Forth: The Best Programming Language for the End of the World? A Case Study on A.D. 2044 (1991) - Roland Pantoła’s Interactive Fiction

The article examines A.D. 2044 or Sexmission, an Interactive Fiction and Polish text-based graphical adventure game developed by Roland Pantoła and released by LK Avalon in 1991. This game marks a significant milestone in the early history of Polish game development. The study aims to reconstruct the game’s operating mechanisms and explore how Pantoła navigated the limitations of the 8-bit Atari computer and personal environmental challenges, as a substitute for the technological crises that may come for humanity. It focuses on extending the rare Forth programming language and Pantoła’s proprietary engine. Using a media archaeology perspective, the research references the original floppy disks containing tools and source code. Furthermore, it interprets the game as a political satire reflecting on late-communist Poland’s realities. The work is organized into three main subjects: the tool (Chapter 1), the programmer (Chapter 2), and the creation itself (Chapters 3). This study contributes to the interdisciplinary understanding of computer games’ history and cultural context in Poland.