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showing 24 games

name	publisher(developer)	year	description
Chess	?	?
PLIChess	?	?
ZChess	?	?	ZCHESS.OBJ IS A Z80 PROGRAM THAT PLAYS CHESS ON A VIDEO TERMINAL. ############################################################ [Zerothis]
Civil War	Lexington High School (author)	1968	Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_mainframe_games https://www.mobygames.com/game/8703/civil-war/*[media=youtube]i00xDNSJt8I[/media]*Civil War is a war strategy simulation. You play as the confederacy in the American Civil War, and need to allocate funds and decide on a strategy to win as many battles as you can. Each turn will provide a brief overview of the battle, and allow you to allocate funds for food, salaries, and weapons as well as choose the offensive or defensive strategy you wish to use. The computer will then display the results of the battle which depend on the choices you make. The battles used in the game are actual battles from the war, and the computer will compare the results of the choices you made to the actual historical results. In both the original and the Creative Computing version it's also possible to play against another player instead of against historical results.
Space Travel	AT&T	1969	Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game) https://www.arcade-history.com/?n=space-travel&page=detail&id=266068*[media=youtube]rMCsKxx2VKc[/media]*Simulates travel within our solar system to scale in 2D (everything is on a flat galactic plane). Orbits of the planets and moons are limited to being circular and are not calculated themselves. But the mass and scale of every item and the distances are simulated. Scale is synchronized to time, so if you zoom out, time runs faster. This helps pass the time for interplanetary distances. In fact you can zoom out enough to reach Pluto in a few seconds. Nothing past the edge of our solar system is simulated; so don't venture out of site. The player's ship trajectory and speed is fully calculated using the gravity of the center of the closest strongest attractor. This makes landing on some moons very interesting. Phobos' mass is so tiny compared to Mars', you actually have to go beneath the surface of Phobos in order to make it's center the closest strongest attractor. While surface contact is calculated collision damage is not. Acceleration is fixed, but like everything else, is scaled to the display. So acceleration always remains the same when measured in pixels per second per sec second. Rather than rotate the ship, the universe was rotated around it, as far as the display. Coordinates can be displayed and are based on the center the closest strongest attractor. If there is any object to this game, it would be traveling to, and landing on, every planet. Controls: Trust forward Thrust Backward Yaw left Yaw right Scale display up Scale display down Trivia: This was the game that UNIX was created to run. Literally, Ken Thompson invented UNIX to run this game. Thus it is the first UNIX application and the first UNIX game. There was a charge for using the [gametag=multics]Multics time-sharing system[/gametag] on the [gametag=ge-645]GE-645[/gametag] that AT&T owned. AT&T employees were apparently allowed to use 'company money' to cover this cost. Good thing too, because in 1969 this game cost $50–$75 dollars (not cents) per play (about $275–$412 in today's economy). See it in your currency at [url=http://www.xe.com]XE.com[/url]. [Zerothis]
