Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

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.

Moderator: Alastair

Message
Author
User avatar
Strident
Posts: 1001
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:57 pm

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#16 Post by Strident » Sat Feb 22, 2020 10:55 pm

Have caught up with your posts now, webowl. Apologies if it looked like we were ignoring your comments. :) I've reached out to a couple of people that I know are archiving and accurately imaging some pretty rare Apple II disks, to ask them to look out for the missing game. Odyssey was so extensively advertised, for quite a long period of time, that it's hard to believe a copy doesn't exist out there... somewhere...

User avatar
Garry
Posts: 468
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:43 am
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#17 Post by Garry » Sun Feb 23, 2020 2:43 am

webowl wrote:
Sat Feb 22, 2020 1:10 pm
From my perspective, the Softside disk adventures are the only other remaining Apple II text adventures still MIA (not available on other computer platforms).
This is possibly a little off-topic, but if you are referring to the SoftSide Adventure of the Month series, these are all available. I've certainly got a copy of all 30 games for the Apple II and Atari 8-bit, but missing Crime Adventure, James Brand Adventure, Witches' Brew, Dateline Titanic, Arrow One, Robin Hood, The Mouse That Ate Chicago, Alaskan Adventure, Danger Is My Business and Jack the Ripper II for the TRS-80. I originally subscribed to these and played all the games on the Atari 8-bit. Happy memories.

webowl
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:38 am

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#18 Post by webowl » Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:22 am

Re Softside and Hassett: I am talking about emulator images on the internet, and not somebody's original diskettes in their attic (or such) (I have 2 diskettes as well, but cannot read them---my Apple II stopped working in the 1990s). Most of these games are not able to downloaded to play in either Applewin or an Atari emulator (nor TRS-80).

Some people have reviewed these games. For example, one reviewer in Australia played Mystery Mansion by Greg Hassett on the TRS-80 and has a copy he edited to complete the game. But he never made it available on the internet for others even though all of Greg Hassett's games are definitely in the public domain. And this is the most wanted Greg Hassett game on the planet.

If you have those Softside games, why don't you try to get them imaged. And if they already are, can they be downloaded? I searched for them, but to no avail.

User avatar
Strident
Posts: 1001
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:57 pm

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#19 Post by Strident » Sun Feb 23, 2020 11:06 am

webowl wrote:
Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:22 am
Some people have reviewed these games. For example, one reviewer in Australia played Mystery Mansion by Greg Hassett on the TRS-80 and has a copy he edited to complete the game. But he never made it available on the internet for others even though all of Greg Hassett's games are definitely in the public domain. And this is the most wanted Greg Hassett game on the planet.
Jason Dyer (an adventure author and blogger from the US) covered the (Hassett) Mystery Mansion early last year for his "all the adventures" project. He said he got the game from Ira Goldklang's collection... I'll ask him if he has a link.

Edit... I might not need to... Here's Ira's site.... http://www.trs-80.com/

...Mystery Manor is there for download. (I can't post a direct link to it, as it blocks external downloads, but if you use the search facility then it appears)

There are 21 entries for Greg Hassett games on that site, although obviously not all of them are adventures.

webowl
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:38 am

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#20 Post by webowl » Sun Feb 23, 2020 1:19 pm

Thank you for the information about Mystery Mansion. I tried that site in the past and did not find it. However, I did find it just now after 3 search attempts. Unfortunately, that file is corrupted. In the TRS80gp emulator, when you get to the title page, an input command overwrites most of the lower part of the initial title screen, and then the screen does not allow input, but just scrolls indefinitely saying you are emptyhanded and activates the printer output system. This corrupted file (presumably caused by a machine error by the user who supplied the file) would explain why other websites say the game is no longer on Ira Goldklang's site.

