Habitat Emails: Difference between revisions

From Reno Project
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Do 5.3 release notes
Do 5.3 release notes
Look at Beta Tasks and Prioritize.
Look at Beta Tasks and Prioritize.
</pre>
===June 2nd===
Taken from [https://github.com/Museum-of-Art-and-Digital-Entertainment/habitat/blob/master/chip/habitat/status/notes.t notes.t]
<pre>
From farmer Tue Jun  2 08:17:42 1987
Received: by moth; 02 JUN 87 08:17:42 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, quantum, wendy
Subject: Habitat 5.3
Status: RO
Habitat version 5.3:
SMALL SCALE TEST TONIGHT.
The good news:
According to our list 5.3 has all Alpha items complete (some in test)
Exaustive list of changes:
Keyboard echos under interrupt (need through testing:messages/mail)
Problems with generic_broadcast fixed (accounts for #173 Janets meldown)
Stereo, Camera, Flashlights should all be working properly now
The C64 will no longer issue 'unexpected' commands because of throttle delays.
Disk routines now internally check LRC, and retry if bad.
'to:user' works when pointing to teleport if not adj or not active
Corrupted wall/pillar patterns fixed.
Host:
actions_switch fixed.
AskOracle changed to cope with 'to:'
</pre>
</pre>


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try Commedore again.
try Commedore again.
Review tasklist and find whatever there is to do.
Review tasklist and find whatever there is to do.
</pre>
Taken from [https://github.com/Museum-of-Art-and-Digital-Entertainment/habitat/blob/master/chip/habitat/status/notes.t notes.t]
<pre>
From chip Fri Jun  5 14:54:36 1987
Received: by moth; 05 JUN 87 14:54:36 PDT
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: The scoop on Telenet
Status: R
As y'all know, we were visited this morning by Carol Brown and Tom Cramer from
Telenet.  They gave Randy and I the detailed scoop on their service and they
left me with a bunch of literature.  The bottom line is that it's pretty
expensive, but there are a lot of options to explore.  The price comes in
several pieces:
I. Accounting charge
$140/month independent of the number of connections or volume of use.
II. "DAF" (Dedicated Access Facility).
This is the physical connection to their system.  Included in this is
a dedicated leased line to their San Francisco node, all the wiring into our
plant, modems on both ends of the line, and dedicated access to a port on
their node.  The price varies somewhat with the bandwidth of the connection.
For our purposes the best price/performance tradeoff seems to be at around
9600 baud.  Cost for this is a one-time installation charge of $1200 plus
$1524/month.
III. Traffic charges
These are billed in units that they call "segments".  A segment is
a chunk of up to 64 bytes of transmitted data.  These cost $1.40 per thousand
(i.e., $1.40 for each 64K bytes of data sent).  There is a 50% discount for
use during non-prime-time hours (ie., after 6pm).  This cost is
distance-independent -- i.e., it doesn't matter how far you are sending the
data.
IV. Dial-in charges
If we choose to allow dial-in to our system through Telenet, there is
a per-minute charge that varies according to the type of node that you are
connected to.  They classify their nodes 'A', 'B' or 'C' depending on the
level of traffic.  'A' nodes are found in big cities like San Francisco or
Washington, D.C..  'B' nodes are places like Palo Alto or Buffalo.  'C' nodes
are places like San Rafael or Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Charge varies from around
$5.25/hour for an 'A' node to around $12.50/hour for a 'C' node.  As with
traffic charges, there is a 50% rakeoff for off-hours use.
In addition, we would need to have an X.25 interface on one of our Suns or
Vaxes here.  I'm not sure about the cost, but my guess is that it would be in
the $1000 to $3000 range.  Also, we would still need to obtain some sort of
file transfer protocol software to communicate data with Quanum, since our
computers and theirs have incompatible operating systems.  A call to Sun is
probably in order if we want to pursue this further.
These prices appear to be prohibitive if we were to install such a connection
exclusively for the benefit of Habitat (at least until Habitat becomes a MUCH
bigger deal).  However, there may be additional ways to justify the cost.  For
example, it appears that the company could save about 80% on Telex costs by
hooking to CCI through Telenet rather than by phone.  This is certainly not
enough by itself to recover the cost of the Telenet connection, but it's an
example of the sort of thing we can look for.  The Telenet sales people were
real gung-ho on other uses of their services, such as connecting directly to
OAG to save money on travel arrangements or providing E-mail services to
communicate with productions in remote locations (since Telenet is
international).  I dunno about these, but it probably couldn't hurt to nose
around the company and see what folks could use.  My feeling is that Habitat
really, REALLY wants this, but can't justify it on the basis of current cost.
</pre>
</pre>


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I will be leaving at 3:00 today.
I will be leaving at 3:00 today.
</pre>
Taken from [https://github.com/Museum-of-Art-and-Digital-Entertainment/habitat/blob/master/chip/habitat/status/notes.t notes.t]
<pre>
From farmer Mon Jun  8 08:46:01 1987
Received: by moth; 08 JUN 87 08:46:01 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: aric, chip
Cc: farmer
Subject: New Habitat Commands
Status: RO
Change Containers is an asynchronous command (19) addressed at the region
Parameters: Noid, New Container Noid, New X Position, New Y Position.
(Note a CHANGE containers call WILL re-render the screen)
(Note this should NEVER be used to remove a living avatars
contents from his head/hands/pocket as that avatar
may be trying to manipulate that object himself.)
Prompt User is an asynchronous command (20) addressed at the region
Parameters: Prompt string (will appear on command line).
This function will cause the C64 to send the user response
to the region, using a PROMPT_REPLY message (7). This should
do exacly what we want in regaurds to sending arbitrary text
commands to the host. The commands will be sent by whatever (magic?)
class, and the results will be interpreted in class_region. I
suggest that EACH Prompt User call use completely unique text to keep
intepretation as simple as possible (the text should conatin a
std delimiter ':' would be nice).
</pre>
</pre>


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Work more on QuantumGrad
Work more on QuantumGrad
Bug Commendore AGAIN re: hardware.
Bug Commendore AGAIN re: hardware.
</pre>
===June 10th===
Taken from [https://github.com/Museum-of-Art-and-Digital-Entertainment/habitat/blob/master/chip/habitat/status/notes.t notes.t]
<pre>
From farmer Wed Jun 10 10:16:15 1987
Received: by moth; 10 JUN 87 10:16:15 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, quantum
Subject: Habitat 5.4
Status: RO
Habitat version 5.4 6-10-87:
The good news:
According to our list,5.4 has all Beta C64 items complete or in test
Exaustive list of changes:
C64 can now cope with the 'death-while-awaiting-reply' condition.
Two new REGION kernal commands have been added (in test):
CHANGE_CONTAINERS 19, an arbitrary change of containership
PROMPT_USER 20, command promts user on text line
Host:
No Changes. (but some of the grabthese files were not grabbed last release)
</pre>
</pre>


===June 11th===
===June 11th===
Taken from [https://github.com/Museum-of-Art-and-Digital-Entertainment/habitat/blob/master/chip/habitat/status/notes.t notes.t]
<pre>
From farmer Thu Jun 11 09:22:08 1987
Received: by moth; 11 JUN 87 09:22:08 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, quantum
Subject: Habitat Hardware
Status: R
Here is the latest status (as of Tuesday) re: C64 hardware problems.
I (thru Janet) have been in contact with Jim Gracely at commedore about
the problems Habitat is having on some C64s. He listed 3 problems he
'knew' about (i.e. people had reported.). Jim was/is affiliated with
a C64 magazine, and is NOT a C64 tech proper.
1) There were 2 versions of the VIC-II chip, there is a inconsistency
on how the MSB of the raster Interrupt is handled.
(Habitat accounts for this. No Problem for us.)
2) It is possible to overload the on-chip interrupt stack. This
has actually happend to other applications. Symtom: The
screen interrupts would die (meltdown).
(I told jim what interrupt sources we have, he is
investigating with C64 techs whether SOME machines might
have a problem with all our interrupt sources.)
3) 'Ram under BASIC might could get corrupted.' To his knowledge,
this has only happened to 'Jumpman'. IF this can happen
AND we can't program around it, it would be a problem.
(We need that 8k Under Basic! read:a 64k machine with only
56k working is DEFECTIVE.)
(I have Jumpman's designer's name and phone#. Will
call him ASAP.)
</pre>
Taken from [https://github.com/Museum-of-Art-and-Digital-Entertainment/habitat/blob/master/chip/habitat/status/randy.t randy.t]
Taken from [https://github.com/Museum-of-Art-and-Digital-Entertainment/habitat/blob/master/chip/habitat/status/randy.t randy.t]
<pre>
<pre>
Line 2,342: Line 2,535:
prepare for tonights playtest
prepare for tonights playtest
look into #x29 with aric
look into #x29 with aric
</pre>
===June 15th===
Taken from [https://github.com/Museum-of-Art-and-Digital-Entertainment/habitat/blob/master/chip/habitat/status/notes.t notes.t]
<pre>
From farmer Mon Jun 15 14:34:32 1987
Received: by moth; 15 JUN 87 14:34:32 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: 5.4 tes
Status: RO
There will be a playtest of version 5.5 tomarrow.
What will make version 5.5 different?
1) People will be able to dump to disk EVEN if comminucations is hung.
(to help debug this problem that showed with 5.4)
2) In our ommunications with C64, an ex-techie thinks he knows why
Habitat ,ay be creashing..it has to to with mixed modes & sprites.
Anyway, I will install a patch per his instructions.
3) A minor problem with the head hack (causing FE#4s) has been fixed
4) Some new images will be availible.
Nothing, just getting the data we need to decide if we are ready for Alpha.
</pre>
<pre>
From nancy Mon Jun 15 20:16:48 1987
Received: from kessel by moth; 15 JUN 87 20:16:48 PDT
From: nancy (Nancy Mohler)
To: aric, chip, farmer
Cc: nancy, sda
Received: by kessel; 15 JUN 87 20:16:45 PDT
Subject: HabiTeam 6/12
Status: RO
6/12 Habitat team meeting notes--
5.4 was playtested Thursday night, still evaluating results.
--animation glitch tape coming (Janet saw flashing s, have to do w/tokens?)
--communications problem tape coming (Rob survived when the other 5 went
into a communications loop)
--lights being fixed (Jo's flishlight in sewer, probably
host-based--checkpoint region for light level changes?)
--2 minor arf's from Chip
  1) improve paper help
  2) don't remember, bringing in notes from home
--sound glitch noted but likely to be left as is (lose one voice of the
three during one in 256 region transitions)
Only known remaining pre-alpha bug is the communications problem.  Will
determine Monday from the tape how serious it is.
Organization of playtests to be clarified (Cathy & Nancy noted apparent lack
of leadership).  Randy & Janet will pre-plan.
Plan for next week:
Chip--Plex (pretty much done, adding features as Randy uses it) plus more
Ghu.  Integrate Plex, Riddle & host database.  Work with Gary on new artwork.
Randy--evaluate tapes from 5.4 playtest & debug communications problem.
Continue generating Quantumgrad.  Continue seeking info on hardware
compatibility.
Aric--evaluate tape & debug animation glitch.  Mostly on Blackhawk.
Remaining pre-release world generation:
(Chip will distribute updated old-format task list, reviewing those during
beta & pre-release tasks.)
--need 7 cities to handle 20,000 accounts.  Pop. done.  Quantumgrad expected
to take 2 more weeks (6/26).  Given tools developed during generation of
Quantumgrad, then expect need about 2 days per city or 2 more weeks (7/10).
--also expect to complete the stock market, Capture-The-Flag, and arcades.
--"below the line" world generation that will likely be completed prior to
release is a magic castle and more board games.
Next steps:
1. Randy evaluate communications problem--may require another "technical
test".
2. Given comm bug fix, Randy & Janet will organize 16 person pre-alpha test.
Next team meeting will be 9:30 Friday morning, 6/19.
</pre>
</pre>


Revision as of 22:59, 20 November 2021

These are logs/diary entries which were taken from Chip Morningstars Habitat Archives.

July 1985

July 18th

Taken from worldComments. 

From dragon Thu Jul 18 17:13:15 1985
Subject: microworld
(no, not a serious name suggestion)

An idea, though...  In addition to avatars (which might have different modes
of seeing/moving/etc), one might have tools in the other world, such as
binoculars (or a telescope, lacking 3-D capability).  Perhaps the normal view
would be as in Rescue, Eidolon or Koronis Rift, about 90 degrees and not very
far away.  A telescopic view would present about the same amount of detail,
but distribute it differently so that one could see a long distance in a very
narrow cone (say 10 degrees).

Objects and terrain could have several additional non-visual dimensions of
information, such as temperature, reflectivity and metallic content.  Thus,
different modes of "seeing" might give entirely different views from the same
terrain.  Electromagnetic scanners, such as radar, would show a metallic
object as being substantially brighter than a non-metallic one, for instance.
Infrared would show lakes as dark spots, and volcanoes, hot springs or
subterranean nuclear power stations as brighter highlights.

We should also be careful not to rule out non-human modes of vision (and other
sensory apparatus).  Many non-human or semi-human races in D&D have
infravision, for example, and would see in the infrared spectrum as well
underground as a normal human might above ground.

In True Names, one of the characters takes off (from the high mountain
[satellite] meeting place) as an eagle.  This might be represented on a home
computer as a flight simulator with a very narrow field of view, and different
(but not unrealistic) flight dynamics.  The narrow field graphics might
provide a certain amount of disorientation, until one "got used to the form",
so to speak.

Just an idea...
							Charlie

October 1985

October 30th

Taken from definition. 

From chip Wed Oct 30 13:38:14 1985
Received: by kessel; 30 OCT 85 13:38:14 PST
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: chip, rlc, sda
Subject: Definition of "system manager's package"
Status: RO

As we discussed, for section 1-"Definitions" paragraph H:

The term "system manager's package" shall refer to the software developed by
Quantum under this Agreement which shall reside in the Q-Link host computer
system to permit Q-Link operations personnel to make such additions, deletions
and modifications to the host database as are needed for day-to-day operation
of the system.

