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

#136 Post by jgerrie » Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:59 am

Auraes,

Don't know what the copyright status of a BASIC recoding is. But it would be the same as someone making a "Pacman" game in 8-bit BASIC. Should they be worried about Namco (or whoever made the original cabinet game) coming after them? In practical terms, I doubt it is worth worrying about. But in strict legal terms, it's probably possible.

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

#137 Post by Garry » Fri Jan 07, 2022 4:18 am

The Captain 80 book of BASIC adventures is one of my favourite series, second only to the SoftSide Adventure of the Month series. I have all the Captain 80 games, including screen grabs, maps (as Trizbort files), solutions (hand-written) and BASIC source code as plain text. Send me a PM for anything you need.

This reminds me that I should pull my finger out and get those maps and solutions submitted to CASA.

For what it's worth, Atlantean Odyssey, Lost Ship and Arctic Adventure are very good. Spider Mountain is essentially the same as Lost Dutchman's Gold, but transferred to a fantasy setting. The others vary between ordinary and awful. Thunder Road is probably the worst, which is a pity, as it's based on an original idea.

An interesting challenge that I've been half-heartedly thinking about is whether it's possible to turn an awful game into a great game by taking the basic concept, enhancing the story, descriptions, vocabulary, responses, map and puzzles, i.e. essentially a complete rewrite.

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

#138 Post by Garry » Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:05 pm

Holy mackeral. I started sorting through my Captain 80 notes today. The maps are dated 2015. How time flies when you're having fun!

I've been going through the notes for Arctic Adventure. There's 1 page for the map, 1 page for the solution, 3 pages for notes, 1 page for bug fixes and 70 pages of design ideas and notes for a redesigned game. Wow! I must get onto that. It has a new map and lots of new puzzles. Some of them are very clever...at least I think they're very clever. :lol:

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

#139 Post by Strident » Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:29 pm

I can't believe that you will have run out of crap, broken BASIC games, Jim. I'll keep my eyes open for anything that looks suitably interesting. I did spot a few a while back but didn't make a note of them. I expect that Jason Dyer's run through of 1982 will bring some interesting targets to light too.

I don't seem to run out of project ideas... especially on the researching side of things... I keep disappearing down interesting rabbit holes. Recent ones have included the BASIC adventure Almazar ( https://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C5 ... zar+I.html ) which I spotted a CoCo version for.

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

#140 Post by jgerrie » Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:24 am

Garry,
Thanks for the recommendations re: Atlantean, Lost Ship and Arctic adventures.

Strident, thanks for the info about Almazar. Looks like a neat one.

If you have any suggestions for games to fix or get running, please let me know.

I think I might start by taking a look at Thunder Road. Perhaps I could get it running on the MC-10 and improve it a little at the same time...

Jim

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

#141 Post by Strident » Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:11 pm

It's not in BASIC, which would make re-implementing it a lot trickier, but one historically significant game that I have considered porting is the very early British adventure Galactic Hitchhiker...
https://bluerenga.blog/2021/11/04/galac ... iker-1980/
http://8bitag.com/info/galactic.html
...as it's not the easiest game to get up and running and could be made more playable with some basic QoL tweaks.

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

#142 Post by jgerrie » Mon Jan 10, 2022 2:25 am

Strident wrote:
Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:11 pm
It's not in BASIC, which would make re-implementing it a lot trickier, but one historically significant game that I have considered porting is the very early British adventure Galactic Hitchhiker...
Thanks Strident. I might beat you to the conversion. Already got the HEX into something readable (selection below). Should be able to take the bits and pieces and "build back better" as BASIC. Now if I could just find a walkthrough map...


NORTHEASTSOUTHWESTUPDOWNSTARTGOGETDROPTAKEWAVEPUSHPULLDON'TSHOOTCHOPCUTFEEDOPENGERBICOPJOLLY GERB GIANTGHOULIBRUTESPACE RANGERTREE ACROSS THE RAVINEDOORBUTTONLEVERFENCETREEPANICJUGBLASTERCHOPPING-AXEWIRE-CUTTERROAST JOINTKEYPIT-PROPTATTY OLD SCARFTICKETRUCKSACKSCORE
I'M IN A

NOW WHAT SHOULD I DO? I CAN'T. I'M CARRYING ENOUGH ALREADY.
THERE IS A HERE. I DON'T UNDERSTAND.I CAN'T GO IN THAT DIRECTION.GO WHERE? WHAT?
OKAY, NOW WHAT?
A GREAT IDEA! HOW? WHAT ? DEAD I CAN'T.

SPIKE HERE: YOU GOT LUCKY, MAN.AW, REAL COOL BABY.FANTASTIC! HE'S ON GRECIAN 2000.AMAZING, MAN!YOUR SCORE ISHE'S GETTING DRUNK!

