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Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 12:56 pm
by Strident
Here's one for the Atari guys...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJHZ9J4LpkU
The author of Moonstone, Tony Longsworth, plays through the game he wrote back in 1986/1987 for Page 6 magazine. :)

Here's a challenge if you want one... I was asking him about it on Twitter and mentioning we don't yet have a solution up for it...
Oh yeah although even though I wrote the game back in 87 I can no longer remember how to complete it - I wonder if I still have my notes / map for this game - maybe a better adventurer than me could solve it

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 1:24 pm
by Garry
Moonstone was issued as a disk bonus with Page 6, issue 34, July/August 1988. The instructions are on p. 23.

I haven't played it myself, but I do have a solution by John E. (TEBSF). I haven't submitted it, as I don't have John's permission to do so. However, I'm sure he won't mind if I note his introductory comments:

"If you've played this game you'll know how frustrating mapping the swampland is! The adventure is not at all logical!"

That sounds like a challenge. I'll have to give it a go.

As an Atari user from back in the day, I have a lot of Atari additions for the database, including maps and solutions, but Jacob doesn't seem interested in them, as they're not C64.

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:03 pm
by Garry
Ha, ha, ha. I just watched the video. That was actually quite funny. The author bags his own game.

When I was writing for Page 6, the publisher, Les Ellingham, sent me half a dozen or so adventures to review prior to putting them in the Page 6 public domain library. I played them all and wrote extensive test notes for the authors. They ranged in quality, but, for whatever reason, none of them were ever published. I think I've still got them on a floppy somewhere, but I don't have a disk drive that works and the floppy is possibly unreadable after all this time. However, I do have my original notes and map and have started to recreate them (albeit in somewhat expanded versions) in Inform 6.

Anyway. one of these was another game by Tony Longworth called Sabotage: Part 1. If anyone comes across this, I'd love to get a copy so that I can replay it. It's somewhat similar to Brian Moriarty's Crash Dive in A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing.

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:18 pm
by Strident
I did think it was quite spooky that your column is on the very next page. https://archive.org/details/Page_6_Issu ... B/page/n21

But then, also spookily, it turns out Tony is from the same town as me too and didn't live that far away.

I'll ask Tony if he remembers anything about his Sabotage game. It doesn't sound likely that he'll have a copy, though.

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:20 pm
by Strident
I'm sure that Tony would be interested in a copy of John's solution, if we could possibly pass it on to him.

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:29 pm
by Garry
Attached. It's only a short text file, but I had to zip it up because the forum said txt was an invalid extension.

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:33 pm
by Strident
Thanks, Garry. I will pass it on.

I hadn't realised that Tony did the music for the Get Lamp documentary, and even has produced a whole album inspired by the Infocom games https://tonylongworth.wordpress.com/201 ... x-artwork/

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:35 pm
by Garry
Really? I knew he was into music, but I didn't know he did adventure-related music. I'll have to check it out.

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:55 pm
by Strident
Tony doesn't seem to remember Sabotage... so maybe it wasn't his? Or he's just forgotten it!

Re: Moonstone (Atari 130xe)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 3:24 pm
by Garry
It's a small game with 16 rooms written in Atari BASIC. It starts in the escape tube of a submarine. There's only a closed hatch and you are carrying top secret plans.

As the game unfolds, you come across a dead captain and a saboteur. You have to use an aqualung to explore outside the submarine where you find a bomb bolted to the hull. You have to disable the bomb to win the game and then you get a password for part 2, but I suspect that part 2 was never written.