Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

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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jgerrie
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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#121 Post by jgerrie » Sat Jan 04, 2020 11:37 pm

I ported Basements from TRS-80 Model 1 already. Should have asked here first:( But Thanks!

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#122 Post by jgerrie » Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:09 am

I have updated "Time Travelers" by Ann B. Mayeux from the book The Third Rainbow Book of Adventures (Falsoft 1987). Condensed to fit a 20K MC-10 and now with word wrap. Anyone aware of a playthrough or map?
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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#123 Post by jgerrie » Sat Feb 08, 2020 4:13 pm

I have ported "Silverton Adventure" from the book The Second Rainbow Book of Adventures. Condensed to fit a 20K MC-10 and now with word wrap. Anyone aware of a playthrough or map? Looks like it is full of tricky puzzles.https://youtu.be/fGl8QEEqsEw
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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#124 Post by jgerrie » Tue Feb 11, 2020 3:07 am

Made a blog post with a walkthrough and some details about some errors I fixed in the original version of the Silverton House Adventure.

http://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2020/02/t ... nture.html

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#125 Post by jgerrie » Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:37 pm

I have ported The Secret of Flagstone Manor to MC-10, and created a walkthrough which I have uploaded to the database.
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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#126 Post by jgerrie » Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:17 pm

I've ported Scott Adams Pirate Adventure to TRS-80 MC-10:
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PIRATE can be selected from the Cassette menu and played here:
http://faculty.cbu.ca/jgerrie/MC10/JG_M ... tures.html

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#127 Post by jgerrie » Thu May 20, 2021 9:48 am

My latest port (and translation from Czech) "P.R.E.S.T.A.B.A.":
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Blog write-up can be found here:
http://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2021/05/a ... oslav.html

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#128 Post by Garry » Thu May 20, 2021 12:05 pm

"Wokers of the world unite". Is this about Chinese cookery? :D

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#129 Post by jgerrie » Sat Jun 05, 2021 12:55 am

Good eye! Fixed that shortly after posting the vid. Someone else also spotted it in the MC-10 Facebook group. The workers' flag must fly over your home.
Garry wrote:
Thu May 20, 2021 12:05 pm
"Wokers of the world unite". Is this about Chinese cookery? :D

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#130 Post by jgerrie » Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:45 pm

"Sunrise Over Bethselamine"-->Another program converted to the MC-10. Many bug fixes and spelling and grammar corrections.

For a complete walkthrough see: https://youtu.be/4Rpj5X2KrGc

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#131 Post by jgerrie » Thu Jan 06, 2022 7:58 am

I generally only upload games to my Retrogame site http://faculty.cbu.ca/jgerrie/Home/jgam ... tures.html
that I have confirmed the distribution status with the owner of the copyright. However, one of the people it has been difficult to find extensive biographical information about in order to try to reach out to is Greg Hassett. Many commentator's note that Hassett started programming at the age of 12 and that he was very prolific. But it is unclear what happened to him after his contribution to the early age of home computing.

I've noticed that some people might already have used one of my early games distributions to examine one of his games, such as:

https://www.retrogamestrove.com/game-15-king-tuts-tomb/

And I've also been contacted by a number of people recently wanting to play this game from my faculty site, so I have decided to upload his games so these folks can access them, at least for a month or so. If anyone out there knows anything about the copyright status of these games or the whereabouts of Greg Hassett, a response here would be much appreciated.

I have already ported the following games by him:

The House of Seven Gables
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Sorcerer's Castle Adventure
King Tut's Tomb
Voyage to Atlantis
Enchanted Island

I am now considering converting some of his other games, so that people can have online access to the works of this important contributor:

Mystery Mansion
World’s Edge
Curse of the Sasquatch
Devil's Palace

I have listed them in order of my priority for porting. When I have finished I'll also make them available until I take them back down this April. If folks have any thoughts on which of these are the most significant please let me know.

I've also stumbled across a neat publication: Captain 80 BASIC Adventures. It has a huge list of classic text adventure games, many I have already converted to Micro Color BASIC (See the ones with *s).

