House of Death - Oric/Atmos

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

House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#1 Post by Juan »

Anyone around here played this game?:

http://solutionarchive.com/game/id,1410/

I must be close to the end (86%), but I am stuck in the crypt after scaring Dracula with the garlic. Once inside the crypt it seems impossible to get out. The game says that "there are passages going east and west" but when you try to GO EAST or WEST it keeps saying that you can't go that way. Not sure if this is a bug, a red herring or that I missed something.

I tried contacting the programmer:

http://home.btclick.com/geffers/index.html

But his email doesn't work.
darius
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:31 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#2 Post by darius »

I'm sure you did this but I'm asking just in case: did you try to remove REDHERRING from his email address?
Juan
Posts: 313
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:54 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#3 Post by Juan »

darius wrote:I'm sure you did this but I'm asking just in case: did you try to remove REDHERRING from his email address?
Yes, it didn't work either.
dave
Posts: 606
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:20 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#4 Post by dave »

I've just whipped together an Oric BASIC detokeniser to try and understand what's going on here (it was easier than the others I've done). Give me some time to have a look through the code and I should be able to tell you whether it's a bug or a puzzle.

Looks like there's a bug in the code, the statement defining the exits is:

Code: Select all

1880 DATA4,46,1,51,53,46,0,1,49,54,49,0,1,52,2,48,54,52,0,51,3,53,0
Where the format is noun,room with a 0 being end of exits. Room 50 is the digits at the end (51,3,53,0). I would think that this should be "4,51,3,53,0" which would make west lead to "You are in a passage that travels north or south. A small avenue goes east" and east lead "You're in a large hairy room, where there is only a passage going west. There is a chute on the east wall".

If this makes sense I'll try to amend the file, though this may be quite hard to do as I'll need to dig out 2 extra bytes from somewhere.
dave
Posts: 606
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:20 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#5 Post by dave »

I found a way of doing it, byte 7 in the Oric .tap file indicates whether to autorun the game, if it's 0xc7 then it rooms, if it's 0x00 then it doesn't. So I set byte 7 to 0x00, loaded the file, amended the file, saved it and then reset byte 7 on the new file.

I've posted the file as a fixed game on the game's page.

Juan, could you test this to make sure that it works logically as it would take me ages to play that far through?
Juan
Posts: 313
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:54 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#6 Post by Juan »

dave wrote:I've just whipped together an Oric BASIC detokeniser to try and understand what's going on here (it was easier than the others I've done). Give me some time to have a look through the code and I should be able to tell you whether it's a bug or a puzzle.

Looks like there's a bug in the code, the statement defining the exits is:

Code: Select all

1880 DATA4,46,1,51,53,46,0,1,49,54,49,0,1,52,2,48,54,52,0,51,3,53,0
Where the format is noun,room with a 0 being end of exits. Room 50 is the digits at the end (51,3,53,0). I would think that this should be "4,51,3,53,0" which would make west lead to "You are in a passage that travels north or south. A small avenue goes east" and east lead "You're in a large hairy room, where there is only a passage going west. There is a chute on the east wall".

Thanks for your prompt reply, Dave! When you go east at that location you do not land in the "large hairy room", but in the crypt where Dracula is. If you carry the garlic with you, he runs away. That's where the problem is. You can't go anywhere from there. You are seemingly stuck in that crypt, even though it clearly says that there are passages to the east and west.

I will test your game fix and see how it works.
Juan
Posts: 313
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:54 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#7 Post by Juan »

dave wrote:I found a way of doing it, byte 7 in the Oric .tap file indicates whether to autorun the game, if it's 0xc7 then it rooms, if it's 0x00 then it doesn't. So I set byte 7 to 0x00, loaded the file, amended the file, saved it and then reset byte 7 on the new file.

I've posted the file as a fixed game on the game's page.

Juan, could you test this to make sure that it works logically as it would take me ages to play that far through?

OK, I just tested it, and no, it did not work. I still can't go east from the crypt, and when I try to go back west now it sends me all the way back to the ledge outside the building!
dave
Posts: 606
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:20 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#8 Post by dave »

Argh! Is there any chance that you could PM me the moves to get to the crypt so I can test myself and have another go later?
dave
Posts: 606
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:20 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#9 Post by dave »

I've tested it out now and discovered my error (I'd made some typos when retyping the BASIC line). I've updated the fixed game on the CASA page for HoD.

One note, as with most fixes, I can only guess that what I've done is what was intended by the author (and it makes sense, as it looks like only the direction number was left out), so there may be more problems.
Juan
Posts: 313
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:54 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#10 Post by Juan »

dave wrote:I've tested it out now and discovered my error (I'd made some typos when retyping the BASIC line). I've updated the fixed game on the CASA page for HoD.

One note, as with most fixes, I can only guess that what I've done is what was intended by the author (and it makes sense, as it looks like only the direction number was left out), so there may be more problems.
I will test it later on today. I'll let you know how it goes.
Juan
Posts: 313
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:54 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#11 Post by Juan »

dave wrote:I've tested it out now and discovered my error (I'd made some typos when retyping the BASIC line). I've updated the fixed game on the CASA page for HoD.

One note, as with most fixes, I can only guess that what I've done is what was intended by the author (and it makes sense, as it looks like only the direction number was left out), so there may be more problems.

OK, game finished & walkthrough written. Your fix was effective this time. Interesting that the game was released with this fatal bug that made it unfinishable. I may be the first person to finish it since 1983 :lol:
dave
Posts: 606
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:20 pm

Re: House of Death - Oric/Atmos

#12 Post by dave »

Unfortunately it happens more often than not, fortunately the game was in BASIC so it was easy to fix (and I learnt a bit about the Oric as I did it)!
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