December 1985

December 11th

Taken from maillog. 

From chip Wed Dec 11 22:08:40 1985
Received: by kessel; 11 DEC 85 22:08:40 PST
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: aric, chip, farmer
Subject: Minimum object set
Status: R

I have just finished my magnum opus of the week, a very very rough first pass
at a specification document for the minimum object set.  I have copies for
each of you at my desk and I'd like your feedback.  Remind me to give you each
a copy when I come in on Thursday.

December 12th

Taken from maillog. 

From chip Thu Dec 12 14:18:59 1985
Received: by kessel; 12 DEC 85 14:18:59 PST
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: sda
Cc: chip
Subject: Just talked to Marc Seriff
Status: RO

Next week is too crazy for them to contemplate doing anything.
We are tentatively planning a meeting after the holidays, with them
flying out the afternoon/evening of Monday, Jan. 6, meeting on Tuesday and
possibly also Wednesday morning, and departing Wednesday afternoon.  This
should be plenty of time to cover the stuff we need to cover.  I plan this
to be strictly a technical working session, so he won't bring Steve Case
with him (unless you want to arrange otherwise -- I'd prefer to keep it
focused on technical issues if possible thought).  He is going to make the
travel arrangements.  He'd like us to make hotel reservations for him
based on our superior knowledge of the local hostelry.  I will get Mary
to work on that.

He's also going to put the C64 communications code on the system tonight
for us to download, with documentation sent by Federal Express tomorrow.
I'll set Randy to snarfing that stuff and starting to work with it.

May 1986

May 14th

Taken from demo.aric.t. 

From aric Wed May 14 10:03:13 1986
Subject: CES presentation
	Randy and I talked yesterday about ideas for the CES presentation.
Following are some of the ideas that came out of that discussion...

Purpose of demonstration:

	Show off avatars (variety, capabilities)
	Show off objects (variety, portability, containership...)
	Show off Regions (variety)
	Show off Telecommunications (multiple players, shared host)
	Show off potential for game play

Possible demonstration:

	Begin with avatar at home...

Scene:	Inside of avatar home. Surroundings include; fishtank,
	answering machine, avatar, chair, window.  Answering machine
	is blinking indicating that it has a message.

Action:	Avatar can move things around the house and then later moves to
	answering machine and gets message that FRIENDX is coming over.
	Moments later, doorbell rings and FRIENDX arrives.
	Conversation follows regarding visit to...fountain, park, atm, arcade.
	Avatars decide to travel to arcade.
	Avatars leave house via front door.

Scene:	Front of house.  Surroundings include home, Sun, trees, mailbox.  Flag
	is up on mailbox.

Action:	Avatar opens mailbox and retrieves letter.  Avatar can read contents
	if desired.  Flag lowers on mailbox.
	Avatar realizes that he has no cash, and requests that they stop at
	atm on the way to the arcade.

Scene:	Next region over.  Contains convenient teleport booth, fire hydrant,
	trees.

Action:	Avatars walk to teleport booth and ZAP tm. to side of bank. (we could
	set destination choice with function keys to get us to any region
	desired!)

Scene:	Outside of Bank.  Brick wall in back and ATM attached to wall.

Action	Avatar performs correct mumbo jumbo and Tokens arrive.  Avatars are
	now ready to go to the arcade.

Scene:	Park.  Lots of trees and bushes

Action:	Walk through

Scene:	Arcade.	Contains targets and guns

Action:	Shoot targets together, for points, sound effects.

Scene:	Outside of Cave.  Dark entrance with stonework around edge.

Action:	Decision as to whether to travel inside.

Scene:	Inside of Cave.  Dark background with Rocks on floor and stalagtites
	hanging from roof.  A locked treasure chest lies on the floor here.

Action:	Use target gun to shoot Rocks, Stalagtite, Treasure chest.  When
	the chest is opened (there should also be a key around somewhere)
	a gem will be found inside.  Avatars should decide who gets the gem.

	This is a preliminary layout for a possible demonstration, but many
new objects need to be added in order to give us a larger range of possible
actions.  I think that using a scripting system in important in order to
view all of the possible variations that we can present.

		--aric

July 1986

July 28th

Taken from nameflame. 

From farmer Mon Jul 28 08:08:15 1986
Subject: Names
On Habitat namespace:
A Real Problem.... What if I want to play a female Habitat character & My
login is distinctly male (The ID function will tell others this).  Before
Qlink says 'But you can use on of your OTHER Qlink IDs', My wife and two kids
use this disk also (have qlink IDs)... You see? Qlink IDspace is almost all
used up! I think this could have a NEGATIVE IMPACT ON REVENUES! Hey, If I
can't play the character I want on Habitat, why play?  Also, have you ever
played a FRP? Naming is an IMPORTANT thing....  I would NOT want my wisard
named 'BOB76'... 
This is NOT just a philisophical issue with me, it IS gameplay.
Expample: in my adventure, If I choose to dress up like a character/monster...
	I don't want the adventurers to be able to identify me as 'FARMER1'.
	'Hey, MARY56, The dragon's real name is FARMER1.Send him some Mail!'
Example2: MARY44 wants to play a male
	BOB56 enters: 'Hi, who are you?'
	MARY44: 'Ramses II!'
	BOB56 : 'Lets go chase some chics!'
	MARY44: 'sure!' (heh heh, sounds like fun, right??'
	later...
	SUSYQ9: Id's MARY44 (who really cares why?)
	MARY44: "whyed you do that?"
	SUSYq9: 'BOB56, your friend is really a girl!'
	BOB56 feels betrayed
	SUSYq9 has upset MARY44
	MARY44 IS DISCOURAGED
	all involved probably feel that much less like playing Habitat.
	Just because of namespace, the game is HAMPERED...
	YOU CAN'T DO WHAT YOU WANT! is the message!
	Why does QLINK want to hamper our game??
	Why remove a gameplay element?
	Techical concerns? Thats what Steve Case says..we can debunk this.
	Record-Keeping? bunk. EVEN IF this WAS a problem, there IS a solution.
		(As far as I know, they've never even thought this out)
	Politics? Uncomfort? I feel these are the real seasons...
	They have a naming convention that is inferior to ours and they want
	to force it on OUR universe....
	Lo, and here is my mighty knight BOB77! Give me a break.
	We all lose. Game Over.
	Why has QLINK been so opposed to doing things right in the 1st place?
	(I can go down a list of several examples of requests we have made
	 for stuff that have gone NOWHERE....)

Taken from barwood.t. 

From sda Mon Jul 28 09:17:40 1986
Subject: hal's comments, a reminder
Hal suggested the following:
1.  "Hide a thing".... have someone find it and re-hide it somewhere in
the Universe.  Have them leave a clue.  Finding it is important, and
records are kept, announcements made, etc.  This is a trans-realm game.
2.  Automatons.  Like Big Game Hunting, only hunting snipes or something.
They try to keep away from avatars.  Catching one is a big deal, as they
are somewhat mysterious.  Loch Ness Monster and Abominable Snowman.  Maybe
they leave tracks or something.
3.  Special gates that only allow certain kinds of people in... eg. ones
with fly heads or something.  Maybe not made absolutely clear what the
criteria are before you get there, to keep the mystery up.
4.  Parts/Puzzle.  Like Legos.  Gather the parts to build a thing (like
an H-Bomb).  Find out if people build the bomb and blow up the world,
or destroy the parts so no one else can.... A little morality play.

August 1986

August 6th

Taken from aricpop.t 

From aric Wed Aug  6 17:28:16 1986
Subject: stuff
			Changes and/or additions to Populopolis
Overall
	Roadblocks... Stores need back doors.  Maybe we should expand downtown
	and add a back alley and other stores.
	Overall I am pleased with the street layout
	Addition of missing teleports!
	We need to create the original Daily Rant issue
	We may want to create one magazine...These should be specific to
	one's interests...running, news, software, etc.
Bob's Bank
	Add another ATM for 2 users?
News Stand
	Region shows newspaper and Magazines... We need Text for them!
	There are only 3 mags and 1 paper there... once gone, they're gone
	Do we want the paper dispenser or should the get create a new paper?
	What about which issue of paper do you have?  Should papers disappear
	after 2-3 weeks?
Hall of Records
	No interior for this region and I am not sure what to put in there
	if we had one.
Furniture store
	Should be locked until users can choose interiors!
	Place CLOSED sign in front!
Cloths store
	2 machines should be stocked with pants, shirts, and jackets
Kelly's bar
	Should have a larger interior.  2-3 regions at least!
	May need to protect items inside from users.
General store
	Need to stock 3 machines inside.  We need to decide what
	items should be inside...
	Suggestions are:  Bag, ball, bottle, flashlight, frisbee,
	gun?, cloths, various knick knacks, paper, knives.
Meeting Hall
	Seems fine to me!
	Does Choke machine work?
Pawn Shop
	Nothing to do here at this time...
	Should the door be locked?
	Do we need to protect the items inside?
New You:
	Add sex_change device to New-you
	Stock Heads into machines
	test Vendo's as background objects!
Other
	Maybe add one special head only found at a culdesac?
	Feedback requested...

Taken from dnalsi.t 

From farmer Wed Aug  6 18:49:03 1986
Subject: My adventure notes.

A first Habitat Adventure:
By F. Randall Farmer


Quest for the Amulet of Salesh:

Mixed in with other articles in the 'Weekly Rant':

"DON'T JUST READ THE NEWS, BE THE NEWS!"

Note: there sould be an article on good 'manners'
including 'Identifying' other Avatars.

|------------------------------|
| We pay Top Token!            |
| Write an article for the     |
|        WEELKY RANT!          |
|                              |
| all submissions should be 1  |
| page or less.                |
| Mail all articles to:        |
| Editor, Weekly Rant          |
|                              |
| We reserve the right to print|
|whatever we want. All         |
|submissions become property of|
|WRI.                          |
|------------------------------|

|------------------------------|
| Want new customers?          |
|  Want to announce something? |
| Try advertising in the       |
|        WEELKY RANT!          |
| Rates:                       |
| 1t per line per issue        |
| 50t to have or graphics dept |
|    layout an add for you     |
|                              |
| Mail ads to:                 |
| Ads, Weekly Rant             |
| charges will be deducted from|
| your trust fund account.     |
|------------------------------|

|------------------------------|
| for all your questing needs: | 
|                              |
|  Randy's Adventure Emporium  |
|      1234 Glory Way          |
|                              |
|  "We ain't got it,           |
|         you can't use it!"   |
|------------------------------|

|------------------------------|
|A public service announcement:|
|                              |
|Visit the Populopolis Library |
|       5555 City Plaza        |
|                              |
|------------------------------|

|------------------------------|
| Lose your keys?              |
|       Want security?         |
|           Feel overburdened? |
| Come to Lefty's Locksmithery |
|       1919 Shady Lane        |        
|------------------------------|

Article:

AMULET OF SALESH STILL MISSING!

   There has been a major development in
the famous Great Amulet Caper today: the
thieves were found guilty of grand theft
magic, and sentenced to 5 years in The Void.

   As you will remember, the Great Not-So-Wise
man, Daden Salesh, had his Great Amulet of Wonderous
Worth stolen last week.  Salesh, being a powerful
but clumsy wizard tried to activate a homing-return
spell to attempt to retrieve his valuable trinket.
The result was the accidental porting of the thieves
to his home, somewhere in the Back-Forty.

   The Amulet is still missing, and all attempts by 
the law to extract information from the evil doers
were in vain. It seems that the Amulet will
remain forever lost.

-----------------------------------------------------

At the not-so-wise man's house, somewhere in the back-40:

		A Sign: "Not in right now.
			 Buy Notes & Map."
		A vending machine containing:
			A Map (see attached)	price: 10t
			A piece of paper	price: 1t
Optional:
		Daden Salesh himself (whenever I'm logged in)


Text of the note:
I am the POWERFUL WIZARD 'SALESH'!
(really I am!)
I'll start with the good stuff:

My estate will pay the sum of NNNNN tokens
to each member of the first team to find 
my amulet and return it to me.

In my interrigations of the thief-scum
that I ported back here with my WONDEROUS
powers, I extracted several pieces
of information you may find helpful:

1) They had a map of D'nalsi Island with them.
(I have taken the liberty of making copies of
the map for you, availible for a small fee...)

2) As I snatched the map away, the uglier of the
two of them said "You'll never find it!HA HA HA!" and flashed
a sign of some sort: He formed a triangle with the
thumbs and index fingers of each hand, palms forward.

The only thing I can think of to get you on your
way is: there is no form of water transportation in
the world, so they must have ported there.

Equip well & Good Luck
Daden Salesh, Big Bucks Wizard for hire
--------------------------------------------------------
Library:
	Sign: 'QUIET'
	Sign: 'Please do NOT remove books from the library!'
	Sign: 'Penalty: 100t'

Library Books:

History of Avatars
History of History
History of Teleport
History of Organized Crime
History of The Oracle
Head Fever
Avatar Life
Atlas of the World
Avatars I Have Known
Tuff Turf

Text of appropriate books:

History of Teleport:
	Page 1
	    The teleport was invented by the great
	tinkerer avatar Foontrafian Subtrax. It took
	many years to perfect the technique, and many
	a test animal was lost to the void. It is still
	rumored to this day that, when the conditions
	are JUST RIGHT when teleporting, an avatar
	may end up with animal parts in place of his normal
	limbs and/or head. Rest assured that this is
	ONLY a rumor.
	Reguardless of the rumored risks, the teleport
	has become the single most valued addition to
	the universe, opening whole vista's of places
	to explore. Socially the 'Port', as it is called
	by most everyone, was to restructure the world
	forever. THANK YOU Foontrafian!
	
	Page 2
		How a Port address is chosen:

	Most often, all teleport booths are registered
	in the Teleport-Book, published in every major
	city. There are some standards loosly adheared to
	when generating a port address:

	Where			Style
	------------		---------------
	Streets			Cityname Streetname
	Intersection		Cityname Streetname & Streetname
	Downtown		CItyname 'Downtown' or 'Plaza'
	Forests			Nickname
	Islands			Ilename
	Deserts			Noone goes here anyway!

