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--- vintage_systems:tesseract [2020/03/20 22:43] – created - external edit 127.0.0.1
+++ vintage_systems:tesseract [2024/06/20 22:27] (current) – {:v hc9
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+**Beyond the Tesseract**
+//An abstract text adventure by David Lo//
+**HOW TO PLAY**
+Connect to the [[AT&T 3B2 1000-70]] and type 'tess'
+**Scenario**:
+  You have reached the final part of your mission.  You have gained access
+  to the complex, and all but the last procedure has been performed.  Now
+  comes a time of waiting, in which you must search for the hidden 12-word
+  message that will aid you at the final step.  But what choice will you
+  make when that time comes?
+  The scenario for the adventure is meant to be vague.  Once the adventure has
+  been completed, the scenario will hopefully become clear.
+**Instructions**:
+  This adventure recognizes the standard commands for moving (N,E,S,W),
+  taking inventory (I), maninpulating objects (GET, DROP, LOOK), and
+  saving games (SAVE, LOAD), as well as many others.  Use 2-word 'verb noun'
+  commands, such as 'use stack' or 'get all'.  Only the first four letters
+  of each word are significant.  The adventure recognizes about 200 words,
+  so if one word doesn't work, try another.
+  The game also accepts an argument of -f at run-time for fast start-up.
+  This skips the title screen, scenario and instructions.  Very useful
+  for people at lower baud rates.
+**Notes**:
+  The "stack" is an acroynym for Space Time Activated Continuum Key.
+  You will find this object very useful.
+  This adventure is abstract and a bit on the technical side.  Detail
+  knowledge of the technical background is not necessary, although it will
+  make the adventure more enjoyable.
+  There is no carry limit, and no death traps.  The map of the adventure can
+  be draw on a grid.  All it takes is a little experimenting to put all the
+  subsets of locations together "logically".
+**History**:
+  Version    Date        Machine        Language         # Lines
+.0        Jun. 1983   16K TRS-80     Level II BASIC   350
+.0        Sep. 1988   IBM-XT clone   Turbo C 1.5      2500
+.0p       Nov. 1988       "          dlc,msc,qc
+                         Sun-3          pcc,gcc
+  Tesseract Version 2.0 is my first MS-DOS adventure and an exercise in
+  learning C.  Since this is a direct port of the old BASIC version, it may be
+  smaller than some other adventures, and some of the coding might not be too
+  clean.  For the C version, appropriate changes were made to the data
+  structures, additions and small changes made to some of the puzzles, and the
+  ending expanded.
+  The very first adventure that I wrote was in 1982, titled "Hall of the
+  Mountain King" (find the Crystal of Light).  Tesseract Version 1.0 was the
+  second of the three TRS-80 BASIC adventures that I wrote in a two month
+  adventure-frenzy during the summer of 1983.  The first was "Project Triad"
+  (defuse the bomb on the space station), and the third was "Codename
+  Intrepid" (deliver a package to another agent).
+  The first release was version 2.0 in Oct. 1988, in binary form over Usenet.
+  This release (2.0p) is the portable source version designed to work with
+  compilers other than Turbo C.  -- Dennis Lo.
+**References**:
+  The following books and reference works were used at one time or another
+  as a source of information and/or inspiration:
+    The Beauty of Fractals.
+    The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought.
+    The Fractal Geometry of Nature.
+    Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
+    The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary Of the English Language.
+    Mathematics: The New Golden Age.
+    The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary, Encyclopedic Edition.
+    The Penguin Dictionary of Science, Fifth Edition.
+    Roget's International Thesaurus.
+    The Science of Fractal Images.
+    The VNR Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics.
+    The World of M.C. Escher.
+**SCREENSHOTS**
+{{:vintage_systems:tess1.png?400|}}
+{{:vintage_systems:tess2.png?400|}}