hello, i just downloaded the default empire package debian uses. here's a brief clip from the man pages that may be interesting to you.

NAME
       empire -- the wargame of the century
HISTORY
       Apparently, this game was originally written outside of Digital, probably at a university.  The game
       was ported to DEC's VAX/VMS from the TOPS-10/20 FORTRAN sources available  around  fall  1979.   The
       original  authors  listed in my old documentation are Mario DeNobili and Thomas N. Paulson.  Support
       for different terminal types was added by Craig Leres.

       Ed James got hold of the sources at Berkeley and converted portions of the code to C, mostly to  use
       curses  for  the  screen  handling.   He published his modified sources on the net in December 1986.
       Because this game ran on VMS machines for so long, a previous version is known as VMS Empire.

       In 1987 Chuck Simmons at Amdahl reverse engineered the program and wrote a version completely  writ-
       ten in C.  In doing so, he completely modified the computer strategy, the commands, the piece types,
       many of the piece attributes, and the algorithm for creating maps.


AUTHORS
       Original concept by Mario DeNobili and Thomas N. Paulson.
       Support for different terminal types added by Craig Leres.
       Curses support added by Ed James.
       C/Unix version written by Chuck Simmons
       Colorization by Eric S. Raymond.
       Probability table corrected by Michael Self.

COPYLEFT
       Copyright (C) 1987, 1988 Chuck Simmons

*confused*
I guess it is not well known you were the original creator?

"clayasaurus" <clayasaurus@gmail.com> wrote in message news:d109su$121m$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> hello, i just downloaded the default empire package debian uses. here's a brief clip from the man pages that may be interesting to you.
>
> NAME
>         empire -- the wargame of the century
> HISTORY
>         Apparently, this game was originally written outside of Digital,
> probably at a university.  The game
>         was ported to DEC's VAX/VMS from the TOPS-10/20 FORTRAN sources
> available  around  fall  1979.   The
>         original  authors  listed in my old documentation are Mario
> DeNobili and Thomas N. Paulson.  Support
>         for different terminal types was added by Craig Leres.
>
>         Ed James got hold of the sources at Berkeley and converted
> portions of the code to C, mostly to  use
>         curses  for  the  screen  handling.   He published his modified
> sources on the net in December 1986.
>         Because this game ran on VMS machines for so long, a previous
> version is known as VMS Empire.
>
>         In 1987 Chuck Simmons at Amdahl reverse engineered the program
> and wrote a version completely  writ-
>         ten in C.  In doing so, he completely modified the computer
> strategy, the commands, the piece types,
>         many of the piece attributes, and the algorithm for creating maps.
>
>
> AUTHORS
>         Original concept by Mario DeNobili and Thomas N. Paulson.
>         Support for different terminal types added by Craig Leres.
>         Curses support added by Ed James.
>         C/Unix version written by Chuck Simmons
>         Colorization by Eric S. Raymond.
>         Probability table corrected by Michael Self.
>
> COPYLEFT
>         Copyright (C) 1987, 1988 Chuck Simmons
>
> *confused*
> I guess it is not well known you were the original creator?

The problem is that the early FORTRAN sources were stolen, and then passed around enough so that the origins were obfuscated. At least part of it is right that it came originally from a Decsystem 10. DeNobili and Paulson did not have the original concept. The debian people should fix the document, the correct history is at www.classicempire.com.

Walter wrote:
> "clayasaurus" <clayasaurus@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:d109su$121m$1@digitaldaemon.com...
> 
>>hello, i just downloaded the default empire package debian uses. here's
>>a brief clip from the man pages that may be interesting to you.
>>
>>NAME
>>        empire -- the wargame of the century
>>HISTORY
>>        Apparently, this game was originally written outside of Digital,
>>probably at a university.  The game
>>        was ported to DEC's VAX/VMS from the TOPS-10/20 FORTRAN sources
>>available  around  fall  1979.   The
>>        original  authors  listed in my old documentation are Mario
>>DeNobili and Thomas N. Paulson.  Support
>>        for different terminal types was added by Craig Leres.
>>
>>        Ed James got hold of the sources at Berkeley and converted
>>portions of the code to C, mostly to  use
>>        curses  for  the  screen  handling.   He published his modified
>>sources on the net in December 1986.
>>        Because this game ran on VMS machines for so long, a previous
>>version is known as VMS Empire.
>>
>>        In 1987 Chuck Simmons at Amdahl reverse engineered the program
>>and wrote a version completely  writ-
>>        ten in C.  In doing so, he completely modified the computer
>>strategy, the commands, the piece types,
>>        many of the piece attributes, and the algorithm for creating maps.
>>
>>
>>AUTHORS
>>        Original concept by Mario DeNobili and Thomas N. Paulson.
>>        Support for different terminal types added by Craig Leres.
>>        Curses support added by Ed James.
>>        C/Unix version written by Chuck Simmons
>>        Colorization by Eric S. Raymond.
>>        Probability table corrected by Michael Self.
>>
>>COPYLEFT
>>        Copyright (C) 1987, 1988 Chuck Simmons
>>
>>*confused*
>>I guess it is not well known you were the original creator?
> 
> 
> The problem is that the early FORTRAN sources were stolen, and then passed
> around enough so that the origins were obfuscated. At least part of it is
> right that it came originally from a Decsystem 10. DeNobili and Paulson did
> not have the original concept. The debian people should fix the document,
> the correct history is at www.classicempire.com.
> 
> 

I sent an email to the package maintainer. : ) Hopefully they will fix this soon.

"clayasaurus" <clayasaurus@gmail.com> wrote in message news:4238B6ED.3040806@gmail.com...
> Walter wrote:
> > The problem is that the early FORTRAN sources were stolen, and then
passed
> > around enough so that the origins were obfuscated. At least part of it
is
> > right that it came originally from a Decsystem 10. DeNobili and Paulson
did
> > not have the original concept. The debian people should fix the
document,
> > the correct history is at www.classicempire.com.
> >
> >
>
> I sent an email to the package maintainer. : ) Hopefully they will fix this soon.

Thanks!