Hamurabi
For the Babylonian king see HammurabiHamurabi was one of the earliest
computer games (the name is a shortening of
Hammurabi to fit an eight-character limit). It was also known as
Kingdom[
1].
Hamurabi was originally a
FOCAL program written at
Digital Equipment Corporation by an unknown author[
2] but it was popularized when
David Ahl ported it to
BASIC for
Creative Computing[
3]. From David Ahl's version, it was then ported to many different
microcomputers.
Like many BASIC games of the time, it was mainly a game of numeric input. As the ruler, the player could buy and sell land, purchase grain and decide how much grain to release to his kingdom.
TRY YOUR HAND AT GOVERNING ANCIENT SUMERIA
SUCCESSFULLY FOR A 10-YR TERM OF OFFICE.
HAMURABI: I BEG TO REPORT TO YOU,
IN YEAR 1, 0 PEOPLE STARVED, 5 CAME TO THE CITY
POPULATION IS NOW 100
THE CITY NOW OWNS 1000 ACRES.
YOU HARVESTED 3 BUSHELS PER ACRE.
RATS ATE 200 BUSHELS.
YOU NOW HAVE 2800 BUSHELS IN STORE.
LAND IS TRADING AT 24 BUSHELS PER ACRE.
HOW MANY ACRES DO YOU WISH TO BUY?
As a simulation, Hamurabi influenced later games, including
Santa Paravia & Fiumaccio, and
Civilization. It compared the player to historical rulers (e.g., "YOUR HEAVY-HANDED PERFORMANCE SMACKS OF NERO AND IVAN IV."[
4]), a tradition carried on by many contemporary
strategy games.
External links
*
David Ahl's BASIC program listing*
JavaScript port*
JavaScript adaptation
