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All Projects → jgoerzen → vintage-computing

jgoerzen / vintage-computing

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Vintage Computing for Docker, Raspberry Pi, and Debian

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Vintage Computing for Docker, Raspberry Pi, and Debian

This repository provides vintage emulators and games for Docker, Raspberry Pi, and Debian systems in general. Included are such things as a PDP-11 emulation, Zork/Dungeon, Colossal Cave Adventure, and other legendary programs.

Basic Use

A command vint is provided in /usr/local/bin to run the included programs. None of them should be run as root, so if vint is run as root, it will instead run the programs as the user pi (which is created for you in Docker, or on Raspbian; on Debian, you're on your own.)

Use in Docker

You can run docker run -ti jgoerzen/vintage-computing vint (with whatever parameters you need) to just fire up something in your terminal. The image is also based on my Debian base images, so you could also configure SSH or other access to the system if you so desire.

Within the Docker image, at any shell prompt, just run vint as in the examples below.

The Docker image intentionally leaves build files and downloads sitting around; these are important for posterity and the files that go into this system are somewhat rare. They often contain documentation and such as well.

Use in Raspbian (Raspberry Pi) or Debian

A buster-based distribution is required.

To install, run:

git clone https://github.com/jgoerzen/vintage-computing
cd vintage-computing/setup
sudo ./setup.sh
sudo chown -R "`id -u`:`id -g`" /opt/vint

To launch programs, just type vint with whatever parameters are needed (as shown below).

Documentation & Info

The directory /opt/vint/systems will contain information for most systems included here, particularly inside the files directory.

You may see files ending with a number; for instance, foo.1 -- or maybe foo.1.gz. In those cases, you can display the documentation with a command like man -l foo.1 or man -l foo.1.gz.

Many programs also have system manpages; for instance, man figlet will show the system's documentation for figlet.

Docker users may wish to make volumes out of /home/pi (to persist savegames and the like) or parts of /opt/vint/systems to make emulator images and such persistent.

Much documentation also exists in /usr/share/doc.

Many of these packages are based on SIMH. The SIMH website and /usr/share/doc/simh contain a wealth of information. The sample software documentation, also available in /usr/share/doc/simh, describes loading and working with some of these systems.

In Docker, the setup scripts to generate all this are in /opt/vint/setup. (For Raspberry Pi and local installations, this repository has the same files.) These document the sources for the code and steps taken to install it all.

Included Games

Colossal Cave Adventure

This is the text adventure that started it all: Colossal Cave Adventure by Crowther & Woods, also known as adventure and advent.

I have provided five versions for you:

  • vint colossal-cave-adventure is the one I recommend. It is a faithful port of the canonical 350-point version, usies the original text exactly, and even simulates the speed of the terminals in use in the era in which it was written.
  • vint bsd-adventure is the version distributed by BSD distributions (and Debian in bsdgames), which was an early port to C by Jim Gillogly.
  • vint open-adventure is a port of the last version that Crowther & Woods themselves released.
  • Two versions are also included in the PDP-10 TOPS-10 installation; see rhe linked readme in that section for details.

Zork (aka Dungeon)

This is the other famous text adventure, Zork. As with Adventure, there are many versions of Zork out there, and even a history of Zork is available.

The Zorks I provide here are based on the monolithic Zorks, before the game was split into three parts for PC distribution. Three Zorks are provided:

  • vint zork-glk is a good version, updated with somewhat modern terminal handling. It is the version that FreeBSD uses in their ports collection. history says it is 3.2A.
  • vint zork-old is the original C port. history says version 2.7.
  • The included pdp11-2bsd environment (see below) has a zork that can be invoked at /usr/games/zork once you are in the environment. saved and restore are buggy in this game, however, and are not recommended. (This is not a bug in the emulator, but the original program!) history says version 2.0a.

Fortune

The vint fortune command will display a random fortune from the included database, which is part of Debian. Many users used to put this in their login scripts to automatically display a random little snippet when they'd log in.

Figlet

The vint figlet command will render text in large blocks. For instance, vint figlet xyzzy displays:

                          __  ___   _ _________   _ 
                          \ \/ / | | |_  /_  / | | |
                           >  <| |_| |/ / / /| |_| |
                          /_/\_\\__, /___/___|\__, |
                                |___/         |___/

Banner

There are two banner-type programs installed:

  • vint banner will generate horizontal ASCII-art banners. It comes from the Debian package sysvbanner.
  • vint printerbanner will generate vertical (rotated) ASCII-art banners. It comes from the Debian package bsdmainutils.

