Microbee Adventures

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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Strident
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Microbee Adventures

#1 Post by Strident » Thu Jan 27, 2022 8:36 pm

I had an interesting time poking around on the outskirts of the Microbee software library today... noticing quite a few undocumented (and unofficial) ports of old TRS-80 games that I've added to the respective pages.

The Museum Mystery
http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C53 ... C+The.html
...was one that we had listed just for Microbee, but in its listing it says it was ported from a TRS-80 game. I've yet to spot any references to the original TRS-80 game by Robin Christopher Weber. It'll be pre-1983, as that's the date of the Microbee port.

I've also spotted a whole series of Microbee adventures that we don't have listed (I'm 100% sure there are lots more, but I didn't want to disappear down that rabbit hole).

They're called the Ultima Adventures and are by Stuart "Dr Who" Dobbie. There seems to have been at least nine of them (but #3 may have been based an existing maze game?).

The first "Ultima" is very heavy on the whole Doctor Who theme... but with a few odd elements thrown in... such as a leprechaun... and the fact that the objective was to murder the Australian Prime Minister at the time! The other three games are even strangely. Definitely the product of an enthusiastic teenager releasing stuff as public domain. I will document them soon.

I think Stuart Dobbie is probably the author of this existing title, Egyptian Adventure...
http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C53 ... nture.html

Speaking of "Egyptian themed games", I did find another interesting looking "pyramid" adventure, that may be based on something already in the database. It's PYRAMID.MWB on this site...
https://microbee.uber-leet.com/index.php?page=mbug
...which is where I've been downloading all the other games from. It seems quite easy to nose at the MWB code with a text editor.

This online emulator works very well for playing them...
http://nanowasp.org/

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Garry
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Re: Microbee Adventures

#2 Post by Garry » Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:14 pm

This is another fine rabbit hole that you've thrown me into. I had previously downloaded a Microbee emulator and a bunch of zipped files, but I never got much further than that. The emulator is friggin' difficult to use (requires a command line) and the files are thrown around like a mad woman's breakfast. The Microbee scene sets a new low in the organisation of software repositories.

Anyway, after a day's searching and updating my listing of potential Microbee adventures, I've signed up to the Microbee Software Preservation Project forum, only to discover that the public user name and password to their three repositories no longer work.

Then I discovered that there is another repository over at Microbee Technology, so I've signed up to their forum and filled out a form to get access to the repository and am waiting for that to be approved. In the meantime, while browsing through their forum, I found that there are at least 34 adventure disks. A lot of the newer additions are PAWed games for CP/M, including games from John Wilson and our own Strident. There are also lots of ports of public domain games and type-ins, so this is going to be an interesting rabbit hole once I can get access to the files.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#3 Post by Strident » Sat Jan 29, 2022 5:34 pm

Yeah, as well as ports from other BASICs, a lot of the content is going to be CP/M games that weren't designed for the Microbee.

I too had found the whole Microbee scene incredibly closed off and difficult to get access to, which is why I ended up using the site that I linked to and that online emulator.

There pub/pub and retro/retro accounts seemed to work on the Microbee Preservation Project site but it sounded like there was a third, non-public account that gave more access. I do have an activated account on that forum but I think I read that five on-topic posts had to be made before they allowed you access to the archive (?!) and I haven't posted there yet. They seemed to have quite good resources, such as solutions disks, though.

Edit: I see that the access is now open to everyone using those usernames that are on the archive pages; but I couldn't spot the adventure disks I was looking for using those accounts. Will try and have a look again.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#4 Post by Strident » Sun Jan 30, 2022 12:50 am

Ah, I see what you mean re. the Microbee Technology site & forum... https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum

I see that ChickenMan is an admin there and responsible for the text adventure stuff. He's a user here and has contributed to CASA too, in the past.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#5 Post by Garry » Sun Jan 30, 2022 1:20 am

ChickenMan would be a good one to look after the Microbee entries on CASA. He has credited CASA with a number of the solutions on their disks. OldBee has contributed most of the Microbee specific solutions. It would be good to get him on here too.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#6 Post by Garry » Sat Feb 05, 2022 4:41 am

I've eventually got access to the Microbee downloads at Microbee Technology. For anyone that's interested in Microbee games, I'd strongly recommend using this site, as it supersedes the old Microbee Software Preservation Project site. Some of the old downloads have been updated with bug fixes and there are lots of new adventures.

