Recovered 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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Recovered Adventures

#1 Post by Strident » Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:28 am

As archivists are recovering lost (or even unknown) versions of classic adventures all the time, I thought I'd start to log them here as, although we do tend to update the game's pages on CASA to mention it, new "finds" can be easy to miss.

To start off, I spotted this one on Twitter, by prolific Apple II archivist "4am"... who tends to archive a whole bunch of old Apple disks each week...

Survival / Survival Adventure... a very early adventure from 1980
https://archive.org/details/wozaday_Survival_Adventure
We have it listed here for Atari 800... I'm not sure if that Atari version is actually archived, so it's great to see an Apple II version
https://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C4 ... vival.html

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#2 Post by Strident » Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:35 am

This one, again by 4am for the Apple II was not in our database...

Zodiac Castle / Adventure at Zodiac Castle
Written by Dennis N. Strong and distributed by Dynacomp in 1982
https://archive.org/details/wozaday_Zodiac_Castle
Welcome to the Kingdom of Zodiac. It is a small, but very interesting kingdom. The lands are mostly wooded with large oak forests. The castle itself is quite large for the size of the kingdom, but the ruler always has believed that his subjects should support him well. There are many places to explore, riddles to solve, and many treasures to gather. The 'Guilded Cock' is where treasures are dropped to score.

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#3 Post by Strident » Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:01 am

Strident wrote:
Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:35 am
Zodiac Castle / Adventure at Zodiac Castle
Written by Dennis N. Strong and distributed by Dynacomp in 1982
Interestingly, a Dynacomp catalogue mentions that this game has the same layout as another one, The Windmere Estate Adventure, so that's another unknown Apple adventure for the database.
https://archive.org/details/dynacomp-wi ... /page/n39/

Edit: Link to Windmere Estate https://www.macgui.com/downloads/?file_id=5918

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Garry
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Re: Recovered Adventures

#4 Post by Garry » Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:16 am

Strident wrote:
Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:28 am
We have it listed here for Atari 800... I'm not sure if that Atari version is actually archived, so it's great to see an Apple II version
I have Survival for the Atari 8-bit, so it must be archived somewhere, as I didn't buy it back in the day.

These woz-a-day files are in the woz disk image format, but that format is not supported by any emulators that I'm familiar with. Can anyone either suggest an emulator that supports it or, better still, suggest a tool that converts the woz format to something more widely supported?

Incidentally, that Mac web site is a valuable find. Who'd have thought to find Apple II files on a Mac site. Unfortunately, like all respositories, the organisation is a mess. It's just a dumping ground for files. For commercial games, you can usually guess the game from the file name, but for everything else, ha, good luck with that.

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Exemptus
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Re: Recovered Adventures

#5 Post by Exemptus » Sat Feb 19, 2022 12:37 pm

These woz-a-day files are in the woz disk image format, but that format is not supported by any emulators that I'm familiar with. Can anyone either suggest an emulator that supports it or, better still, suggest a tool that converts the woz format to something more widely supported?
AppleWin supports the WOZ format since several versions back; so does MAME, whose Apple II emulation is actually pretty decent now (depending on your needs). The format cannot be "converted" easily because it supports accurate representations of the disk data layout, including protected formats. If the disk is not protected in any way then it can be converted losslessly; otherwise, it depends. There are tools that can attempt conversion, such as https://github.com/leesaudan2/woz2dsk. I have no idea how good they may be; please report your experience if you try them.

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Garry
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Re: Recovered Adventures

#6 Post by Garry » Sat Feb 19, 2022 3:34 pm

Thanks for the info. I thought I was using the latest AppleWin, but when I checked, there is indeed a newer version that supports the woz format.

I had already found and downloaded woz2dsk, but you need to be a rocket scientist to work out how to use it. It has at least three dependencies that I've downloaded, but I can't work out (or was too lazy to work out) how to install these dependencies so that Perl can find them. Obviously, I'm not a Perl expert and I only use it when I don't have a choice and that doesn't happen very often.

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#7 Post by Strident » Sat Apr 30, 2022 1:36 pm

Too many to list, but there's a bunch of previously unarchived WoW Software Amstrad CPC adventures in one of the latest updates at CPC Rulez...
https://cpcrulez.fr/index.php?a=1

(Some are preserved elsewhere, or already as a cassette/disk image but there are some new titles too)

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#8 Post by Strident » Fri May 20, 2022 9:04 pm

Moonbright Tower, a game for TI-99/4A from 1983, has recently been found and archived...
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/33577 ... ame-found/

(download link in that thread)

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#9 Post by Strident » Fri May 27, 2022 7:08 am

A previously unknown game for the Spectrum...

The Rock by Les Mitchell
https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... k-mia.html

I think this is a pre-playtest version. I would think a final version of the game would've ironed out a few issues right at the start that were a little unfair even at the time. (If you're having difficulties starting the game... SLEEP then SEARCH UNDER BUNK)

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#10 Post by Strident » Sat May 28, 2022 4:31 pm

Mad Monk, the follow up adventure from the creator of Galactic Hitchhiker, again for the UK101, has been recovered and is available for download over at Stardot...
https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic ... 25#p359625

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#11 Post by Garry » Sun May 29, 2022 8:39 am

Thanks for keeping us informed of these new discoveries.

Regarding Mad Monk, the instructions indicate that it was published by Merlin (Micro Systems Ltd). I'm not sure what that means. Were you able to confirm the author as A Knight, or was that just conjecture?

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#12 Post by Strident » Sun May 29, 2022 9:04 am

Garry wrote:
Sun May 29, 2022 8:39 am
Regarding Mad Monk, the instructions indicate that it was published by Merlin (Micro Systems Ltd). I'm not sure what that means. Were you able to confirm the author as A Knight, or was that just conjecture?
Merlin Micro Systems Ltd was Mr A. Knight's company (Mad Monk was advertised when he was trading under his own name and later as Merlin Micro Systems). Merlin later became Knight Software and published programs for the Dragon 32.

Mad Monk was listed as early as November 1981 in listing of his programs that he sent out to his customers. (Preserved here: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic ... 27#p354827 )

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#13 Post by Garry » Sun May 29, 2022 9:33 am

Gotcha. He published many programs by other authors. These seem to be credited in the catalogue. I guess the assumption is that if there is no credit, then it's by A Knight. When I booted it up, there was no credit in the program itself.

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Strident
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Re: Recovered Adventures

#14 Post by Strident » Sun May 29, 2022 9:44 am

Yeah, all his 1981 adverts have software, including Mad Monk, that's billed as being "from the guy who wrote 'Le Passe-Temps'"... and he's the guy who wrote Le Passe-Temps.

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Re: Recovered Adventures

#15 Post by boldir » Wed Nov 09, 2022 6:58 pm

Strident wrote:
Fri May 27, 2022 7:08 am
A previously unknown game for the Spectrum...

The Rock by Les Mitchell
https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... k-mia.html

I think this is a pre-playtest version. I would think a final version of the game would've ironed out a few issues right at the start that were a little unfair even at the time. (If you're having difficulties starting the game... SLEEP then SEARCH UNDER BUNK)
I've played it to the point where I have to open Benson's locker, but even though I have the locker key and I know Benson's name from the puzzle, the locker won't open!
Do you have any idea why?

OPEN LOCKE AT 19 LOCKER ROOM
PREP 15 BENSON
NOTZERO 62
CARRIED 5 a locker key
MESSAGE 25 Quickly finding Benson's locker you open it and find a prison officers uniform
CREATE 20 a Prison Officers Uniform
DESTROY 5
ANYKEY
DESC

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