The History of the Atlantis PBEM

Atlantis was inspired by the PBEM game Olympia.  Olympia is still running as of September 2, 2003, from Shadow Island Games (http://www.pbm.com).  The first evidence I can see of Olympia is in this newspost, grabbed from Google.

From: skrenta@blekko.rt.com (Rich Skrenta)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Olympia playtest
Message-ID: <224@blekko.rt.com>
Date: 15 Nov 91 15:36:12 GMT
Lines: 32


Olympia is a computer moderated fantasy simulation which needs
some playtesters.  It will be run as a PBEM with a fast, erratic
turnaround at first.  This implies that you should have snappy
email access so you can get your turns in on time.  Turns may run
as quickly as once per night or as seldom as weekly.  The game
may end suddenly if I decide substantial revisions to the code
are necessary.

You begin in control of one character who may study, explore, fight,
acquire subordinates, build things, use magic, etc.  The setting is
a low technology fantasy world.

Disclaimer:
	The game will be horrible, full of bugs, and no fun
	to play at first.  There is little documentation.
	Most commands don't work.  I will change the database
	between turns so that all of your commands will fail.
	If this bothers you then wait for playtesters with
	stronger stomachs to find the bugs before you.

			You Have Been Warned!

If you would like to help playtest Olympia, send mail to

	olympia@rt.com

and I will send you registration materials.

--
Rich Skrenta
			skrenta@rt.com
			...uunet!blekko!skrenta

Russell Wallace was a player in early Olympia games, and had some ideas about how to improve on the game.  He proceeded to code up and run his own fantasy PBEM, as announced in this newspost.

Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
From: rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace)
Subject: Players wanted for new PBEM game
Message-ID: <rwallace.734203491@unix1.tcd.ie>
Sender: usenet@cs.tcd.ie (NN required at ashe.cs.tcd.ie)
Nntp-Posting-Host: unix1.tcd.ie
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1993 17:24:51 GMT
Lines: 17


Players wanted for a new PBEM game called Atlantis.
 
Atlantis is an open-ended computer moderated fantasy game for any
number of players. Players may attempt to carve out huge empires,
become master magicians, intrepid explorers, rich traders or any
other career that comes to mind. There is no declared winner of
the game; players set their own objectives, and one can join at
any time.
 
If you are interested, please contact me at the address below.
 
 

--
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie

Russell's Atlantis 1 began in April of 1993 and ran until October of 1993, for 28 turns.  I've grabbed Russell's v1 rules (rules.v1.txt) and source code (atlantis1.c) and put them on this site for archival purposes.  Note that the source code requires a bit of modification to compile on a modern compiler, but I've done it (and lost my modifications), and it can be done without undue trouble.

Russell immediately began work on an improved Atlantis, as per this newspost.

Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
From: rwallace@cs.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace)
Subject: Atlantis version 2 starting soon
Message-ID: <1993Aug3.180800.28123@cs.tcd.ie>
Organization: Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 18:08:00 GMT
Lines: 11


Version 2 of the Atlantis open-ended computer-moderated fantasy game
will be starting soon, hopefully Sunday week.  I'm now accepting
signups; rules are available by ftp from

heffalump.mmwb.ucsf.edu:/pub/atlantis

If you don't have ftp, mail me and I'll send you the rules.
-- 
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@cs.tcd.ie

Unfortunately, other pressures prevented Russell from completing his version of Atlantis 2.  Here is the newspost announcing the end of the Atlantis 1 playtest and the suspension of work on Atlantis 2.

Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
From: rwallace@cs.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace)
Subject: Conclusion of Atlantis 1 beta-test
Message-ID: <1993Oct17.160228.23191@cs.tcd.ie>
Organization: Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 16:02:28 GMT
Lines: 174



Atlantis has concluded on this turn, turn 28, with a stable political situation
pretty much achieved, and each surviving alliance in control of its territory.
The final summary file is given below; the map starts at the top left at
coordinates 0,-9.  A special mention goes to the Ancient Order of Olympians,
who completed their conquest of the original continent on turn 26 (February,
Year 3), and to the Abanasinian Horde, who completed their conquest of the
southern continent on the same turn.  Since several of these players dissolved
their factions after achieving their goal, their faction statistics as of turn
26 are shown separately below.

Special thanks go to John Troyer (troyer@cgl.ucsf.edu) for setting up the
automated mailing lists and Roy Bottomley (roy@meiko.co.uk) for providing the
memory expansion for my computer which enabled the game to continue.

