[Coco] [SPAM] Re: How I "Ported" Planet of Death to Coco

[Steve Batson]

I have done that in the past and recently. I'm just wondering how many
people besides the people behind these projects are using them.
:)
 


> Steve, if you "google" text adventures" I'll bet
you'll be suprized at the

> number of websites deditcated to the subject.

> There's also java, perl, activex, (and many other) engines for making
text

> adventures on a modern computer.

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Bill Pierce

> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens

>

>

> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3

> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/

> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia

> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com

>

>

>

>

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

>

From: Steve Batson <steve at batsonphotography.com>

> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
<coco at maltedmedia.com>

> Sent: Tue, Apr 14, 2015 12:03 pm

> Subject: Re: [Coco] How I "Ported" Planet of Death to
Coco

>

>

>

>

>

> I've always liked the idea of a Text Adventure Engine, but I
haven't

> tried

> using one. I've considered writing my own, but just haven't spent

> the time. For

> Resource constrained systems such as 16K CoCo or what's

> normally available to

> RS-DOS Basic, probably makes more sense to write

> something from scratch

> optimized for the CoCo, same with the MC-10 or

> other systems. Obviously, basic

> would be more portable, but an Assembly

> Language engine called from basic could

> be much more compact

> and be faster. Not even sure I'd want to tackle that

> one.

>

>

>

> Besides some Classic Computer Fans, is there even enough interest
in

> Text

> Adventures with this world of high res graphics? And I'm not
talking

> about

> money, but behind the sense of accomplishment and personal
enjoyment,

> I

> wonder how many people of modern systems including phones and
tablets

> would

> have an interest in text adventures.

>

>

>

>> I used the same adventure engine back

> in the early 80s to

> "attempt" to

>

>> write a large adventure in BASIC. I

> eventually ran out of memory on

> my 16k

>

>> Coco 2and abandoned the project.

>

>> I

> got the "Tower of Mystery" listing from:

>

>>

>

>> "COMPUTE!'s Guide to Adventure

> Games"

>

>>

>

>> by Gary McGath and published in 1984. I think it was a
collection

> of

> their

>

>> articles so the "Tower of Mystery" was probably in

> "Compute!"

> magazine as

>

>> well.

>

>>

>

>> The info in that book was invaluable to me in

> learning BASIC

> programming

>

>> as I had to convert the listing to be compatible

> with the Coco.

>

>> I have a scan of the book that could be upoloaded.

>

>>

>

>>

>

>>

> Bill Pierce

>

>> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens

>

>>

>

>>

>

>> My

> Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3

>

>>

> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/

>

>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for

> CocoPedia

>

>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

>

>> E-Mail:

> ooogalapasooo at aol.com

>

>>

>

>>

>

>>

>

>>

>

>>

>

>>

>

>> -----Original Message-----

>

>>

>

>

From:

> jimgerrie <jimgerrie at ns.sympatico.ca>

>

>> To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>

>

>>

> Sent: Tue, Apr 14, 2015 10:31 am

>

>> Subject: [Coco] How I "Ported" Planet of

> Death to Coco

>

>>

>

>>

>

>> Steve,

>

>>

>

>> I don't work from binaries only text source

> (BASIC,JAVA,C, etc.)

>

>>

>

>> scavenged from the Net or magazines (if you know of

> any good

> prospects

>

>> let me

>

>> know). In the case of POD, someone had ported

> the original game

>

>> to C so it

>

>> could be run on one of the old TI calculators

> (or something

>

>> like that). I

>

>> came across it while researching POD. It had

> all the

>

>> objects, messages,

>

>> locations, and responses nicely typed out in

> neat

>

>> strings and a numeric table

>

>> of the room motions (luckily in a

> pretty

>

>> standard format of room numbers for

>

>> N,S,E,W,U,D for every room). I

> just

>

>> plucked these, and then plunk them into a

>

>> pretty flexible BASIC

>

>>

> two-word parser engine from Compute magazine (I think),

>

>> called "Tower

>

>> of

> Mystery "(which Neil Morrison of the Yahoo group sent me

> and

>

>> which I

>

>> have

> tweaked with a 32 character word wrap routine, so it fits

>

>>

>

>> everything

> neatly onto an MC-10/Coco screen). Then it was just

> reading

>

>> and

>

>> watching

> various walk-throughs to tweak the "Tower of Mystery

>

>> engine to

>

>> provide the

> right responses to all the verb object

>

>> combinations needed.

>

>>

>

>> I

>

>> forgot

> to mention, another ZX derived game of mine is FESQUEST

> (which

>

>> is a

>

>> homage

> to the Coco Fest Chicago events). It is a rehash of a port

>

>> to the

>

>> MC-10 of

> "Pit with Monsters" by Jim Enness for either the

> ZX81

>

>> or Spectrum

>

>> (can't

> recall which), which I typed in from a Brit computer

>

>> mag many years

>

>>

> ago.

>

>>

>

>> If you look at my

>

>>

> http://faculty.cbu.ca/jgerrie/Home/jgames.html

>

>>

>

>>

>

>> programs marked with *

> are completely new programs. Ones marked with

> +

>

>> are

>

>> either remakes

> (drawing inspiration from or possibly code as in

> the

>

>> above

>

>> case) or more

> straightforward ports of BASIC source modified to

>

>> run on the

>

>> MC-10 (and

> then later further modified to work in Color

>

>> BASIC for the Coco

>

>> and

> Dragon).

>

>>

>

>> --

>

>> Coco mailing

>

>> list

>

>> Coco at maltedmedia.com

>

>>

> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

>

>>

>

>>

>

>>

>

>> --

>

>> Coco mailing

> list

>

>> Coco at maltedmedia.com

>

>>

> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

>

>>

>

>

>

>

>

> --

>

> Steve

> Batson

>

> Website:

> http://www.batsonphotography.com

>

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>

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>

>

>

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--

Steve Batson

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