	(If Cityname is ommitted, the local city will be assumed.)

	People have been known to spend large amounts
	of money to buy personal booths and NOT register
	them. These booths useally have customized addresses
	that have personal meaning to the owner (so the
	address is not forgotten)




History of Organized Crime:

	    Organized crime has never really been a
	big problem. There is only one gang, and it
	is now almost extinct. If it has a name, none
	of it's members have ever spoken it publicly.
	The only way they can identify each other is
	by some secret signal.
	
	   The gang (as we'll call them) was formed 
	by a few avatars bent on self-destruction. All
	but a few members have been caught, (easily)
	tried, and sent into the void. The crimes are
	always mis-handled or bungled in some major way.

	   One good example of thier foolhardiness is
	reflected in thier choice of security control:
	They used only 2 styles of locks & keys...
	Styles #xxxxx and #yyyyy. Needless to say
	these are the two most common locks in the
	known world, and you can see why they would have
	financial problems.....

------------------------------------------------------

At Randy's Adventure Emporium:

	Kaki walls
	(should look like either a cave or a battle zone)

	Vendos selling:

		Shovels
		Torches
		Knives ? (maybe these should be elsewhere or
			   not included -means scratching monster-)
		Club ? (safe as knife)
		Bags (Backpack?)
		Books (survival tips booklet ALSO AVAIL AT LIBRARY)
		Bottles
		Escape Devices
		Matchbook
		Kaki Shirt & Pants
		Teddy Bear (good for laughs)
		Towel
		
------------------------------------------------------

At Lefty's Locksmithery:

	'Looks': Grimy Dirty place.


	Vendos (each has a sign):
		"Replacement Keys #1000 & #2000" (two keys)
		"Replacement Keys #32767 & #255" (two keys)
		"Lock Boxes" (whatever box styles we have - NO CHEST)
			Inside each box is it's key.

------------------------------------------------------

On D'nalsi Island:

	The grass regions are oriented so the player
can see the mountains rising in the distance as they
get closer. The beach regions ALL face the water.
There are no mountain regions, the are considered to be
impassible. ALL regions contain rocks of variaing sizes
lying about randomly. One of the cave entrances can be
seen from grassland region 62. If possible this release,
the caves should be dark, requiring a light source.

SPECIAL REGIONS:
	The grassland region 2A contains a teleport,
there should be no rock in the region & no mountains
in the background. (If fact regions 19, 29-C, 39-C should
have no mountains in the backdrop, but face that direction)

	The Beach region 92 contains a paritally completed
Oracle (no cherebum) and a Sign 'ASK, and if I'm not busy..."

	The Beach region 4C is the 'W' region from it's
a mad mad mad mad world. (Besides rocks, there is nothing here.)

	The caves are connected normally but the
orentation changes almost every cave, so that withou a compass
It could be hard to find your way around.

	At cave2_20, there are a few things of note: Besides some
small rocks, there are 3 rocks (two large, one meduim) that form
a triangle, with it's apex against the back wall. If the center of
the trangle is a hole. It conatains a note: "WRONG". The back
wall has an invisible cave (small sheet of glass?) just above
the apex of the triangle. 'Go' here and you will enter the
Secret Chamber!

	At cave2_30 is the secret chamber. No rocks.
Just a hole, containing A chesk with lock #2000. In the
Chest is the Amulet Of Salesh

------------------------------------------------------

September 1986

September 5th

Taken from statusReport.Sept5. 

From chip Fri Sep  5 22:30:06 1986
Received: by moth; 05 SEP 86 22:30:06 PDT
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: sda
Cc: chip
Subject: Status report
Status: R

We had the interview with the Japanese TV folk.  It went well, I think, though
they were pretty loose in their shooting, so I'm not sure what the result will
look like.  (In general the Japanese media seems to prefer to produce a lot of
material quickly and with less polish, whereas their American counterparts are
more conscious of style and produce a smaller volume of more carefully crafted
stuff -- I've noticed this about the Japanese magazines and the TV people
seemed the same way.  Comparative sociology at work!)

Randy got a call from Janet early this morning, just before she disappeared
off to wherever she's going.  She said that she was finally able to login to
our system (she'd been having problems yesterday) and transfer the stuff over
that we wanted them to have (more regions for Populopolis and the data tables
for the memory capacity handler).  (I asked her to leave me a message on their
system telling me where all the material relating to this component is so that
I can work on it myself if necessary.  She does not appear to have done this.)

Randy mentioned to Janet that we had been thinking about a scheme to allow
more objects to occupy memory at the same time by selectively not loading
their imagery and behavior code under certain circumstances (this is the thing
we mentioned to you Thursday) but that it would cost a week or two to
implement.  In spite of the inherent delay, she was intrigued.  Randy suspects
he knows what he's going to be doing next week.

She called back a short while later, said she had talked to Marc, and that he
was entertaining the notion of delaying beta to put this in, and that you and
I should call him to discuss it!  Unfortunately, you weren't here.

I could have called him on my own, but I felt very strongly that I should
consult with you before undertaking discussion of this with Quantum, since it
seems rather drastic, possibly threatening getting the product out for
Christmas -- frankly I felt that I would be a little over my head to call Marc
on my own and start discussing this, since I am unclear, in particular, on the
specifics of the timing constraints we are under.

In other words, I didn't call Marc back and take it up with him by myself
because you weren't here and I was afraid to make any kind of commitments one
way or the other on my own initiative.  This may have been a mistake, since it
*is* Friday (thus the decision gets delayed over the weekend instead of just
overnight), but I suspect not, since Randy won't really be able to begin work
on the thing in earnest until Monday anyhow.  Nevertheless, you and I need to
talk about this ASAP, then contact Marc.  I will be in the office Saturday
afternoon for sure and either Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon also
(probably both...).

From chip Fri Sep  5 23:04:13 1986
Received: by moth; 05 SEP 86 23:04:13 PDT
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: sda
Cc: chip
Subject: Status report addenda
Status: R

One thing I forgot to include in the previous message:

I met this morning with Jamie Williams.  I gave her the latest draft of the
manual to look over, and told her the things that I thought needed adding that
I'd like to have her work on.  I also asked her to proof the thing for
stylistic consistency, since I have rewritten large chunks of it in the time
between when she last worked on it and now.  I want to make sure that the
clear and direct style which she adopted is also reflected in the parts I have
added or substantially changed.

I showed her the promo tape (do we have a name for that thing, by the way?)
and gave her a live demo of the system.

We then talked about the press conference and about the sort of
demonstration/presentation I should be giving and how it should be structured
to cover the items on the agenda that I am supposed to talk about (suitably
modified by our own idea of appropriateness by adding some things to and
removing one or two things from the list that Quantum sent us).  We roughed
out a basic demo structure which she is going to take as a starting point.  I
also gave her copies of the "Funativity" and "Machiavelli" documents to give
her some general idea of the various kinds of activities we are thinking of
having in Habitat, beyond the rather vague notion of "adventuring".

She is going to work on these things and send (by messenger service) the
manual revisions and a first draft demo/presentation on Monday or Tuesday.
I'll give her feedback by phone (she has some job she has to be at those days)
and she'll then work on whatever adjustments to the presentation we deem
necessary.  She will come back in person on Wednesday or Thursday to start
finalizing the presentation.

It all looks good to me.  Jamie's a real pro.

I had gotten the feeling from our earlier conversations that you had some
things that *you* wanted her to work on for the press conference also, but I
had no idea what, if anything, these might be, so we obviously didn't cover
them.  If I am mistaken, great.  If not, you'd best contact her.

By the way, did you notice that the proposed press conference agenda that
Quantum sent us allocates 5 minutes for our 8 minute tape?

Oh, also:  I got a call today from Rob Fulop.  He wants to come up and visit
us Tuesday.  He's interested in various things, including mutual support
developing software for Quantum, development tools for 6502 machines, and of
course various Habitat tie-in things (creative and/or technological).  I think
he will contact you directly to arrange something official.

September 10th

Taken from mailarchive. 

From chip Wed Sep 10 15:04:50 1986
Received: by moth; 10 SEP 86 15:04:50 PDT
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: sda
Cc: chip
Subject: Re:  status of planning
Status: RO

I spoke with Marc and Anne right after lunch.  Got my questions answered ok
and went over my current setup plan with them.  We agree on most everything.

Marc wants to stress to the demonstrators what they are allowed to do rather
than what they are not allowed to do -- i.e., prescribe rather than proscribe.
I will be changing the tone of the plan document a little bit to reflect this
idea.

Physical setup is as we expected, 8 stations grouped into 4 pairs.  Anne says
they can put the 2 pairs that are out on the dance floor back-to-back but that
this will be problem for the other two stations.  I suggested that we should
have a Stratus terminal or a voice line to Virginia in a back room somewhere.
Anne said this was a problem because we only have 8 phone lines, which had to
be set up special.  Marc, however, saw the value in this suggestion and
recommends that we keep one of demo stations near a curtain where we can pull
it down and use its phone line to call Virginia if we have to.

They are planning on having 4 people online from Virginia, not the 8 that I
had guessed, though Marc said they could add more if we wanted them to.  It's
no big deal to me (my choice of 8 was arbitrary) so we are going to plan on
the basis of 4.  One of the 4 will be Ken Huntsman, who will be standing by in
Virginia as the experienced hand in case of problems.

Anne stressed that their years of experience giving demos has taught them to
expect glitches and crashes due to telephone problems, so we should just be
cool and not worry too much if something dies -- we should just be prepared to
drop back and restart.

They agreed that they are responsible for technical logistics but that we are
responsible for the content of the demo.

September 11th

Taken from burmashave. 

From nf Thu Sep 11 20:47:55 1986
Received: from shem by moth; 11 SEP 86 20:47:55 PDT
From: nf (Noah Falstein -  Boat specialist, Arks to Patrol Hydrofoils)
To: chip
Cc: farmer
Received: by shem; 11 SEP 86 20:47:55 PDT
Subject: Burma Shave
Status: RO


	This is what I sent to Aric:
Henry the Avatar / Six wives he weds / Divorcing them all / But keeping
their heads /   Habitat

Heads in a suitcase / Heads on a chair / Still he persists / "I've got
nothing to wear!"  /   Habitat

She rests in the sun / She plays in the surf / But all things considered /
There's no place like Turf  /   Habitat

This way / That way / all around town / these teleport fees / are getting me
down!  /  Habitat

Repaint your torso  /  Take off your head /  If this were Kansas /  Then
you would be dead!  /  Habitat

He's got a vampire's head  / He's got King Tut's  / If this isn't Habitat /
I must be nuts! /  Habitat

Head of a dragon /  Head of a duck /  If this isn't Habitat / I'm out of
luck /   Habitat

There once was an avatar / Named Ferderous Snodd / His dog is named Fido /
Now isn't that odd? /  Habitat

You talk in balloons /  You use ESP  /  Isn't it great  / Just how strange
this can be! /  Habitat

Some guns are muderous / Some are quite tame / It helps to remember /
It's only a game /  Habitat

Identification / Can be indiscreet / If the guy you identify / Stomps
on your feet!  /  Habitat

Although personal movements / Have quite a wide range / Have you ever
noticed / You walk kind of strange? /  Habitat

Thousands of Avatars / Inhabit the realms / All talking at once? / The
thought overwhelms! /  Habitat

Crowding a public place / Can be rather rude / If it happened to you /
Then you'd really be / In trouble /  Habitat

September 29th

Taken from mailarchive. 

From chip Mon Sep 29 17:17:42 1986
Received: from moth by kessel; 29 SEP 86 17:17:42 PDT
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: sda
Cc: aric, farmer
Received: by moth; 29 SEP 86 17:17:45 PDT
Subject: OK, here's the plan

The Habitat gang all got together today and spent a few hours discussing
world development and so on.  Here's what we worked out:

We are going on the expectation that I am going to continue to be preoccupied
with design and concept work for the next phases of the project, if there are
to be any, and that I will also be responsible for overseeing the Beta-test
(the assumption being that the Beta test will result in sudden, massive
feedback that will require some action on our part).  This means that the work
of world generation is going to fall primarily to Randy and Aric, though I
will supervise.  On the basis of these assumptions, came up with the following
division of task responsibilities for the next couple of weeks:

Randy --
Install materials for D'nalsi Island treasure hunt (books, clues, wizard's
house furnishings, etc.).
Implement "Quest for the Jewelled Horn of the Green Bleem" (an ongoing
treasure hunt based on Hal Barwood's revolving-owner artifact idea).
Set up a stock-market game.
Set up a capture-the-flag game.
Set up a road-rally game.

Aric --
Develop King Game into a complete entity (possibly based on "Chicago Kingpin",
at his option).
Add new regions to Populopolis and polish what's already there.  In
particular, add back alley, library (library is needed for D'nalsi
Island adventure, among other things), and theater.
Finish the Road Through The Woods realm.
Install Burma Shave signs.
Set up an Assassin game.
Create one new adventure/game of his own devising.

Chip --
Provide host software support for above projects, as needed.
Work on concept development and planning for extensions/follow-on projects/
support tools.
Update and finish manual.
Develop operations plans.
Oversee Beta-test.

October 1986

October 6th

Taken from farmerAdvs.t. 

From farmer Mon Oct  6 15:46:33 1986
Received: by moth; 06 OCT 86 15:46:33 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: chip
Subject: Tablets & Rigion Rally
Status: RO

'The quest for the Great Horn of the Green Bleem' is now called:
'The quest for the Tome of Wealth and Fame'

The tome is the graphic style #7 of book.
100% of the special case code is on the host.
The Oracle will arbitrate prize awards.

It works like this:
If you are holding the tome and 'do' it, you will recieve
several pages of text (congratulations, instructions & a list of names.)
The beahviour code will check to see if your name is on the list,
if it IS NOT, it will add you name TO the list. One of the instructions
is to inform the Oracle that you found the tablet. The Oracle/super-user
must then make certain that the rules have been adhered to, then will
award the cash bonus (and mail WEEKLYRANT with username?).