Apologies to all those who signed up for Atlantis 2, which I currently do not
have time to complete.  However, the code and rules for version 1, as well as
what I have written so far of version 2, are available by ftp:

The source code is available via anonymous ftp in
heffalump.ucsf.edu:/pub/atlantis/atlantis1.c and
heffalump.ucsf.edu:/pub/atlantis/atlantis2.c

The files can also be retrieved by sending to
atlantis-server@heffalump.ucsf.edu the command
'send atlantis1.c atlantis2.c' in the subject or body.

The MS-DOS executable for version 1 (386 CPU required) can be obtained by email
on request.

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

Ancient Order of Olympians, Status as of February, Year 3:

The Dark Rangers (16), units: 349, number: 30394, $1993619, address:
barry@playfair.stanford.edu
The Horsemen (26), units: 109, number: 2828, $96494, address: cyu@Athena.MIT.EDU
Warlock (28), units: 7, number: 17, $8557, address: roy@meiko.co.uk
Garden People (31), units: 5, number: 9, $764, address: desj@ccr-p.ida.org
Packrats (32), units: 92, number: 3647, $236961, address: zdog@Athena.MIT.EDU
Clan of the Silver Lizards (50), units: 71, number: 8264, $154481, address:
d8hanma@dtek.chalmers.se

Abanasinian Horde, Status as of February, Year 3:

This Space For Rent (87), units: 95, number: 2472, $202090, address:
STEVE.AN@site007.saic.com
Red Mysterians (151), units: 96, number: 3093, $264000, address:
Doug@surya.cyc-west.mcc.com
Crazy Quilters (153), units: 119, number: 5305, $427528, address:
Mary@surya.cyc-west.mcc.com
Night Rider (154), units: 162, number: 6971, $710865, address:
MIDDAUGHL@GTEWD.MTV.GTEGSC.COM

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

Summary file for Atlantis, April, Year 3

Regions:            486
Inhabited Regions:  198

Factions:           43
Units:              1532

Player Population:  67748
Peasants:           579847
Total Population:   647595

Player Wealth:      $4279331
Peasant Wealth:     $24158617
Total Wealth:       $28437948