Batnum	Digital Equipment Computer Users' Society	1970	BASIC*[media=youtube]D9zRn4VteC8[/media]Batnum is a "battle of numbers" against the computer. There is a distinct number of items on a pile and the player and computer take turns removing items. Depending on the choices made at the start of the game whoever picks the first or last item wins the game. The player can also determine the maximum number of items that can be taken in a turn.*Video game programming lines [spoiler=show source code;hide source code] 100' NAME--BATNUM 110' 120' DESCRIPTION--BATTLE OF NUMBERS BETWEEN USER AND COMPUTER 130' 140' SOURCE--UNKNOWN 150' 160' INSTRUCTIONS--TYPE "RUN" AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. 170' 180' 190' * * * * * MAIN PROGRAM * * * * * * * * * * * 200' 210 PRINT"THIS DEMONSTRATION SHOWS YOU SOME VERSATILE FEATURES OF" 220 PRINT"PDP-10 TIME-SHARING SERVICE. IT IS A 'BATTLE-OF-NUMBERS'" 230 PRINT"GAME, WHERE THE COMPUTER IS YOUR OPPONENT." 240 PRINT 250 PRINT"THE GAME STARTS WITH AN ASSUMED PILE OF OBJECTS.YOU AND" 260 PRINT"YOUR OPPONENT ALTERNATLY REMOVE OBJECTS FROM THE PILE." 270 PRINT"WINNING IS DEFINED IN ADVANCE AS TAKING THE LAST OBJECT" 280 PRINT"OR NOT. YOU CAN ALSO SPECIFY SOME OTHER BEGINNING" 290 PRINT"CONDITIONS. DON'T USE ZERO, HOWEVER, IN PLAYING THE GAME." 300 PRINT 310 PRINT 320 GOTO 440 330 PRINT 340 PRINT 350 PRINT 360 PRINT 370 PRINT 380 PRINT 390 PRINT 400 PRINT 410 PRINT 420 PRINT 430 PRINT 440 PRINT"ENTER PILE SIZE:"; 450 INPUT N 460 IF N<>0 THEN 480 470 GOTO 440 480 IF N<>INT(N) THEN 330 490 IF N<1 THEN 330 500 PRINT "ENTER WIN OPTION - 1 TO TAKE LAST, 2 TO AVOID LAST: "; 510 INPUT M 520 IF M=1 THEN 540 530 IF M<>2 THEN 500 540 PRINT "ENTER MIN AND MAX: "; 550 INPUT A,B 560 IF A>B THEN 540 570 IF A<1 THEN 540 580 IF A<>INT(A) THEN 540 590 IF B<>INT(B) THEN 540 600 PRINT"ENTER START OPTION - 1 COMPUTER FIRST, 2 YOU FIRST:"; 610 INPUT S 620 IF S=1 THEN 640 630 IF S<>2 THEN 600 640 LET C=A+B 650 IF S=2 THEN 680 660 GOSUB 710 670 IF W=1 THEN 330 680 GOSUB 920 690 IF W=1 THEN 330 700 GO TO 660 710 LET Q=N 720 IF M=1 THEN 740 730 LET Q=Q-1 740 IF M=1 THEN 790 750 IF N>A THEN 830 760 LET W=1 770 PRINT"COMPUTER TAKES";N;"AND LOSES." 780 RETURN 790 IF N>B THEN 830 800 LET W=1 810 PRINT"COMPUTER TAKES";N;"AND WINS." 820 RETURN 830 LET P=Q-C*INT(Q/C) 840 IF P>=A THEN 860 850 LET P=A 860 IF P<=B THEN 880 870 LET P=B 880 LET N=N-P 890 PRINT"COMPUTER TAKES";P;"AND LEAVES";N 900 LET W=0 910 RETURN 920 PRINT "YOUR MOVE: "; 930 INPUT P 940 IF P<>0 THEN 980 950 PRINT"I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE ZERO...COMPUTER WINS BY FORFEIT." 960 LET W=1 970 RETURN 980 IF P<>INT(P) THEN 1030 990 IF P>=A THEN 1020 1000 IF P=N THEN 1070 1010 GO TO 1030 1020 IF P<=B THEN 1050 1030 PRINT "ILLEGAL MOVE, REENTER IT: "; 1040 GO TO 930 1050 LET N=N-P 1060 IF N<>0 THEN 1140 1070 IF M=1 THEN 1110 1080 PRINT"TOUGH LUCK, YOU LOSE." 1090 LET W=1 1100 RETURN 1110 PRINT"CONGRATULATIONS, YOU WIN." 1120 LET W=1 1130 RETURN 1140 IF N>=0 THEN 1170 1150 LET N=N+P 1160 GO TO 1030 1170 LET W=0 1180 RETURN 1190 END [/spoiler]
Baseball	Author	1971	Baseball is an early baseball simulation game written on a PDP-10. The game was expanded on during the 1970s and was ported to the Apple II by the author in the early 1980s but never released. The game formed the basis of World Series Major League Baseball for the Intellivision. The game was later released also for the IBM 360/40 on punch cards. In the game players pick their roster of existing players to play a single game with.
