preservation] Hunt the Wumpus - 1972 or 1973?

[Devin Monnens]

Thank you for the links, Henry!

Her PCC papers? Does that mean you have the PCC newsletter? As far as I
know, Bob Albrecht seems to have a few (but not all of them - he's missing
at least one). Digibarn has two digitized, but one of them is too late to be
of immediate interest to me.

In other news, I located another archive of PDP-8/12 software that includes
a catalogue from 1973 that lists some of the missing games I was looking
for.

http://pdp-8.org/scans/

I still need to verify a date here, but The Pollution Game (King in Ahl's
book) was made by none other than James Storer. (but that's in Ahl's book as
well). I'm going to guess it was published through DEC in 1970 along with
The Civil War Game (though Ahl insists the game was made in 1968). I'm still
unsure as to how games like Sumer/Hammurabi came about though, but they
don't seem to have arose until 1968 or 1969.

-Devin

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 2:05 PM, Henry Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:


>  Devin,

>

> I probably should have mentioned: We have Liza's PCC papers here at

> Stanford.

>

> Henry

>

>

> Devin Monnens wrote:

>

> BTW, where is Jim Warren's and Liza Loop's contact information? I'm not

> sure the sumeru.stanford.edu addresses are working...

>

>  -Devin

>

> On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Devin Monnens <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>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

>>>

>>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>>

>>> ------------------------------

>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> game_preservation mailing listgame_preservation at igda.orghttp://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>

>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>> game_preservation at igda.org

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>>>

>>>

>>

>>

>> --

>> Devin Monnens

>> www.deserthat.com

>>

>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>

>

>

>

> --

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

> ------------------------------

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing listgame_preservation at igda.orghttp://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>

>

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

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>

>



-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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