[Coco] OT: COMPUTE's Guide to Adventure Games book

Fri Apr 17 18:40:43 EDT 2015

Sorry, the link for Almazar should be
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23059963/Stuff/The%20Search%20for%20Almazar.dsk

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: Bill Pierce via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Cc: Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
Sent: Fri, Apr 17, 2015 6:34 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] OT: COMPUTE's Guide to Adventure Games book

Salvador (or anyone else interested), I have put the "Almazar" disk in my
dropbox.
The link is:

The Search For Almazar

To run the game, just

RUN"ALMAZAR"

The "ALMAZAR/BAS" and "SFAMAIN/BAS" are the program files. The
remaining "*/BAS" files are the programs that generate the "*/DAT" files used by
"SFAMAIN/BAS" (included on the disk). To create a new adventure, you just alter
the data statements in these "*/BAS" files and run the program. This will create
your new "*/DAT" files for the game.

I am playing around with the idea of
converting it to OS9 Basic09 or C and expanding it's capabilities. I was trying
to do this back in the 80s with OS9 L1 BAsic09, but ran out of memory. By the
time I got a Coco 3 and L2, my interests had moved to something else.
I may just
research all the "adventure" stuff I have and write my own adventure engine in C
and see what I can come up with. It would be a nice break from working on MShell
and it's modules so much.

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: Salvador Garcia
<ssalvadorgarcia at netscape.net>
To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Fri, Apr
17, 2015 6:15 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] OT: COMPUTE's Guide to Adventure Games
book

Thanks Bill P. I would like to try out The Search or Almazar. Can you
direct me
to your archive where I can get it? Thanks! Salvador

-----Original
Message-----
From: Bill Pierce via Coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
Cc: Bill Pierce
<ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
Sent: Fri, Apr
17, 2015 12:04 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] OT:
COMPUTE's Guide to Adventure Games
book

I just checked my archive and "The
Search For Almazar" is in the mm
archives. If
it can't be found, let me know and
I'll post it.
It's a set of DECB
programs,
all in BASIC. It is the same as the
program in "80 Microcomputing" but
converted
to Coco.
Almazar is a "two word"
command adventure with 72 rooms and a
really
good adventure engine.

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: Bill Pierce
via
Coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Cc:
Bill
Pierce
<ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
Sent: Fri, Apr 17, 2015 12:35 pm
Subject:
Re:
[Coco] OT:
COMPUTE's Guide to Adventure Games book

As another note to
writing
text
Adventures, a very good example is in "80
Microcomputing". The
adventure
is
"Almazar" by Winston Llamas.

 The unique
thing about Almazar is
that it
uses
database files for room descriptions,
treasures and monsters. These
are
separate
files on disk, therefore allowing you
to put more into the actual
game
engine
and not blow your memory on data arrays.
You use just a few
'generic'
arrays to
load the the data from disk for
display.

I think "Almazar"
was ported
to the
Coco (original was Model III) by
someone and is in the one of
the various
coco
archives. I also did a port but I
have no idea where it may be.
I think the
one
in the archives is for OS9 (not
sure) and I'm also not sure if
it's the
same
program, I've just seen the name in
moving archive files
around.

Almazar
is in
the "1983 Special Anniversary
Edition of 80
Microcomputing".
It
can
be
found:
https://ia600709.us.archive.org/10/items/80-microcomputing-magazine-1983-SE/80Microcomputing_SE83.pdf

page
288

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: Bill Pierce
via
Coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
Cc:
Bill
Pierce
<ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
Sent: Fri, Apr
17, 2015 10:16 am
Subject:
Re:
[Coco] OT:
COMPUTE's Guide to Adventure Games
book

Salvador, I used the
"Tower
of
Mystery" engine from the Compute! book
and
enhanced that with stuff
from the
Tim
Hartnell book and had a pretty
workable
adventure engine in BASIC.
I just
never
did anything with it. I had
one
adventure I was working on and ran
out of
memory
on my 16k Coco 2. I think
about
that time, I got my 64k Coco 2,
then I
bought a
MIDI keyboard and Lyra by
Lester
Hands and from then on, most of
my
Cocoing was
related to sound & MIDI.

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:
Salvador
Garcia
<ssalvadorgarcia at netscape.net>
To:
coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent:
Fri,
Apr
17, 2015 9:42 am
Subject: Re: [Coco]
OT:
COMPUTE's Guide to
Adventure
Games
book

Thanks Bill, I will have a look
at
that book. This looks
like a
good
follow up
to the
COMPUTE
book.
Salvador

-----Original
Message-----
From:
Bill
Pierce
via
Coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
To:
coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
Cc:
Bill
Pierce
<ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
Sent:
Fri,
Apr
17, 2015 7:49 am
Subject:
Re:
[Coco] OT:
COMPUTE's Guide to
Adventure
Games
book

Salvador, a better book
for
"learning"
to write
adventures is
(which I
also
have)

Creating
Adventure
Games
on
Your
Computer
by
Tim
Hartnell
http://www.atariarchives.org/adventure/

The
reason
the
other
book
was
brought
up was because it contained "Tower of
Mystery"
which
is
an
excellent
starting
adventure engine.

This book
gives
play-by-play
of
various
game
sections

And
yes... games have come a long
way,
but adventure
is
still
alive.
A good example
(and my favorite) is "Tomb
Raider"
featuring
Laura
Croft.
I have
all of these.

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:
Salvador
Garcia
<ssalvadorgarcia at netscape.net>
To:
coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent:
Fri,
Apr
17,
2015
8:25 am
Subject: [Coco]
OT:
COMPUTE's Guide to
Adventure
Games
book

Hi
all,  

First of
all,
thanks to whoever
posted
the
reference to
this
book.
I located it,
downloaded
and read it. I just
want
to
share my
thoughts
about it.
The first 7
chapters are
basically
descriptions
of
adventure
games
that were
available at
the time the
book was
written. While
some
of these
are a
compelling
read I was
hoping that
the author
would discuss
the
design
and
development of
these more. 

Chapter 8 provides
help
and
hints
on how to solve
a game.
Chapter 9 is
where
everything begins to
pick
up.
The
author discusses
the theory
of operation
of an
adventure game.
Chapter
10
really
gets cooking as
the author
presents
a
breakdown of an
adventure
game,
describing
each component
and
providing
pseudo
code. Chapter 11
presents
a
listing of a
simple
(author's
description)
text
adventure game. The
listing
is
provided in
such a
way that
depending on
which
computer is available,
the
reader
types in
a
specific
listing.  

Finally chapter 12
looks
toward
the
future.
This
chapter was interesting in
its
own right as
the
author
ponders
on
the
possibility of having hi
definition
images. He
mentions
the
resources
needed
for
such an endeavor and
does not see
it possible
for a
home
computer to
have
such
power. Also, the video
disc is
mentioned as
a
possible
means to
enhance
game
play.  

It
was a
good read
and
enjoyed the
nature
of the
games
presented.    Now my turn
to
get
philosophical.
All the
games
presented in
the
book had to do
with
solving
something. While
there was
the
possibility of
battle
and sword
fights I
can't
help comparing them
with
the
games available
today
which present
a much
higher
degree of graphic
gore
and
violence. In Google
I
typed in xbox
games and
the
first items on the
list
it
generated were
Grand
Theft Auto,
Destiny and Call
of
Duty. It seems to
me
that
when the
adventure
games described
in the book
were
available were
simpler
times
where
there was no
need for gore
and violence
to
make a game
appealing.  

Best
regards, Salvador  

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