Debian and BSD games (/usr/games) (more than 50)

In addition to the games listed above, quite a few more (over 60!) are also available in /usr/games. These are installed via Debian packages, are all open source. Most come from the bsdgames collection. Some were written decades ago, though a few are more modern. All can be played on a text terminal. A few of these can also be launched by other commands documented above.

To get a list of available games, type vint usrgames list. The list is large, so you may want to pipe it through a pager like vint usrgames list | less

Here are some highlights for you:

  • tetris-bsd and petris are Tetris implementations
  • moon-buggy is an implementation of the well-known lunar lander games
  • snake is a growing snake game
  • sl draws animated steam locomotives
  • cowsay renders text as if quoted by a cow. (See also figlet above)

Z-Machine (Z-Code) Interpreters

Many text adventure games have been written to target the z-machine (zcode) environment. They often end with extensions like .z5 or similar. You can get them from the Interactive Fiction Archive, which has a large collection of zcode games. The IFDB has references to even more. Some of the most famous games were released as zcode (for instance, Zork I - III).

You will need to download your own z-machine games, but once you have them, there are several interpreters available:

  • frotz is the one I generally recommend. Launch games with vint usrgames frotz gamename
  • jzip is also available. Use vint usrgames jzip gamename
  • fizmo is also available. Use vint usrgames fizmo-console gamename

Included Tools

Gopher

After FTP, but before there was the web, there was gopher - the hypertext system from the University of Minnesota. The UMN gopher client is included, which can be used to browse some of the still-existing gopher servers.

Use vint gopher

Pine (Alpine)

For a whole cohort of Internet users, the text-based program Pine was their first exposure to Internet email. Pine, from the University of Washington, has gone through many evolutions over the years, but at this moment lives on in the now open source program Alphine.

Alpine supports secured IMAP and SMTP, and thus should still be usable with modern email providers!

Use vint pine

FTP and Telnet

Before there was SSH or Bittorrent, remote access to machines was typically accomplished via FTP and telnet. These protocols are considered insecure these days, but FTP sites in particular still exist, and some legacy systems may be unable to support ssh. Some surviving BBSs, in particular, support telnet but not ssh.

More advanced ftp clients are available (for instance, lftp), but this one, with the old FTP command-line look and feel, is included.

Use vint ftp and vint telnet

Included Emulators

PDP-11 with 2BSD 2.11

The machine that started it all... or at least, uh, lots. vint pdp11-2bsd will fire up the SIMH emulator of a PDP-11 running 2BSD version 2.11. Please note that this system doesn't automatically boot, but needs a bit of help to get to a login prompt. The instructions for doing so are displayed on your screen as the simulator starts.

Once in the simulator, hit Ctrl-E and then type quit to exit.

PDP-11 with V5 Unix

A PDP-11 with Version 5 Unix from 1974. vint pdp11-unixv5 will fire it up for you and display instructions for making it boot.

PDP-11 with V6 Unix

A PDP-11 with Version 6 Unix from 1975. vint pdp11-unixv6 will fire it up for you and display instructions for making it boot.

PDP-11 with V7 Unix

A PDP-11 with Version 7 Unix from 1979. vint pdp11-unixv7 will fire it up for you and display instructions for making it boot. This version was the ancestor for many other Unixes that have come since.

Interdata 32b with V6 Unix

The Interdata 32b running the first non-DEC port of Unix. This one is Version 6 Unix from 1975. vint interdata-unixv6 will fire it up for you and display instructions for making it boot.

Interdata 32b with V7 Unix

The Interdata 32b running the first non-DEC port of Unix. This one is Version 7 Unix from 1979. vint interdata-unixv7 will fire it up for you and display instructions for making it boot.

PDP-10 with ITS

The Incompatible Timesharing System was a research system at MIT. It is particularly notable as being the initial implementation platform for Emacs, as well as several Lisp-related languages and the Macsyma symbolic algebra system and the JArgon File.

The ITS interface is nonstandard; some helpful information can be found at the ITS repo, which is also included as part of this system.