The Oregon Trail	MECC (Author)	1971	[media=youtube]XP_4I2UIpqE[/media]*The Oregon Trail is a text-based strategy video game developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) beginning in 1975. It was developed as a computer game to teach school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. In the game, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon via a covered wagon in 1847. Along the way the player must purchase supplies, hunt for food, and make choices on how to proceed along the trail while encountering random events such as storms and wagon breakdowns. The original versions of the game contain no graphics, as they were developed for computers that used teleprinters instead of computer monitors. A later Apple II port added a graphical shooting minigame.*This is the original original version of The Oregon Trail that ran on mainframes connected through phone calls. Manual input; keyboard or binary toggle switches. Keyboard is much perfected since word-input commands are more effective when typed in faster. This is not a quirk, it is a game mechanic. For example, to pull the trigger on a target when hunting, the player must type BANG. The faster this word is entered, the more accurate the shot will be. Later versions could be played through a terminal, but the original original original would make a paper printout of the game's output.
Battle Plan	Flying Buffalo	1972	Battle Plan is a computer moderated play-by-mail game. Players send in their commands for each turn by post and a single computer prints out the results which are sent back to all the players. In this tactical war game each player plays a nation and the theatre of war is Europe. Each player can control resources such as armies, air forces, navies, missiles, anti-missiles, money, industry, spies, counterspies and research. The game is played with around 6-7 players and the goal is to conquer the whole of Europe. The game ends when there is only a single player left standing. Players without land, but who still have forces can continue playing. Aside from moving forces around the map in order to conquer countries, players can undertake diplomacy with other players. Players have a sphere of influence which can put them in partial control of minor countries (countries not occupied by a player). Research is used to improve forces, spies and counterspies, but money invested has a diminishing return. Money can also be spent on propaganda to increase or decrease the popularity of a player in a country, or alternative money can be kept unspent which yields interest.
Bagels	People's Computer Company (The Lawrence Hall of Science.)	1972	Source: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/_Books/101_BASIC_Computer_Games_Mar75.pdf***Bagels is a mastermind game where the player must guess the computer's code. Codes consist of three numbers. After each guess of the player, the computer answers fermi (one digit is at the right position), pico (one digit is in the code but on a different position), or bagels (none of the digits are correct). The goal is to guess the number in as few tries as possible, so players must use the answers to infer the right code.
Super Star Trek	author	1973	Most of the code was written in 1973-1974. At that time, the game was just called "Star Trek"; the "Super" was added by later developers
Star Trader	People's Computer Company (author)	1974	A futuristic mercantile simulation. In the year 2070 the player must travel between colonized worlds with different levels of development to buy and sell goods with the aim of turning a profit. The player must haggle for the best prices. The galaxy slowly evolves as colonies grow more sophisticated and supply and demand of goods changes. Money can be put in the bank where the player can gain interest, but not all planets have banks to withdraw from. The game features a world map of 10 by 10 light-years, centred around Sol. The planets further away have more raw resources and those closer by produce more advanced goods, but rely on raw resources, which is where the player comes in. https://wiki.classictw.com/index.php/Star_Trader***This game has several a very notable feature for its day. One of which was having the choice a male of female captain and male and female crew members within a military setting. And, this had realistic effects within the society depicted (pros and cons depending on ratio or single-sex choice). Also, a valuable resource within the game was computer software. The design of the game necessitates that the computer software was bought and sold as source code as computer hardware was not (each planet created their own hardware to run the code). It might be unique for offering computer software/source code as a non-copyrighted commodity (as if it were like metal or uranium). The game was very much in keeping with the publisher's views on computers being a learning tool, used to improve social justice, and the importance of morality in computer use. PPC maintained the view that computer code should not be copyrighted. And all this was years before Net Neutrality and the Free Software Foundation. Among other things one might not expect is the issue of ownership of the captain's spacecraft, issues with unions, and illegal immigration. The code came with lists of suggestions for tweaking the game and adding features along with conciquencies. For instance, they suggest adding the ability of the captain and crew to engage in piracy (not of the software kind obviously) and implement penalties. Have competing superpowers (The captain and crew are from the game's single superpower planet). Politically and economically motivated embargos (and the evitable conflicts, that can include nuclear warfare). Ship-to-ship trading, and issues on what each planet's government thinks about that (ship-to-ship is tax free? Taxed, by who and how is that traced?). Implement ship durability and/or fuel efficiency along with the option of exceeding specs (top speed and fuel efficiency are static in the game, there is no reason to go any slower). The economy model of the game is Macro-economic with few fully developed members and many developing members growing and producing at different rates, a single merchant type that carries any inexhaustible resource. It is suggested to use a different economy model with various merchant types and exhaustible resources. The economy suggestions are the only ones accompanied by details about the actual code in need of change. The publisher asks players where pirates get their fuel (most games ignore such details, pirates are an economic factor in this game rather than a mere hazard).