Unfortunately, the organisation of the files is a real mess, as it replicates the mess on the old MSPP site. Most of the adventures are in adventure collections, but you have no idea what's in each collection until you download it and load the disk. You have to use ubee512 as the emulator, but this has to be run from the command line. All in all, this is a real pain.

Each of the adventure disks has a disk menu, but the menus have errors in game names and do not include authors or publishers or publication dates. Some of the games do not provide this information in the game itself, so you need to work out what the game was written in (interpreted BASIC, compiled BASIC, ZIL, C, Pascal, assembly language, PAWS) and whether you can list it or view it or decompile it in some way to see if there are any comments tucked away that will reveal more information.

I should also point out that many of the games on the adventure disks are not text adventures at all, there are other adventures on non-adventure disks (such as game disks, user group disks or publisher-specific disks) and many of the games are ported from other sources, such as BASIC type-ins, z-code, Scott Adams Class Adventure (SACA) format or PAWS. There are lots of PAWS games converted from Amstrad CP/M games. All in all, it's a real mess and hard to find anything or to find further information on a specific game.

I normally store one game per disk image so that I can organise my collection the way I want. Here's where I need help with the Microbee. How do I extract the individual files from an existing disk image and copy them to another disk image and make that a self booting image? I know it can be done, as the adventure disks auto run the menu, but I can't see how it works. Also, how do I copy a standalone file (such as an mwb file) from my operating system (I'm still on Windows 7) to a disk image and how do I list a tokenised BASIC file and save it as a plain text file?

I will probably have other questions, but this is a start for now.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#7 Post by Strident » Sat Feb 05, 2022 10:55 am

I think I requested access to the none EULA archive... which seems to be the wrong choice as I don't see any adventure game disks. So I guess I'll have to submit another request.

I'd quite like to have a look at the disks, given that virtually all my games are on them. I'd be happy to sanction official disks if they could be grouped together.

I can't see there being many exclusive Microbee text adventures on those disks but, as we've found in the past, there might well be typed-in versions of missing games originating elsewhere that we don't currently have the original listings sources for; as in the case of the Museum Mystery.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#8 Post by Garry » Sat Feb 05, 2022 2:38 pm

If you can't see all the adventure disks and walkthroughs, then you'll need the more restrictive licence. (More restrictive in that you can see more, but you're promising not to disclose it to anyone.) I think it's pretty rude that they illegally copy all these games, then claim copyright and get you to agree to a non-disclosure agreement. Anyway...

Your games are on adventure disks 15, 16, 21, 22, 27, 29, 31 and 33. If you scan the repository topic on the forum, you can find some threads that announce the release of new adventure disks. These list the contents of each one. I'm pretty sure that ChickenMan is Alan J Laughton. He's the one that appears to be responsible for all the ports and the updates to the repository.

The repository includes ports of the following commercial games:
All the Scott Adams games
All the Brian Howarth games
All the Infocom games
Lots of PAWS games
'Broadey Manor' is 'The Curse of Crowley Manor' by Jyym Pearson
'The Institute' by Jyym Pearson
'Planet of Death' by Chris A Thornton & Richard Turner

Other ports of interest include:
All the Tim Hartnell games from Creating adventure games on your computer
'C.I.A. Adventure' by Hugh Lampert
'Dog-Star Mission' is 'Dog Star Adventure' by Lance Micklus
'Escape from Colditz' (two versions) by Stuart Wilkinson
'Escape from the Soviet Science and Detention Base' by David Meny
'Frankenstein Adventure' is 'Frankenstein’s Legacy' by John R Olsen
'Haunted House' by Jenny Tyler & Les Howarth from Write your own adventure programs
'The High Mountains' by Paul Braithwaite
'King Tuts Tomb' is 'Entry into King Tut's Tomb' by Greg Hassett
'Lost Dutchman’s Treasure' is 'Lost Dutchman’s Gold' by Terry Kepner
'Madam Fifi's Whore-House Adventure' is 'Madam Fifi's Whore-House' (possibly) by Gary Taylor
'The Miser' is 'Miser' by Mary Jean Winter
'Pirate Island' by David Meny
'Survival' by Stewart F Rush
'Thunder Road Adventure' by Don & Freda Boner
'The Treasure of Elgon' by Keith Hawthorn
'The Treasures of McDooby's Mansion' by Jason Wells
'The Twilight Zone Adventure Game' by R Rodman
'UFO Adventure' by Lang Stuiver
'Waverton Castle' is an enhanced version of 'Haunted House' by Jenny Tyler & Les Howarth

and possibly more that I haven't looked at yet...

