Terminals... - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

20 Sep 2010

cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
...
  On 9/17/10, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se>
wrote:
  > So, in the end, implementing the ANSI color
codes was the only
 > reasonable way to get colored output on the VT525, and it is nice to
 > have... I like playing Beyond Zork with color and primitive graphics on
 > my PDP11...  :-)   
 Ooh!  Now you have my attention.  Long ago, I grabbed the ITF
 Z-machine source code and got it working under VMS 4.x (it was trivial
 once I had a working curses library), so I was able to run an number
 of v3 games on our 11/750, but now that there are many more Z-machine
 choices, I haven't gone back to fiddle with newer game file types. 
:-)
I suspect you'd also have to work on whatever Z-machine implementation 
you use to actually make it use both ANSI color control, and also user 
defined fonts. And then, of course, you need a font.

...
  I haven't seen a VT525 in the wild, but now I know
what to do to show
 it off if I do get one (but now I'm also wondering what it would take
 to get what you have working on a Tektronix 4105 since I have a couple
 of those). 
I don't think you want to go down that path. :-)

I did say "primitive" graphics. Beyond Zork uses font 3 to play with 
some crude graphics. Basically mapping, and some bar charts and nice 
framing.
And, of course, it uses color if possible.

But if you are interested, I can send you my Z-machine font definitions 
for the VT200, VT200, VT400 and VT500 terminals, so you don't have to 
define those yourself.

As for playing, if you just have a VT525, it's easy to test, by just 
logging in to Mim.Update.UU.SE, and play any Infocom game on that 
machine. My Z-machine for the PDP-11 do handle the font and color stuff 
for the VT terminals (of course). :-)

	Johnny