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . + M + . + S M . . + + + . + + + .
 . F + + . + . . . . F . + + F + S .
 . F + + + + + . . . + + + + F + . .
 . + + + + + + . . . . + + + . M S .
 . + F F + + + . . . + + M + + M . .
 . . . + + + . . . . . + + + . . . .
 . . . . S . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . + S F + + . . . . + + . . . .
 . . + . + F . + . . + + + + + + + .
 . . + + S + F . . . M M + + + S S .
 . . . + + + + + . . . M F + + + + .
 . . M M + + . + . . . . F + + + F .
 . . + . M + + . . . . . . S + M . .
 . . . . + + + + . . . . . . + + . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
 . S S . + + . . . . + S + + . . . .
 . + + + S S . . . . + . + F F . . .
 . + + + . + + . . . + + + + . . . .
 . . + + + M + + . . + + S S + + + .
 . . + + + M . + . . . + + + + F M .
 . . . F . + M + . . + + + + . . . .
 . . . F . . + + . . . + M M . . . .
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Dark Rangers (16), units: 346, number: 35187, $3007247, address:
barry@playfair.stanford.edu
The Horsemen (26), units: 116, number: 4462, $88451, address: cyu@Athena.MIT.EDU
Warlock (28), units: 7, number: 17, $7542, address: roy@meiko.co.uk
Garden People (31), units: 5, number: 9, $584, address: desj@ccr-p.ida.org
Packrats (32), units: 89, number: 3629, $238011, address: zdog@Athena.MIT.EDU
Clan of the Silver Lizards (50), units: 71, number: 8264, $197770, address:
d8hanma@dtek.chalmers.se
The Lesser Mortals (121), units: 3, number: 5, $16, address:
PGRUNDY@commerce.otago.ac.nz
Rovan (69), units: 2, number: 2, $330, address: colin@callisto.pas.rochester.edu
Aralaana (133), units: 19, number: 46, $2475, address:
sma@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de
House d'Averril (138), units: 2, number: 3, $1956, address:
nexus@isis.cgd.ucar.EDU
Lyrienlwrn (141), units: 11, number: 14, $17528, address: durney@cs.uoregon.edu
The Orthodox Tarimites (144), units: 1, number: 1, $290, address:
sdallas@Athena.MIT.EDU
Household of the Rich Widow (145), units: 5, number: 8, $1355, address:
CECBOTE@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu
Fablox's Foundry (8), units: 1, number: 1, $5, address: jurdm@valiant.vut.edu.au
Ty Gwyn (19), units: 34, number: 1610, $56994, address: csd25@seq1.keele.ac.uk
Praetorian Guard (82), units: 10, number: 267, $7995, address:
msarofim@Athena.MIT.EDU
The Steel Magi (2), units: 19, number: 474, $20897, address:
Chris.Wright@prg.oxford.ac.uk
Steel Rangers (10), units: 12, number: 48, $2192, address: cmy@cs.keele.ac.uk
Absolut (105), units: 37, number: 376, $19990, address: d8spaur@dtek.chalmers.se
Zob's Mob (34), units: 27, number: 380, $13149, address: lvogt@DSCcc.com
Kai's Legions (60), units: 10, number: 93, $4146, address:
cclark@cco.caltech.edu
Followers of the Self-Wetting Newbie (111), units: 1, number: 3, $62, address:
mmaloney@DSCcc.com
The Knight Sabres (112), units: 1, number: 3, $62, address: jtisdel@DSCcc.com
Bandymen (132), units: 60, number: 765, $39058, address: b.liddicott@ic.ac.uk
1st Prettstern University (155), units: 73, number: 3261, $135113, address:
dz@gutemine.informatik.uni-kiel.dbp.de
Hobi's Knights (157), units: 38, number: 1029, $43276, address:
wrj@eng.tridom.com
Mages of Nemesis (160), units: 13, number: 333, $1196, address:
dz@informatik.uni-kiel.dbp.de
Children of the Infinity (161), units: 32, number: 982, $50976, address:
fm59@rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de
The Red Hand Gang (162), units: 42, number: 325, $13930, address:
Michael_Kean.orlando_spg@xerox.com
Pretty Boys (163), units: 68, number: 416, $7469, address:
conley@engin.umich.edu
Knights of Tapp (164), units: 2, number: 4, $1650, address:
dz@informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de
Thundering Drums (41), units: 35, number: 507, $38138, address:
lam@eng.tridom.com
The Rogues (79), units: 21, number: 51, $914, address:
MSMITH@HMCVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU
The Shadow Guardians (84), units: 111, number: 3737, $141460, address:
krv@eng.tridom.com
Da Boyz (108), units: 1, number: 2, $80, address: MAS@LOGOS.JPL.NASA.GOV
The NightBreed (165), units: 5, number: 29, $495, address: jmota@draco.lnec.pt
The Dragonriders (174), units: 17, number: 197, $15373, address:
rfzahner@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de
Not Dead Yet (5), units: 53, number: 195, $6434, address: vjg@cblph.att.com
The House of Phoenix (51), units: 35, number: 196, $19463, address:
hposo@fltxa.helsinki.fi
Corum and Company (80), units: 62, number: 547, $64607, address:
dsk@srl03.cacs.usl.edu
The Jimbo Jones Family (29), units: 18, number: 85, $2522, address:
JJC%MPA15C@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM
Grey Death Mercenaries (42), units: 14, number: 174, $6165, address:
thamkuof@iscs.nus.sg
House of Piranha (45), units: 3, number: 11, $1965, address: dennis@tellabs.com

-- 
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@cs.tcd.ie

Russell released his Atlantis 2 rules (rules.v2.txt) and incomplete source code (atlantis2.c), and I have copied them to this site for archival purposes.

The next (second) Atlantis game to run was Atlantis v1.1, which was run by Jim Cotugno, based on the Atlantis 1 source with minor modifications.  This was the first game that I (Geoff Dunbar) played in.  Here's the newspost announcing the game.

From: JJC%MPA15C@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Altantis v1.1 game starting, Call for players
Date: 19 Nov 1993 13:59:23 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Lines: 44
Sender: daemon@cs.utexas.edu
Message-ID: <BNVN5834DD62D1@MPA15C>
NNTP-Posting-Host: news.cs.utexas.edu


Atlantis v1.1 is now accepting new players. If interested, send mail to
Jim Cotugno jjc@mpa15c.mv-oc.unisys.com.

