TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

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Strident
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TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

#1 Post by Strident » Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:44 pm

One for the TRS-80 guys...

I think I've spotted that we (and *many* other sites out there) have incorrectly tagged the author of this game...
Island Adventure
https://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C7 ... nture.html
...as John Olsen. (John R. Olsen)

This is the author listed on the filename of the zipped download from many places.

However... a look at the BASIC listing says that it was written in the fall of 1981 by John OlsOn "just for the fun of it". <-- Olson with an O, not Olsen with an E.

Both John Olsen and John Olsen seem to have started their adventure writing careers at the end of 1981, both writing for TRS-80. Very confusing, as both of them also seem to have submitted their games to CLOAD magazine! Perhaps that's why John R. Olsen (technically John R. Olsen Jr) chose to use his middle initial.

Now, we do have a John Olson game in the database already...
https://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C1 ... nture.html

Looking at it, to me it would seem to be very similar to Island Adventure; certainly enough to presume that they are the same John Olson.

Do the TRS-80 experts have any thoughts on this?
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Strident
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Re: TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

#2 Post by Strident » Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:49 pm

We appear to have Gymnasium Adventure
https://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C2 ... nture.html

incorrectly tagged as a John R. Olsen game, rather than a John Olson game too...

Jim, you've ported both these games, in the past, haven't you? Can you confirm the Olson name for gymnasium... and does Island Adventure look like the product of the same John Olson to you?

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Re: TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

#3 Post by Strident » Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:02 pm

This one seems to be tagged incorrectly too...
Palace Adventure
https://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C4 ... nture.html

...going on the reference on Wurb...
https://web.archive.org/web/20110611121 ... f/game/161

The format of all these "John Olson" games look very similar to me, whether in their original form or MS BASIC.

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Re: TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

#4 Post by jgerrie » Sat Mar 21, 2020 5:11 pm

I've converted a game called "Island of Secrets" adventure for the MC-10, but I don't see any author info in the source. I haven't done Gymnasium, or the others. Sorry, I can't be of much help here.

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Re: TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

#5 Post by Strident » Sat Mar 21, 2020 5:28 pm

jgerrie wrote:
Sat Mar 21, 2020 5:11 pm
I've converted a game called "Island of Secrets" adventure for the MC-10, but I don't see any author info in the source. I haven't done Gymnasium, or the others. Sorry, I can't be of much help here.
Ah, I think it was probably Mansion Adventure that made me think you might have done...
https://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=hl142vnqky7qiey2

I'm pretty sure Mansion, Gymnasium and Palace are done by the same author. IFDB seems to agree, as does Wurb, so I'll make the changes. They certainly *weren't* done by John R. Olsen, anyway. :)

https://ifdb.tads.org/search?searchfor= ... John+Olson

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Re: TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

#6 Post by Alastair » Sun Mar 22, 2020 12:06 am

Hold the front page!

I'm updating this post but you can still read my original post below the dashed line.

I've found a PDF copy of The Visionary Programmer's Handbook at https://www.mocagh.org/loadpage.php?que ... isher]Oxxi (scroll down to the bottom half of the page) a book written by John R. Olsen. On pages 17 to 23 of the PDF is an Introduction where John R. Olsen gives an outline of his adventure playing and writing history. So far I have only skimmed it but from what I've read it seems that my suggestion below is wrong and that there are indeed two different people with very similar names - John R. Olsen and John R. Olson - which could account for CLOAD Magazine mixing up the two.

---------------------------------------------
To confuse matters still further, I've found a TRS-80 copy of Gymnasium Adventure (at https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/sy ... ures-3.htm) and after loading the program (basic run "gymadv/bas") and llisting it I see the following:

Code: Select all

0 REM COPYRIGHT (C) 1983 CLOAD PUBLICATIONS
10 '     GYMADV/BAS
20 '     by:  John R. Olson
30 '          Hoxie  KS  67740
For comparison the Dragon version of Mansion Adventure gives:

Code: Select all

50 ' JOHN OLSON
60 ' HOXIE, KS  67740
70 ' AUGUST, 1982
So perhaps John and John R. are one and the same person but people have been continually misspelling Olson! For example the CLOAD Magazine cover page for Gymnasium Adventure gives the name as "Olsen" (I can't link to the image so go to http://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/magazine-cload/ search for November, 1983 and click on the image).

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Strident
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Re: TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

#7 Post by Strident » Sun Mar 22, 2020 1:48 am

I went on that journey earlier today. :) :D

Yeah, the Syntax magazine article that I've posted elsewhere and linked to on John R. Olsen's author bio ages ago has the whole of the Visionary handbook entry in. He doesn't even talk about those "John Olson" games... and he basically goes through everything that he'd written up to that point, so I'm pretty sure it's not him.

Plus, one of them seemed to have lived in Kansas and the other one in Oregon.

I can't believe they've got the same middle initial though! Way to add to the confusion!

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Re: TRS-80 experts... John Olson & John R. Olsen

#8 Post by Strident » Sun Mar 22, 2020 2:03 pm

Strident wrote:
Sun Mar 22, 2020 1:48 am
Plus, one of them seemed to have lived in Kansas and the other one in Oregon.
Yep, definitely too different people living in totally different places.

From the Frankenstein Listing...

Code: Select all

by John R. Olsen Jr.
   P.O. Box 181
   Newberg, Or 97132
   (503) 538-3031
From the Island Adventure listing...

Code: Select all

10 REM TITLE:       ISLAND ADVENDTURE
20 REM CREATED BY:  JOHN OLSON     (for the fun of it)
30 REM              HOXIE, KS 67740
40 REM DATE:        Fall, 1981

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