>>>>> The Tome of Wealth and Fame <<<<<

IMPORTANT: Please read ALL of the
stones in this tablet.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the
first step in the Quest for:
>>>>> The Tome of Wealth and Fame <<<<<

Upon successful completion of the
quest, you will receive $5000. Also, 
for NO EXTRA CHARGE, you will have your
name engraved in these tablets for all
ETERNITY so treasure seekers will know
that YOU have joined the ranks of:
Master Adventurers.
To collect your prize you must:
1) READ ALL of this tablet
2) HIDE them in a place that will make
    them hard to find.
3) SHOW them to NO ONE.
4) HIDE them NOT in a turf.
5) When they are hidden, seek an Oracle
    and say "Willy Willy Nilly Billy".

  The Oracle will decide how well you
obeyed the rules & how well you hid the
tome. To collect your prize you MUST
hide it well enough that no one ELSE
finds it before the Oracle can respond.


$$$ The list of MASTER ADVENTURERS: $$$
Need on host:
behaviour for class 97, magic type ?, WIN ROAD RALLY
also class 97, immobile magic item
also add 32bits of flags to avatar record.
Need on C64:
class 97.

Ideas for the Habitat Road Rally:

'night' sign
footprints
library book
sign
rocks forming arrow
arrow prompt on floor
'X' marks he spot
Riddle leading to burma shave sign
burma shave clue
special tport address
'I did it button'

------------------------------------
Part 1:
Oracle speaketh:
Attention!

Attention!

Ahem-----

Welcome to:
The First Habitat Region Rally!

First find the tracks of a silly YikYak.
It lives in the 40,
that we call 'The Back'.

It wears pointy shoes, 
and walks very strange.
Not forward or sideways,
when it roams on it's range.

To find The Back-40,
(If you are new),
find Randy Rd cross.
Walk into the blue.

The first part of the clue
to the answer, you'll find,
If you read off the digits
and divide it by nine.

Good Luck
------------------------------------
part 2:

False clue At 36 Wrong Way (how appropriate):

A vending machine: for 1 token a piece
of paper (class_book)

Welcome to my humble home,
Want some clues? I'll give you some:

The street you are now give you a clue,
Where to go next,and what you should do.

You you feel glad?
Should you rejoice?
Does it help you to know?
That others made this choice?

*************************
Real clue At 47 Foon Ave:

A vedning machine:
	Paper (book), for 1 token

How about a picnic at 'The Beach'?
It'll put those riches in your reach.

'The Beach' can be found This Way...
Look for the place where stars shine.
and go to a star, just yours, not mine.

Find the Hut of the Yabba-Dabba-Flit
Once for each rock in it's pit,
Count to the Left as you flee.
Write this down, its confusing you see.

Down then, and Right for each blade
Count them, don't rest in their shade.
Number the trees, both dead & alive.
The Sign in the sky is really no jive.

------------------------------------
PART 3:

At the desert heart: (RQCD)

A vendo:
	1 token ; warning book
		; clue book

Warning book:
Welcome to the Really Quite Confusing Desert.

ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.

No known maps exist.

Avatars that have weak hearts or get
disoriented easily should not enter
without proper equipment.


STARE WARS: act IV page 99

LUNK: "In the name of all thats RIGHT,
the rebellion will win"

DIRTH: "I will put DOWN your puny
'rebellion' with the wave of my hand!"
(DIRTH gestures, and LUNK starts grasping
his throat with his RIGHT hand then falls
DOWN to the ground writhing in pain.)

LUNK, gestures with his LEFT hand and
sends a sofa flying into DIRTH, thus
releasing LUNK.

LUNK:"UP with the rebellion!" and
LUNK escapes by using his laser-
chainsaw to cut the power.

note to the scriptwriter: is this
the RIGHT way to get out of this
scene? Fondly: the producers.
---------------------------------------
Part 4:

at region 5020:

a large sign:

	D i g i t s   A r e
	 a  T e l e p o r t
	     N u m b e r

A lamp (switched on, if switched off:
anothe sign superimposed on the other:

	.T.W.O...M.O.R.E.:.
	.........2.3
	TOTAL.#...9.....digits
------------------------------------------
part 5:

False Endgame region : Port # 4765499

Teleport:
Sign (Shingle):

"Abandon Hope.
 ^
<?>
 v"

this region points to itself in *ALL*
directions.

***************************************

Real Endgame region : Port # 476549923

Teleport,
Button,
Sign on wall:
"Push button!
     v
     v
     v
     v"

Button sends message to host, text
balloon comes back:
"Congratulations, you have won
$xxxxx tokens!"
"Contest limited to one member per disk."

I think the token amount should be
$1000 and be decreased by $100
tokens/finder (minimum $100).

if you 'do' it again:
"Sorry, you can only win once."

November 1986

November 3rd

Taken from downtown.t. 

From farmer Mon Nov  3 16:37:49 1986
Received: by moth; 03 NOV 86 16:37:49 PST
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: chip
Status: R

Word-map of new dowtown:

       a  b  c     e  f  g
       |  |  |     |  |  |
h - MAIN--------T--------MAIN - i
   4      R           A      S
j -2   k -O           D- l   K- m
   N      D           M      I
n -D   o -E           I- p   D- q
   S      O           N      R
r -T   s -D           A- t   O- u
          R           V      W
v - BROADWAY----T----BROADWAY - w
       |  |  |     |  |  |
       x  y  z     aa bb cc


a For Rent	h Port+add	o Knick Knacks	v Stock Mkt/Newstand
b Fine Furnit	i Newstand	p Hall of Recs	w port+add
c Bobs UBank	j Randys Empor	q Kellys Bar	x Quizshows Inc.
 		k New You	r "Costellos"	y "Hamlets Place"
e General Store	l Meeting Hall	s Oil Brbs Pnts z Theatre/Auditorim
f For Rent	m Pawn Shop	t City Hall	aa The Arcade
g MachutasMagic n Tivollis bar	u Leftys Locks	bb Broadway Bank
						cc Library

November 5th

Taken from qmeeting.t. 

From sda Wed Nov  5 08:23:16 1986
Received: from kessel by moth; 05 NOV 86 08:23:16 PST
From: sda (Steve Arnold - Games Division)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy
Received: by kessel; 05 NOV 86 08:23:11 PST
Subject: Habitat meetings at Quantum, 11/3
Status: R


Here is a summary of our conversations:

1.  In addition to the elevator, we need to specify other objects that will
be part of the field update test.  What else will be installed and/or deleted?

2.  Quantum does not want to buy a C compiler.  Marc does not think it is
necessary.  He sees our trying to require such a thing as engineering
interference.

3.  We need to define the Basic Turf Set to facilitate the clearing of
inactive users.  What is in the default Turf Environment?

4.  We agreed to turn all logged out users to ghosts for the time being,
rather than leave them turned to stone.  We need to revise the manual
accordingly.  This is subject to change (easily) during beta test.

5.  Several issues about the Oracle and/or Mail:

	a.  How do answers get to users?  In the Mail system?  Do you have
to go home to your Turf to get your response?

	b.  Can you use ESP from the Oracle?

	c.  Can we make a special login-in disk that allows a player to
login as a particular incarnation of the Oracle, for real-time Oracle
communications?

	d.  Can we make a mailbox in someone's pocket?  (Quantum believes
that Turfs are not going to be used much at all.... that since there is
virtually nothing you can do there, once people leave they will rarely come
back, except maybe to store things.  Therefore, it is cumbersome and counter
to the design intent to make them go back just to get the mail....).  Can we
make a "book of letters" in someone's pocket, where mail gets delivered to?

6.  The Avatar Directory, if it exists, should probably not be an object you
carry, but rather something in a particular location.  Perhaps they exist at
TelePort booths?  In any case, this is a low priority at this point, and we
should not worry about it overmuch.  We will defer a decision until later.
Maybe a "Who's Who" of Avatars in the Hall of Records?

7.  Tom Canaday is going to the Habitat SysOp.

8.  QL has finished the Oracle software, but is unsure about the powers of
the Oracle.  There is currently no way for an Oracle to affect an avatar
(like give him/her a Goathead....  They need specification on this.

9.  Janet says she has said to us that GHU is clearly not acceptable as it
currently is proposed, because the powers are too pervasive.  We need to
define and specify!  What can the Oracle do?  (The fact that she had said
that was news to me.  Does anyone know about this?)

10.  Regarding Avatar death:  What happens when people die?  Since we don't
have exit interviews at the moment, do they just go back to PC?  Are they
sent to their Turf?  This is an important design decision.  Also, apparently
due to the existence of ghosting, it is likely no one will ever die?  You
can always "go ghost" when you are in a threatening situation?  QL reports
that there are virtually no guns in the world now anyway.  Is this being
fixed?  We need to specify death and exit interviews.

11.  There seems to be a problem with the revised downtown.  First,
apparently they did not know we were undertaking such a massive revision.
Did we tell them?  Also, Janet reports some difficulty in uploading part of
a region, or a region revision where you are supposed to keep some stuff,
and replace some other stuff.

12.  The question was raised as to whether we had over-designed the existing
Turfs.  (Apparently there are some that don't work right because there is
too much stuff, or foregrounds and backgrounds are set up right.... Do we
know about this?)  Do we need to replace all the existing Turfs with a
simpler model?

13.  The RANT:  Marc wonders if we and they have a completely different idea
of what it is.  Marc says it can't be a long, linear, text thing in Habitat.
You can have such a thing in the Just For Fun listing of the Rant, but due
to text transmission problems and heirarchical menu problems, the Rant in
the world will be nothing more than a page of one-liners.  Does this match
what we are thinking?  (Apparently not....)  Can we make the Rant a
container, and use the contents as objects?  Or can we change the user
interface on the book object to allow for menu-level inquiry, so that people
can select from a table of contents?  If the Rant is expected to be dynamic,
then it should be delivered to pockets as an object.  If it is dynamic, they
people only buy it once.  If it is not, then we have a huge garbage
collection problem for all the old Rants....

14.  We have discussed a "world status" screen that greets everyone each
time they log in.... telling them what's new in the world, and other
essential information.  I thought we had agreed to do this.  Janet had
apparently not heard of such a thing.  We need to clear this up.

15.  There are too few ATM's, too few pieces of paper, and too few
mailboxes, according to QL reports.  Mail seems to be a big problem for
them.  The don't think it is useful.  (This is partly a design issue--they
see the essential design elements of Habitat to be communication between
people.  They think we are designing unneccessary limits on communication
into the world, and that may cause us big problems.  Use of mail and paper
are examples.  They think that finding and sending mail are sufficiently
cumbersome as to be almost useless in game play.)

16.  The Head shop is still blocked up.  No one knows how bad it will be
when we actually get it running.  Do we know why it is not working now?

17.  Regarding Coming Attractions:  They need to know what is required for
each of the items on the Coming Attractions document.  Every time we say
"special programming required," they need to know who is going to do it, and
by when....  They question whether some of that stuff is needed for beta,
because some of it is so new to them....

18.  Regarding Adventure Master powers.  We need some special doors that
only Adventure Masters can enter, to allow us to limit access to certain
areas.

19.  There is need to clarify how objects are cloned or copied, both for
vendos and for adventures that are object-based.  For example, if someone
finds a clue to an adventure, does it get replaced for someone else, or is
it only one person's game?

20.  Home decoration, jukeboxes, and keys were elements that there seemed to
be confusion about.  We should make sure the organizations have the same
understanding.

21.  The intelligent counter in the Pawnshop apparently does not work.  When
will it?

22.  Theatres vs. Auditorium.  They seemed surprised by all of our
theatre-based additions.  Marc pointed out that we can't have any
interactions with the audience using the current ghost system, so we can do
auditorium functions.  I told them I thought that what you were thinking was
more theatre-like.  People could watch, but were not expected to actively
participate.  Queueing people to appear in person on a game show or talk
show needs to be addressed however.

23.  Where does the Arcade fit?  This was another "surprise" to them.  When
will it work?  What will it do?  What about the Stock Exchange?  When will
it work?  What kinds of books are in the Library?  Who is doing the book
management program (or whatever)?

24.  They need specifics on the functioning of City Hall.  Who is doing it,
by when?  Is it a beta function?  Who runs scheduling to rent a storefront?

25.  Marc reports apparently major crashes of the C-64, with screen garbage,
during the last weekend test.  This he says indicates problem with C-64, not
with host.  (This is probably old news, but I am reporting because we
discussed it.)  Janet says we don't have enough (any?) error messages, that
they have complained about this before, and we have said we can't do it.
Therefore, the user does not know what is going on when it crashes.  Marc
said he had to re-boot four times in thirty minutes.

26.  Marc says we should have a rental dataline monitor to see if we are
sending garbage out.  I have never heard of such a thing.  Do we need it?

27.  Janet says she thinks the easiest way to get capacity handling fixed is
for Chip to write it, rather than for Chip to try to explain it to her.  She
is at this point suspicious of how much time it will take to explain and
re-explain and de-bug it if she does it.  Has this been discussed?


Summary:  They think the project is sufficiently far from release-state that
February is the earliest we could be done, and that is if everything goes
right (which it never has to this point).  They are concerned that there are
big areas of unknowns, that we won't discover until we get the thing
working, and that some big re-design may be possible.  For instance, they
think that if we can't get the region transition thing speeded up, we will
have a significant game play problem.  

The communication channel from now on is going to be with Cathy Anderson on
their side, and Nancy on our side.  That of course does not substitute for
direct technical discussions between any of us and Janet, Marc, or whomever
regarding development and debugging.  But the design discussions need to be
focused on Cathy.  Communication is essential.  There are too many
ambiguities to ensure that we are using our time efficiently at this point.

Please review this and then let's discuss anything that is not clear and/or
resolved.

November 7th

Taken from nancymemo. 

Date:  November 7, 1986
To:  Cathy Anderson
>From:  Nancy Mohler
Subject:  HABITAT STATUS

Here is today's updated Habitat Task List, including time to complete tasks,
target completions, categorization of beta prerequisites, and the requested
change to the Effects column.  Implementation time for remaining tasks will
be determined with Janet's input.  Beta software submission is expected 11/24.
The public release schedule will be determined next week.

