Scott Le Brun & VZ200/300 text adventures
Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2022 12:20 pm
Doing a random database dive, to find the date for this Amiga game...
Castle Greystone
http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C88 ... stone.html
I noticed it was by Scott Le Brun. Apparently Australian Scott Le Brun wrote various text adventure games, initially for the VZ200 and VZ300. This is his Amiga AMOS conversion of one of them. The 1992 date currently listed is for the Amiga version, although I would imagine the original was from about 1986/7.
He is Scott Le Brun of Wantirna, Victoria, Australia; a very active user and member of the Aussie VZ scene.
He ran the VZ Down Under (VeeZed Down Under) user group...
https://archive.org/details/hvvzug/hvvzug17/page/2/
"Scott Le Brun was a very prolific writer of adventure games for the VZ. In August 1986 he began publication of "VeeZed Down Under". Scott also ran monthly meetinfs from his home. Scott produced 13 editions before the illustrious Harry Huggins took over in September 1988."
from: https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 29/page/4/
If he was a "very prolific writer" of adventure games, then CASA is currently doing his work justice... only currently listing one title!
So, I'm currently looking for other references to his VZ200/300 games and also keeping my eye out for undocumented VZ200/300 text adventures in general, which we seem to be lacking details on.
I did find another Le Brun adventure...
"Adventure"
Type-in text adventure in LE'VZ 200/300 OOP
LE/VZ #10 - February 1986
https://archive.org/details/LE-VZ200-VZ ... 0/page/n1/
LE'VZ #11 - March 1986
https://archive.org/details/LE-VZ200-VZ ... 1/page/n1/
He appears to have "written" a game called Knight's Quest for the VZ300, which was an unofficial port of King's Quest... not currently sure which King's Quest yet.
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 7/page/n1/
"Another approach you could use is to play a game from a different type of machine until you have solved it, then write it for the VZ fom scratch. This was quite succesfully done by Scott Le Brun, who converted the game "King's Quest" for the VZ300, by completely rewriting the program code. The result was the program "Knight's Quest", which is considered to be one of the best adventures available for the expanded VZ300."
That article also mentions some other (probably not Scott Le Brun) adventures including The Thief of Baghdad, Silver Mountain (Probably from the Usborne book?) and The Curse of Merkfruit Lodge. None of which are documented on CASA. A trawl through those other issues of VZ Down Under would probably worthwhile. (I'll add it to my list to do)
(Talking of VZDU, though... Merfruit Lodge, is mentioned by David Wood (possibly its author?) in an article on M/L Routines in Adventure Games...
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 9/page/10/
This is part of an interesting series of articles on Adventure Writing...
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 7/page/n1/
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 8/page/n7/
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 9/page/10/ *as above*
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 30/page/6/
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 31/page/n5
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 32/page/n9 )
Games by Scott Le Brun, but not text adventures...
Galactic Empires
https://archive.org/details/hvvzug/hvvzug17/page/14/
Monopoly
https://archive.org/details/HVVZUG_jour ... 19/page/n3
The above review mentioned that Scott's "VZ Down Under Software" was closing down (c.Jul/Aug 1988).
Later mentions of his Amiga venture, DiskRight Software...
https://archive.org/details/WorkbenchMa ... 8/page/n7/
(attaching a random mention of The Maze of Dead. Possible VZ adventure game.
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 5/page/n7/ )
Castle Greystone
http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C88 ... stone.html
I noticed it was by Scott Le Brun. Apparently Australian Scott Le Brun wrote various text adventure games, initially for the VZ200 and VZ300. This is his Amiga AMOS conversion of one of them. The 1992 date currently listed is for the Amiga version, although I would imagine the original was from about 1986/7.
He is Scott Le Brun of Wantirna, Victoria, Australia; a very active user and member of the Aussie VZ scene.
He ran the VZ Down Under (VeeZed Down Under) user group...
https://archive.org/details/hvvzug/hvvzug17/page/2/
"Scott Le Brun was a very prolific writer of adventure games for the VZ. In August 1986 he began publication of "VeeZed Down Under". Scott also ran monthly meetinfs from his home. Scott produced 13 editions before the illustrious Harry Huggins took over in September 1988."
from: https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 29/page/4/
If he was a "very prolific writer" of adventure games, then CASA is currently doing his work justice... only currently listing one title!
So, I'm currently looking for other references to his VZ200/300 games and also keeping my eye out for undocumented VZ200/300 text adventures in general, which we seem to be lacking details on.
I did find another Le Brun adventure...
"Adventure"
Type-in text adventure in LE'VZ 200/300 OOP
LE/VZ #10 - February 1986
https://archive.org/details/LE-VZ200-VZ ... 0/page/n1/
LE'VZ #11 - March 1986
https://archive.org/details/LE-VZ200-VZ ... 1/page/n1/
He appears to have "written" a game called Knight's Quest for the VZ300, which was an unofficial port of King's Quest... not currently sure which King's Quest yet.
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 7/page/n1/
"Another approach you could use is to play a game from a different type of machine until you have solved it, then write it for the VZ fom scratch. This was quite succesfully done by Scott Le Brun, who converted the game "King's Quest" for the VZ300, by completely rewriting the program code. The result was the program "Knight's Quest", which is considered to be one of the best adventures available for the expanded VZ300."
That article also mentions some other (probably not Scott Le Brun) adventures including The Thief of Baghdad, Silver Mountain (Probably from the Usborne book?) and The Curse of Merkfruit Lodge. None of which are documented on CASA. A trawl through those other issues of VZ Down Under would probably worthwhile. (I'll add it to my list to do)
(Talking of VZDU, though... Merfruit Lodge, is mentioned by David Wood (possibly its author?) in an article on M/L Routines in Adventure Games...
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 9/page/10/
This is part of an interesting series of articles on Adventure Writing...
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 7/page/n1/
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 8/page/n7/
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 9/page/10/ *as above*
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 30/page/6/
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 31/page/n5
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 32/page/n9 )
Games by Scott Le Brun, but not text adventures...
Galactic Empires
https://archive.org/details/hvvzug/hvvzug17/page/14/
Monopoly
https://archive.org/details/HVVZUG_jour ... 19/page/n3
The above review mentioned that Scott's "VZ Down Under Software" was closing down (c.Jul/Aug 1988).
Later mentions of his Amiga venture, DiskRight Software...
https://archive.org/details/WorkbenchMa ... 8/page/n7/
(attaching a random mention of The Maze of Dead. Possible VZ adventure game.
https://archive.org/details/vzdu_newsle ... 5/page/n7/ )