Hunt the Wumpus: Difference between revisions

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| footer =Yob designed the original ''Hunt the Wumpus'' map with the caves arranged as the vertices of a [[dodecahedron]] (left). They can also be mapped in two dimensions (right).

}}

Yob chose a dodecahedron because it was his favorite [[~~platonic~~ solid]], and because he had once made a kite shaped like one. From there, Yob added the arrows to shoot between rooms, terming it the "crooked arrow" as it would need to change directions to go through multiple caves, and decided that the player could only sense nearby caves by smell, as a light would wake the Wumpus up. He then added the bottomless pits, and a couple days later the super bats. Finally, feeling that players would want to create a map, he made the cave map fixed and gave each cave a number. Yob later claimed that, to his knowledge, most players did not create maps of the cave system, nor follow his expected strategy of carefully moving around the system to determine exactly where the Wumpus was before firing an arrow. While playtesting the game, Yob found it unexciting that the Wumpus always stayed in one place, and so changed it to be able to move. He then delivered a copy of the game, written in [[BASIC]], to the PCC.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/>

Yob chose a dodecahedron because it was his favorite [[Platonic solid]], and because he had once made a kite shaped like one. From there, Yob added the arrows to shoot between rooms, terming it the "crooked arrow" as it would need to change directions to go through multiple caves, and decided that the player could only sense nearby caves by smell, as a light would wake the Wumpus up. He then added the bottomless pits, and a couple days later the super bats. Finally, feeling that players would want to create a map, he made the cave map fixed and gave each cave a number. Yob later claimed that, to his knowledge, most players did not create maps of the cave system, nor follow his expected strategy of carefully moving around the system to determine exactly where the Wumpus was before firing an arrow. While playtesting the game, Yob found it unexciting that the Wumpus always stayed in one place, and so changed it to be able to move. He then delivered a copy of the game, written in [[BASIC]], to the PCC.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/>

In May 1973, one month after he had finished coding the game, Yob went to a conference at [[Stanford University]] and discovered that in the section of the conference where the PCC had set up computer terminals, multiple players were engrossed in playing ''Wumpus'', making it, in his opinion, a hit game.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/><ref name="SynergyDate"/> The PCC first mentioned the game in its newsletter in September as a "cave game" that would be available to order through them soon, and gave it a full two-page description in its next issue in November of the same year.<ref name="PCCsep73"/> Tapes containing ''Wumpus'' were sold via mail order by both the PCC and Yob himself.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/><ref name="PCCnov73"/> The PCC description was republished along with [[source code]] in its book ''What to Do After You Hit Return'' in 1977, while a description of the game and its source code was published in ''[[Creative Computing (magazine)|Creative Computing]]'' in its October 1975 issue, and republished in ''The Best of Creative Computing'' the following year.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/><ref name="BOCC2_244"/><ref name="return"/> It also appeared in other books of BASIC games, such as ''Computer Programs in BASIC'' in 1981.<ref name="CPiB"/>

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Multiple versions of ''Hunt the Wumpus'' were created and distributed after the game's release. Yob made ''Wumpus 2'' and ''Wumpus 3'', beginning immediately after finishing the original game, with ''Wumpus 2'' adding different cave arrangements and ''Wumpus 3'' adding more hazards.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/><ref name="PCCjan75"/> The source code for ''Wumpus 2'' was published in ''Creative Computing'' and republished in ''The Best of Creative Computing 2'' (1977), along with a description of ''Wumpus 3''.<ref name="BOCC2_244"/> The PCC announced in the same November 1973 newsletter issue as it discussed the original game that a version from them titled ''Super Wumpus'' would be available soon, and listed it in its order catalog in its January 1974 issue under both that name and ''Wumpus 3''.<ref name="PCCnov73"/><ref name="PCCjan74"/> In 1978, a book titled ''Superwumpus'', by Jack Emmerichs, was published containing source code for both BASIC and [[assembly language]] versions of his unrelated version of ''Hunt the Wumpus''.<ref name="super"/>

