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).