Five-In-A-Row	author	1976
Astronaut	Scientific Research Inst.	1977
Golf	Scientific Research Inst.	1977	Golf is a text-based golfing game for multiple players. Each turn the player must choose a club which makes the ball go closer (or further) from the hole. The distance is randomly generated based on the club used. There are 9 different clubs that can be used.
Invaders	Digital Research	1978
Oregon	MECC	1978
A Tic-Tac-Toe Game for your Elf Computer	Ziff-Davis	1978
mychess	?	1979
Space Maze	Creative Computing	1979	Navigate home around the robot sentry ships by entering thrust, duration, and heading (spherical coordinates). A printout of all ship positions and the home space station will be provided to begin with and after the completion of each maneuver. If you pass within 1000 kilometres of an enemy ship, you will be destroyed. This is all done in 3D space.
Chess	?	1979	CHESS.DOC DOCUMENTATION FOR CHESS.COM (SOURCE CODE WRITTEN IN FORTRAN) * CAUTION: REQUIRES AT LEAST 40K CP/M TO RUN * DECEMBER 25, 1979 CHESS.COM USES ALGEBRAIC NOTATION AND A BOARD DISPLAY SIMILAR TO MICROCHESS: A B C D E F G H 8 BR BN BB BQ BK BB BN BR 8 7 BP BP BP BP BP BP BP BP 7 6 -- :: -- :: -- :: -- :: 6 5 :: -- :: -- :: -- :: -- 5 4 -- :: -- :: -- :: -- :: 4 3 :: -- :: -- :: -- :: -- 3 2 WP WP WP WP WP WP WP WP 2 1 WR WN WB WQ WK WB WN WR 1 A B C D E F G H THERE ARE TWO OTHER COMMANDS WHICH DISPLAY THE BOARD AND ASK THE COMPUTER IF IT WILL ACCEPT A DRAW. THEY ARE "BOARD" AND "DRAW", RESPECTIVELY. TO CASTLE KING-SIDE, TYPE IN O-O TO CASTLE QUEEN-SIDE TYPE IN O-OO IF YOU TRY O-O-O IT SAYS "ILLEGAL ATTEMPT TO CASTLE" TYPICAL OPENING MOVE, 'E2-E4' CR. ALWAYS USE CAPITAL LETTERS, FORTRAN-CHESS DOES NOT ACCEPT LOWER CASE. I HAVE RUN SEVERAL GAMES COMPARING THE FORTRAN-CHESS (FC) PROGRAM AGAINST FIDELITY ELECTRONICS' CHESS CHALLENGER 7 (CC7) (C) 1978 FIDELITY ELECTRONICS. WITH FC AT LEVEL 0 (IT ONLY HAS 0 AND 1) AND CC7 AT LEVEL 1 (CC7 HAS 6 LEVELS OF PLAY) FC WINS. WITH FC AT LEVEL 0 AND CC7 AT LEVEL 2 CC7 WINS. FC'S RESPONSE TIME AT LEVEL 0 VARIES BUT IS NEVER MORE THAN 90 SECONDS. I HAVE NOT YET CLOCKED IT AT LEVEL 1, BUT IT HAS A SIGNIFICANTLY LONGER RESPONSE TIME (AT LEAST AS MUCH AS SEVERAL MINUTES -- ESTIMATION). HAVE FUN! JIM MILLS C.A.C.H.E. MEMBER ##################################### [Zerothis]
Sargon II	author	198?	A CPM game that is running under different hardware configurations. Screenshots are from Amstrad PCW emulator, but this CPM game was released way before the Amstrad PCW was released so I put it under DEC PDP-1.
Btlgammon	?	1982
bj	?	1987

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