Chapter 1 Atlantean Odyssey Teri Li 37
Chapter 2 Dog Star Lance Micklus 87 *
Chapter 3 Thunder Road Don & Freda Boner 97
Chapter 4 Deadly Dungeon Don & Freda Boner 107
Chapter 5 Revenge of Balrog Don & Freda Boner 117
Chapter 6 The Fortress at Times-End Don & Freda Boner 125
Chapter 7 Temple of the Sun Jack Powers 134
Chapter 8 Lost Ship Charles Forsythe 148
Chapter 9 Spider Mountain Teri Li 157
Chapter 10 Lost Dutchman's Gold Teri Li 167 *
Chapter 11 Journey to the Center of the Earth Greg Hassett 177 *
Chapter 12 King Tut's Tomb Greg Hassett 187 *
Chapter 13 Voyage to Atlantis Greg Hassett 197 *
Chapter 14 House of Seven Gables Greg Hassett 206 *
Chapter 15 Sorcerer's Castle Greg Hassett 216 *
Chapter 16 CIA Adventure Hugh Lampert 225 *
Chapter 17 Arctic Adventure Harry McCracken 234
Chapter 18 Adventureland Scott Adams 241 *

I am considering converting some of these that I haven't done yet over the next few months. But first I must investigate in the database and around the Net which one's are already easily available. If I find any that are not, I'll come back to this list and mark them with a + sign to indicate that they are on my radar screen for porting. But if anyone has any suggestions for ones that I should prioritize please post a comment.

One final "Text Adventure" project I am thinking of undertaking is converting my re-code of Planet of Death by Artic Soft. I have read many reviews of this game, and they all praise it for its innovative features (for the time). But there are also a number of specific complaints that reviewers make about its puzzles that they all agree spoil the game, especially for modern players. It might be nice, since I have converted it to BASIC, to make my recode a new version of the game that addresses these complaints. That way it might serve a useful function of providing an opportunity for modern players to give it a try and not be overly frustrated. Any comments on this project would be much appreciated.

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#132 Post by Strident » Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:26 am

It's always interesting to see your new adaptations of the old BASIC games, particularly when you fix them and make them playable.

I don't think there are any Captain 80 games that are difficult to get in a playable form. Because of the popularity of the book they all seemed to get ported to various platforms, especially down the old PET->VIC20/C64 pipeline, that spawned multiple versions of some of the games in there like Balrog and Dog Star. As you know, Jason Dyer's covered all the Captain 80 games now so I guess his walkthroughs would be a good place to spot any that might have been tricky for him to get in a playable form.

EDIT: I see that someone has started to set up a Captain 80 "game group" in the past, but it isn't complete. I'm pretty sure we've got all the games listed in the database now, so I'll look at completing that list. It might give the Boner games quite a long entry, though, as they also featured in a later Virgin games list... (Yes, I appreciate how that sentence might read to someone not versed in antiquated text adventures. :) )

Re. Planet of Death, and any of the Artic games... there is an active IP owner for these. I don't think they'd be bothered by the work you're doing, given the particular platforms you produce programs for, but it's something to be aware of. At one point I was considering porting the verbose/extended AWJ Adam "Nick Hardy" versions, but decided against it as the Spectrum/Commodore etc is a retro space they work in.

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#133 Post by Strident » Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:50 am

Re. Greg Hassett

According to the CV, this is him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory-hassett/

There are quite a few leads there (e.g. http://www.bulldogtechnologies.com/ https://hrstreamlinedsolutions.com/who-we-are/ https://www.blockchainxperts.com/about-us ) if you want to try and contact him. (It would actually be fascinating to read an interview with him too)

I'm guessing gregATbulldogtechnologies.com might get to him.

EDIT: It's always hard to know how up-to-date a Linkedin profile is, but Greg is pictured at a Boston blockchain event here in 2019:
https://twitter.com/TheUSBlockchain/sta ... 9082509314
Also https://www.facebook.com/BitcoinMarketJ ... 232324035/

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#134 Post by auraes » Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:27 am

Really interesting conversation.
What would be the appropriate copyright for this new revised version of the games?
I have always informed the authors of the adaptations I have made to their games before making them available (with the exception of a few games that I have used as examples with cQuill and zQuill).

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Re: Another Classic Ported to TRS-80 MC-10

#135 Post by jgerrie » Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:50 am

Thanks Strident. That's a lot of useful info you've provided.

Boils down to:
Hassett is not really that hard to find.
None of the games are hard to find.
Which leaves me bereft of any projects to focus on :(

Perhaps what I really needed to ask was, does anyone know of any BASIC games that need converting from scans, or which need fixing because they are currently unplayable?

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