Hamurabi (video game)

Hamurabi

Industry	Video games
Founded	1968
Founder	Doug Dyment
Headquarters	United States
Products	Text-based strategy video game

Hamurabi is a text-based strategy video game centered on managing land and resource management. Created in 1968 by Doug Dyment at Digital Equipment Corporation for Richard Merrill's newly developed FOCAL language, the game was originally named King of Sumeria or The Sumer Game.

Players assume the role of the ancient Babylonian ruler Hammurabi, overseeing grain distribution for planting, feeding the populace, and acquiring land over ten turns while coping with unpredictable harvests and plagues. The concept drew inspiration from The Sumerian Game, an educational economic simulation developed between 1964 and 1966 by Mabel Addis and IBM programmer William McKay.

Multiple FOCAL versions circulated until about 1971, when David H. Ahl adapted it into DEC BASIC. It appeared in the 1973 compilation 101 BASIC Computer Games and later in Microsoft BASIC form within the 1978 release BASIC Computer Games. Due to the book’s success and BASIC’s widespread use, Ahl’s enhanced variant, titled Hamurabi, became the definitive edition. The game influenced numerous later strategy and simulation titles and is acknowledged as an early example of the city-building genre.

Gameplay

In Hamurabi, players engage in a text-driven strategy experience managing land, grain, and population across ten annual rounds. Each round starts with an adviser providing a report on the city's condition, including harvest outcomes and demographic shifts. Players then allocate grain for planting crops, feeding citizens, or purchasing additional land.

Several random elements affect gameplay: land prices fluctuate between 17 and 26 bushels per acre; harvest yields vary; rats may consume stored grain; population growth is probabilistic; and plagues can reduce the population by half. The game concludes after ten rounds or earlier if all inhabitants perish or if starvation exceeds 45% in a single round. The 1973 edition introduced an endgame assessment comparing players to historical figures such as Nero or Ivan IV.

Development

In 1962, Westchester County, New York, in collaboration with IBM and supported by a U.S. Office of Education grant, explored using computers for educational purposes by creating "economic games" aimed at sixth-grade students. One such project was The Sumerian Game (1964), which simulated ancient Sumerian civilization. It was designed by educator Mabel Addis with programming assistance from IBM's William McKay. Set in 3500 B.C., players governed the city of Lagash. In 1966, Addis updated the game to include taped audio lectures and refreshed slide visuals.

In 1968, Richard Merrill at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) developed the FOCAL programming language. Inspired by The Sumerian Game, Doug Dyment—also at DEC—created King of Sumeria for the DEC PDP-8 minicomputer. Although sometimes mistakenly credited to Merrill in 1969, DECUS catalogs confirm Dyment as the original author, who later renamed it The Sumer Game. This simulation modeled a Sumerian city's economy around 3000 B.C., fitting into the "business game" genre popular in business education since the late 1950s.

Dyment’s final iteration was notable as the largest FOCAL-8 program to fit within a 4K memory limit, necessitating text abbreviations and changing the ruler’s name from Luduga to Hammurabi—spelled "Hamurabi." Various versions followed; Jerry Pournelle remarked in 1989 that many programmers wrote their own Hammurabi games during the 1970s. The 1973 DECUS catalog featured a French-language edition and later variants like Ruben, which incorporated additional features.

By 1970, David H. Ahl of DEC’s educational sales department observed limited interest in FOCAL outside Boston and commissioned a BASIC version for the PDP-8. Around 1971, he ported The Sumer Game to BASIC under the new title Hamurabi, adding an end-of-game performance review. BASIC’s broader compatibility facilitated widespread distribution. In 1973, Ahl included it in his book 101 BASIC Computer Games, which sold over 10,000 copies.

The launch of the Altair 8800 microcomputer in 1975 alongside Altair BASIC ignited the microcomputer revolution, establishing BASIC as the dominant programming language on these platforms. Ahl republished his collection as BASIC Computer Games, selling more than a million copies and further popularizing his version over the original FOCAL release. The French FOCAL edition even recognized "Hamurabi" as its primary title.

While BASIC Computer Games credited DEC’s FOCAL origin but listed no specific author, its 1978 edition noted that although "Hammurabi" was intended as the correct spelling, file name constraints and Ahl’s consistent misspelling led to widespread acceptance of "Hamurabi."

Legacy

The foundational idea behind Hamurabi inspired a number of simulation titles that expanded its gameplay mechanics. Among these, James A. Storer's 1970 release King—also referred to as The Pollution Game—stands out, along with Kingdom (1972) by Lee Schneider and Todd Voros, which later developed into the 1976 game Dukedom. Another notable successor is George Blank's Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio (1978), which incorporated city management features, marking it as one of the early strategy and city-building simulations. This concept was further adapted for the BBC Micro under the title Yellow River Kingdom in 1981.

Moreover, Hamurabi served as an inspiration for more intricate economic strategy games such as M.U.L.E. (1983) and Anacreon (1987), both of which share core elements derived from the original game's economic management principles.