On 2009-11-01, James Edward Gray II <james / graysoftinc.com> wrote: > On Oct 31, 2009, at 6:23 PM, Daniel Moore wrote: >> Back in the microcomputer age, there was a fascinating little game >> called Hamurabi (no, that isn't a typo - there was an eight character >> limit). The game mechanics were pretty simple: you were the ruler of a >> kingdom, and every year you had to decide what proportion of your >> grain to allocate to planting, and what proportion to feeding the >> people. The game engine would then set up the formulae, toss in a few >> random numbers and simulate your crop and population growth. For all >> its simplicity, though, it was a lot of fun to play, and oddly >> compulsive. Oh, man! I remember that. There was one for the econ students at St. Olaf loooong ago, I actually wrote my own from scratch once. In mine, there were also woolen mills (or, in an early version, wollen mills -- I speld ril gud as a kid), and the win condition was to have a given amount of land, plus enough bolts of fabric to make wedding dresses for your population, and enough people that you could have hundreds of happy families. (The question of whether wool was a good choice for a wedding dress was never answered). > I wrote a super minimal BASIC interpreter to avoid translating the > code. (Yes, I am aware that's insane. I'll seek help.) It's a good kind of crazy. -s -- Copyright 2009, all wrongs reversed. Peter Seebach / usenet-nospam / seebs.net http://www.seebs.net/log/ <-- lawsuits, religion, and funny pictures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Game_(Scientology) <-- get educated!