[SGVLUG] OT: BBS Game

[Braddock Gaskill via SGVLUG]

Thanks Claude for the history, it hadn't occurred to me that Dominions
might be based on a board game or play-by-USPS.  We are in touch with
the author, so perhaps he can shed some light on his inspiration.

Dominions fits firmly between play by printing hardcopy via postal
service (wow, I didn't know that existed!), and VGA Planets.  It was
the hot game for my circle of geeks in high school on our 2,400 baud
modems circa 1990.  We would bring our five-sheet scotch taped perf
paper annotated galaxy maps to the lunch table.

As for how often we will reset, this is an experiment.  Two of us just
ran a Dominions 2 game for about 6 weeks when the winner was clear.
We will see how many players we get in this "Classic" version - and if
we snag any bugs with my port of it to Free Pascal under Linux.

-braddock

On Thu, Jun 15, 2017 at 4:19 PM, Claude Felizardo via SGVLUG
<sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:
> OMG, this looks like an implementation of the original Stellar Conquest from
> Metagaming!
>
> The first computerized version I ever played was written in Pascal by
> someone at USC on the old TOPS 10 or 20 timesharing system.  I still have
> the printout at home somewhere.  The first play-by-mail game I heard about
> was Starweb by Flying Buffalo which was featured as a backdrop to
> Saberhagen's novel Octagon.  Then there was VGA Planets on DOS   which
> featured a GUI client and you submit your orders and a batch engine would
> process all of the orders.  I think it supported maybe a dozen players?  A
> group played at work once and I would run the batch process during lunch and
> people would come over to watch the battle scenes.   Then of course MOO and
> GalCiv and everything else.   Now we play the board game Eclipse.
>
>  I love 4X games!  Just don't have time anymore.
>
> https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1708/stellar-conquest
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starweb
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_Planets
> https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/72125/eclipse
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4X
>
> If Tom was still with us I know he would jump at being able to play any of
> this.
>
> Braddock, how often do you plan to turn the crank or do you guys play "live"
> until everyone bails?
>
> Claude
>
>
> On Jun 15, 2017, at 11:44 AM, Braddock Gaskill via SGVLUG
> <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:
>
> Hi Claude,
> The instructions historically were only accessible within the game.
>
> Here they are:
> https://github.com/braddockcg/dominions/blob/master/src/DOM141M/Instruct.Dom
>
> It is a stellar conquest game.  There is almost no trace of it online and
> finding the source and the classic zips necessitated a friend tracking down
> the original author on LinkedIn.  We are trying to create a github archive
> of all available versions and source to keep this piece of software history
> alive.
>
> It is a lot of fun once you get into it!
>
> -braddock
>
> On Thu, Jun 15, 2017 at 10:34 AM, Claude Felizardo via SGVLUG
> <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:
>>
>> Braddock,
>>
>> Where are the instructions?  Looked around your link and did not find
>> anything about the game itself.  Do you have another link that describes the
>> original game?  Is it a space combat game or land warfare?  Searching for
>> Dominions gives results for many games mostly board and card games. I tried
>> searching for BBSDoorGames and all I could find where zip files but no
>> descriptions.  I remember playing VGA planets with a group when it first
>> came out and that was a blast.
>>
>> Claude
>>
>>
>> On Jun 15, 2017, at 6:56 AM, Braddock Gaskill via SGVLUG
>> <sgvlug at sgvlug.net> wrote:
>>
>> Hi folks,
>> If anyone is interested in an old BBS door game circa 1990, I have ported
>> the stellar conquest classic "Dominions" to Linux and we are starting a game
>> of it today.
>>
>> ssh -p 2224 dominions at braddock.com
>> PASSWORD: conquest
>>
>> I'm running the game directly, there is no BBS.
>>
>> If you are interested in the port or various Dominions varieties a friend
>> of mine and I are collecting all known versions and making them runnable
>> again (via DOSemu or native ports in Docker).  See my github repo at:
>>
>> https://github.com/braddockcg/dominions
>>
>> We loved this game in high school.
>>
>> The first thing you have to do is read the instructions.  Then you need to
>> print each map sector and scotch tape them together.  Then you are good to
>> go!
>>
>> -braddock
>>
>>
>
>