Atlantis is an open-ended computer moderated fantasy game for any number
players.  Players may attempt to carve  out  huge empires, become master
magicians,  intrepid  explorers,  rich  traders or any other career that
comes to mind.  There is  no  declared  winner  of the game; players set
their own objectives, and one can join at any time.

A player's position is called a "faction".  Each  faction has a name and
number (the number is assigned by the computer, and is used for entering
orders).   Each  faction is composed of a number of "units",  each  unit
being a group of one or more people loyal to the faction.  You start the
game with a single unit consisting of  one  character,  plus  a  sum  of
money.  More people can be hired during  the  course  of  the  game, and
formed into more units.  (In these rules, the word "character" generally
refers either to a unit  consisting  of  only one person, or to a person
within a larger unit.)

New features for Atlantis v1.1 include:

    - Faster movement when riding
    - Faster sailing at sea
    - Buildings can now be made of Wood or Stone
    - All units fight at level 0, instead of level -2, if unarmed
    - The loser can have survivors after a battle
    - Taxing only collects $50 instead of the previous $200
    - Crossbows ignore Chainmail and Plate Armor

The first turn will be run on 12/5/1993.

To sign up, mail Jim Cotugno: jjc@mpa15c.mv-oc.unisys.com  -or-
                               atlantis-gamemaster@heffalump.ucsf.edu

The version 1.1 rules (and archives from the 1.0 game) are available:
   via ftp in heffalump.ucsf.edu:/pub/atlantis
           or ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl:/pub/pbm/Atlantis
   via mail: atlantis-server@heffalump.ucsf.edu
         (put 'help' or 'index' in subject or body)

Jim Cotugno  PIO/MV (714)380-5340 (net**2 656-5340)
internet:  jjc@mpa15c.mv-oc.unisys.com
"Opinions Personal, Facts Suspect"

And here's my first turn report:

Date: 06 Dec 93 22:22:14
From:"JJC%TRPASB@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com" <JJC%TRPASB@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com>
To: gdunbar@us.oracle.com
Subject: Atlantis Report For January, Year 1
Reply-to: JJC%TRPASB@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com



                         Atlantis Turn Report
                            Faction 15 (15)
                            January, Year 1

                          Events During Turn

Unit 15 (15) earns $15 performing manual labor.

                            Current Status

Roddendor (4,6), plain, peasants: 2023, $8890.
  - Unit 12 (12).
  - Unit 13 (13).
  - Unit 14 (14).
  * Unit 15 (15), faction Faction 15 (15), $5005, default: "work".
  - Unit 16 (16).

I'm a little sketchy on the exact dates, but Atlantis 1.1 appears to have run until about August of 1995.

In the meantime, I was captivated by Atlantis, and stumbled on Russell's incomplete Atlantis 2 effort.  I began from his rules, and came up with my own modifications.  All of the code was my original code except for the region names, which I lifted from Russell's code.  The source code was written in C++, and my development platform was an Apple Macintosh (SE/30) using the Symantec compiler.  This effort was complete by the end of 1994, and I began running a free playtest of Atlantis 2.0, with the intention of running a commercial version sometime in the future.  Here's the game announcement.

From: Geoff Dunbar <atlantis@rahul.net>
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Announcing Atlantis 2.0
Date: 10 Dec 1994 06:16:33 GMT
Organization: a2i network
Lines: 20
Sender: atlantis@rahul.net
Message-ID: <3cbh41$kdo@hustle.rahul.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bolero.rahul.net
NNTP-Posting-User: atlantis


                                announcing...
                               Atlantis 2.0!!!

Atlantis is an open-ended computer moderated play-by-email fantasy game for any
number of players.  Players may attempt to carve out huge empires, become
master magicians, intrepid explorers, rich traders or any other career that
comes to mind.  There is no declared winner of the game; players set their own
objectives, and one can join at any time.

Atlantis 2.0 will be opening for a play-test on January 15, with turns being
run once per week.  To learn more about Atlantis, ftp the rules (version 2)
from ftp.rahul.net, or ask me nicely (atlantis@rahul.net), and I will send you
a copy.  More documents, detailing order instructions, differences between
Atlantis 1 and Atlantis 2, and a sample report, will be placed on this site as
they become available.

To sign up for the game, or if you have any other questions, email at
atlantis@rahul.net.
-- 
Geoff Dunbar <atlantis@rahul.net>

I still have an old web page for Atlantis 2.0 here but the rules and source code have been lost.  If you have a copy of my Atlantis 2.0 rules I'd be interested in seeing them.

