C64 Mountain Valley

Games for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, Amiga, Apple ][ and the rest of the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. Pleas for help, puzzles, bug reports etc.

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Garry
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#16 Post by Garry » Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:46 am

1. I tried your disk image of 'The Mermaid and the Crown' in VICE and got a message saying 'TURN OF [sic] DRIVE AND TRY TO RELOAD'. I also tried converting it to a d64 image and autobooting using the emulator, but same result. Are there any secret loading instructions? The loading instructions on your web site say there is a leaflet enclosed, but you haven't scanned that.

2. You are missing 'The Scroll of Akbar Khan'.

3. Shouldn't 'Dead Man's Cay' be 'Treasure of Dead Man's Cay' and 'Ravenswood' be 'Sorcerers of Ravenswood'? I guess it's hard to be definitive about this if there was no packaging and no in-game title screen.

4. The copyright message links to flickr.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#17 Post by marcus » Sat Jun 18, 2022 6:25 am

Items noted...yes those longer title names are correct
I will try to update tonight some things tonight.
Yes there was a problem with the linked M&C game file...a working version is now on the site.
I also have.G64 images of all titles with the disk load screens included. It took quite a while to figure out but I had to dump the games with with a nibbler and zoomfloppy to pc and then manually re-add the protection and sector Edit the.G64 files to get them to work.

I also have a variant of Ravenswood with an introduction that I will up load to the site.

There is also one other title that I have been working to restore...I recovered a partially corrupted file from a damaged diskette that appears to be the very first game in the series. The layout is very similar but the GUI is slightly different to those that followed.
I wasn't able to get any background on this as I have lost touch with Brian.
I'll try and add some pages to the site with more info and progress soon.
Last edited by marcus on Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#18 Post by Garry » Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:31 am

Regarding 2, I noticed that the image on the 8-Bit Text Adventures Facebook group had 'The Scroll of Akbar Khan' and a 5th missing game. I found them when I maximised the browser window. You need to do something about that. Please design for a fluid layout, not fixed size. The images should wraparound if the browser window is not large enough and you should show a horizontal scroll bar if the images don't fit. And never, ever, ever use screen size, as this is meaningless when the browser window is not maximised.

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Strident
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#19 Post by Strident » Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:34 am

It's hard to tell, in its unfinished form (can you even do anything in the game?) but, given the first location, The Curse of Cranbury manor might have been a reworking of elements of earlier TRS-80 game, The Secret of Flagstone Manor.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#20 Post by Garry » Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:51 am

Strident, would you like to add an entry for Ophir? I think that's the only one that's not in the database.

Ophir (Brian J Betts) screen 01.png

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#21 Post by Strident » Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:56 am

Yes, it's on my list to do later. Need entries for "Crypt" and "Cranbury Manor" too.

I always wondered why Brian didn't remake his earlier TRS-80 games. Cranbury Manor may be an indication that he did... but as I can't get inside the actual manor there's no way to compare Flagstone/Cranbury. I wonder if Ophir was related to the unarchived TRS-80 game, Forbidden Valley; of which we still have no details, but I presume the entry came from Jacob's unpublished chat with Brian.

It seems a shame those cute illustrations are stuck in unfinished games. I wonder how many pictures are in there.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#22 Post by Garry » Sat Jun 18, 2022 9:16 am

I like Brian's games, so I'll take a closer look at them when time permits. (Famous last words.)

Another item for marcus' attention. The download link for 'The Oasis of Shalimar' doesn't work. The filename should be 002.Oasis_of_Shalimar.d64.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#23 Post by marcus » Sun Jun 19, 2022 3:34 pm

Strident wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:56 am
It seems a shame those cute illustrations are stuck in unfinished games. I wonder how many pictures are in there.
There is quite an easy way to examine all locations in the MVS games.
Providing you can break out of the game with Run/Stop+Restore, typing "print L" will output the current location string - typically a number between 0 & 24.
To skip to any location enter "L=x:goto480" (where x is the desired location number) and hit enter.
This will more than likely break the game but it is a great way to explore and appreciate the skill in which Brian was able to create such a diverse range of locations with petscii graphics.
NB: Each location may have multiple graphics variations dependent on other program variables such as an open door or dead creature etc.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#24 Post by Garry » Mon Jun 20, 2022 5:02 am

Thanks for all your work on this Marcus.
marcus wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 6:25 am
Yes there was a problem with the linked M&C game file...a working version is now on the site.
Did you upload the fixed version of 'The Mermaid and the Crown'? I tried downloading it again, but still couldn't get past the 'TURN OF DRIVE AND TRY TO RELOAD' message.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#25 Post by marcus » Mon Jun 20, 2022 9:08 am

Hi Garry,
I've just re-checked this now and all appears ok...the updated Mermaid download hyperlink should point to MERMAID_AND_THE_CROWN_REMASTER.G64
I did test it previously so should be working...maybe try clearing your cache or refresh?
Apologies for any frustration.
Direct link:
http://www.brilliantbehaviour.com.au/re ... MASTER.G64

Yes I also agree a revisit to the webpage format is required and is on my to-do list.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#26 Post by marcus » Mon Jun 20, 2022 2:12 pm

Strident wrote:
Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:54 pm
Forbidden Valley [ http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C37 ... alley.html Not currently listed in DB as Mountain Valley, TRS-80 game... but no idea of the source of this game reference in the DB]
I was able to locate some evidence in materials that Brian had passed on to me that Forbidden Valley for TRS80 had at the very least a programming and design concept (To the same level as flagstone) as well as printed cassette labels.
Unfortunately I can find no further details as to whether it was completed or released.

http://www.brilliantbehaviour.com.au/re ... _TRS80.jpg
http://www.brilliantbehaviour.com.au/re ... _TRS80.jpg

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#27 Post by Strident » Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:21 pm

Very interesting! That's enough, thanks to the cassette label, for me to tag the game with "Mountain Valley Software", rather than just Brian's name (as it currently is).

Finding any references to the early TRS-80 Mountain Valley games has been quite tricky. There's the odd early mentions in Australian Personal Computer. The one I've found from 1982 states that "...their range includes adventure games..." which seems to suggest Flagstone and at least one other game; probably Forbidden Valley.

Cool documents... even as blurry images they look interesting. :)

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df
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#28 Post by df » Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:13 am

I never had any issue getting M&C working on my vice. I dont know why you are seeing an error.
-- Stu / DF --
-- Mountain Valley + Softgold Adventure Fan --

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Garry
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#29 Post by Garry » Sun Jun 26, 2022 3:17 am

This is what I get:
temp.png

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df
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#30 Post by df » Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:05 pm

thats so weird, I just hit alt-8, select the gcs and autostart. I'm on vice 3.5 and use a warpspeed cartridge image and running the "sc" version of x64, I'm on linux.
-- Stu / DF --
-- Mountain Valley + Softgold Adventure Fan --

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