Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

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Hopalong
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Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#1 Post by Hopalong » Tue Jul 28, 2020 4:20 pm

Hi there

I've recently re-discovered text adventures and thought I'd start with this classic game.
The inform z5 version is quite different to other versions in a number of ways. I discovered that the rug only takes you out of the maze if you are in the 'Aladdin' room'. That was driving me mad!
Same as to get to the Quicksand, it's not North, but Down. 'Unlight Lamp' is simply 'Turn lamp off' 'Yell' at bear is 'Shout'.
I've now completed the game except I can't get the Genie to appear and drop his two treasures, so have 86 out of 100. Rub Lamp doesn't work, no matter which area I try it in in.
I thought it might work in the Aladdin room in the maze but of course the lamp is on so you can't rub it. Turn it off and you can't see it!

Any help you can give would be appreciated.

Hopalong
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Adventureland.Z5 Problem with a Genie

#2 Post by Hopalong » Tue Jul 28, 2020 4:56 pm

Hi everyone

I've recently rediscovered text adventures and decided to start with Adventureland. There are different versions of this it seems depending on the format.
I've been playing the Z5 version which is quite different to the other formats in a number of ways.
I've figured most of it out, and completed it, except for the Genie. I just cannot make him appear and get the last two treasures. My score is 86 out of 100.
I discovered to leave the maze you have to type AWAY but only in the Aladdin Room in the maze.
I thought that may be where you get genie to appear, but of course the map is on. Turn it off and you can't see it!

Any help you could give would be appreciated.

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Strident
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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#3 Post by Strident » Wed Jul 29, 2020 1:35 pm

The IFDB entry for Adventureland does say "WARNING! The Z-Code conversion of this game is certifiably buggy" so some of your issues may not be solvable. I would tend to steer clear of third-party Z-machine/Inform ports of classic games; when it's so easy to play an original 8-bit version through an online emulator.

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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#4 Post by Hopalong » Thu Jul 30, 2020 9:35 pm

Thanks for that. I had read it was buggy - and was trying to 'solve it' I almost did apart from the genie being a no-show. Even looking at the source-code didn't help!

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auraes
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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#5 Post by auraes » Fri Jul 31, 2020 4:21 pm

It would be interesting to make a Zcode version not buggy. From which original 8-bit version should it be made? The TRS-80?

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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#6 Post by Hopalong » Fri Jul 31, 2020 6:41 pm

I found a trs-80 walkthrough online. That closely followed the z5 version I have. I didn't understand the source code so couldn't figure out why the genie didn't appear.
Interesting though tat 'away' only worked in the aladdin room in the maze. I figured that out in the source code :)

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auraes
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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#7 Post by auraes » Sat Aug 01, 2020 8:39 am

Did you take the "floating patch of oily slime"? It is necessary for the Zcode version before you rub the lamp.

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Garry
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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#8 Post by Garry » Sat Aug 01, 2020 12:25 pm

The version of Adventureland that you've been playing is one of Graham Nelson's demonstration games for early versions of Inform. After examining the source code, I can see that it has a number of bugs. For example, as auraes said, you need to get the oily slime in the lamp before you can rub the lamp to get the genie to give you any treasures. This is because it sets a flag when you get the oily slime, but incorrectly checks that this flag is off before revealing the genie's treasure, but the state of the flag is irrelevant as far as the genie is concerned. It should only be testing to see if the lamp is on.

All the other Scott Adams games have been converted to z5 games using a Perl script called scott2zip. This was written by Bjorn Gustavsson way back in 1995. It converts a TRS-80 or TI-99/4A Scott Adams game file to Inform 5 source code. You can then compile it using an Inform 5.5 compiler.

Interestingly, Adventureland never went through this process, so I was wondering "What if..."

The Perl script and Inform 5 are really, really old. The Inform 5 source code generated by the script will not work with Inform 6, as there are a few changes in the language that prevent it from compiling. Even if you make some fixes so that it will compile, you get lots of run-time errors. So I downloaded an Inform 5.5 compiler and it compiles and runs fine, except for one thing. If a room description has a hyphen in it (such as the Throne-room), then the whole of the room description disappears. This is probably a bug in the Perl script, although I didn't bother to go looking for it. Instead, I just removed the hyphens in the room descriptions in the TRS-80 dat file and now I have a nice clean z5 file that seems to work fine. I ran through one of the Adventureland solutions on CASA and finished the game with 100 points.

So here my friends is a replacement z5 that appears to work as it should. Enjoy.

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auraes
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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#9 Post by auraes » Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:10 pm

I don't recommend this Perl script. I had watched it closely and it had a lot of problems; don't ask me which one, I don't remember. But as is often the case, he certainly has a poor understanding of the Cont instruction and the original game loop.
As with ScottFree, the authors did not seem to have the documentation we have today on the SAGA format.

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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#10 Post by Hopalong » Thu Aug 06, 2020 9:00 pm

Wow! This is brilliant.
Did you take the "floating patch of oily slime"? No - I never did pick this up. I'll give it a try.
I can't believe you have gone to the trouble of re-compiling Adventureland so it works.
I'm thrilled at that.
Thank you all so much for your help.

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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#11 Post by Hopalong » Thu Aug 06, 2020 10:02 pm

Glad to say I ran through the Adventureland(Scott Adams).Z5 adventure and it works perfectly!
Great job Garry - thankyou again for doing this.

Now I can carry on with the rest of Scott Adams adventure series.
I've a lot of catching up to do!

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Garry
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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#12 Post by Garry » Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:46 am

You're welcome.

You can also play the Scott Adams' games on many other platforms. I must admit that the z5 versions are very convenient to use, as you only need an interpreter and z-code interpreters are available for Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android and many others.

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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#13 Post by jgerrie » Thu Sep 03, 2020 4:50 pm

You can now play it here in all its classic 8-bit glory. Just select ADVENT1

http://faculty.cbu.ca/jgerrie/MC10/JG_M ... ures.html

And Scott Adams gave his permission for this original 1978 variation.
Last edited by jgerrie on Thu Sep 24, 2020 2:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

ahope1
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Re: Adventureland.Z5 problem with Genie

#14 Post by ahope1 » Fri Sep 18, 2020 3:44 pm

Here's a direct port (to BBC BASIC) of the TRS-80 BASIC version of Adventureland as published in SoftSide magazine in 1980. Download or play online:

https://github.com/ahope1/Beeb-Adventureland

The port is very faithful to the original published listing, including line-numbering (in the interpreter program) and bad spelling (throughout)!

:)

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