The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

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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auraes
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The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#1 Post by auraes » Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:09 pm

There seems to be a problem with the Quill version for c64 found at gb64.com. I need a pair of rose-coloured specs to read the runes, but I can't take them due to a problem in the code:

Code: Select all

Object 52:
      A pair of specs.

Object 53:
      A pair of rose-coloured specs.

GET  SPEC  Conditions:
   Actions:
      GET      52 
      OK     

GET  SPEC  Conditions:
    Actions:
      GET      53 
      OK    
Object 52 will always be taken because the test of the Present objno condition is missing.
Yet Dorothy Millard gave a solution so her version had to work! (There is an error from the beginning, you have to examine the branch before you can take the nest.)

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#2 Post by auraes » Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:37 pm

In fact the exchange between the two objects is done in the status table :

Code: Select all

*    *     Conditions:
   AT       13 
   WORN     52 
   Actions:
   SWAP     52   53 
   MESSAGE 153 
   PLUS     30    2 
I will have to investigate a little more before asking for help...

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#3 Post by Strident » Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:59 pm

Quill performs a little differently than PAW, in that you don't generally necessarily have include a PRESENT check before a GET because it fails or succeeds in a slightly different manner.

I'm just popping out now but I'll take a closer look later. It's perfectly possible that there might be a bugged copy of the C64 version out there.

From what I can remember (having produced a tweaked Spectrum solution for the game, from Dorothy's C64 one earlier) the spectacles transformed into their rose-tinted version on visiting a specific location in the game whilst wearing them... Once they're rose-tinted you are unable (in the Spectrum version at least) to remove or drop them.

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#4 Post by auraes » Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:05 pm

This is due to an error in Dorothy Millard's solution: in the place ROSE BUSHES, you should WEAR SPECS which allows to exchange the two objects.
There may be a problem in the game with EXAMINE and READ. When you EXAMINE the runes without the right specs it says: "You can't make out what they say!", but when you try to READ them, you get an empty message.
Last edited by auraes on Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#5 Post by auraes » Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:09 pm

Strident wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:59 pm
Quill performs a little differently than PAW, in that you don't generally necessarily have include a PRESENT check before a GET because it fails or succeeds in a slightly different manner.
I don't think this is the case if you have two identical objects. There is an example in Quill's documentation for the c64 with the torch object, and in this case the condition PRESENT is required.
But I'll take a closer look at that later.

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#6 Post by Strident » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:38 pm

auraes wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:05 pm
This is due to an error in Dorothy Millard's solution: in the place ROSE BUSHES, you should WEAR SPECS which allows to exchange the two objects.
There may be a problem in the game with EXAMINE and READ. When you EXAMINE the runes without the right specs it says: "You can't make out what they say!", but when you try to READ them, you get an empty message.
Ah, I wonder if that is a missing font issue... I wouldn't be surprised if the message was in UDGs/a different font.

One of the issues with some of these adventures is that it isn't the real file on these download sites. They've usually been messed around with by a "cracker", who won't have test what effect they're nonsense has had on the games.

(for some reason I can't download the C64 version at the moment)

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#7 Post by auraes » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:58 pm

Strident wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:38 pm
Ah, I wonder if that is a missing font issue... I wouldn't be surprised if the message was in UDGs/a different font.
I don't think so, Unquill displays the character tables in the decompiled file otherwise.
Strident wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:38 pm
They've usually been messed around with by a "cracker", who won't have test what effect they're nonsense has had on the games.
Yes, it's quite painful.

I found other errors in Dorothy's solution, but I have to check the C64 version; I mostly played with the Z-code version which is now on my GiLab (I don't know if I'm allowed to!).

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#8 Post by Strident » Wed Mar 10, 2021 8:46 am

Only just managed to download the C64 version... Chrome has managed to drop support for the FTP links that GB64 uses. Grr.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that there should be UDGs printed when you try to read the runes without the correct glasses... That certainly would've been what Jack intended... Either he forgot to put them in or the "cracker" has managed to do something to the game...

Compare the C64 version to the Spectrum one...

Image

Image

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#9 Post by auraes » Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:45 pm

I can't see your images.
Knowing that the message displayed when wearing the specs is "They depict a black sack.", what could I put in place of the empty message for my zQuill version?

ZX Spectrum version:

Code: Select all

RESPONSE:
	READ RUNES: AT 7 EQ 70 255 WORN 53 MESSAGE 76 PLUS 30 4 LET 70 200 DONE;
	READ RUNES: AT 7 EQ 70 255 CHARSET 2 MESSAGE 76 CHARSET 1 ANYKEY DESC;
	READ RUNES: AT 7 EQ 70 200 MESSAGE 76 DONE;
	READ RUNES: AT 7 MESSAGE 34 DONE;
	READ RUNES: AT 23 MESSAGE 11 DONE;

MESSAGES:
	11: "{16}{4}There are no runes on this side.";
	34: "{16}{4} What runes?";
	76: " {16}{4}all may pass who are hidden from the world.";

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#10 Post by Strident » Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:05 pm

auraes wrote:
Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:45 pm
I can't see your images.
That's a shame. I wonder why that is.

I would suggest just using the existing message, "You can't make out what they say!"

(You could, of course, borrow the more verbose lines from the Spectrum version as memory presumably isn't an issue in the version that you're making, unlike in the C64 Quill port)

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#11 Post by auraes » Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:28 pm

Strangely the C64 version has only two messages: "They depict a black sack." and the empty message. There is no equivalent of messages 11 and 34 of the Zx Spectrum version. Although places 7 and 23 also exist in the C64 version.

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#12 Post by Strident » Sat Mar 13, 2021 10:12 am

It'll be down to memory limitations.

The original River games were developed using the Quill on both the Spectrum and the C64. After the first year or so, all the old games (except the graphical Lifeboat) were ported to the PAW on the Spectrum, often getting expanded in the process with extra locations, more text, and more puzzles.

Future games were developed first on the PAW for the Spectrum and then ported to the Quill on the C64, so they were often simplified and streamlined for the Commodore; particularly games like The Dark Tower and the Bounty Hunter which specifically used more advanced features like container support or external coding routines.

The Quill's very limited number of flags also must've given Jack and Roger a few headaches!

(For anybody not familiar with River's games, I did a little profile of them here: http://8bitag.com/info/river.html )

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#13 Post by auraes » Sat Mar 13, 2021 6:01 pm

Ah, I thought the Quill C64 version was the first version of the game (on gamebase64.com the release date is 198?). So I'd have to take a look at the Paw version for the Spectrum.

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Re: The Dark Tower by Jack A. Lockerby

#14 Post by Strident » Sat Mar 13, 2021 6:05 pm

auraes wrote:
Sat Mar 13, 2021 6:01 pm
Ah, I thought the Quill C64 version was the first version of the game (on gamebase64.com the release date is 198?).
Late 1980s/early 1990s homegrown text adventures for the C64 are not accurately recorded on sites like gamebase64.

The Spectrum PAWed versions of Jack's games are the definitive versions.

I wouldn't even know where to start in addressing the issues on the various other format sites (such as Amstrad, C64 etc.) so I tend to stick to just correcting the details on CASA. :)

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