General Discussion & Announcements

 View Only
Expand all | Collapse all

What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

  • 1.  What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 03-03-2021 13:43
    Retro gaming won some new interest in 2020 as people looked for ways to entertain themselves during lockdowns. Being a modern, 20-something gamer spoiled by my hand-built PC, RTX2060 OC, and Ryzen 7 2700X processor, I was surprised to learn that there are games built exclusively to play on the mainframe, mostly created when it was one of the only computer platforms in existence (check out this Wikipedia link for context). Outside of Pong and Tetris, I can't say I've thought much about the history of video games before now.

    Mainframe Defender was super popular last year and simulates the play of the early systems, and I've since learned one of my childhood-favorite remakes, Oregon Trail, likewise started as a mainframe game in 1971. After some internet stalking, I was able to get my hands on code for Yahtzee and have even heard of people figuring out how to play Ms. Pacman on a mainframe...  

    So forum members, I'm wondering if you have experience with or interest in mainframe gaming, if you've played any lately (I won't tell your boss), or generally your thoughts on the topic. Of course if you have some game code to pass along, I'd love to trade! :)

    (On a related note, my latest obsession is the procedurally-generated survival phenomenon, Valheim. Hail to my fellow Vikings out there!)

    ------------------------------
    Bethany Rock
    Rocket Software
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    Posted 03-03-2021 18:54
    When I was in college there were a few Star Trek games out there (this was before Star Wars). They were simple-command based games, all written in Fortran. In one directions were specified as compass degrees and the other used the values 1-8 (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) when you wanted to specify a direction. The one message I still love was "The distress call was a sly Klingon ruse."

    By far my favorite mainframe game from then was Adventure. When the game starts, you are outside, at the end of a road, near an old pump house. There is a cave nearby. You have to find the cave and get all the treasures back to the house. It has the usual dwarves, a pirate who steals the treasures you are carrying, two mazes inside the cave. There is a maze in the forest, and if you get lost there you lose serious points. The game has been updated since then with many extra rooms hanging off available access points left in the original game map. Several messages from the game regularly make it into comments in my code.

    ------------------------------
    Rob Hamilton
    Chemical Abstracts Service
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    Posted 03-04-2021 08:38
    In the seventies a coworker and I coded in mainframe CICS the game Battleships. In which we would login in to two different IBM-3278 terminal and slug it out. We coded it using IBM assembler and CICS macro level language.

    ------------------------------
    Roberto Halais
    EVERTEC, LLC
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 03-04-2021 09:22
    Adventure looks to have a lot of devotees, and the code is also available for hacking!

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/one-of-the-first-computer-games-is-born-again-in-open-source/

    ------------------------------
    Dave Andrews
    Head of Customer Engagement
    Rocket Software
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    PARTNER
    Posted 03-04-2021 18:26


    There is a Pick BASIC port of Adventure in GitHub that does work on D3 and UniVerse - see Pick BASIC port of the famous Adventure game



    ------------------------------
    Gregor Scott
    Software Architect
    Pentana Solutions
    Mount Waverley VIC Australia
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    Posted 03-04-2021 07:56
    Hi Bethany

    I know an IT manager that created a snake game for UniVerse and it's actually quite good (not that I've had any time to play it).

    Pick used to come with games (I think there was even a games account upon installing) but they were removed almost straight away by the installer.

    ------------------------------
    David Inquieti
    Helpdesk and Database Manager
    Comtec Cable Accessories Ltd
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    PARTNER
    Posted 03-05-2021 15:35
      |   view attached
    I used to have a small collection of Pick games, but can only find one at present. Here it is (ROBOT.txt) for anyone who wants to try it . :-)

    I will look for the others. I well remember an adventure type game, and enjoyed playing it until I found my way around. Also, I had one called Hamurabi. I should be able to find them both ... somewhere!

    Have fun!

    ------------------------------
    Alan Miles
    Business and IT Consultant
    Amba Limited
    Whanganui, New Zealand
    [Phone]
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)

    txt
    ROBOT.txt   6 KB 1 version


  • 8.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    PARTNER
    Posted 03-05-2021 15:45
      |   view attached
    Following on from my message below, I found Hamurabi - HAMURABI.txt is attached.

    It is worth playing ... it's a strategy game, where you choose how much grain to use to feed people, plant to grow more, and store in case of future famine.

    ------------------------------
    Alan Miles
    Business and IT Consultant
    Amba Limited
    Whanganui, New Zealand
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)

    txt
    HAMURABI.txt   8 KB 1 version


  • 9.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    Posted 03-05-2021 08:34
    I ported Yahtzee to the CBT tape a few years back.  File 479 http://www.cbttape.org/cbtdowns.htm

    ------------------------------
    Paul Lemons
    z/OS Systems Programmer
    Harland Clarke Vericast
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: What do you know about Mainframe gaming? (LFG: Mainframe-Gamers)

    Posted 03-12-2021 11:38
    A few years after I lost touch with Adventure someone showed me that Monopoly had been implemented for 3270-type terminals.

    I wrote some EXECs to display a chessboard nicely, with different-colored piece names, depending on the player. I was working on using IUCV instead of CMS SENDFILE for transmitting the new game position, a la postal chess.

    ------------------------------
    Rob Hamilton
    Chemical Abstracts Service
    ------------------------------