PDP-10 with TOPS-20

The old TOPS-20 operating system on the PDP-10 - dating to the early 70s. I know little about this system.

Two systems are provided: a very basic one at vint pdp10-tops20, and a more complete one at vint pdp10-tops20-panda running the panda dist. The latter even has EMACS and TECO installed; see the link for details.

The basic image uses SIMH; the panda one uses klt20. Note: klt20 is only provided in an ia32 executable, and will not run on Raspberry Pi.

You may find these links helpful:

PDP-10 with TOPS-10

An even older operating system, running TOPS-10. This is built with the TOPS-10 in a box distribution. The README file is included with the system, or may be accessed here, describes how to boot and use this image. Use vint pdp10-tops10.

Data General NOVA with RDOS 7.5

This was a prime competitor to DEC. It uses the RDOS kit from SIMH, which has been installed for you using wconrad's instructions, a copy of which is included in the generated image. Those instructions will be helpful to you.

vint nova-rdos will launch the simulator. It requires keyboard input to fully load; instructions are displayed before the simulator starts. The RDOS manual may be useful for you; it is also included in /opt/vint/nova-rdos for your benefit.

To exit, type RELEASE DP0 and then quit at the sim> prompt. Ctrl-E will take you to the sim> prompt, which will let you perform an unclean shutdown.

SIMH in general

The SIMH emulator is included in full. In fact, many of the other machines listed here are emulated using SIMH. It can emulate dozens of types of old big iron machines.

8086 with DOS

The operating system that took over the world (for a time): DOS on the IBM PC. This is the 8086tiny emulator running FreeDOS. Check out its documentation, because it can run everything from FreeDOS to even Windows. This version is compiled without graphics support, but it can do graphics also if you compile it with SDL.

vint dos-8086tiny to start.

The system is fairly bare; much software can be downloaded and added to this.

PCBASIC

PC-BASIC is designed to be compatible with the old DOS-based BASIC.EXE, BASICA.EXE, and GWBASIC.EXE interpreters for BASIC. It should be able to run all or almost all of the old DOS BASIC programs you might find.

Defining Additional vint Subcommands

You can extend the vint command on your own, either on a standalone system or with a docker image based on this one. To do so, create a directory in /opt/vint/systems. The directory name will be used as the command name. There must be at least one thing in the new directory: an executable file named run. This is what vint will run. Any other files you put in there are up to you. See the existing installed items for examples. The name list is reserved and not available for this purpose.

Self-Installing OpenVMS on VAX with SIMH

OpenVMS was a famous operating system for DEC's VAX line. OpenVMS is not included with this image. However, the SIMH simulator installed in it is capable of running OpenVMS.

Various information is available online. For instance:

You will need to obtain a hobbyist OpenVMS license as well as the software itself. Here's how to do that:

  • First, join DECUServe. See the instructions; as of 2019, you will need to ssh [email protected] and log in with an empty password. Make note of your membership number and login details!
  • You may need to wait a week for the Hobbyist info to reach HPE; see DECUServe hobbyist info
  • Get the registration link from DECUServe or OpenVMS Hobbyist; as of 2019, it is https://www.hpe.com/h41268/live/index_e.aspx?qid=24548.
  • Fill out the registration form. Your chapter is DECUServe, license type is VAX/Alpha, AllianceOne partner is No, emulator is SIMH.
  • The form is processed by a human. You'll get a reply with a license pak and download instructions - it seems to take about a business day, but may take longer.
  • Now, you need media. As of 2019, the email you'll get from HPE includes a sentence about replying back to ask for media downloads. Do that, specifying the VAX platform. The will, after (it seems) a somewhat longer delay, reply back with time-limited credentials for obtaining the downloads.

Updates (Raspberry Pi / Local Installations)

Note this will blow away any images you have, savegames, etc.

cd vintage-computing/setup
git pull
sudo mv /opt/vint/systems /opt/vint/systems.old
sudo ./setup.sh
sudo chown -R "`id -u`:`id -g`" /opt/vint

Removal (Local Installations)

Be careful to type this in correctly!

rm -r /opt/vint
rm /usr/local/bin/vint

Source

This is prepared by John Goerzen [email protected] and the source can be found at https://github.com/jgoerzen/vintage-computing

Copyright

Docker scripts, etc. are Copyright (c) 2019 John Goerzen.
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
  2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Additional software copyrights as noted.

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