User avatar
Strident
Posts: 1001
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:57 pm

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#21 Post by Strident » Sun Feb 23, 2020 1:26 pm

webowl wrote:
Sun Feb 23, 2020 1:19 pm
Thank you for the information about Mystery Mansion. I tried that site in the past and did not find it. However, I did find it just now after 3 search attempts. Unfortunately, that file is corrupted. In the TRS80gp emulator, when you get to the title page, an input command overwrites most of the lower part of the initial title screen, and then the screen does not allow input, but just scrolls indefinitely saying you are emptyhanded and activates the printer output system. This corrupted file (presumably caused by a machine error by the user who supplied the file) would explain why other websites say the game is no longer on Ira Goldklang's site.
That seems strange, as that's where Jason explicitly says got the file from and he obviously played it to completion for his two blog posts. Might it not be an emulation issue?

webowl
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:38 am

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#22 Post by webowl » Sun Feb 23, 2020 1:35 pm

The game does work. I tried it again after my last post. I forgot to use the -ld function in the command line input for the trs80pg emulator. The game is in LDOS and not TRSDOS. Thus, ignore what I said in my last post. The game is working now.

Thank you very much for the link to the game.

User avatar
Strident
Posts: 1001
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:57 pm

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#23 Post by Strident » Sun Feb 23, 2020 1:38 pm

Just played the game on the TRS80gp emulator with no apparent issues. EDIT: Oh, you got it working. :) Cool.

Image

User avatar
Garry
Posts: 468
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:43 am
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#24 Post by Garry » Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:18 pm

webowl wrote:
Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:22 am
Most of these games are not able to downloaded to play in either Applewin or an Atari emulator (nor TRS-80).
.
.
.
If you have those Softside games, why don't you try to get them imaged. And if they already are, can they be downloaded? I searched for them, but to no avail.
I was talking about emulator images. They must be available somewhere, because I got them from somewhere, but probably not all from the same place. A couple of the Atari images are incomplete because they do not include the intro program provided by the SoftSide staff.

In the case of the Atari 8-bit images, I added bug fixes from my game playing notes and also added save/restore from an article I was planning to write for Page 6, but never got around to submitting. As it happens, I submitted the Atari images to Atarimania about a month ago, together with screen grabs. It looks like they've either ignored it or haven't got around to uploading them yet. I've done my bit. Complain to Atarimania.

If you send me a PM with your email address, I'll email all 30 games to you. Just specify Apple or Atari or both. My Atari versions are auto-running disk images with bugs fixed and save/restore added (as mentioned above), so this might be your best option.

One other thing, I also ported the missing Jack the Ripper II from the Apple II or TRS-80 version (I forget which). This was promised for the Atari, but never delivered, as the magazine went out of production. This is the only Atari version of this game available anywhere!

webowl
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:38 am

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#25 Post by webowl » Tue Feb 25, 2020 2:13 am

Garry: Thanks for your offer. I will send a PM.

Do you know if "Curse of the Sasquatch" by Greg Hassett is the same as "Search for the Sasquatch" on the Apple II, also by Greg Hassett (according to one website which lists both by him). I never heard of this before. [I do not want to start a new thread for what may be an obvious answer, namely, they are the same, or an error.]

User avatar
Garry
Posts: 468
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:43 am
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#26 Post by Garry » Tue Feb 25, 2020 12:41 pm

SoftSide adventures sent.

'Curse of the Sasquatch' is a machine language game for the TRS-80. I haven't heard of 'Search for the Sasquatch', so I can't help with that one. The only Greg Hassett game that I've come across for the Apple II is 'Journey to the Center of the Earth', but this may have been ported from The Captain 80 book of BASIC adventures.

webowl
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:38 am

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#27 Post by webowl » Tue Feb 25, 2020 2:42 pm

Thanks Garry, I got the files. Will check them out later.

There were 6 Greg Hassett games on Apple II diskettes in the early 1980s (I still have diskette copies, but no way to run them). The 6 games were: Journey, House of 7 Gables, King Tut's Tomb, Sorcerer's Castle, Voyage to Atlantis, and Enchanted Island.

