[tosteris]

Similar efforts to hide string literals were used 5 years earlier in one of the first Internet worms: Morris worm.

http://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/tech-reps/823.pdf sect. 5.1.7

[quotemstr]

Huh. I'd forgotten that only five years elapsed between the Morris worm and DOOM. That's amazing progress in a very short time.