Recapping the status conference call today:
  1. Resolved to limit the Rant to a condensed version in a Habitat book and
     put bulk of text in tree-structure outside.
  2. Protocol bug estimated to be 95% fixed, with update made available this
     afternoon.
  3. Delivery date for the user version (beta testers) map TBD by LFL ASAP.
  4. Open issue for discussion is how the home vendo will be used.
  5. Tabled until Monday how to make mail more accessible.  LFL to prepare
     alternative proposal.
  6. Agreed on 100 as the number of tokens in pocket of Avatars being hatched,
     pending completion of economic plan.
The 11/10 Habitat status conference call will be at 4:00 QL-time, 1:00 Marin.
Suggested agenda:  protocol bug status, mail resolution, Task List.

cc:  Steve Arnold
     Steve Case
     Randy Farmer
     Janet Hunter
     Chip Morningstar
     Marc Seriff
     Aric Wilmunder

November 11th

Taken from janetEst. 

From quantum Tue Nov 11 09:16:37 1986
Received: from shem by moth; 11 NOV 86 09:16:37 PST
From: quantum (Janet Hunter, Quantum Computer Services)
To: chip
Received: by shem; 11 NOV 86 09:16:36 PST
Subject: Time estimates
Status: RO

Chip, 
   Here are my time estimates for the
Beta Test Prequisite Tasks:

  6 Capacity Monitor - 2 days
                       target 11/14
  7 Rebuild Regionproc - done 11/11
 15 Oracle response - 1 day
                      target 11/17
 16 Bank acct utility - 1 day
                        target 11/16
 18 Text input utility - 1 day
                         target 11/19
 67 Avatar to ghost - done
 68 Online-only ghosts - done
 69 Exclude non-beta testers - done
 40 Msg of the day - 1 day
                     target 11/20 (?)
 72 create avatar w/ token - .5 day
                          target 11/14

 OOPS: Target date for #16 should be
       11/18, not 11/16.

 Note: Question mark on target date for
       #40 is because it is assigned to
       both you and me.

Taken from palindromes.t. 

From nf Tue Nov 11 15:11:29 1986
Subject: Burma Shave Palindromes Shave Burma
	Here's a couple.  It seemed impossible until I realized what was
needed was something that was commutative like 2 + 2 = 4 or 4 = 2 + 2.

	Leaving your turf in your natural colors
	Is almost as embarrassing as
	Wandering around without your head

	Habitat
	A refuge for those who can't handle
	Reality

	This sign is a lie
	The last sign you saw is true
	The next sign you will see is a lie
	The last sign you saw is a lie
	This sign is true

	(sort of a reality defined by your direction of travel)

February 1987

February 19th

Taken from disk.t. 

From farmer Thu Feb 19 14:21:08 1987
Received: by moth; 19 FEB 87 14:21:08 PST
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: chip
Status: R

Habitat Generic Object Disk Map:

		(TRACK)
              1         2         3
    12345678901234567890123456789012345
  0 cccaaasssiiiiiiii*iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
S 1 cccaaasssiiiiiiii*iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
E 2 cccaaasssiiiiiiii*iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
C 3 cccaaasssiiiiiiii*iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
T 4 cccaaasssiiiiiiii*iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
O 5 cccaaasssiiiiiiii*iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
R 6 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
  7 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
  8 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
  9 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
 10 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
 11 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
 12 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
 13 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
 14 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
 15 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhhhhhhh
 16 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiiihhhhhh
 17 cccaaasssiiiiiiii?iiiiii
 18 cccaaasssiiiiiiii
 19 cccaaasssiiiiiiii

			max size	current size
c=class file		15360		   3252 (21%)
a=action file		15360		  11876 (77%)
s=sound file		15360		   3302 (21%)
i=images file		68608		  42234 (61%)
h=head file		46592		  36132 (77%)
*=required directory files
?=free? (current dos will not read)

April 1987

April 19th

Taken from newprocedure.t. 

From nancy Sun Apr 19 19:02:01 1987
Subject: Friday meeting outcome
file notes
4/17/87 Habitat team meeting w/sda

In order to achieve release into beta test and to revise project completion
plan with better time estimates--

1. confirmed commitment to daily playtesting w/QL at 5:30 (our time)--Aric,
Chip & Randy will let me know of any conflict not allowing them to be on.

2. revised playtest debriefing procedure:  a hard copy bug reporting form
will be created by Chip for distribution to all playtesters.  completed
forms will be turned in to Randy asap (next morning fax from Janet) for him
to maintain tracking system; Chip will review with him Randy's assignment of
disposition daily.  so, rather than the on-line PC debriefings immediately
following a playtest & conference calls after receipt of the tapes to review
the list, Randy will maintain a bug tracking system to, 1) improve efficient
use of everyone's time, 2) improve response to reported bugs, and 3) improve
communication & confidence between us & QL.  I'll discuss this procedure
revision w/Janet & Rob during the scheduled 10:00 conference call Monday
morning.  Assuming their agreement, Cathy & I will review the bug tracking
reports via near-daily conference calls & flag ones needing discussion among
the team.

3. established daily status reports:  Aric & Randy will mail to Chip
(copying each other & sda & me) at the end of each day a brief list of their
accomplishments for the day, notes explaining significant delays in any
tasks, and a list of tasks expected to be undertaken the next day, including
time estimated to complete.  Chip, including his own tasks, will issue a
Habitat daily status summary of accomplishments relative to start of alpha,
start of beta, & estimated time to release.

4. reduced frequency of entire team QL conference calls:  to be scheduled by
Cathy & me as needed, usually at 1:00 our time.  We'll discuss this process
with her on Thursday when she's here.

5. established weekly Habitat team meetings on Friday afternoons, to review
accomplishments of the week & goals for the next.

April 20th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Mon Apr 20 14:54:08 1987
Subject: Testing
I will be available for testing per the following schedule:

Monday & Tuesday : till 7pm either night
Wednesday: till 7ish (here at lfl)
Thrusday & Friday : till 7pm either night
Saturday: Anytime
Sunday: N/A
Total : 4 out of 7 days
Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday are as required.

From farmer Mon Apr 20 15:12:43 1987
Subject: 1st status report
Did today:
Tried to release 4.8..a poor descision
fixed problems with 4.8.
spent 1/2 hr trying to get the keyboard routine to echo on interrupt (failed)
Made disks to test 4.8
Merged some changes with aric.
Found out why gosts could not pass thru doors (Chip needs to fix)

On the slate tomarrow:
Start new bug traking system.
REALLY release 4.8.
one more hour tring to get the keys to echo right-away. (not mandatory)
Internal test
fix bugs found last night (tonight)

April 21st

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Tue Apr 21 15:13:24 1987
Subject: Status Report

Done today:
Started new Bug tracking system
Made 4.8 available for upload (Janet was unable to complete beacuse
				she got hung-up several times)
Merged Charlies new kb routine, it works VERY nicely.
Coded multi-object fiddle on C64
Coded region_play_sfx on C64 so host can issue sfx on C64
Testing tonight (Not sure how many qlinkers will be on since 4.8 is not out)

did NOT happen:
keys echo right away (spent the time putting Charlies routines in instead)

Tomarrow:
Test Multi Object Fiddle & region_play_sfx with host.
What if an avatar dies while waiting for reply?
Book interface fix.
Review new video tape and generate bug reports.

April 23rd

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Thu Apr 23 00:52:13 1987
Received: by moth; 23 APR 87 00:52:13 PST
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: Habistatus
Status: R

Done Wed:
	new keyboard routine, settling in adjustments.
	Book interface fix (goes to T)
	Fortune machine now has 89 messages (goes to T)
	Staff meeting
	Helped Chip clean up buglist
	Tested for 2+ hours.
NOT done:
	Test Multi Object Fiddle & region_play_sfx with host.
	What if an avatar dies while waiting for reply?
	Review new video tape and generate bug reports. (tape came late)

For Thursday:
	Test Multi Object Fiddle & region_play_sfx with host.
	What if an avatar dies while waiting for reply?
	Review new video tape and generate bug reports. (tape came late)
	Try to get keys to echo right away.

April 27th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Mon Apr 27 08:28:30 1987
Received: by moth; 27 APR 87 08:28:30 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, nancy, sda
Subject: status
Status: R

I am VERY sorry that I did not send status on Thursday And Friday.
I will try to make this a regular habit-at.

Done
	region_play_sfx working (#x42 done & installed)
	Book interface final adjustments
	Attended Habitat team meeting
	Generated first pass at Populopolis Downtown map.
	Discovered that generic_switch was TOTALLY screwed,trashing memory
	Reviewed new video tape and generated bug reports.
	Started the procedure for processing ARFs.

Next:
	Analyze 4.9 results (ARFs) and report disposition of version 4.9
1A   r j c #x37 People having problems with login
2A   r #107 Still able to steal paper from an avatar (HOST)
	Make switches wait for reply.
2B   r #x46 what if an avatar dies while waiting for a reply?
3B   r #x18 make clone recurse
?B   j r #x38 Check mailer with full sheet
2B   r #x46 what if an avatar dies while waiting for a reply?
2B   r #23 Bahia put head on 'BAR'/backgammon, did not go where specified.
2B   r #110 Shift-Restore not working reliably, implement alternate

Re Item #113:
Janet sent me a log where we THINK tha the C64 sould have recovered from
a bad packet xmission a bit FASTER than it actualy did. This is not a 
fatal error, but a desireable performance improvement.

Re Item #112:
I am only certain that the fix to #112 will mark #29 off of the list..
it MAY be that it takes care of #14 and/or #111. Still uncertain there.

April 28th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Tue Apr 28 06:20:06 1987
Received: by moth; 28 APR 87 06:20:06 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: stat
Status: R

Done:
	Analyze 4.9 results (ARFs) and report disposition of version 4.9
	Make switches wait for reply.
	found & fixed grandson of grandfather of all bugs.
2A   r #107 Still able to steal paper from an avatar (HOST) 
?B   j r #x38 Check mailer with full sheet (OK)
2B   r #110 Shift-Restore not working reliably, implement alternate
	alternate Shift-Runstop (BOTH are operational)

Did NOT happen:
2B   r #x46 what if an avatar dies while waiting for a reply?
3B   r #x18 make clone recurse
2B   r #23 Bahia put head on 'BAR'/backgammon, did not go where specified.
           (Can not duplicate will review tape again)

Next:
	I will spend all of today trying to:
	1) Figure out WHAT happend at last nights playtest
	2) Fix it, and have 5.0 ready for Tomarrow.

From farmer Tue Apr 28 09:10:07 1987
Received: by moth; 28 APR 87 09:10:07 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: midday status
Status: R

Mid-Day status (well, MY midday!)

ARFS update:
--   #128 Nancy got confused after reading mail, *you have mail* didnt go away
3- I r #129 book interface:BACK beep on page 0, Limit cursor to bottom line?
1A T j #130 Cathy melted down when someone entered backgammon (me) [j fixed 1]
3B   r c #131 Using Choke and Fortune machines: async chore.
1A T r #133 Users able to put items in closed containers! [fixed]
2A T j #134 Janet will presently truncate excessive text messages [1]
2B   c #135 Vendo help not working right (check out machutas, left vendo)
2B   r c #136 Spray Cans on heads: Janet used stripes, and for translucent!
1A T r #137 Aric put a box down, and the x coord was way wrong [Fixed 2]
2A   c r #138 De-ghosting, ghosting is not handling flashlights correctly


[1]:	There were MANY meltdowns and mem-faults, all caused by a problem
	introduced by Janet, in her attempts to deal with message balloons
	that spanned more than one packet. For the short run, she says
	she will just truncate the messages, and return the system to it's
	originall state (working).

[2]:	Found this bug, it moves items #19, #23, #137 to Test status.

From farmer Tue Apr 28 11:44:01 1987
Received: by moth; 28 APR 87 11:44:01 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: ARFS
Status: R

Quantums ARFS arrvived:
ARFS update QLINK arfs arrived:
dd d #140 Dup #130
dd d #141 Dup #136
dd d #144 Dup #135
dd d #145 Dup #133
dd d #146 Dup #127 (In test)
dd d #148 Dup #139
dd d #149 Dup #130 Cathy stuck in text interface during mem-fault
dd d #150 Dup #138
dd d #151 Dup #130

Nothing that was not already on the list, or on the list as of this
morning!

From farmer Tue Apr 28 14:10:48 1987
Received: by moth; 28 APR 87 14:10:48 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: More Status
Status: R

More stuff I did:
	Fixed minor problems with book & plaque on host.
	Took another swing at init problems (#x37)
3B T r c #121 Escape devices: 1) should start with 10 chgs
	PLUS the other stuff I sent out as my midday status.

Tomarrow:
	Release version 5.0!
	Document 5.0
	Internal test 5.0
	Have 5.0 disposition meeting.
	Staff meeting.
	Process last bathch of 4.9 ARFS

April 29th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Wed Apr 29 11:10:08 1987
Received: by moth; 29 APR 87 11:10:08 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: Habitat status
Status: R

new ARFS (all reportsed with version 4.9):

dd d #152 Dup #138
?? ? #153 insufficient information, Janet will get back to me
3B   c #154 newstand sign help message wrong "How did you do that?"
2B   r #155 took cathy 30 secs to appear in a region with 3 avatars.
dd d #156 Dup #138
dd d #157 Cathy had a failed init, Dup #37
     #158 Cathy had lockup after 'f7' news sign. [awaiting tape]
     #159 Repeat delete not working (user error?) [awaiting tape]
     #160 Janet took a long time to appear Dup #155...Tune Throttle back up!
     #161 It took a long time to load region [bandwidth reduction will reduce]
2A D a #162 Closed a door, part of it was flashing FIXED 5.0
2B   r #163 Cathy and bahia had problems opening a box in Machutas[await tape]
     #164 Translucent hair flashes after mail read (NOT a bug,TRANSLUCENT hair
		is bug #136, and THAT is Fixed in 5.0)
1A   r j #165 Flashing go trying to enter Bobs Bank (aric & janet)
dd d #166 Dup #162
2A   r j #167 Janet had problems picking up martini glass after purchasing.
4R   r #168 ']' and '[' are mapped to '(' and ')'.
2B   r #169 Book interface not handling next page correctly [Fixed 5.0]
3B   r a #170 Flowerbox outside tivolli's flickers.

