The Wumpus
Wumpus is a logic game, first written when prose programs were popular. Graphics weren't available, so the game needed to be conducted using words on the monitor and instructions from the keyboard. The rules are easy to understand. The only instructions needed are the MOVE and the SHOOT commands to navigate the caves and get the wumpus. Of course, as any good programmer, there are also a number of other commands (software hooks) but they are discussed under different cover in the "Softalk" document. A description of the game is given below. Just a by the by: Don't be using the commas or interogatives while texting in the commands. The interogative and the comma are very special characters in GWBasic for multiple inputs and printing. Aside from that 'heads up" just type away at your commands. If the interpreter doesn't understand you, it will tell you so.
The caverns are dark. Explorers must rely on their senses, other than sight to navigate the caves and the interlinking tunnels. Bottomless pits create a breeze that can be felt one cave away. Squeeking from bats can be heard one cave away. The Wumpus can be smelled two caves away. Each cave has three tunnels, each leading into another cave. The number of the cave that the tunnel leads to is chisseled into the cave wall above each tunnel emtramce so the tunnel destination can be determined by feel.
If you wander into a cave with the bats, they will pick you up and carry you to another random cave and drop you. Contrary to the original game, our bats are civilized enough to drop you into a cave with no pits or with the wumpus. The pits must be avoided unless there happens to be bats in the same cave with the pit, in which case, the bats will move you into another cave. If you move into a cave with the Wumpus, or if the Wumpus moves into your cave, then thats it, the game is over.
The Wumpus is a crafty beast. If you wander into a cave with him, then he will have you for lunch. There is one hiding in the caverns. He can even be in the caves with bottomless pits, clinging to the walls. He is also a smelly fellow, capable of being smelled two caverns away. The object of the game is to shoot the Wumpus with a crooked arrow.
A crooked arrow can be loosed from your present cave and will travel crookedly into five caves before coming to rest in the fifth cave . You make the selection for the flight path when you shoot by selecting the caves the crooked arrow's path will follow. If fewer than five selections are made, or if the selection is not to an adjacent cave, then the remaining caves in the path will be randomly selected. The selected path must be through adjacent caves. Unfortunately, a randomly selected path might return the crooked arrow back into your own cave resulting in the loss of the game. Be aware that by loosing a crooked arrow, the clanking along the tunnel walls will probably waken the wumpus and he might move into one of his adjacent caves. Hoperully he won't move into your cave which will also terminate the hunt. The only way to end the hunt successfully it to slay the wumpus by loosing a crooked arrow into his cave, which will surely get him.
The wumpus isn't going to come to you, so it becomes necessary for you to move from cave to cave in order to find him and shoot him while avoiding the pit and bat caves. Feel for the tunnel numbers to determine which adjacent caves you may enter. The only object that you can see in these caverns is the cell phone you carry with you. You file a flight plan whenever you intend to move or shoot a crooked arrow by texting it into your cell phone ((the computer keyboard ;-)). Your online service provider will provide you with limited assistance during your explorations. There are a number of commands you can text.
Commands consist of a command followed by an argument. If arguments with no command is given then the command is assumed to be a MOVE command and the arguments are as caves to be moved into. The commands are characters and the arguments are numbers. Don't use commas in the command line or you will be scolded and told to re-do the command string. Some of the commands are given. There are more, you will just have to try some to find the developemental software hooks, for example the "CONTROL A" which is an EBCDIC character, IBM's social image of good will and generally a gesture of well being.
Move
followed by the caves you wish to move through any number of caves but they must be sequential. It the first characters of the command is a numeric then it and any following numerics are assumed to be moves. For example:
"move 1 14 19" will move to cave numbers one, forteen and nineteen in that order.
"1 14 19" will do the same thing.
" I wish to move into cave 1 followed by moving into caves 14 and then 19" will also do the same thing.
Shoot
followed by the five caves you wish to shoot into. If an Invalid path or less than five caves are entered then the program provides valid caves for you. Warning: the random path just might shoot yourself. For example:
"shoot 4 6 7 9 12" will shoot into these caves in the order given.
"shoot 4 6 7" will shoot into the three given caves. Two more caves will be randomly selected.
Control A
is the Ebcdic smily for the control characters set aside for Ascii characters, American Standard Code for Interchange. IBM has to have their own alphabet. No matter, our program can deal with it.
Map
is a software hook that shows the entire cavern and the location of all the hazards. Shhhh, we aren't supposed to know about that. Only to be used by cheaters, though......
Save
is a developement tool. Its handy to save the program after making changes to the program. If you use it, be careful because it overwrites the wummpus.bas program file that was used to run the program. Its best to rename wumpus.bas, call the program with Basica and if you save, it will put a new wumpus.bas program back out to the disk and you still have the original program that has been renamed before editing and saving.
Good hunting.