?
The Unix/X11 port of Ishido was written by
John Sullivan and posted to comp.sources.games on 1992-03-23 (Volume
13, Issue 70) by Bill Randle. It has proved quite popular and has been
ported to at least one non-Unix platform: the above screenshot was
taken on VMS/DECWindows. The rather lackluster Windows port was probably based on this version, too, at least the
graphics are similar and the INSTRUCT.TXT starts with These
are the rules as included with the X version.
It is interesting to see that Ishido could survive well as a mere game. On the Mac, a good part of its appeal was the mysterious atmosphere with which it surrounded itself: the beautiful box, the culture themes, the mentors, the oracle. Unsurprisingly, nothing of all this made its way to the Unix version. Yet it is still widely distributed and played.