Based on this data, I have high
confidence that the remaining Alpha tasks (except INIT failure)
are HOST problems. More data on this as it becomes available.

May 1987

May 18th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Mon May 18 16:17:53 1987
Received: by moth; 18 MAY 87 16:17:53 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: Stats
Status: R



Today:
	Attended efficient Habistatus Meeting ;)
	Installed Error/Warning handler (Warnings seem to work)
	replaced Disk/Rs232 gateway with better system. (works great)
	Merged Rons disk routines with ours (now can handle disk errors!)
	Removed RESTORE key processing.
	Moved code that was causeing interrupt tear (potential crash)

Tomarrow:
	LRCs for Images, Actions, Sounds, and Classes
	Merge Latest Graphic stuff (both are diagnostics stuff)
	Maybe: install Sector LRC checking.

May 19th

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Tue May 19 08:43:06 1987
Received: by moth; 19 MAY 87 08:43:06 PDT
From: farmer (Define the Universe. Give three examples.)
To: aric, chip, nancy, quantum, sda
Subject: trip notes
Status: RO

To Do List generated by My visit to Q May 11-13:

Bugs:
RESTORE key did not re-enable NMIS. RESTORE KEY PROCESSING REMOVED
Minor problem in rs232.m (moveb #1,dd0d should be move #x10,dd0e).DONE.
In cursor.m, the selfmod code could cause crash/interrupts tears.DONE.
got_HB should clear NAKSNT. DONE.
Make sure indirect jumps can not cross page boundries.
generic_on/off on the host are not replying properly.
ASYNC message for security device seems to cause problems

Design:
Improve disk error detection. DONE
Implement Error Handler (see ERRORS). DONE
Need to limit number of heads on host. (settled on 32, any style)
Add LRC checking, and do it often!
Keep a command history incl noid,class,function (I am not sure this is needed)

ERRORs: (Things we need to trap)
Mem Fault - heap full
Mem Fault - corrupt header
LRC failure
indirect addr error
graphic state of image is out of range
user requested dump.
Disk error warning

May 20th

Taken from notes.t 

From nancy Wed May 20 09:28:23 1987
Received: from kessel by moth; 20 MAY 87 09:28:23 PDT
From: nancy (Nancy Mohler)
To: chip, farmer
Received: by kessel; 20 MAY 87 09:28:19 PDT
Subject: VA visit #2
Status: RO

just talked to Cathy.  told her, as Chip had said yesterday afternoon, that
we're shooting for getting a rev w/diagnostics available to them in the morning
to allow testing before the 3-day weekend.  for sure will have it there before
the weekend.

tentatively planning for you two to go there during the 1st week of June--maybe
the 1st & 2nd to work w/Janet & Mike, & debrief the 3rd?  do you think that's
a reasonable schedule to be able to review info from the diagnostic tools?

things to schedule around:
--their move to the building next door = pack Thursday the 4th, start moving
furniture on Friday, & move the machines between 1:00am Sunday & 6pm Monday.
to be back up at 6:00 Monday night the 8th.
--our all-employee meeting 6/8 at 4:00.
--our Mad Scientist Lecture 6/12.
--access to the stratus for Chip is easiest the week of 6/1.

why don't the two of you stop by about 10 & let me know what you think.  thanks.

From farmer Wed May 20 20:05:33 1987
Received: by moth; 20 MAY 87 20:05:33 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: aric, chip, nancy, sda
Subject: version status
Status: RO

5.2t (test) got tested tonight.
It needs a little more work (hey! alot of new stuffs in dair!:)
Release will be slated for Friday.
,

May 21st

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Thu May 21 08:35:04 1987
Received: by moth; 21 MAY 87 08:35:04 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: VA Trip II
Status: RO

Just got off the phone with Janet re: 'VA#2'

1) Agreed with me that June 1st is way too soon for ME to
	meet with them.
   (Said that the only reason she gave OK to June 1 trip is because
	Cathy said it was what WE wanted, also date was picked
	by Nancy.(realizing that Chip can only get Stratus access
	thru June 3)

2) Agreed that 'to review diagnostic information' is NOT a good agenda.
   (This info will be reviewed as it is reported, not saved up for later.)

Here is the scoop as Janet and I now understand it:
We agree, that if 
1) a number of UNKNOWN (mystery) problems appear
	(i.e. still getting unexplained meltdowns) and/or
2) Mikey needs to consult with us re:hardware problems,
	that we will get together SOMEWHERE.

This trip would take place AFTER these steps are taken:
1)
 a: Randy looks at ARFS/TAPES/DISKS, and cant figure out what is going on.
	(includes a discussion with Janet)
 b: Aric & Chip look at same problem, and do the same.
 c: There is a phone call (perhaps conference) to discuss the problem(s)
2)
 a: Mike and I can't work it out on the phone.

From nancy Thu May 21 10:29:40 1987
Received: from kessel by moth; 21 MAY 87 10:29:40 PDT
From: nancy (Nancy Mohler)
To: chip
Received: by kessel; 21 MAY 87 10:29:33 PDT
Subject: alpha
Status: RO

Cathy is checking w/Janet for current task summary to review our understanding
of bug fixes required for starting alpha.  The last list I have is 5/7--please
send the most current so we're all looking at the same thing.

The time frame Cathy has in mind is:
week of 5/25  team testing of version 5.2 (w/diagnostics)--back to 6 people
              (3 from there & 3 from here) on Tuesday & Wednesday nights.
week of 6/1  analyze diagnostic results & debugging
week of 6/8  team testing of new rev, possibly w/larger group 
week of 6/15  start alpha if that rev did not fail consistently


Need the daily status report, please!

From nancy Thu May 21 10:31:34 1987
Received: from kessel by moth; 21 MAY 87 10:31:34 PDT
From: nancy (Nancy Mohler)
To: chip
Received: by kessel; 21 MAY 87 10:31:27 PDT
Subject: 5/7 summary report
Status: RO

a couple of notes--#105 is 1B, and #113 is 1A, I think.

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Thu May 21 16:06:26 1987
Received: by moth; 21 MAY 87 16:06:26 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Version 5.2
Status: R

Version 5.2 will be released in the morning for small-scale testing.
The Un-Dump tool is operational, ready for disks to come
(This is my status report)

Tomarrow:
	fix lights
	fix generic on/off object
	investigate heads problem (when limit of 31 is reached)

May 22nd

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Fri May 22 08:26:52 1987
Received: by moth; 22 MAY 87 08:26:52 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer
Cc: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, quantum
Subject: 5.2
Status: RO

Habitat Version 5.2

This is an internal release copy of Habitat.
With the addition of diagnostics, there have been significant changes
and they require a new round of 'internal' testing (aw,rf,cm,jh,rm,ca)

Changes include:
We lost 256 byts of heap, please adjust on host.
Fixed interrupt tear stuff
HBs always NAKed
Indirect JMP Never on page boundry
RESTORE key processing removed (shift-restore now disabled)
The graphic system has been made more robust (non-crashing)

NOTE!!!: There is a new file on the Imagery Disk:
on_disk_charset.dat lives at Track 0x12 Sector 0x8
(This is so that Imagery disks can have different character sets)

Diagnostics:
When an error occurrs (or the user presses CTRL-C=) a word balloon will
appear with an error/warning message. If the error is Fatal, the user
will be requested to insert a blank formatted disk. This 'DUMP TO DISK'
may be aborted with shift-runstop.

Fatal errors
user_requested_dump	=	0	; no TRAPPED error occurred
memory_full		=	1
memory_fault		=	2
memory_corrupt		=	3	; lrc got corrupted
indirect_address_error	=	4
bad_image_state		=	5
no_room_for_head	=	6
indirect_address_jmp	=	7
indirect_address_rts	=	8
Warnings
simple_disk_error	=	128	; returned by rom
disk_write_error	=	129	; write protect(?)
sector_lrc_error	=	130	; transmission problem

From nancy Fri May 22 13:37:22 1987
Received: from kessel by moth; 22 MAY 87 13:37:22 PDT
From: nancy (Nancy Mohler)
To: aric, chip, farmer
Cc: sda
Received: by kessel; 22 MAY 87 13:37:17 PDT
Subject: alpha requirements
Status: RO

from conference call Chip & I had w/Cathy & Janet this morning, these are
pre-alpha bugs:
#x39
#113
#115 + note concentrate on testing, since it has turned out to be a little
     trickier than we thought
#165
#167
#173
#176
#184
#tbd flashlight problem
#tbd ESP not sending when point @ teleport booth

we agree that 1 week of testing will be done on the beta lock down version
before starting beta.  max one disk release per week during alpha.

mystery bugs #14, 111, and 124 are being addressed by diagnostics over the next
week or so.

chip will copy quantum on arf list updates frequently.  the 5/7 report is
being updated today.

questions?  thanks.

May 27th

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Wed May 27 19:18:09 1987
Received: by moth; 27 MAY 87 19:18:09 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: status.
Status: RO


Ok there were a few fatal errors last night:
#1 (memory full)   HOST problem, will work with Janet on this tomarrow
#3 (LRC error) Nancy had pilot error. A patch has been inserted to prevent this.
#4 (missing image) Still working on this.
I inserted lrc checking at the sector level, and discovered that we are
getting errors! Worked to determine cause for 5+hrs.
effect: If a sector lrc error ocurrs (differing freq with different machines),
	we will retry to load that sector.

May 28th

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Thu May 28 08:39:47 1987
Received: by moth; 28 MAY 87 08:39:47 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, quantum
Subject: latest ARFS
Status: RO

ARFs thru 5/28: (version 5.2/5.2a tested)

2B   cr #190 ESP does not work when pointing to oracle (same for BBox)
1A   jcr #191 FE#1 (mem full) avatars being allowed to dghost in full regions
-- D   #192 Nancy have FE#3 (LRC). User error. Dumped to Object Disk.
		(routines patched to prevent recurrence)
-- D   #193 Super trap patterns corrupted. FIXED 5.2b.
       #194 dup #191
2A   r #195 Camera, Lights, Stereo, Sec Dev cause problems async.
1A T j #196 Could not return to PC after FE#1. FIXED
       #197 dup #191
       #198 Long time to initialize (Habitat logo screen)
2A T r #199 Bahia was unable to return to PC. (disk routines improved)
       #200 dup #191
       #201 dup #196
       #202 dup #195
       #203 dup #195
??   r #204 Janet had strange meltdown (awaiting tape)
       #205 dup #196
       #206 dup #191
       #207 dup #193
       #208 dup #193

June 1987

June 1st

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Mon Jun  1 15:48:10 1987
Received: by moth; 01 JUN 87 15:48:10 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Status
Status: RO

Today:
	Finished and tested Habitat 5.3.
	This Version has ALL pre-Alpha tasks complete on it, subject
	to testing.
Tomarrow:
	Organize Phase 1 Playtest.
	Do 5.3 release notes
	Look at Beta Tasks and Prioritize.

June 2nd

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Tue Jun  2 08:17:42 1987
Received: by moth; 02 JUN 87 08:17:42 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, quantum, wendy
Subject: Habitat 5.3
Status: RO

Habitat version 5.3:

SMALL SCALE TEST TONIGHT.

The good news:
	According to our list 5.3 has all Alpha items complete (some in test)

Exaustive list of changes:
Keyboard echos under interrupt (need through testing:messages/mail)
Problems with generic_broadcast fixed (accounts for #173 Janets meldown)
Stereo, Camera, Flashlights should all be working properly now
The C64 will no longer issue 'unexpected' commands because of throttle delays.
Disk routines now internally check LRC, and retry if bad.
'to:user' works when pointing to teleport if not adj or not active
Corrupted wall/pillar patterns fixed.

Host:
actions_switch fixed.
AskOracle changed to cope with 'to:'

June 4th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Thu Jun  4 10:16:16 1987
Received: by moth; 04 JUN 87 10:16:16 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Habistat
Status: R


Thru Today:
	#104 in test
	#122 in test
	Fixed problems with new KB stuff & text interface (test tonight)
	#172 in test
	#46 designing solution.
	Distribute 5.3a for test tonight.
	Talk to Mikey/Commedore re:hardware problems (we are on it's trail!)
	see nifty 3d demo

Tomarrow:
	meet with Telenet re:X.25
	Fix #46. (Note: Last duplicateable pre-Beta Bug)
	review test Arfs (if any).
	Fix important broken stuff on ARFs.
	report of Hardware progress.

June 5th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Fri Jun  5 14:17:51 1987
Received: by moth; 05 JUN 87 14:17:51 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: Re:  Habistat
Status: RO

Today:
	met with telenet people
	fixed (first pass..in test) #46.
	posted test results & fixed only reported C64 bug.

Not Done:
	hardware report: I still havn't heard from the guy at Commedore.
		(2 calls in...)

Monday:
	fix whatever bugs found over the weekend.
	try Commedore again.
	Review tasklist and find whatever there is to do.

Taken from notes.t 

From chip Fri Jun  5 14:54:36 1987
Received: by moth; 05 JUN 87 14:54:36 PDT
From: chip (Chip Morningstar -- "Software Without Moving Parts")
To: aric, chip, farmer, nancy, sda
Subject: The scoop on Telenet
Status: R

As y'all know, we were visited this morning by Carol Brown and Tom Cramer from
Telenet.  They gave Randy and I the detailed scoop on their service and they
left me with a bunch of literature.  The bottom line is that it's pretty
expensive, but there are a lot of options to explore.  The price comes in
several pieces:

I. Accounting charge
	$140/month independent of the number of connections or volume of use.

II. "DAF" (Dedicated Access Facility).
	This is the physical connection to their system.  Included in this is
a dedicated leased line to their San Francisco node, all the wiring into our
plant, modems on both ends of the line, and dedicated access to a port on
their node.  The price varies somewhat with the bandwidth of the connection.
For our purposes the best price/performance tradeoff seems to be at around
9600 baud.  Cost for this is a one-time installation charge of $1200 plus
$1524/month.

