From: Eric S. Raymond Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 02:04:01 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Another documentation update. X-Git-Tag: 2.0~302 X-Git-Url: https://jxself.org/git/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=9f2406f134c8e82a6ef14943c5eaf6ee2bee3af7;p=super-star-trek.git Another documentation update. --- diff --git a/sst-doc.xml b/sst-doc.xml index 0b62ec6..79ae607 100644 --- a/sst-doc.xml +++ b/sst-doc.xml @@ -1576,7 +1576,7 @@ Impulse engines require 20 units to warm up, plus 100 units per The original Star Trek seems to have been written by Mike Mayfield at the beginning of the 1970s. His first version was in -BASIC for a Sigma 7 in 1971; on 1972 he rewrote it in Hewlett +BASIC for a Sigma 7 in 1971; in 1972 he rewrote it in Hewlett Packard BASIC. While some people claim to have recollections of playing Trek @@ -1595,30 +1595,44 @@ Ahl published in 101 BASIC Computer Games, 1973. This was a port of Mayfield's version obtained from the HP Contributed Programs library. -Our "Super Star Trek" came through a Taurus BASIC program by -Grady Hicks dated 5 April 1973. This does not appear to have been -derived from Ahl's SPACEWR, at least not directly. The header says -"GENERAL IDEA STOLEN FROM PENN. U.", and the game has several features -not present in SPACEWR: notably, the Death Ray, ramming, and the -Klingon summons to surrender. - -Dave Matuszek, Paul Reynolds et. al. at UT Austin translated the -Hicks port into FORTRAN and considerably enhanced it. The name "Super -Star Trek" and many design features (including command abbreviations -rather than command numbers) were probably picked up from a second -BASIC version published by David Ahl in his 1978 sequel -BASIC Computer Games. - -One signature trait of FORTRAN SST and its descendants is that -the sectors are 10x10 (rather than the 8x8 in Mike Mayfield's 1972 -original and its BASIC descendants) Also, you set courses and firing -directions with rectangular rather than polar coordinates. FORTRAN SST -also preserves the original numbered quadrants rather than the -astronomically-named quadrants introduced in David Ahl's 1978 BASIC -version and descendants. +Our SST2K is descended from a Taurus BASIC program by Grady +Hicks dated 5 April 1973. This does not appear to have been derived +from Ahl's SPACEWR, at least not directly. The header says "GENERAL +IDEA STOLEN FROM PENN. U.", and the game has several features not +present in SPACEWR: notably, the Death Ray, ramming, and the Klingon +summons to surrender. + +Dave Matuszek, Paul Reynolds et. al. at UT Austin played the +Hicks version on a CDC6600, but disliked the long load time and +extreme slowness of the BASIC program. (David Matuszek notes that the +version of the Hicks port he played had a habit of throwing long +quotes from Marcus Aurelius at the users, a feature he found +intolerable at 110 baud.) The Austinites proceeded to write their own +Trek game, loosely based on the Hicks version, in CDC6600 FORTRAN. At +that time, it was just called "Star Trek"; the "Super" was added by +later developers. + +The name "Super Star Trek" and many design features may have +been picked up from a descendant of SPACEWR, reworked by Robert Leedom +and friends and published by David Ahl in his 1978 sequel +BASIC Computer Games. On the other hand, there +is internal evidence to suggest that at least some features of Leedom's +SST may have derived from the UT FORTRAN version. In particular, Dave +Matuszek recalls implementing command words to replace the original +numeric command codes, and this was apparently before 1978. + +One signature trait of the UT FORTRAN game and its descendants +is that the sectors are 10x10 (rather than the 8x8 in Mike Mayfield's +1972 original and its BASIC descendants). The UT FORTRAN version also +preserves the original numbered quadrants rather than the +astronomically-named quadrants introduced in Ahl's SST and its +descendants. + + + Eric Allman's BSD Trek game is one of these, also descended from -FORTRAN SST via translation to C. However, the mainline SST (now +FORTRAN Star Trek via translation to C. However, the mainline S (now SST2K) has had a lot more stuff folded into it over the years — deep space probes, dilithium mining, the Tholian Web, and so forth.