In addition to the original BASIC games, versions of ''Hunt the Wumpus'' have been created for numerous other systems. Yob had seen or heard of versions in several languages, such as [[IBM RPG]] and [[Fortran]], by 1975.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/> A version in [[C (programming language)|C]], written in November 1973 by [[Ken Thompson]], creator of the [[Unix]] operating system, was released in 1974; a later C version can still be found in the bsdgames package on modern [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]] and [[Linux]] operating systems.<ref name="Thompson"/><ref name="Thompson74"/><ref name="Debian"/> ~~In 1978, [[Danny Hillis]], working as a summer intern on the [[TMS9918]] graphics chip,~~ wrote a graphical version ~~of the game as a demonstration with the pattern of caves displayed as a torus instead of a dodecahedron, which was later published as a commercial game~~ for the [[TI-99/4A]].<ref name="TI" /> In 1981, a version was released for the [[HP-41C]] calculator.<ref name="librach198102"/>

In addition to the original BASIC games, versions of ''Hunt the Wumpus'' have been created for numerous other systems. Yob had seen or heard of versions in several languages, such as [[IBM RPG]] and [[Fortran]], by 1975.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/> A version in [[C (programming language)|C]], written in November 1973 by [[Ken Thompson]], creator of the [[Unix]] operating system, was released in 1974; a later C version can still be found in the bsdgames package on modern [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]] and [[Linux]] operating systems.<ref name="Thompson"/><ref name="Thompson74"/><ref name="Debian"/> Kevin Kenney wrote a graphical commercial version for the [[TI-99/4A]] published in 1981.<ref name="KenneyInterview" /><ref name="TI"/> In 1981, a version was released for the [[HP-41C]] calculator.<ref name="librach198102"/>

''Hunt the Wumpus'' has been cited as an early example of a [[survival horror]] game; the book ''Vampires and Zombies'' claims that it was an early example of the genre, while the paper "Restless dreams in Silent Hill" states that "from a historical perspective the genre's roots lie in ''Hunt the Wumpus''".<ref name="Mueller"/><ref name="Kirkland2005"/> Other sources, however, such as the book ''The World of Scary Video Games'', claim that the game lacks elements needed for a "horror" game, as the player hunts rather than is hunted by the Wumpus, and nothing in the game is explicitly intended to frighten the player, making it more of an early adventure or puzzle game.<ref name="scarygames"/> Kevin Cogger of [[1Up.com]] claimed that ''Wumpus'', whether or not it is an adventure game, "introduced a number of concepts that would come to define the adventure genre", such as presenting the game from the perspective of the player-character, and non-grid-based map design.<ref name="1up"/> In 2012, ''Hunt the Wumpus'' was listed on ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''{{'}}s All-Time 100 greatest video games list.<ref name="time"/>

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==References==

~~{{reflist|refs=~~

<ref name="BOCC_247-248">{{cite book |title=The Best of Creative Computing |volume=1 |editor-last=Ahl |editor-first=David |editor-link=David H. Ahl |publisher=[[Creative Computing (magazine)|Creative Computing Press]] |date=1976 |isbn=978-0-916688-01-1 |url=https://www.atariarchives.org/bcc1/showpage.php?page=247 |pages=247–248 |access-date=2018-05-11 |archive-date=2017-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220171337/https://www.atariarchives.org/bcc1/showpage.php?page=247 |url-status=live}}</ref>

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<ref name="Debian">{{cite web |url=http://packages.debian.org/stable/games/bsdgames |title=Package: bsdgames |website=Debian Packages |publisher=[[Software in the Public Interest]] |access-date=2018-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106092341/https://packages.debian.org/stable/games/bsdgames |archive-date=2018-11-06 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="librach198102">{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-03/1981_03_BYTE_06-03_Programming_Methods#page/n231/mode/2up |title=Hunt the Wumpus with Your HP-41C |magazine=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]] |date=February 1981 |access-date=2013-10-18 |last=Librach |first=Hank |pages=230, 232 |publisher=[[UBM plc|UBM]] |issn=0360-5280 |volume=6 |issue=3}}</ref>

<ref name="KenneyInterview">{{cite web |last1=Burns |first1=Ed |title=Tunnels of Doom: An Interview With Kevin Kenney |url=https://www.ridingthecrest.com/edburns/classic-gaming/tunnels/kevin_kenney_interview.html |website=Riding the Crest}}</ref>