III. Traffic charges
	These are billed in units that they call "segments".  A segment is
a chunk of up to 64 bytes of transmitted data.  These cost $1.40 per thousand
(i.e., $1.40 for each 64K bytes of data sent).  There is a 50% discount for
use during non-prime-time hours (ie., after 6pm).  This cost is
distance-independent -- i.e., it doesn't matter how far you are sending the
data.

IV. Dial-in charges
	If we choose to allow dial-in to our system through Telenet, there is
a per-minute charge that varies according to the type of node that you are
connected to.  They classify their nodes 'A', 'B' or 'C' depending on the
level of traffic.  'A' nodes are found in big cities like San Francisco or
Washington, D.C..  'B' nodes are places like Palo Alto or Buffalo.  'C' nodes
are places like San Rafael or Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Charge varies from around
$5.25/hour for an 'A' node to around $12.50/hour for a 'C' node.  As with
traffic charges, there is a 50% rakeoff for off-hours use.

In addition, we would need to have an X.25 interface on one of our Suns or
Vaxes here.  I'm not sure about the cost, but my guess is that it would be in
the $1000 to $3000 range.  Also, we would still need to obtain some sort of
file transfer protocol software to communicate data with Quanum, since our
computers and theirs have incompatible operating systems.  A call to Sun is
probably in order if we want to pursue this further.

These prices appear to be prohibitive if we were to install such a connection
exclusively for the benefit of Habitat (at least until Habitat becomes a MUCH
bigger deal).  However, there may be additional ways to justify the cost.  For
example, it appears that the company could save about 80% on Telex costs by
hooking to CCI through Telenet rather than by phone.  This is certainly not
enough by itself to recover the cost of the Telenet connection, but it's an
example of the sort of thing we can look for.  The Telenet sales people were
real gung-ho on other uses of their services, such as connecting directly to
OAG to save money on travel arrangements or providing E-mail services to
communicate with productions in remote locations (since Telenet is
international).  I dunno about these, but it probably couldn't hurt to nose
around the company and see what folks could use.  My feeling is that Habitat
really, REALLY wants this, but can't justify it on the basis of current cost.

June 8th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Mon Jun  8 08:34:28 1987
Received: by moth; 08 JUN 87 08:34:28 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Today.
Status: RO


Since the Stratus is down today, while it is being moved to a new building:
I have implemented (C64 side only) the Habitat Kernal Commands
CHANGE_CONTAINERS and PROMPT_USER. These should greatly expand the future power
of Habitat, and online utilities.
Detailed specs mailed seperately.

I will be leaving at 3:00 today.

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Mon Jun  8 08:46:01 1987
Received: by moth; 08 JUN 87 08:46:01 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: aric, chip
Cc: farmer
Subject: New Habitat Commands
Status: RO


Change Containers is an asynchronous command (19) addressed at the region

Parameters: Noid, New Container Noid, New X Position, New Y Position.
	(Note a CHANGE containers call WILL re-render the screen)
	(Note this should NEVER be used to remove a living avatars
		contents from his head/hands/pocket as that avatar
		may be trying to manipulate that object himself.)

Prompt User is an asynchronous command (20) addressed at the region

Parameters: Prompt string (will appear on command line).

	This function will cause the C64 to send the user response
	to the region, using a PROMPT_REPLY message (7). This should
	do exacly what we want in regaurds to sending arbitrary text
	commands to the host. The commands will be sent by whatever (magic?)
	class, and the results will be interpreted in class_region. I
	suggest that EACH Prompt User call use completely unique text to keep
	intepretation as simple as possible (the text should conatin a
	std delimiter ':' would be nice).

June 9th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Tue Jun  9 07:30:42 1987
Received: by moth; 09 JUN 87 07:30:42 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
Cc: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Status
Status: RO


Monday:
	learned plex & statred definition for QuantumGrad (6000turf city)
	worked on Telecom space game concept document.
	implemented 2 new habitat kernal commands
	was unable to test program because Stratus was down durin move.
	(Also, attempted to test at night, but Stratus was SICKLY slow.)

Tuesday:
	Test an release 5.4 (if possible)
	Test new features.
	Polish off concept document with Noah, and submit to some others.
	Work more on QuantumGrad
	Bug Commendore AGAIN re: hardware.

June 10th

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Wed Jun 10 10:16:15 1987
Received: by moth; 10 JUN 87 10:16:15 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, quantum
Subject: Habitat 5.4
Status: RO

Habitat version 5.4 6-10-87:


The good news:
	According to our list,5.4 has all Beta C64 items complete or in test

Exaustive list of changes:
C64 can now cope with the 'death-while-awaiting-reply' condition.
Two new REGION kernal commands have been added (in test):
	CHANGE_CONTAINERS 	19, an arbitrary change of containership
	PROMPT_USER		20, command promts user on text line

Host:
No Changes. (but some of the grabthese files were not grabbed last release)

June 11th

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Thu Jun 11 09:22:08 1987
Received: by moth; 11 JUN 87 09:22:08 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, quantum
Subject: Habitat Hardware
Status: R

Here is the latest status (as of Tuesday) re: C64 hardware problems.

I (thru Janet) have been in contact with Jim Gracely at commedore about
the problems Habitat is having on some C64s. He listed 3 problems he
'knew' about (i.e. people had reported.). Jim was/is affiliated with
a C64 magazine, and is NOT a C64 tech proper.

	1) There were 2 versions of the VIC-II chip, there is a inconsistency
		on how the MSB of the raster Interrupt is handled.
		(Habitat accounts for this. No Problem for us.)

	2) It is possible to overload the on-chip interrupt stack. This
		has actually happend to other applications. Symtom: The
		screen interrupts would die (meltdown).
		(I told jim what interrupt sources we have, he is
		investigating with C64 techs whether SOME machines might
		have a problem with all our interrupt sources.)

	3) 'Ram under BASIC might could get corrupted.' To his knowledge,
		this has only happened to 'Jumpman'. IF this can happen
		AND we can't program around it, it would be a problem.
		(We need that 8k Under Basic! read:a 64k machine with only
		56k working is DEFECTIVE.)
		(I have Jumpman's designer's name and phone#. Will
		call him ASAP.)

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Thu Jun 11 09:27:23 1987
Received: by moth; 11 JUN 87 09:27:23 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: status
Status: R


Yesterday:
	released 5.4
	Worked on quantumgrad
	designed and uploaded a New Capture The Flag entry region (DONE!)
	kbitzed about plex with chip

today:
	more quantumgrad
	more plex kbitzing
	prepare for tonights playtest
	look into #x29 with aric

June 15th

Taken from notes.t 

From farmer Mon Jun 15 14:34:32 1987
Received: by moth; 15 JUN 87 14:34:32 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: 5.4 tes
Status: RO

There will be a playtest of version 5.5 tomarrow.
What will make version 5.5 different?
1) People will be able to dump to disk EVEN if comminucations is hung.
		(to help debug this problem that showed with 5.4)
2) In our ommunications with C64, an ex-techie thinks he knows why
	Habitat ,ay be creashing..it has to to with mixed modes & sprites.
	Anyway, I will install a patch per his instructions.
3) A minor problem with the head hack (causing FE#4s) has been fixed
4) Some new images will be availible.

Nothing, just getting the data we need to decide if we are ready for Alpha.

From nancy Mon Jun 15 20:16:48 1987
Received: from kessel by moth; 15 JUN 87 20:16:48 PDT
From: nancy (Nancy Mohler)
To: aric, chip, farmer
Cc: nancy, sda
Received: by kessel; 15 JUN 87 20:16:45 PDT
Subject: HabiTeam 6/12
Status: RO

6/12 Habitat team meeting notes--

5.4 was playtested Thursday night, still evaluating results.
--animation glitch tape coming (Janet saw flashing s, have to do w/tokens?)
--communications problem tape coming (Rob survived when the other 5 went
into a communications loop)
--lights being fixed (Jo's flishlight in sewer, probably
host-based--checkpoint region for light level changes?)
--2 minor arf's from Chip
  1) improve paper help
  2) don't remember, bringing in notes from home
--sound glitch noted but likely to be left as is (lose one voice of the
three during one in 256 region transitions)

Only known remaining pre-alpha bug is the communications problem.  Will
determine Monday from the tape how serious it is.


Organization of playtests to be clarified (Cathy & Nancy noted apparent lack
of leadership).  Randy & Janet will pre-plan.


Plan for next week:
Chip--Plex (pretty much done, adding features as Randy uses it) plus more
Ghu.  Integrate Plex, Riddle & host database.  Work with Gary on new artwork.

Randy--evaluate tapes from 5.4 playtest & debug communications problem.
Continue generating Quantumgrad.  Continue seeking info on hardware
compatibility.

Aric--evaluate tape & debug animation glitch.  Mostly on Blackhawk.


Remaining pre-release world generation:
(Chip will distribute updated old-format task list, reviewing those during
beta & pre-release tasks.)
--need 7 cities to handle 20,000 accounts.  Pop. done.  Quantumgrad expected
to take 2 more weeks (6/26).  Given tools developed during generation of
Quantumgrad, then expect need about 2 days per city or 2 more weeks (7/10).
--also expect to complete the stock market, Capture-The-Flag, and arcades.
--"below the line" world generation that will likely be completed prior to
release is a magic castle and more board games.


Next steps:
1. Randy evaluate communications problem--may require another "technical
test".
2. Given comm bug fix, Randy & Janet will organize 16 person pre-alpha test.


Next team meeting will be 9:30 Friday morning, 6/19.

June 17th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Wed Jun 17 17:44:54 1987
Received: by moth; 17 JUN 87 17:44:54 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Status
Status: R


Thru Today:
	Worked on Habitat 5.6:
	Re balanced interrupts to attempt to cope with BAD VIC chips.
	Finish work (testing tonight) that gets us 1024byte more heap!
	Attended Robots Meeting

Tomarrow:
	Summarize test results (BOTH tests)
	Provide 'large-scale-test-confidence-factor' agrreed with Janet.
	Release 5.6
	Use Ghu's new region=> rdl facility to get fixed regions
		back on moth.
	Design apt building generic hallways

July 1987

July 21st

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Tue Jul 21 07:26:44 1987
Received: by moth; 21 JUL 87 07:26:44 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Status
Status: RO


Thru Monday:
	Helped ron with Maniac (1/2 day)
	Geared up for a 14+ player playtest!
	Fixed two problems with 5.9: Sounds & Paper-pointer-offscreen
	Started Apartment Generation

Today:
	Make sure Maniac (Apple) works
	Lay our more Quantumgrad regions (Kebitz with Chip)

July 23rd

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Thu Jul 23 15:26:58 1987
Received: by moth; 23 JUL 87 15:26:58 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Status
Status: R


Today:
	Did all Class test
Tomarrow:
	Fix all the C64 bugs.
	Release rev 6.0

August 1987

August 18th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Tue Aug 18 10:06:55 1987
Received: by moth; 18 AUG 87 10:06:55 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: more arfs
Status: RO

AFS recived 08-17, for playtesting 8/12 and 8/13

Beren:
D T	0812-1 Auto teleport 1/2s tokens (fixed)
2B c r	0812-2 If you hand an object to a sitting avatar, it stands.
1B W r	0812-3 On/off lights does not work right in paper interface.

Cathleen:
C	0812-4 Had a long (over 1 min) initial region load.
1B r	0812-5 immobile magic DO should do implied GO.
1A r	0812-6 still able to leave Backgammon #2 with game piece.
?	0812-7 PE? says whe lost a token during teleport (?)
?	0812-8 PE. A user 'winked' (left and came back fast)
?	0812-9 PE? Cathy couldn't GO to the pond. (collision with tree?)
?	0812-10 PE. Had problem putting token in pocket (cathy)
?	0812-11 PE. Tried to walk to the 'ground' above horizon"No way to go"
C	0812-12 Text window flashes.
C	0812-13 All multy page texts should signify (in text) "The End"

Chris:
1A j r	0812-14 FE #7 (there were 3 of these,2 dumped,and both caused by host)

Ariana1:
2B r a 	0813-1 Some turfs have flowers on top of dresser (move/remove them)
2B r a	0813-2 The New You needs a "MORE ->" sign
1A j	0813-3 Regionproc Crash.

Bahia:
1A T c	0813-4 It is possible to 'get' an open box! (fixed)
	0813-5 dup 0813-3
C	0813-6 Colorblind people have problems with word balloons.
C	0813-7 Had problems putting token in pocket

Janet:
1B j r	0813-8/9 Had problems grabbing objects (had something in hand,I bet)
1A j	0813-10 FE#7 (Host send talk message from non-exist noid!)
	0813-11 dup 0813-3

August 20th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Thu Aug 20 14:50:08 1987
Received: by moth; 20 AUG 87 14:50:08 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Announcing
Status: RO


The Amulet Of Wonderous Worth (Dnalsi Island)
The Tome of Wealth and Fame (the game begins TODAY!)
The 1st Habitat Region Rally
are all functional and ready to install (10 seconds installation each.)

Comming tomarrow:
The Plaque of Cooties!

Comming in the following weeks:
The Habitat Stock Exchange
Capture the Flag

August 21st

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Fri Aug 21 10:47:31 1987
Received: by moth; 21 AUG 87 10:47:31 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda
Subject: Now operational
Status: RO


The Cooties Plague is now available for testing in Habitat,
(I replaced the Capture the Flag region with "DON'T PRESS THIS BUTTON!")
heh heh

August 28th

Taken from randy.t 

From farmer Fri Aug 28 13:06:55 1987
Received: by moth; 28 AUG 87 13:06:55 PDT
From: farmer (Randall Farmer) (What do you mean ARTIFICIAL intelligence?)
To: farmer,chip,aric,nancy,sda, wendy
Subject: Day Off
Status: RO

I will be taking Friday the 4th of September off.
I am going to LA for the Holiday Weekend.

