The zip file MMM.ZIP should contains an executable file (MMM.EXE), an icon
(MANSION.ICO) that can be used with it for a Windows(c) shortcut to it, and
this text file.

The executable is an early text-based adventure-type game called Mystery
Mansion.  If you are looking for something with fancy graphics, sounds,
etc., this is NOT it!  I liken this game to listening to a story on the radio
instead of seeing it in a movie theater. It is a nice change of pace at times
from the shoot-em-ups and other modern games (at least I think so).  This
may not be your cup of tea, but you are welcome to use it (as is -- NO
GUARANTEES!) for your amusement.  I have bashed it around the best I can, but
as is usually the case, I am sure there may be some errors I missed.


A little background: This program was originally given to me as Fortran source
code by Hewlett-Packard at one of their schools in the early 1980's.  I assume
it was written in the mid-1970's, as the code was *very* unstructured (no
IF-THEN-ELSE constructs, for example, which became standard in Fortran 77, I
believe), aka "spaghetti code."  The code was about 10,000 lines, and
contained more "GO TO" statements than you could shake a stick at.  It was
also written in a "segmented" form (like overlays), as it was too large to all
fit in memory at the same time.  The platform for which it was written (an
HP-1000) was a minicomputer, and had a maximum memory partition size of 32K
16-bit words.  The program consisted of a main part and 12 segments which
overlaid each other as needed (a virtual memory manager took care of that).

Several years ago (when my department got rid of their HP-1000), I decided I
would undertake a port to Pascal.  I ended up having memory problems, and put
it aside for a long time before working on it again in C.  After many false
starts, I finally had some free time to work on it, and "completed" it to the
best of my ability.  As it is, it pushes the limits of a DOS-based program in
many ways, and has to be compiled with certain options set for the Borland C
compiler.  The executable is just over 200k in size, but there is a lot of
global data.  I did maintain some of the original program structure in that
what used to be separate segments in the Fortran program are different
functions in C.  I'm sure many things could be done to the code to reduce its
size, but I have done enough work on it!


About the game itself: Mystery Mansion is a text-based adventure game which
challenges the player to think logically and to remember things that are
learned.  The basic premise is that the player is an inspector or detective
trying to solve a murder case, but in the style of these old games, there is
much more to it (like finding valuable items, etc.).  The fun is in trying
things to see what works and to see how good a score you can get.  You can
save up to nine games, but there is no "hall-of-fame" or "high-score" feature
included.  I thought about including that, but as I said, things were already
pushing the limits for a DOS-based program.

Enjoy.

Bob Sorem
