Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

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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Juan
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Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#1 Post by Juan » Wed Mar 10, 2010 1:15 pm

Has anyone played this early (1982) adventure for the Spectrum 16K?:

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0006694

Most of it seems pretty easy, except the part about crossing the rope bridge: it always collapses under your weight, even if you drop everything you are carrying. Out of frustration, I peeked into the program itself, to see if this bridge is just a red herring and you don't really need to cross it, and I found the following message, evidence that you can somehow cross it:

"You made it across the bridge, WHAT LUCK!"

I have not been able to find the following items from the game's item list:

Oars (for the boat; and without them you apparently can't cross the canal)
Gun

terri
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#2 Post by terri » Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:46 pm

This is among my unfinished games (from 2008).

From my number of saves, I didn't get very far. I'll try and find my notes and resurrect it.

terri
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#3 Post by terri » Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:19 am

OK - I found my notes and the limited map I made.

I got the torch, took the rope, took the boat, found the flask and filled it, found the hammer (with the help of the torch), used the explosive. It seems I can't get past the ants once in the mines.

Have you gotten further than that?

Juan
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Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:54 pm

Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#4 Post by Juan » Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:47 pm

terri wrote:OK - I found my notes and the limited map I made.

I got the torch, took the rope, took the boat, found the flask and filled it, found the hammer (with the help of the torch), used the explosive. It seems I can't get past the ants once in the mines.

Have you gotten further than that?
Not much more than you already have. Have you found the laddder yet? This one is VERY tricky. But this item has not been of much help so far.

There's three stumbling blocks so far in the game:

The rope bridge
The canal
The ants

The boat seems obviously to be used in the canal, but since we haven't got the oars yet it can't be of much help (if you try to use the boat in the canal it says that since you have no oars you "are helplessly drifting out to sea", and then the game crashes.)

The gun seems to be used to kill the ants. But where is it?

This pretty much leaves the rope bridge. But how do you get across it? I've tried a bunch of things so far, but nothing has worked.

Mark
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#5 Post by Mark » Thu Mar 11, 2010 5:16 pm

Juan wrote: "You made it across the bridge, WHAT LUCK!"
As always, I'm just a voice from the off (i.e. not playing the game myself)... Did you already try to just cross it several times? The expression "WHAT LUCK" might indicate that it's simply an annoying random element.

Juan
Posts: 313
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:54 pm

Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#6 Post by Juan » Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:01 pm

Mark wrote:
Juan wrote: "You made it across the bridge, WHAT LUCK!"
As always, I'm just a voice from the off (i.e. not playing the game myself)... Did you already try to just cross it several times? The expression "WHAT LUCK" might indicate that it's simply an annoying random element.
Yes, since I have tried many things already, and it always ends up with the bridge collapsing under your weight (and you dying because of this.) So you have to restore the game and try again.

terri
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#7 Post by terri » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:28 am

No, I haven't found the ladder. Can you give me some hints about where it is?

Juan
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#8 Post by Juan » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:52 pm

terri wrote:No, I haven't found the ladder. Can you give me some hints about where it is?
OK, it's difficult to give a hint without giving it away too easily. But let me try this: the reason why it's very tricky to realize where the ladder is is because the game doesn't actually call your attention about it being there, but in all fairness the game does indeed give you a pretty clear indication that allows you to deduce that it is there. Does that help or make sense? Advice: read the messages, carefully, don't skip anything.

terri
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#9 Post by terri » Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:50 pm

Turns out that I had written down where I found the ladder. But I can't seem to use it anywhere. Any suggestions?

Juan
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#10 Post by Juan » Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:17 pm

terri wrote:Turns out that I had written down where I found the ladder. But I can't seem to use it anywhere. Any suggestions?
No, none so far. But it is quite sure that the ladder has a use in some place (apparently to climb up some smooth surface or something like that) because I found the following message in the game program:

"Its sides are smooth as glass, you'll need the ladder of your ship."

terri
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#11 Post by terri » Thu Mar 18, 2010 10:45 pm

The listings also refer to a "pothole". Have you found one, or do you suppose this refers to what you get after blasting the ants?

Also the word "cover" is in the list of verbs, not in the list of nouns. That's the only verb I haven't used anywhere yet, with the exception of "climb".

This isn't a complicated game, so maybe, something got "lost" in the translation to the 48K version?

Juan
Posts: 313
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#12 Post by Juan » Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:48 am

terri wrote:The listings also refer to a "pothole". Have you found one, or do you suppose this refers to what you get after blasting the ants?
I don't remember encountering such a thing yet.
Also the word "cover" is in the list of verbs, not in the list of nouns. That's the only verb I haven't used anywhere yet, with the exception of "climb".
This "cover" could also refer to the man-hole cover that's in the cellar. But if you open it you die.
This isn't a complicated game, so maybe, something got "lost" in the translation to the 48K version?
Are you playing a 48K version? Where did you find it? I am playing with the version available at World of Spectrum, which is for the 16K.

terri
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#13 Post by terri » Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:27 am

Yes, I am playing this version too. However, when you search about this game, it gives you two publishers, and says that it is a Spectrum 48 game.

Regardless, I still can't finish it.

The listings do state a "pothole".

I thought that "cover" referred to the manhole cover. Just thought that I should add that it is among the verbs, that's all.

Not that this is a definitive guide.

I believe that "trying" very hard, may be the correct verb here. :)

Thought this does not put us any further ahead. For a game that seems to be straightforward and simple, this doesn't see to be the case.

I suppose we will keep trying, but it seems futile.

Juan
Posts: 313
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:54 pm

Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#14 Post by Juan » Sat Mar 20, 2010 1:01 pm

terri wrote:Yes, I am playing this version too. However, when you search about this game, it gives you two publishers, and says that it is a Spectrum 48 game.

Regardless, I still can't finish it.

The listings do state a "pothole".

I thought that "cover" referred to the manhole cover. Just thought that I should add that it is among the verbs, that's all.
That list is really a mix of the game's verbs and nouns. It starts with "01nort"(h) and ends with "30cove"(r)
Not that this is a definitive guide.

I believe that "trying" very hard, may be the correct verb here. :)

Thought this does not put us any further ahead. For a game that seems to be straightforward and simple, this doesn't see to be the case.

I suppose we will keep trying, but it seems futile.
Yes, it is simple & straightforward (as you would expect from a 16K game), and yet this part is proving to be very tough to figure out. Maybe we can interest one of the programming wizards around here to take a look at the program and see if they can figure out how in blazes are you supposed to cross that bridge? (in other words: HELP!)

Eriorg
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Re: Mines of Saturn, early adventure for the Spectrum 16K

#15 Post by Eriorg » Sun Mar 21, 2010 5:47 am

Juan wrote:Maybe we can interest one of the programming wizards around here to take a look at the program and see if they can figure out how in blazes are you supposed to cross that bridge?
It's actually supposed to be a random element with 9 chances out of ten to succeed (see line 2970 in the program), but it seems to be made completely impossible because of a bug! I don't think the program uses RANDOMIZE TIME to have "real" random numbers, which means that the random value is always the same first RND -- and it's a losing one!

I managed to make it work, however:

* First, interrupt (with BREAK twice) the game at the beginning (the first screen of text).
* Then, type:

2970 LET ok=0:RETURN

(Note: just type L for LET and Y for RETURN.)

* Then, type the "C" key (to CONTINUE).

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