September 1987

September 18th

Taken from gregp. 

From chip Fri Sep 18 13:12:58 1987
Subject: Greg P
Did you see my Stratus mail message from last night?

It is clear that Greg is seriously disturbed here.  Someone online last night
(I think it may have been Becky) said that he had some upset in his personal
life that had him really down.  Frankly, I'm concerned.

Somehow we need to communicate the following points, not just to Greg,
although he seems to be the one who needs it most.  In order from least
important to most important:

1) The major areas of social contact in the world, namely the cities, consist
of regions that are both weapons-free and theft-free.  The most gross abuses
of civilized behavior are therefor eminently avoidable for those who wish to
avoid them.

2) This is not reality.  This is fantasy.  This is a game.  Don't lose sight
of the idea that the perpose of this place is entertainment.  What happens
here has little if any bearing on the real world.  If one Avatar steals from
another, the real-world impact is nil.  (It is legitimate to raise the
question of what lesson we are teaching, but that is another issue which I
believe is covered by the remaining points).

3) I believe in the old idea (common in a lot of Christian thinking) that
there is no life without at least the potential for death.  In order for
existence to be meaningful there needs to be a state of non-existence to
contrast it to.  Note that "death" in Habitat is a transitory thing and does
not really reflect ultimate obliteration in the way that death in the real
world does.  It does, however, give one cause to value one's person and
property.  Similarly, a piece of property only has value by virtue of the
degree to which it is distinguishable from other pieces of property.  Once you
have any concept of value, there exists the potential for unethical usurpation
of the basis of that value.  While we can prevent certain specific infractions
(i.e., taking something out of someone else's hands), ultimately there is no
way to guard against this.  On the other hand, if there was no concept of
value, the world would be homogeneous and therefor uninteresting.

4) The very notions of morality and ethics are human concepts.  Consider, for
a moment, what sort of world we would live in if there was a god that enforced
moral standards as natural law.  The very idea of right and wrong would not
exist in such a universe.  Why, then, should people appeal to such a god in
Habitat?  Because (a) they think it is possible, and (b) they have brought
their notions of good and evil with them from the external world.  However,
the Oracle fundamentally cannot enforce moral codes, even if we could all
agree on what code should be the standard, which we cannot.  The moral
standards must therefor be chosen and enforced by the community itself.
Instead of appealing to the Oracle to be the magical omnipotent lawgiver,
policeman and judge, people should join together to form a society which is
able to establish its own standards of conduct.  Since Avatars can effect each
another in numerous ways, of which "killing" is but one among many,
communities of Avatars can enforce their standards with various sanctions,
just as people do in the real world.  We encourage everyone to do this, and
are interested in suggestions for ways the system can support this process
(e.g., the "gate" object).  I would also advocate that there should always be
some "lawless" territories, both to provide contrast and so that there is a
place for the inevitable misfits to go.

By the way, isn't Greg P the one who wanted to start the church?  Perhaps we
can encourage him to be the nucleus around which a community can form.  He
doesn't have to be the leader, but by promoting a doctrine of tolerance and
gentleness he can certainly help push things in the right direction.

December 1987

December 11th

Taken from robreqs.t. 

To: Steve Arnold
From: Chip Morningstar
Date: December 11, 1987
Re: Rob & Janet's item/question memo of 12/7

As you requested, here is an item-by-item status report in response to Rob &
Janet's memo of 12/7/87: (I've quoted the memo literally on the lines
beginning with ">".)

>Here is a list of all outstanding items we have on record, not including
>three of the four "meta-problems" (heartbeat/protocol disconnect, PC
>loader, memory hits) or manifestations of them as near as we can judge.
>The fourth meta-problem, "messages to non-existing noids," we believe to
>be a problem with auto-teleport, which we'll continue to test

The "messages to non-existing noids" problem was indeed in the auto-teleport
routine and is fixed as of 10/30 (version 6.4).  Of the other three, the
"memory hits" problem turned out to be a bug in the bottle object and was also
fixed as of 10/30 in version 6.4.

>SYSTEM

>Needs testing
>-------------
>Auto-teleport -- dying, some Choke machines, wands
	As mentioned above, this is fixed in version 6.4 as of 10/30 (ver 6.4
	release notes, 11/10)
>GO/F3 collision (next rev)
	Fixed in version Beta 1.0 as of 12/9
>Error recovery for disk routines (next rev)
	Installed in version Beta 1.0 as of 12/9
>FE3 (JoeyT1)
	Since we do not have a dump disk for this problem, we cannot give a
	100% assured diagnosis.  However, reasoning from the circumstances
	surrounding it, our hypothesis is that it is the same problem as the
	GO/F3 collision bug mentioned above and the FE#13 that RJScott had.
>FE13 (RJScott)
	This turned out to be a result of the very same problem as the GO/F3
	collision bug, and so is fixed.

>Requires disk change (status uncertain)
>---------------------------------------
	Almost all of these are host problems or changes, not disk based.

>PUTing to a sitting Avatar makes it stand (9/10; #62)
	This is a host only bug, fixed as of 11/11
>New entries to regions don't show the state of an avatar
	There was a problem with this once upon a time (prior to our keeping
	the current bug database).  We believe it is fixed (was host bug).
	There have been	no reports of this happening for as far back as our
	database goes.
>Lamps are awfully wide (9/10; #94 sorta)
	We aren't sure what this means.  If Quantum wants us to change the
	collision detection parameters for the streetlamp we can do so easily.
	If so, it would be a host only change.
>Ticket DO hangs 64 (9/10; #85)
	Our records show this as being fixed as of 9/2
>Grenade doesn't work (9/10; #81)
	Working as of 11/11 (host only change).
>Ring looks like a pill (9/10; #86)
	We decided that the ring is sufficiently different that we don't need
	to mess with changing the image.
>Cursor turned into PUT icon in text interface (11/4; #500)
	We wrote this one off as a mystery on 10/12.  Lord Bolan (to whom this
	happened) had a number of odd things happen to only him, leading us to
	suspect his machine.  We have kept our eyes open for recurrences;
	there haven't been any.
>Command lockout turing GO while able to receive ESP, etc. (11/4; #374)
	Another weird Lord Bolan thing.
>Blank paper with written graphic state (9/10; #128)
	Fixed (on host) as of 10/12
>Random sign appearances (12/2; #696)
	Operator boo-boo while using Ghu; accidently moved wrong item.
>Shrunk to smallest size on 'porting home (12/2; #691)
	Currently on our working bug list.
>Grab from left-hand side doesn't always work (9/10; #26)
	Confusion resulting from collision detection; not a bug.

>Disk questions
>--------------
>On DOs that include GO, should avatars face cursor on arrival? (9/10; #64)
	GO is set up so that avatar is always facing in proper direction on
	arrival.  Sometimes this is facing cursor, sometimes not.
>Should all DOs include GOs? (9/10; #95)
	No.  In many cases the semantics of the DO operation makes this
	impossible.  Where it is possible, we do so.
>Do chairs work easily (i.e., GO from chair with one push?)
	Yes.
>Does Help work while seated? (9/10; #31)
	No.  The only thing you can do while seated is talk or GO.  It would
	be nice if you could do HELP while seated, but this would require some
	fairly hairy changes to the command interface routines, so we decided
	not to, in the interest of moving things forward.
>Follow command? (12/2; #190)
	This has been an on-again/off-again feature.  We need to make a final
	decision as to whether or not to implement this.  Our feeling here is
	that it is probably not needed, and we have the impression that the
	consensus at Quantum is similar; however, we need to decide.  If we do
	decide to implement this, the changes will be entirely host based.
>Does adding the ability to make objects prompt users require disk changes?
>(9/10; #9)
	Yes, but the changes have already been made.  They were installed in
	version 6.4 and have been tested.

>Host problems
>-------------
>Lights (both floor and flash/torch) do not consistently work (12/2,
>		comments -- 9/2, #96, #109 -- 11/4, #305)
	They should work now.  There were a couple of weird interacting host
	software problems, the last of which was fixed 11/19, as well as a
	systematic error in the database which was corrected on 12/4
>Cloning & prices on vendos -- are we sure they're right?
	We did a thorough check on all vendo prices and they are all correct.
>Title page/index for books (12/2; #104)
	It was the Book of Records in particular that required the index
	(which needed to be generated by the program that generates that
	particular document).  Janet implemented this as of 12/8.
>Finish 'port, town and region help names for regions (10/12; #9)
	(Actually item #194).  Port and town help arrows are in as of 11/19;
	we currently have the testers hunting for the inevitable mistakes.
	Names are installed in the residential areas and are being added to
	the other areas incrementally.
>Fix 'port directory
	We have an all-new teleport directory as of 11/14
>Drugs need to have help effect, pill count (9/10; #79)
	Done as of 11/11
>Heads have no resale value (9/10; #30)
	Fixed
>Some turfs have flowers on dressers which can be GETed but not PUT (9/10;
>		#72)
	Our records show this being fixed as of 9/3.
>Should Costello's be hooked to sewers? (9/10; #56)
	No it shouldn't.  Our records show it was disconnected as of 9/2.
>Move sewer so de-ghosts don't stand on it (9/10; #101)
	Our records show this being fixed as of 9/3.
>Should we de-ghost on login? (12/2; #29)
	We think we should, but a decision needs to be made.  If we do it,
	Janet is the one who will have to implement it.
>Add a type field to 'crats to allow customized responses (9/10; #202)
	Upon reflection we concluded that this was unnecessary.
>Put apartment tape online and test (10/12; #11)
	Final rev. of apartement installed on 12/9.  Requires Beta 1.0
	software to work properly (there was a bug in the elevator).
>Change all countertops to...something else (10/12; #82)
	As of 11/11 all countertops work just like tables.
>Two mail in pocket messages for one piece of mail (10/12; #222)
	Fixed as of 10/30 (host change by Janet).

>Manual changes
>--------------
>Revise to be current with Beta Release
	Version of manual sent 12/7 accurately describes Beta 1.0 system.
>Include graphic symbols/CTRL keys
>Index
	These can be added.  We'll need to redesign the page layout however,
	since these will add a few pages.
>Is there a current map of downtown?
	Yes, but not in a distributable form.
>Should we explain how tables, bookcases and dressers are containers?
	I don't know.  Should we?
>Should Jan gather as much as we know about configuration requirements?
	This would probably be wise.
>A little clearer about 'port booths, mebbe
	We will take a look at it.  What in particular needs clarification?

>Ghu
>---
>QL Rep (Rob) proficient enought to implement basic programming (10/12)
	Rob is the judge of this.
>Are there any docs on the macro language?
	Yes.  The document we sent to Quantum describes the macro features
	fully.
>Make Oracle fully functional & accessible
>Can GHU handle Oracle requests?
	Oracle handling is now implemented in Ghu.  We will send a revised
	edition of the manual that describes the relevent commands.
>Can GHU hand Rant publishing?
	Yes.  Text handling features are now implemented.  These will also be
	described in the new edition of the manual.
>Is it, in short, fully functional?
	Yes.  However, we would like to consult with Quantum about what
	protection features are required, if any, to prevent unauthorized
	mangling of the database or invasions of privacy accomplished via Ghu.
>Can (does?) GHU show memory usage in a region?
	No.
>Loops
	The version of Ghu originally released to Quantum had a looping
	feature.  We have since made this feature somewhat more general and
	this improvement is described in the latest edition of the manual.
>Can I search for items of a specific class?
	Yes, but it is very inefficient, since it requires iterating through
	the entire database.  If we were to make the class field a database
	key then we could do this more efficiently.  Janet?

>Things to do (Definition of Public Release Habitat System Document)
>-------------
>D'nalsi Island
	Ready to go on 30 seconds notice.
>Capture the Flag
	We are awaiting a chance to test this on a limited scale before
	pursuing a larger development effort.  Testing it, however, requires
	more users than we have typically had on.
>Cooties
	Working.
>Machiavelli
	Could use further design work.  Does not require any software
	developement, however.
>Stock Market
	We have a design, but need to set priorities since it will require
	some host software work.
>Talk Shows
>Game Shows
>Bijou Theatre
>Costello's Comedy Corner
	These are ready to go.  We have designed some magic items that will
	make the operation of theatrical activities a little easier, but they
	are luxuries.

>Items
>-----
>copy machine (12/2; #11 -- 4/29; #27)
>book binder (12/2; #11 -- 4/29; #28)
	These require host software that does not yet exist.  The C64 end is
	in as of version Beta 1.0
>Customizer: 4-5 selections of heads -- host chooses vector (4/29; #23)
	Done in hatchery long, long ago.
>Determine powers and privileges of Adventure Masters (3/2; #28)
>Write Guidebook to the Oracle (3/2; #48)
>Design batch transactions (3/2; #71)
	We need to work out operations plans in order to determine the
	relevence of these items.
>Make region entry smarter (doors, etc.) (3/2; #110)
>Add textual error messages (3/2; #117)
>Write help messages for magic items (3/2; #118)
	Ancient history; done.
>Implement Apartment Generator (3/2; #55)
	Done.
>Implement Adventure Master support software (3/2; #63)
	See above comment on Adventure Masters.
>Position on compatibility with 1581 (10/12; #2)
	We need a 1581 and detailed documentation on it.

November 1989

November 28th

Taken from habitat. 

From oster%SOE.Berkeley.EDU@jade.berkeley.edu Tue Nov 28 01:13:16 1989
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Date: Mon, 27 Nov 89 22:48:07 PST
From: oster%SOE.Berkeley.EDU@jade.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
Message-Id: <8911280648.AA04939@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu>
To: randy@xanadu.com
Subject: Re: habitat
Status: R

I am an expert Macintosh programmer. You met me at the Hacker's 5. (I was
standing next to Vernor Vinge.) I'd like to get in on cyberspace, if
you are looking for talent.

> The mac is a detour in the inevitable march of mediocre computers.
> drs@bnlux0.bnl.gov (David R. Stampf)
--- David Phillip Oster          -master of the ad hoc odd hack. 
Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu 
Uucp: {uwvax,decvax}!ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu
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