Interactive Fiction Mapper

When I was in high school, we had a DEC PDP 11/70 running RSTS/E Version 6.  We had a copy of adventure (ADVENT), that quite a few of us were playing and later we had a copy of dungeon (DUNGEO), which was changed to Zork.

We started using a system of mapping that we could enter into a program and create maps.  When playing, we would draw a compass rose for each room and when we checked a direction, if it went somewhere we would write the number of the room by that direction.  If it was somewhere new we would make another compass rose for that room.

Using this simple system, we could print out a report that consisted of these mini maps for each room.  It would have the room name and number and above that, one of the compass rose maps showing where you could go from that room.  These reports would show five or six rooms across and six or eight rooms down each page.  I forget exactly how many, but with as few as five across and six down, you would end up with thirty rooms on a page.  You could get a fairly large map into a few neat pages, 150 rooms in five pages.

I remember that as time went on we added things to the program, for instance we added up and down for each room as well as notes.

Unfortunately I don’t have the source for that mapper program, but I thought I would reproduce it on my Apple //c.  As an interim benefit for me, I could use this program to create a database of rooms for my IFComp entry.

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