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heasm66 / mdlzork

Different versions of original mainframe Zork reconstructed and patched to run under Confusion.
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#58 - proposed changes #59

Closed AlexProudfoot closed 1 month ago

AlexProudfoot commented 9 months ago

Proposed changes for issue #58.

eswenson1 commented 8 months ago

Wasn’t the PDP-10 a 36-bit machine so why would FIX values be limited to 32 bits? Also, if you look over your number doubling list, you can see that the numbers don’t double for every object. As @larsbrinkhoff said “What’s up with that?”

I believe the numbers double to the point where the result would overflow 36 bits. Why the numbers don’t always double, I don’t know.

Sorry. I typed 32 when I meant 36. The point I was trying to make -- but perhaps I'm the one who is being dense here -- is that doubling 1 36 times should overflow, and yet we don't see the overflow until the 40th object. However, I didn't realize that the numbers didn't double each time. I thought I saw code that did the equivalent of <SETG GLOHI <* ,GLOHI 2>> each time a new GOBJECT is defined.

If they don't double each time, of course, then we wouldn't die at 36 objects. I don't see how we can't be doubling though -- especially since we are trying to compute a bit value for each GOBJECT defined.

AlexProudfoot commented 8 months ago

I’ll try to more precisely decipher the MDL code today but I do remember seeing conditionals.

  1. Is the name non-null
  2. Is the name already declared

I can guess that these ensure that all GOBJECTS with a null name share a GVAL of 1 and all objects that share a non-null name share the GVAL that was established when the name was first declared.

AlexProudfoot commented 8 months ago

@heasm66 An unrelated question. What is the source of the date in the name mdlzork_810722?

heasm66 commented 8 months ago

@eswenson1

I havn't studied the GOBJECTS but my guess is that objects with the same number are synonyms, i.e. EAST, WEST, NORTH and SOUTH WALL should all respond in the same way when refered to.

heasm66 commented 8 months ago

@AlexProudfoot

The date is from the newspaper (in the kitchen) that states:

        US NEWS & DUNGEON REPORT
7/22/81                        Last G.U.E. Edition

This version of ZORK is no longer being supported on this or any other
machine.  In particular, bugs and feature requests will, most likely, be
read and ignored.  There are updated versions of ZORK, including some
altogether new problems, available for PDP-11s and various
microcomputers (TRS-80, APPLE, maybe more later).  For information, send
a SASE to:

                Infocom, Inc.
                P.O. Box 120, Kendall Station
                Cambridge, Ma. 02142