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#9 Post by ChickenMan » Fri May 20, 2022 10:42 am

Hi Guys, just came across this thread. Yes I'm the ChickenMan in question :) I mainly talked to Gunness in the past but since his new job or whatever has tied him up I havent really done much here. I did send a spreadsheet to him of all Microbee adventures but nothing eventuated as he disappeared.

The first few disks in the collection I put together some 30+ years ago for my kids to play and games were added to the disks as I got them. I've never bothered or intend to update them into any particular order. The Infocom, Scott Adam and Brian Howarth games have NOT been ported in any way, they are original files unaltered but have Microbee written specific loader programs to run the DAT or Z3 files. We can now play most TRS-80 Basic adventure games on the Microbee with converting them to Microbee Basic as a past member wrote a loader to run them, but none are in your list above. I do have Adv Disk #35 ready to be released, just have other priorities at the moment, but includes

1. Fuddo & Slam 2 - The Fishing Trip
2. Retarded Creatures & Caverns 2 - Return to the Castle
3. Tristram Island
4. Gorge of Death
5. Hibernated 1 - This Place Is Death - Directors Cut
6. Pub Hubbub
7. Death Number Four
8. Pub Adventure

Your right, the last 20+ disks are mostly CP/M games obtained from John Wilsons site and other sites with CP/M games. The Microbee runs CP/M same as another 100+ computer can so should be listed as CP/M games, not Microbee. Again, they have been added to a disk in the order I found them. The last few are in Z3 format and we have a Microbee loader that can play them, again in CP/M.

All the Honeysoft Adventure games disks are Microbee originals or authorized Microbee releases, but you havent mentioned any of those in your list above. I can help you with any info your after on any of the adventure games we have in our Repository including screen captures, authors, publishers, year, etc if known. One being The Jewels of Sancara Island written in 1988 by Matthew Hall when he was at school where they had Microbee's and it was never published. He never saved a copy but found a printout of the code (in Turbo Pascal) which was ocr'ed and compiles to a fully working game. Another forum member recently worked out a Walkthrough and Map for it also.

Anyway, let me know if I can help in any way.

Cheers, Alan

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#10 Post by ChickenMan » Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:12 am

Since no one from CASA has responded to the above in the past 6 months I can only assume you dont need any help with Microbee adventures.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#11 Post by Garry » Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:22 am

I don't think it's a case of no one being interested, just busy with other things. I noted a few more Infocom ports recently, but all the commercial game ports are available on other platforms, so nothing new there. We're always interested in any new Microbee discoveries that were only made for that platform.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#12 Post by ChickenMan » Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:53 am

Okay, but as I have said before, the new Infocom files are NOT ports, they are 100% untouched original Infocom files as released by Infocom. But whats new is the loader to actually load them on a Microbee. Every CP/M computer is different and needs a unique loader to get them to run on that computer. They are NOT Microbee files, they are ZIL Z5 files that can run on any computer that has enough memory and a loader.

Microbee released a number of unique adventures on their copy protected special disks most of which are not in the database here. I will get you all the titles that are missing here, the data needed including screen dumps, etc when I get home at the end of the week.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#13 Post by Garry » Mon Nov 21, 2022 3:10 pm

Any additions to the database would be greatly appreciated. Downloadable versions of new games, even more so.

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#14 Post by ChickenMan » Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:01 pm

I can organise individual game files that you can then play directly via Nanowasp (http://nanowasp.org/) on your browser. Whats your handle on the Microbee Tech site ?

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Re: Microbee Adventures

#15 Post by Garry » Tue Nov 22, 2022 1:38 am

Don't go out of your way especially for me. It's better that any lost games are preserved for the whole Microbee and adventure communities. My handle is "Warrigal" on the Microbee Technology site. I use the standalone version of Nanowasp.

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