25 Apr
2006
25 Apr
'06
12:44 a.m.
Johhny Billquist wrote:
First there was ZORK. That's it, just ZORK. No
numbers,
no nothing. This program was written in MDL and ran on
PDP-10 systems only. MDL is a Lisp-like language implemented
at MIT. You're probably out of luck if you ever want to
play the original ZORK on anything but a PDP-10.
<Nitpick>
Actually, I saw (and used) the original ZORK running on an SDS (later XDS)
Sigma 7 computer (the actual ARPAnet machine name was MIT-DMS). And, if
I'm not mistaken, I believe it was originally developed on this machine
(though I could be off on this fact). I actually visited the famed 9th
floor of 545 Tech. Square at MIT way back in the early 80s and saw the beast.
(Still have my MDL programming manual around too...)
</Nitpick>
--Eric F. (proud owner of an SDS-940 console, Sigma 9 console (wired up to
show off all 100+ Blinkenlights!), and lots of other assorted SDS/XDS swag.)