6 Dec
2019
6 Dec
'19
11:24 p.m.
On 12/6/2019 11:19 AM, ron(a)ronnatalie.com wrote:
Later at BRL we got a copy of “Empire” from PSL. The good thing
about that game was that your amount of activity was limited to one
hour a day and however many BTUs (Bureaucratic Time Units) your
capital generated. However, people would print maps near the end of
their session and then spend hours planning the next day’s activity.
Finally, the lab management had us shutdown.
I once took the EMPIRE source code for VAX, and translated it to MSDOS
using IBM Personal Computer FORTRAN version 2.00. And even added color.
I broke EMPIRE.FOR into 9 different chunks, I think there was some
limitation of the compiler, but I'm not sure.
The original EMPIRE.FOR:
PROGRAM EMPIRE
C
C This program is a war game simulation for video terminals.
C The game was originally written outside of Digital, probably a university.
C This version of the game was made runnable on Digital Equipment VAX/VMS
C FORTRAN by conversion from the TOPS-10/20 sources available around
fall 1979.
C After debugging it, numerous changes have been made.
C
C Now that you are the proud owner of the source and you are all gung ho
C to do things right, there are a few things you should be aware of.
C Unfortunately, there are many magic numbers controlling how many different
C kinds of units can exist and how many of each, so think well before you
C attempt to add another unit type. Also, "slight changes" to the way
the units
C work will typically have a fairly devastating affect on the computers
C strategy. If you are interested in really hacking this, there is a plenty
C of room for enhanced computer strategy. As you'll see, there are some
C very good debugging tools tucked inside, and you will soon discover weak
C points and bugs, that up until you, have remained problems (all the
previous
C programmers got lazy or lost interest). Finally, please be careful with
C the version number and identification at start up to avoid confusion of
C ongoing versions with private copies. If you make a change don't remove
C the major version id, but rather add something like (V4.0 site.1
20-JUL-80).
C