From: Eric S. Raymond Date: Mon, 15 May 2017 08:00:49 +0000 (-0400) Subject: Add README. More history. X-Git-Tag: seed~111 X-Git-Url: https://jxself.org/git/?p=open-adventure.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=68712ce6666516d52f2be26bd40cee0464722174 Add README. More history. --- diff --git a/README b/README new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c73e6b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ += README for Open Adventure = + +This code is a forward-port of the Crowther/Woods Adventure 2.5 from +1995, last version in the main line of Colossal Cave Adventure +development written by the original authors. The authors have given +permission and encouragement to this release. + +The file history.txt contains a more detailed history of this game +and its ancestors. + +This project is called "Open Adventure" because it's not at all clear +to number Adventure past 2.5 without misleading or causing collisions +or both. See the history file for discussion. diff --git a/history.txt b/history.txt index c8ebbfd..e392f52 100644 --- a/history.txt +++ b/history.txt @@ -13,11 +13,11 @@ Kentucy, lacking the D&D-like elements now associated with the game. Adventure as we now know it, the ancestor of all later versions, was was released on a PDP-10 at the Stanford AI Lab by Don Woods in 1976 -(some sources, apparentl erroneously, say 1977). That version is +(some sources, apparently erroneously, say 1977). That version is sometimes known as 350-point Adventure. Between 1976 and 1995 Crowther and Woods themselves continued to work -intermittently on the game. This main line of development cuminated +intermittently on the game. This main line of development culminated in the 1995 release of Adventure 2.5, also known as 430-point Adventure The earliest port to C was by Jim Gillogly under an early Unix running @@ -41,13 +41,14 @@ completely disambiguating. Many versions are collected at The Interactive Fiction Archive <>. Same articles at <> are a narrative of the history of the -game. There is some divergence of dates between these; I have -preferred <> because its chronology makes better internal sense. +game. There is some divergence of dates between these; pending +correction from the authors, I have preferred <> because its +chronology makes better internal sense. -Future versions of this document may attempt to untangle some of that -history. For now, it will suffice to explain the chain of provenance -that led from the original Adventure to the version distributed with -this document. +Future versions of this document may attempt to untangle some of the +non-mainline history. For now, it will suffice to explain the chain of +provenance that led from the original Adventure to the version +distributed with this document. The original 350-point ADVENT on the PDP-10 had been one of my formative experiences as a fledgling hacker in 1976-77. Forty years @@ -63,6 +64,15 @@ contained a rights reservation by Don Woods and that was it. I wrote to Don asking permission to release 2.5 under 2-clause BSD; he replied on 15 May giving both permission and encouragement. +== Nomenclature == + +This project is called "Open Adventure" because it's not at all clear +to number Adventure past 2.5 without misleading or causing +collisions. Various of the non-mainline versions have claimed to be +versions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and for all I know higher than that. It seems +best just to start a new numbering series while acknowledging the +links back. + == Sources == [bibliography]