[game_preservation] Hunt the Wumpus - 1972 or 1973?

[Henry Lowood]

Yes, we have most - or probably I should say many - of their 
publications.  But I have used the Newsletter myself, so I know we have 
most of them.

Henry

Devin Monnens wrote:

> 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 

> <mailto: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 <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.

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

>>>

>>>             _______________________________________________

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>>>             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>

>>

>>             _______________________________________________

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>>             game_preservation at igda.org

>>             <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

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>>

>>

>>

>>

>>         -- 

>>         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 <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.

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

>

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>   


-- 
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>
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