<ref name="TI">{{cite web |url=https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-history-of-wumpus/ |title=The History of Wumpus |date=2005-12-05 |last=Atwood |first=Jeff |author-link=Jeff Atwood |publisher=Coding Horror |access-date=2019-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513203826/http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-history-of-wumpus/ |archive-date=2016-05-13 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Mueller">{{cite book |last1=Fischer-Hornung |first1=Dorothea |last2=Mueller |first2=Monika |year=2016 |title=Vampires and Zombies: Transcultural Migration and Transnational Interpretations|publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |page=235 |isbn=978-1-4968047-7-8 |quote=A comparatively well-established subgenre of the horror game, survival horror aims to create an experience of entrapment, persecution, tension, suspense, and discomfort. Traditionally, the protagonist of such games is an ordinary individual trapped in some isolated, monster-infested location . . . ''Hunt the Wumpus'', ''Sweet Home'', and ''Alone in the Dark'' represent early examples of the genre.}}</ref>

<ref name="Kirkland2005">{{cite journal |last=Kirkland |first=Ewan |title=Restless Dreams in Silent Hill: Approaches to Video Game Analysis |journal=Journal of Media Practice |volume=6 |issue=3 |date=2005 |pages=167–178 |doi=10.1386/jmpr.6.3.167/1 |s2cid=144390289 |quote=From a historical perspective the genre's roots lie in ''Hunt the Wumpus''.}}</ref>

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<ref name="ideastream2012">{{cite web |url=https://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-applause/lombardi-jared-bendis-mary-davis-and-road-trip/ |title=Lombardi, Jared Bendis, Mary Davis and Road Trip! |publisher=[[Ideastream]] |last=DeOreo |first=Dave |date=2012-09-12 |access-date=2022-09-16 |archive-date=2022-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920163621/https://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-applause/lombardi-jared-bendis-mary-davis-and-road-trip/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="azimuthcave">{{cite web |url=http://azimuthcave.com/ |title=Azimuth Cave |last=Bendis |first=Jared |access-date=2022-09-16 |archive-date=2022-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920170837/http://azimuthcave.com/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