ANOTHER TRY (Y/N)?

I'M IN A GIANT INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. THERE ARE
PIPES LEADING EVERYWHERE AND HUNDREDS OF
ENORMOUS STORAGE TANKS.
I'M IN A DESERT OF GREY ASH. THE TWO SUNS OF
GOMERIL BEAT DOWN MERCILESSLY AND SCAVENGER
BIRDS ARE CIRCLING OVERHEAD.
A MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE IS SHAKING THE BUILDING.
I CAN FEEL ANOTHER EARTH TREMOR.
THE SHIP'S GONE! THE WHOLE PLACE IS BLOWING
UP AND THE BLOODY SHIP'S GONE!AW, POOR OLD MO.HE'S BEEN ELECTROCUTED!DON'T BE SILLY!HE'S BEEN DEADED. HOW SAD.


GALACTIC HITCHHIKER

BOY, I'M SICK OF THAT GUY! I.Q. APPROACHING
ZERO, FROM THE NEGATIVE SIDE. VOCABULARY
LIMITED, FAVOURITE EXPRESSIONS I CAN'T AND
I DON'T UNDERSTAND. HE'S NUTS!

WORD IS, YOU'LL TAKE HIM OFF MY HANDS AND
MAYBE LIKE HELP HIM TO GET HOME.

CAT SAYS HE'S MAURICE MARINA (TYPICAL!) AND
HE'S FROM ASSYLIOS IX.

AND I'M SPIKE...LAY SOME SKIN ON ME, MAN.OLD MAURICE THERE CAN DO TRICKS LIKE GO
(EAST, UP, START ETC), OPEN, WAVE AND GET
THINGS (TRY GET SCORE)...

ALL HE'S GOT WITH HIM IS HIS RUCKSACK AND
HIS TI...OH, NO! HE'S DROPPED IT!
HEY MO, GET TICKET

I CAN'T. A MAN WITH A RUCKSACK INSCRIBED
'ASSYLIOS ROVERS RULE' HAS TAKEN IT.

NOW AIN'T THAT JUST DANDY! OVER TO YOU, PAL
AND REMEMBER...DON'T PANIC!
WORKSHOP. CONDITIONS HERE ARE APPALLING. A GERB OVERSEER IS EYEING ME
SUSPICIOUSLY.THE SNOW IS PILED
HIGH HERE AND I MUST GO BACK.I'M VERY COLD.I HOPE YOU KNOW
WHERE I AM.I'M LOSING ALL SENSE
OF DIRECTION.FOOTPRINTS LEAD NORTH.ALL DIRECTIONS SEEM
THE SAME.THE SNOW IS DRIVING

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

#143 Post by Strident » Mon Jan 10, 2022 8:10 am

Yeah, that's definitely further than I've got so far. :)

Jason's got half a map in his blog post. Ben's solution (on the site) and YouTube video is very useful, although there isn't a map.
https://solutionarchive.com/file/id%2C19943/

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

#144 Post by jgerrie » Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:37 am

Strident,

I have finished Galactic Hitchhiker. Now just to bug test the little stuff. Here's a vid:
https://www.facebook.com/jimgerrie/vide ... 3959903456
and the source:
https://github.com/jggames/trs80mc10/tr ... s/HitchHik

Thanks for the idea!

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

#145 Post by Strident » Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:44 am

Great stuff and, from the video, it looks like you've implemented sensible QoL tweaks like adding a more traditional inventory command and movement system too.

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

#146 Post by jgerrie » Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:41 pm

I just use "Tower of Mystery" provided as an example in a Compute's Guide to Text Adventures (1984). It has all the standard commands and serves as a nice BASIC text adventure engine.

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

#147 Post by Strident » Fri Jan 14, 2022 7:46 am

I enjoyed the write-up of your conversion process, Jim. ( https://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2022/01/ ... -1980.html for those that haven't seen it).

Yes, I'm Gareth. The solution, walkthrough and map were by benkid77 but the "8bitAG" page of information on the history of the game is mine.

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

#148 Post by jgerrie » Sat Jan 15, 2022 7:41 pm

Thanks Gareth for the idea and all the help. Super fun project just before I had back to teaching...

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

#149 Post by jgerrie » Sat Jan 15, 2022 7:48 pm

Strident wrote:
Fri Jan 14, 2022 7:46 am
Yes, I'm Gareth. The solution, walkthrough and map were by benkid77 but the "8bitAG" page of information on the history of the game is mine.
I fixed up the references to your page in my blog. Thanks for clearing that up. Your page was extremely helpful. Please let me know of any other project ideas you might have.

Jim

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

#150 Post by jgerrie » Sun Jan 30, 2022 2:55 am

Ported a game called "House Adventure" from the Club 100 Library. (House.ba).
house.png
house.png (2.83 KiB) Viewed 10179 times

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