Atlantis 2.0 ran from January 15, 1995 to April 4, 1997 for a total of 100 turns.  There were over 500 players at one point.  In the beginning it ran on my Macintosh SE/30 over a dialup connection; later it ran on the Atlantis 3.0 machine.

Atlantis 3.0 was closely based on the Atlantis 2.0 code and rules.  The major update was a somewhat more sensible magic system.  The game kicked off in June 1996, and cost each player $1 per turn (this cost stayed the same for the entire game).  I can't find the newsgroup announcement, but here is the first Times article.

From: Geoff Dunbar <gdunbar@prankster.com>
Subject: Atlantis 3.0: Times 1
Date: 1996/06/16
Message-ID: <31C4DCAD.52BF9955@prankster.com>#1/1
content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
organization: Wolfe Internet Access, L.L.C.
mime-version: 1.0
newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
content-disposition: inline; filename="times.1"
x-mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (X11; I; Linux 1.3.72 i586)



Subject: Atlantis 3.0: Times 1

                    Atlantis 3.0 Times
                    January, 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to Atlantis 3.0! Email admin30@prankster.com with game issues.
Visit www.prankster.com (or email atlantis@prankster.com) for
information or to join.

A couple of last minute notes:

- Make sure you have read the Player Instructions; they tell you how
  to send orders and Times articles to the Atlantis 3.0 server.

- There are 115 players to start.

- The world's coordinates are 320 x 192 (note that the new coordinate
  system has holes in it, if you are trying to count regions).

- Make sure that you have read the latest rules; I just made some
  minor corrections today. You can get a set of diffs between this
  set of rules and the last from the ftp site.

I hope everyone has a good game!

Geoff Dunbar

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

The Atlantis 3.0 rules are available here, and my old Atlantis 3 page is here with other interesting old documents.  The source code for Atlantis 3.0 is lost.

Atlantis 3.0 ran from June 1996 to January 1999, for 134 turns, with a peak number of players of just over 200.  Atlantis 3.0 was run on a Pentium 66 running Linux, with a dedicated ISDN connection providing Internet connectivity.

Towards the end of Atlantis 3.0 I decided that I had had enough of running commercial PBEM games.  I decided to release the code as an open source project.  I did some amount of work to tidy up the source code, and began the Atlantis Project to allow others to build upon my existing work.  Here's the announcement of the project.

From: gdunbar@prankster.com
Subject: Announcing The Atlantis Project
Date: 1998/11/30
Message-ID: <73solg$t4$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>#1/1
X-Http-Proxy: 1.1 x3.dejanews.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.198.186.101
Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion
X-Article-Creation-Date: Mon Nov 30 00:25:30 1998 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows 98; ITG-IE401SP1)


Atlantis is a multi-player computer moderated strategic fantasy game, often
played via email. Atlantis was begun by Russell Wallace, who developed the
initial version, and ran the first game, Atlantis 1.0. Geoff Dunbar continued
the legacy, first with the extensive playtest of Atlantis 2.0, and then the
commercial game Atlantis 3.0.

Now, we are proud to announce the founding the Atlantis Project, to further
the development of the Atlantis game. The Atlantis Project is an open-source
project, responsible for the release, coordination, and maintenance of the
Atlantis source code. The goals of the project are two-fold:

- Provide software for people who wish to run Atlantis games.
- Provide a shared platform for people to develop their own offshoots and
  improvements of Atlantis.

If you are interested, please visit the Atlantis Project web site at
http://www.prankster.com/project.

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/       Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own    

Soon after this I released Atlantis 4.0.1 under the GPL, and made a few updates over the next months to Atlantis 4.0.4.  Since then my interest has waned and I haven't contributed anything to the Atlantis community, though the http://www.prankster.com/project page is still available with Atlantis Project information.

Since then a thriving Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atlantisdev) has sprung up, and patches and improvements have continued.  I haven't been monitoring things too closely, but I will mention a few of the brave individuals who have stepped up and maintained the code (though I must note that many people have contributed to the project with code and otherwise): 

If anyone wants to expound on the section of post-Geoff Dunbar Atlantis development feel free to drop me an email.

This brings us to the present, September 3, 2003.  Hopefully things will continue for many years to come!


Last Modified: September 04, 2003

This page maintained by Geoff Dunbar (gdunbar@prankster.com).