C64 Mountain Valley

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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nimusi
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C64 Mountain Valley

#1 Post by nimusi » Thu Sep 17, 2020 8:50 pm

Having only played Spectrum adventures and the Infocom games, I recently purchased C64forever in order to play Empire of Karn, which was not available for the Spectrum.

Having finished the game (quite disappointing BTW), I have been looking for other adventures for the C64, and I came across a review for Mystery Island. I thoroughly enjoyed playing that so am now going to try and play other games by the same publisher (Mountain Valley), and have finished King Solomon's Mines and Castle of Mydor.

Most of the online descriptions of these games seem quite disparaging, but I am enjoying them immensely, as they are quite (very!) easy. Can anyone recommend other simple games for the C64?

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Alex
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#2 Post by Alex » Mon Sep 21, 2020 11:08 pm

You can try aztec tomb or curse of the volcan

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df
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#3 Post by df » Wed Sep 23, 2020 3:44 am

they are some of my fav c64 adventures with petscii graphics. I even made a whole 'shrine' to them on here but its not well know.

http://solutionarchive.com/Mvs/index.php

I wrote it late 90's... and Jacob was kind enough to host it when I stopped.
-- Stu / DF --
-- Mountain Valley + Softgold Adventure Fan --

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Garry
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#4 Post by Garry » Wed Sep 23, 2020 1:23 pm


nimusi
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#5 Post by nimusi » Thu Sep 24, 2020 11:04 am

That's brilliant, I will bookmark the page.

NiMuSi

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Strident
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#6 Post by Strident » Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:54 pm

Our index of these games is a little disappointing, considering that Brian J. Betts probably wrote one of the first Australian text adventures for the TRS-80... Not much information collated out there, aside from the pages linked to above, but I think we can do better... So adding it to my list of stuff to tackle...

(We have talked about Brian's games and Mountain Valley over on Facebook a fair bit in the past, as Scott Julian is over there and we discussed Jason Dyer's playthrough of Brian's first TRS-80 game)

Mountain Valley
PO Box 407, Boronia 3155
http://solutionarchive.com/list/company ... dir%2CASC/

We have lots of games without any dates attached and there is also a large gap between Brian's initial TRS-80 release and the C64 games... which doesn't seem right.

***STARTING INFORMATION***

Following games without dates...

Dark Planet
Himalayan Odyssey **listed in our DB also for TRS-80**
King Solomon's Mines
Mystery Island
Sorcerers of Ravenswood **tagged as an unreleased game**
Treasure of Dead Man's Cay
Lost City
Smuggler's Inn

1981:
The Secret of Flagstone Manor **a TRS-80 game**

1982:
Oasis of Shalimar

1984:
Castle of Mydor
Scroll of Akbar Khan
Volcano of Taka Tua

1985:
Escape from Raka Tua
Last edited by Strident on Tue Feb 08, 2022 12:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#7 Post by Strident » Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:54 pm

***IN-PROGRESS***

Australian Personal Computer (September 1982)
https://archive.org/details/apc_1982_09/page/n65/
An "Australian Beginning"/"Computer Advert" which states:
"Mountain Valley software is one of Australia's newest and most dynamic software companies, specialising in software for the TRS-80 and System 80. Their range includes adventure games, superterm - a dumb terminal program and a test and grading program for schools."
**noting "adventure games", plural. Perhaps some of the C64 games started off as text-only TRS-80 titles? (Superterm seems to be a program by US company Midwest Micro)

Australian Personal Computer (October 1984)
https://archive.org/details/apc_1984_10/page/142
A C64 advert listing: The Scroll of Akbar Khan, The Lost City, Mystery Island, Castle of Mydor, King Solomon's Mines, The Oasis of Shalimar, The Gambler [Not an adventure], The Volcano of Raka-Tua and "new release" Himalayan Odyssey.
*This provides dating evidence for at least as early as 1984 for many of the "unknown date titles"

On the facing page is a Spectravideo 328 (sv-328) advert from Mountain Valley, listing: Planet of Zandell, Volcano Island, The Lost Princess
*These sound like text adventures. Are they? We don't have them listed...
***Note: These are the games listed for SV-328 on Scott Julian's website, linked previously in this thread https://www.alphaworks.com.au/mvs/mvs_spectravideo.htm
Two of these "M&M Software" titles are pictured here (Planet of Zandell and Lost Princess)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2453941 ... 666576906/
Screenshot of Planet of Zandell here, definitely a graphic & text adventure...
https://m.facebook.com/groups/245394190 ... 161881906/
Apparently the file is on that group, in the files section...
https://m.facebook.com/groups/2453941905/
Volcano Island (packaging etc and gameplay) on YouTube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyjbG8MwpJA
*Yep, these are all graphical text adventures. Clearly published by Mountain Valley but also marked with M&M Software.

Australian Personal Computer (December 1984)
https://archive.org/details/apc_1984_12/page/112
Same nine game C64 catalogue featured in a different full-page advert.

Scroll of Akbar Khan released by Step One in UK? 19% from Zzap 64! Yikes! (August 1984)
https://archive.org/details/ZZap64Issue ... g/page/n83
Also released Lost City...
https://archive.org/details/Commodore_U ... 0/page/24/

Commodore Magazine (Australia) Vol5 No 6 Issue 34
https://archive.org/details/commodorema ... /page/n15/
"...They have released over eight graphical adventure games for the Commodore 64."

