[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Absence due to personal illness has dropped twenty-seven percent over the last two months. There have
been no "Bitch to the Top" submissions from my department in the last four months.
The cause of this high morale rests with one programmer in our department, Morris Hazeldorf, the
inventor of Zorphwar. While I admit that his shaggy hair and unkempt personal attire might turn you off
on first encounter, Morris is an extremely bright and able young man. Single-handed, he programmed the
entire HAFAS (Hierarchical Accounting File Access System). And in his spare time over the past year,
Morris has been creating Zorphwar, an exciting game that operates on our system.
To give you an idea of the creativity of this young man, I have arranged for Zorphwar to be made
available to you on the Executive Interactive Display Terminal in your office. After you dial into the
Computer Center, simply type "ZORPH" to gain access to the game.
Let me give you a quick rundown of this exciting interactive game. It is the year 2783. Man has
reached out to settle thousands of planets scattered across the galaxy. Then, suddenly, the galaxy is
invaded by a horde of alien beings, the Zorphs. They enslave all planets in their path. Those that resist are
destroyed without mercy. You, as Captain of the Avenger, the great Terran warship, will range
interstellar space, seeking out and destroying the forces of Zorph.
On your screen you will be given a display of your current sector of the galaxy and the stars in that
sector. You may fire off laser probes to determine the location of Zorph warships. You have a number of
weapons at your disposal including quantum rays, antimatter missiles and, for desperate situations,
doomsday torpedoes. Your ship is protected by shields against any attack, but you must be careful to
maintain your energy supply. Any Zorphs in your sector will attack you and each attack will use up some
of your reserve energy. If your energy is depleted, your shields fail and the next Zorph attack destroys
you. You can replenish your energy reserve by returning to a friendly base. You can hop sectors using
hyperspace, al-
though void storms may toss you about a bit in space and time. In addition, you will have to handle a
variety of problems with your ship such as invasion by mind-warping beings, power-system failure, and
occasional crew mutinies. The console commands that control your warship are simple and are given in
the attached instructions being transmitted to your local printout facility.
Now do not get the idea that everyone here is simply sitting around playing Zorphwar. That is far
from the case. While our schedules have slipped a bit in the last couple of months, morale is at an all-time
high. With a crew of satisfied programmers, I feel there is nothing we cannot accomplish.
Finally, before you make any snap judgments, I ask that you log in on your console and try
Zorphwar. Good hunting!
Megalo Network Message: June 30, 1977
Source: P. T. Warrington
Destination: W. S. Halson
Subject: Promotion to Fleet Captain
Bill Buddy: As stated on Page 12 of the Zorphwar Handbook, any Captain completing six
consecutive successful missions against the Zorphs is entitled to promotion to Fleet Captain. If you will
check my War Record File, you will discover that I destroyed all Zorphs in the galaxy in the six games I
played yesterday afternoon. Please send along whatever certificate you have to indicate my Fleet Captain
status.
As for schedules, I have discussed the matter with JX. and demonstrated Zorphwar to him. Both of
us are in entire agreement with your analysis. Maintaining morale is one of our primary goals, and we are
sure you have things under control. J.L. is, by the way, interested in access to Zorphwar on his own
executive terminal. I trust that you will see to the necessary arrangements.
As for the exception reports triggered by your schedule slippage, J.L. has signed off on the necessary
forms to justify a new schedule. We have doubled the expected times required to complete phases four
through seven. While this stretches out the predicted completion for Project 8723 by two years, we feel
that you people are doing important work in other areas and should not be forced to produce a program
of use only to those uptight jokers hi Accounting.
Now I must get back to Zorphwar. Twenty more successful missions, and I move up to Sector
Commandant!
Megalo Network Message: July 6, 1977
Source: W.S. Halson
Destination: P. T. Warrington
Subject: Enclosed Certificate
Congratulations, Fleet Captain! I am pleased to transmit to the facsimile printer in your area a copy
of your certificate suitable for framing and wall display. Note that it is a fine example of
computer-generated art, a project that a couple of my people have been working on for the last six
months.
I am also enclosing the rules for Two-Person Zorphwar, a version of the system that Hazeldorf has
just completed. Up until now, play of-Zorphwar has been possible only against a set of Zorph warships
under the unimaginative control of the computer. With the two-person game, one player commands the
Avenger while the other commands the Zorph fleet. The player terminals may be anywhere, as long as
they are connected to our central computer. Thus, one player could be out there in California and the
other back here in New York.
Megalo Network Message: July 13, 1977
Source: P. T. Warrington
Destination: W. S. Halson
Subject: Doom of Warship Avenger
Earthling Swine! I, Parker, Emperor and Commander and Chief of the Hordes of Zorph, do here
give warning. Tomorrow afternoon at 14:00 hours I shall commence the obliteration of all decadent
hu-manoid pigs in my galaxy. Be at your console at the appointed hour! You are forewarned but
foredoomed.
Megalo Network Message: July 15, 1977
Source: W. S. Halson Destination: P. T. Warrington Subject: Zorphwar Exposure Park Baby, I think
we have a problem. That was a great game of Zorphwar we had yesterday, and I most commend yon on
how well you handled the forces of Zorph. It was a challenge all the way, and if I had not been on my
toes, your final desperate tactic of launching an twelve thousand of your doomsday torpedoes would
have destroyed me. However, when you made your attack, I was safely docked at a base star and thus
protected by its powerful energy screens. Your attack succeeded only in wiping out the remnants of your
own forces.
Unfortunately, launching twelve thousand torpedoes simultaneously put a serious overload on our
computer system. Zorphwar runs at A-l priority on our machine, which means that any other use of the
machine is halted while Zorphwar computations are completed. As you may have noticed, it took
approximately forty minutes for the machine to compute the paths through the galaxy of those torpedoes,
to determine their impact points, and to calculate the radius of destruction of each burst. Normally such
overloads are handled by adjusting the work load in the Computer Center. However, at three thirty
yesterday, the Center was in the midst of printing the paychecks for the entire Computer Products
Division. The little delay our game occasioned upset the very tight schedule for that operation. As a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]