}}

</references>

==External links==

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
   | footer =Yob designed the original ''Hunt the Wumpus'' map with the caves arranged as the vertices of a [[dodecahedron]] (left). They can also be mapped in two dimensions (right).
 }}
-Yob chose a dodecahedron because it was his favorite [[platonic solid]], and because he had once made a kite shaped like one. From there, Yob added the arrows to shoot between rooms, terming it the "crooked arrow" as it would need to change directions to go through multiple caves, and decided that the player could only sense nearby caves by smell, as a light would wake the Wumpus up. He then added the bottomless pits, and a couple days later the super bats. Finally, feeling that players would want to create a map, he made the cave map fixed and gave each cave a number. Yob later claimed that, to his knowledge, most players did not create maps of the cave system, nor follow his expected strategy of carefully moving around the system to determine exactly where the Wumpus was before firing an arrow. While playtesting the game, Yob found it unexciting that the Wumpus always stayed in one place, and so changed it to be able to move. He then delivered a copy of the game, written in [[BASIC]], to the PCC.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/>
+Yob chose a dodecahedron because it was his favorite [[Platonic solid]], and because he had once made a kite shaped like one. From there, Yob added the arrows to shoot between rooms, terming it the "crooked arrow" as it would need to change directions to go through multiple caves, and decided that the player could only sense nearby caves by smell, as a light would wake the Wumpus up. He then added the bottomless pits, and a couple days later the super bats. Finally, feeling that players would want to create a map, he made the cave map fixed and gave each cave a number. Yob later claimed that, to his knowledge, most players did not create maps of the cave system, nor follow his expected strategy of carefully moving around the system to determine exactly where the Wumpus was before firing an arrow. While playtesting the game, Yob found it unexciting that the Wumpus always stayed in one place, and so changed it to be able to move. He then delivered a copy of the game, written in [[BASIC]], to the PCC.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/>
 In May 1973, one month after he had finished coding the game, Yob went to a conference at [[Stanford University]] and discovered that in the section of the conference where the PCC had set up computer terminals, multiple players were engrossed in playing ''Wumpus'', making it, in his opinion, a hit game.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/><ref name="SynergyDate"/> The PCC first mentioned the game in its newsletter in September as a "cave game" that would be available to order through them soon, and gave it a full two-page description in its next issue in November of the same year.<ref name="PCCsep73"/> Tapes containing ''Wumpus'' were sold via mail order by both the PCC and Yob himself.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/><ref name="PCCnov73"/> The PCC description was republished along with [[source code]] in its book ''What to Do After You Hit Return'' in 1977, while a description of the game and its source code was published in ''[[Creative Computing (magazine)|Creative Computing]]'' in its October 1975 issue, and republished in ''The Best of Creative Computing'' the following year.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/><ref name="BOCC2_244"/><ref name="return"/> It also appeared in other books of BASIC games, such as ''Computer Programs in BASIC'' in 1981.<ref name="CPiB"/>
@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 Multiple versions of ''Hunt the Wumpus'' were created and distributed after the game's release. Yob made ''Wumpus 2'' and ''Wumpus 3'', beginning immediately after finishing the original game, with ''Wumpus 2'' adding different cave arrangements and ''Wumpus 3'' adding more hazards.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/><ref name="PCCjan75"/> The source code for ''Wumpus 2'' was published in ''Creative Computing'' and republished in ''The Best of Creative Computing 2'' (1977), along with a description of ''Wumpus 3''.<ref name="BOCC2_244"/> The PCC announced in the same November 1973 newsletter issue as it discussed the original game that a version from them titled ''Super Wumpus'' would be available soon, and listed it in its order catalog in its January 1974 issue under both that name and ''Wumpus 3''.<ref name="PCCnov73"/><ref name="PCCjan74"/> In 1978, a book titled ''Superwumpus'', by Jack Emmerichs, was published containing source code for both BASIC and [[assembly language]] versions of his unrelated version of ''Hunt the Wumpus''.<ref name="super"/>
-In addition to the original BASIC games, versions of ''Hunt the Wumpus'' have been created for numerous other systems. Yob had seen or heard of versions in several languages, such as [[IBM RPG]] and [[Fortran]], by 1975.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/> A version in [[C (programming language)|C]], written in November 1973 by [[Ken Thompson]], creator of the [[Unix]] operating system, was released in 1974; a later C version can still be found in the bsdgames package on modern [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]] and [[Linux]] operating systems.<ref name="Thompson"/><ref name="Thompson74"/><ref name="Debian"/> In 1978, [[Danny Hillis]], working as a summer intern on the [[TMS9918]] graphics chip, wrote a graphical version of the game as a demonstration with the pattern of caves displayed as a torus instead of a dodecahedron, which was later published as a commercial game for the [[TI-99/4A]].<ref name="TI" /> In 1981, a version was released for the [[HP-41C]] calculator.<ref name="librach198102"/>