Adventurer's Notepad "mapping pad" in ACR (October 1986)
https://archive.org/details/Australian_ ... AU/page/n3
Sold by Superior Software/Mountain Valley Software

Scott Julian's website (linked to by Garry) has a 1986 catalogue and scans of the APC advertising linked to above...
https://www.alphaworks.com.au/mvs/mvs_catalogue.htm
* By 1986, Dark Planet was in the catalogue, as were The Secret of Smuggler's Inn and Escape from Raka-Tua. Dark Planet gets a whole page, so seems to be the most recent (last) release.

***REVISED DATES, so far***

1981:
The Secret of Flagstone Manor **a TRS-80 game**
Forbidden Valley [ http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C37 ... alley.html Not currently listed in DB as Mountain Valley, TRS-80 game... but no idea of the source of this game reference in the DB]

1982:
Oasis of Shalimar [What is the source for the 1982 date?]

1984:
Castle of Mydor
Scroll of Akbar Khan
Volcano of Raka Tua
Himalayan Odyssey [1984 advertising for C64] *TRS-80 version??
King Solomon's Mines [1984 advertising for C64]
Mystery Island [1984 advertising for C64]
The Lost City [1984 advertising for C64]

1985:
Escape from Raka Tua

1986:
Dark Planet [earliest date from catalogue, C64]
The Secret of Smuggler's Inn [earliest date from catalogue, C64]

Unknown:
Treasure of Dead Man's Cay
Sorcerers of Ravenswood **tagged in DB as an unreleased game**

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Garry
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#8 Post by Garry » Tue Feb 08, 2022 1:41 am

As a starter, I have submitted info on the three Spectravideo 328 games, including screen grabs. These were written by Mark Fitzgerald of M & M Software and distributed by Mountain Valley Software.

I have an advertisement for these from PC Games (an Australian magazine), vol. 1, no. 5, December 1984, p. 96, where the advertisement says 'NEW', so I presume 1984 to be the publication date. You might like to check other Australian magazines around this date for similar advertisements and (possibly) new product announcements, previews or reviews.

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Garry
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#9 Post by Garry » Tue Feb 08, 2022 2:31 am

For the undated C64 games, I have Dark Planet, Himalayan Odyssey, King Solomon's Mines, The Lost City and Mystery Island as 1984, but don't recall where I got this info.

Castle of Mydor, Himalayan Odyssey, King Solomon's Mines, The Lost City, Mystery Island, The Oasis of Shalimar, The Scroll of Akbar Khan and The Volcano of Raka-Tua were certainly advertised in PC Games, vol. 1, no. 3, October 1984, p. 27 and vol. 1, no. 5, December 1984, p. 12. As Dark Planet is not in these advertisements, it was probably published later.

I have The Secret of Smuggler's Inn, Sorcerers of Ravenswood and Treasure of Dead Man's Cay as unknown date.

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Strident
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#10 Post by Strident » Tue Feb 08, 2022 8:23 am

(I'll process those Spectravideo games later, thanks)

Yeah, 1984 seems like the earliest date for the first seven C64 Mountain Valley text adventures... Quite a lot to drop at once, so I wouldn't be surprised if at least half of them date from the previous year or so.

Can't spot much activity from Mountain Valley between 1982 and 1984, but the online archive of Australian computing publications from that period isn't very comprehensive at the moment.

Jacob did say he did an interview with Brian Betts in the past, so perhaps that might shed some light on things if he still has a copy.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=523&p=5394&hilit=betts#p5394

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df
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#11 Post by df » Wed Mar 16, 2022 11:32 pm

I had some dates once I believe I had them from Australian Commodore Amiga Review (or once Australian Commodore Review).

I do have the unreleased games (someone was kind enough for give me access to them), Ravenswood, Mermaid & the Crown, Crypt, Ophir, Cranbury Manor

I think from memory, some of the original load screens (often deleted on copies) had dates in them
-- Stu / DF --
-- Mountain Valley + Softgold Adventure Fan --

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Garry
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#12 Post by Garry » Thu Mar 17, 2022 12:24 am

Wow. It would be nice to get those unreleased games. Were they finished?

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df
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#13 Post by df » Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:04 pm

Garry wrote:
Thu Mar 17, 2022 12:24 am
Wow. It would be nice to get those unreleased games. Were they finished?
Im not sure how finished or not they are. I've mostly done mermaid + crown and got stuck and not sure if I am in an unwinnable position. I need (time lol!) to check the others and see what conditions they are in.
-- Stu / DF --
-- Mountain Valley + Softgold Adventure Fan --

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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#14 Post by marcus » Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:23 am

Hi All,

I don't check these boards often enough...Its great to see continuing passion for the MVS games!

I think its time to finally share my addition to the other great online MVS resources with a crude tribute site I created many years ago after chatting with Jacob and meeting with Brian. (Unfortunately I've lost touch after Brian retired to country Victoria a number of years ago)

He was very generous in sharing plenty of information and game related materials, and at the time he was quite surprised at the enthusiasm that fans still showed for his unique games.

The site is very basic, but you can see box art and load screens for many tape and disk versions, starting locations and hint sheets.
In all honestly I always held this webpage back thinking it wasn't the tribute site that Brian and MVS deserved...I would have liked to to build a more professional webpage with its own domain name, message boards and many more scans and extra details... one day maybe.
There maybe a few incorrect links...pls let me know here and I will fix them.

http://www.brilliantbehaviour.com.au/re ... index.html

-BTW Stu, Mermaid is definitely solvable!...I'll try and locate a solution and put up a .d64 version sometime soon (FYI for others- the .G64 takes AGES to load)

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Strident
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Re: C64 Mountain Valley

#15 Post by Strident » Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:24 pm

The site looks great! :)

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