I spent the last few days searching for my Apple II documentation files. I finally found the file for "World of Odyssey". I have dot matrix printouts I made in 1982 for the hexadecimal dumps of the room description/map listings from side 2 of the game diskette, the catalog of side 1, and a printout of the Applesoft program from side 1. This shows that the game is similar in construction to Colossal Cave, but not the same rooms or story. I also have my handwritten notes I made while playing the game detailing where each room goes by the possible directions (N,S,etc.), and partial maps I made. I did these types of notes in the late 1970s when I played Colossal Cave and its sequel game on a university Burroughs mainframe computer. The sequel game is now lost to history since I don't recognize it among any of the available z-code variants.

At the top of the program listing, Powersoft had a sentence stating that "Listing this program ruins the fun".

jdyer
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#28 Post by jdyer » Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:53 pm

webowl wrote:
Tue Feb 25, 2020 2:42 pm
I spent the last few days searching for my Apple II documentation files. I finally found the file for "World of Odyssey". I have dot matrix printouts I made in 1982 for the hexadecimal dumps of the room description/map listings from side 2 of the game diskette, the catalog of side 1, and a printout of the Applesoft program from side 1. This shows that the game is similar in construction to Colossal Cave, but not the same rooms or story. I also have my handwritten notes I made while playing the game detailing where each room goes by the possible directions (N,S,etc.), and partial maps I made. I did these types of notes in the late 1970s when I played Colossal Cave and its sequel game on a university Burroughs mainframe computer. The sequel game is now lost to history since I don't recognize it among any of the available z-code variants.

At the top of the program listing, Powersoft had a sentence stating that "Listing this program ruins the fun".
Two questions:

a.) any updates on World of Odyssey? Were you going to try to scan it or get it over to someone who could?

b.) could I hear some more details on the "sequel game?" I've had enough exposure to weird Colossal Cave variants I might have an inkling what it is related to (they haven't all been converted to z-code).

webowl
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:38 am

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#29 Post by webowl » Mon Jan 24, 2022 11:39 pm

In response to the questions asked regarding the disks of "World of Odyssey": I will not mail them ever and nothing will be done until the covid crisis subsides [note that I made my original post on this game a few weeks before the worldwide covid lockdowns in 2020]. I need to find someone in the Seattle area that I can meet in person and work with who can export the disk to a .dsk file. I assume someone from the old Call A.P.P.L.E. group in the 1980s may still be around who can possibly do this, but it may be a long time coming. At the moment I have no time to pursue this in 2022 and probably most of 2023 due to significant issues and extensive long-distance travel.

I do not have a listing of the game's assembly code program for "World of Odyssey". I only have a very long dot-matrix list of the game text messages in all rooms (much too long to scan, etc.).

The sequel game to "Colossal Cave" was most likely an unknown custom variant by a programmer at the University of Washington where it was available in the 1970s and 1980s. It is not one of the variants on the internet archives which we were available a few years ago (I checked those for rooms and point scores against my handwritten notes from the 1970s). It has since vanished into the ether.

User avatar
Strident
Posts: 1001
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:57 pm

Re: Lost Apple II commercial text adventure game

#30 Post by Strident » Tue Jan 25, 2022 12:07 am

webowl wrote:
Mon Jan 24, 2022 11:39 pm
The sequel game to "Colossal Cave" was most likely an unknown custom variant by a programmer at the University of Washington where it was available in the 1970s and 1980s. It is not one of the variants on the internet archives which we were available a few years ago (I checked those for rooms and point scores against my handwritten notes from the 1970s). It has since vanished into the ether.
There are certainly some interesting variants and "sequels" out there. Jason is definitely your man when it comes down to helping to track things like that down. He's covered some really obsure and interesting games, such as Crystal Cave; which I guess you could almost describe as a "sequel" :) https://bluerenga.blog/2019/06/12/crystal-cave-1980/

Definitely a lot of great people out there able to extract material from the most stubborn disk, so I'm sure when it's a better time to archive Odyssey you'll be able to find suitable help.

Post Reply