+In addition to the original BASIC games, versions of ''Hunt the Wumpus'' have been created for numerous other systems. Yob had seen or heard of versions in several languages, such as [[IBM RPG]] and [[Fortran]], by 1975.<ref name="BOCC_247-248"/> A version in [[C (programming language)|C]], written in November 1973 by [[Ken Thompson]], creator of the [[Unix]] operating system, was released in 1974; a later C version can still be found in the bsdgames package on modern [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]] and [[Linux]] operating systems.<ref name="Thompson"/><ref name="Thompson74"/><ref name="Debian"/> Kevin Kenney wrote a graphical commercial version for the [[TI-99/4A]] published in 1981.<ref name="KenneyInterview" /><ref name="TI"/> In 1981, a version was released for the [[HP-41C]] calculator.<ref name="librach198102"/>
 ''Hunt the Wumpus'' has been cited as an early example of a [[survival horror]] game; the book ''Vampires and Zombies'' claims that it was an early example of the genre, while the paper "Restless dreams in Silent Hill" states that "from a historical perspective the genre's roots lie in ''Hunt the Wumpus''".<ref name="Mueller"/><ref name="Kirkland2005"/> Other sources, however, such as the book ''The World of Scary Video Games'', claim that the game lacks elements needed for a "horror" game, as the player hunts rather than is hunted by the Wumpus, and nothing in the game is explicitly intended to frighten the player, making it more of an early adventure or puzzle game.<ref name="scarygames"/> Kevin Cogger of [[1Up.com]] claimed that ''Wumpus'', whether or not it is an adventure game, "introduced a number of concepts that would come to define the adventure genre", such as presenting the game from the perspective of the player-character, and non-grid-based map design.<ref name="1up"/> In 2012, ''Hunt the Wumpus'' was listed on ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''{{'}}s All-Time 100 greatest video games list.<ref name="time"/>
@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 ==References==
-{{reflist|refs=
+<references>
 <!-- Gameplay / Development -->
 <ref name="BOCC_247-248">{{cite book |title=The Best of Creative Computing |volume=1 |editor-last=Ahl |editor-first=David |editor-link=David H. Ahl |publisher=[[Creative Computing (magazine)|Creative Computing Press]] |date=1976 |isbn=978-0-916688-01-1 |url=https://www.atariarchives.org/bcc1/showpage.php?page=247 |pages=247–248 |access-date=2018-05-11 |archive-date=2017-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220171337/https://www.atariarchives.org/bcc1/showpage.php?page=247 |url-status=live}}</ref>
@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 <ref name="Debian">{{cite web |url=http://packages.debian.org/stable/games/bsdgames |title=Package: bsdgames |website=Debian Packages |publisher=[[Software in the Public Interest]] |access-date=2018-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106092341/https://packages.debian.org/stable/games/bsdgames |archive-date=2018-11-06 |url-status=live}}</ref>
 <ref name="librach198102">{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-03/1981_03_BYTE_06-03_Programming_Methods#page/n231/mode/2up |title=Hunt the Wumpus with Your HP-41C |magazine=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]] |date=February 1981 |access-date=2013-10-18 |last=Librach |first=Hank |pages=230, 232 |publisher=[[UBM plc|UBM]] |issn=0360-5280 |volume=6 |issue=3}}</ref>
+<ref name="KenneyInterview">{{cite web |last1=Burns |first1=Ed |title=Tunnels of Doom: An Interview With Kevin Kenney |url=https://www.ridingthecrest.com/edburns/classic-gaming/tunnels/kevin_kenney_interview.html |website=Riding the Crest}}</ref>
 <ref name="TI">{{cite web |url=https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-history-of-wumpus/ |title=The History of Wumpus |date=2005-12-05 |last=Atwood |first=Jeff |author-link=Jeff Atwood |publisher=Coding Horror |access-date=2019-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513203826/http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-history-of-wumpus/ |archive-date=2016-05-13 |url-status=live}}</ref>
 <ref name="Mueller">{{cite book |last1=Fischer-Hornung |first1=Dorothea |last2=Mueller |first2=Monika |year=2016 |title=Vampires and Zombies: Transcultural Migration and Transnational Interpretations|publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |page=235 |isbn=978-1-4968047-7-8 |quote=A comparatively well-established subgenre of the horror game, survival horror aims to create an experience of entrapment, persecution, tension, suspense, and discomfort. Traditionally, the protagonist of such games is an ordinary individual trapped in some isolated, monster-infested location . . . ''Hunt the Wumpus'', ''Sweet Home'', and ''Alone in the Dark'' represent early examples of the genre.}}</ref>
 <ref name="Kirkland2005">{{cite journal |last=Kirkland |first=Ewan |title=Restless Dreams in Silent Hill: Approaches to Video Game Analysis |journal=Journal of Media Practice |volume=6 |issue=3 |date=2005 |pages=167–178 |doi=10.1386/jmpr.6.3.167/1 |s2cid=144390289 |quote=From a historical perspective the genre's roots lie in ''Hunt the Wumpus''.}}</ref>
@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 <ref name="ideastream2012">{{cite web |url=https://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-applause/lombardi-jared-bendis-mary-davis-and-road-trip/ |title=Lombardi, Jared Bendis, Mary Davis and Road Trip! |publisher=[[Ideastream]] |last=DeOreo |first=Dave |date=2012-09-12 |access-date=2022-09-16 |archive-date=2022-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920163621/https://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-applause/lombardi-jared-bendis-mary-davis-and-road-trip/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
 <ref name="azimuthcave">{{cite web |url=http://azimuthcave.com/ |title=Azimuth Cave |last=Bendis |first=Jared |access-date=2022-09-16 |archive-date=2022-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920170837/http://azimuthcave.com/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
-}}
+</references>
 ==External links==

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