[Coco] Re: NEW GAMES (kinda sorta) FOR THE COCO 3!!!!

Tue Jul 4 21:42:18 EDT 2006

And I tought I was the only one interested into running other Sierra games 
on the coco. Now I realize that I was wrong!

About a year ago, I read somewhere in the newsgroups that it could be 
possible to run King's Quest I using the King's Quest 3 interpreter. So I 
mixed the KQ3 interpreter with the data files of KQ1 from the PC version and 
it worked!

Well, it's was not perfect. There were many glitches. So I have modified the 
game using an AGI editor to make it fully playable on the coco. I used AGI 
Studio to change key assignments, modify the help screen and some logic data 
that was making the interpreter to hang. For those interested, you can find 
a lot of AGI utilities on this page: 
http://www.classicgaming.com/agisci/agiutil.shtml

So I successfully modified King's Quest I, King's Quest II, Space Quest I 
and Space Quest II! I have been able to complete them all on the coco so I 
know they are fully working. Space Quest II gave me a hard time because its 
interpeter is using a new graphic command for the pictures that was crashing 
the game on the coco. So I had to remove all those commands from the picture 
resources using a hex editor, that was long! Some screens might not look 
exactly like the original.

Function keys from the original games where mapped to numbers (F1 to 1, F2 
to 2, an so on). So you can save your game by pressing 5 and restore it by 
pressing 7. Press 1 to bring the help screen with all the key assignments.

After I read Ken's post, I tried to bow in front of the King and I also got 
the script error. I then looked at the original script with AGI studio and I 
discovered a bug in it. Apparently, it does not affect the PC interpreter. I 
fixed it.

I also been able to modify Police Quest I but I'm stuck at the car accident. 
For those who remembers, early in the game you are called to investigate on 
a car accident scene and your are supposed to see it on the street map. But 
I don't know why, the car accident doesn't show up. Maybe someone on this 
list will be able to resolve this issue.

You can download the games from my web server at: 
http://goyim.dyndns.org:8080/coco/

You'll have to rename them to .os9 to make them work in MESS. You can play 
the games right off the disks, no hard drive is needed. Type "sierra" to 
start the game. There is still one glitch though: the sound data of theses 
games is incompatible with the coco interpreter. So you'll have to start the 
game with the "-m" option to disable sound or else the game will lock up. 
Also, if you are using a RGB monitor, add the "-r" option.

Ken, I'll be pleased to help you with your web site. Don't hesitate to 
contact me if you have any question or need help porting other Sierra AGI 
games.

Enjoy!

Guillaume Major
gmajor(at)videotron.ca

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Carlin" <carlin-Av5C6xBplRnk1uMJSBkQmQ at public.gmane.org>
Newsgroups: gmane.comp.hardware.tandy.coco
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 7:08 PM
Subject: NEW GAMES (kinda sorta) FOR THE COCO 3!!!!

>
> But first, a little back story...
>
> It all started when I was nosing around the nightly snapshot of NitrOS9 on
> nitros9.org.  I never really looked that closely before, but this time I
> wanted to really try to understand what was going on.  I wanted to compile
> a build under Windows, just to see if I could.  That's actually a whole
> other story which I intend to tell later.
>
> Anyway, I saw something interesting under a directory labeled "3rd party"
> or something similar.  There were directories that looked like the games
> RS used to sell.  Specifically, King's Quest III and Leisure Suit Larry.
> They had been disassembled and all the relevant files were there to look
> at.  That wasn't all.  There were two other directories that interested me
> - KQ1 and KQ2.  Could these be King's Quest 1 and 2?  Only one way to find
> out.
>
> I compiled the KQ1 directory (actually, I compiled ALL the directories,
> but the KQ1 directory is of interest right now) and pulled the files over
> to the Coco.  Then I tried to fire up the game.  No dice - I got on out of
> memory error.  I left it at that, but I also asked Boisy if he knew what
> was up.  He told me that he remembered having KQ2 actually running, and
> not KQ1, so I tried it next.
>
> SUCCESS!!
>
> Yes people, the Coco can run King's Quest 2.
>
> Boisy gave me further guidance.  It seems that he realized many moons ago
> that the Coco was capable of running quite a number of the old Sierra
> adventures.  He even reported it to the list, but no one went anywhere
> with it.
>
> Until now...
>
> I decided to retry King's Quest 1, but I used the data from a CD
> compilation I had instead of what was at nitros9.org.  Except for 1 minor
> glitch (so far) IT ALSO WORKS!
>
> I pressed on.  Next up: Space Quest 1.  Can you say 3 for 3?
>
> Sadly, that's it though.  At least for now.  I've learned quite a bit
> about Sierra adventure games in the past few days, and I suspect that the
> Coco may be able to run a few other games, but getting to that point may
> be difficult or impossible.  I'm willing to try, but I'd like help in
> doing it.
>
> Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  There ARE most likely other games that can work
> right now, but I haven't tried them yet.  They're fan-based games, written
> by people you use tools available today to recreate the old games.  You
> even know one person who's started a game - Boisy.
>
> So, to sum up, the Coco 3 with 512K (and for right now either a hard drive
> or 720K floppy drive (I'm working on figuring out how to divide all the
> files between multiple floppies)) is capable of running:
>
> King's Quest 1
> King's Quest 2
> King's Quest 3
> Leisure Suit Larry
> Space Quest 1
>
> And yes, I've made the files available as 360K disk images at:
> http://www.rkratt.com/~coco3
>
> The filenames should be self-explanatory.  Like I said earlier, for right
> now you'll need either a hard drive or a 720K floppy since all the files
> must reside on the same media until I can figure out how to split up
> things.
>
> I should point out that there are a few hiccups with the games.  King's
> Quest 1 has a scripting glitch that effectively will end the game if you
> bow before the king.  So the solution for now is don't do that!  And Space
> Quest will display some sort of debug menu if you press a lower-case "s"
> at all, so the solution is to either type in all-caps, or just type in
> cap-S.  The debug window is easily cleared and doesn't crash the game
> though.
>
> When I get the chance, I'll also create a web site that details all that I
> know about getting the games running under the Coco.  With some help, I'm
> hopeful we can add some titles (specifically Police Quest and possibly
> Space Quest 2 for instance).
>
>
> -- 
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