Manillismo: abril 2018

domingo, 22 de abril de 2018

The Quill C64

Nuevo release de The Quill para c64, con una version mas nueva (A06) y con más features.

http://8-bit.info/the-gilsoft-adventure-systems/

http://8-bit.info/2017/04/15/tapes-from-the-crypt/

http://8-bit.info/2017/01/22/the-gilsoft-legacy/

The Quill & AdventureWriter

This is a revival of my Quill porting project:

Many thanks to Kaz from atarionline.pl which hosted the site: http://devwebcl.atarionline.pl/quill/quill.html

The Quill & AdventureWriter

The Quill is a text adventure creator made by Gilsoft, very popular in the 80s for the Sinclair (ZX & Spectrum), It was ported to different platforms as Atari 8bit family, Commodore 64, Apple II, BBC Micro, but only was released Database version A (it also exists version C, which brings more statements to make smaller scripts as AUTOG, AUTOD, AUTOW, and AUTOR. please see The Quill's manual for more information).

This version was published in the USA as AdventureWriter (ADW) by Codewriter Corporation; more information can be found on Wikipedia.

Regardless Quill's fame in Europe in the Atari scene wasn't that successful; now, with a vast collection of games in the net, I could find several titles, however, a few were made in the 90s.

Comparing both versions, they use different screen resolutions based on the default text screen each computer has. Atari has 40 characters, and Sinclair has 32 width, with this difference of resolution, problems in text padding and showing the whole screen (when the screen is full of text) makes trouble.

Also, Sinclair version may use UDG where the programmer could insert its own defined character to make graphics, besides the text in Sinclair has more effects as INK, VIDEO, BLINK, etc. in constraint Atari only we can use inverse video.

And the last and probably the most significant difference (and constraint) is the Atari version has only 22,923 bytes, and Sinclair has 30,553 bytes becoming a difference of 7,630 what is almost 8kb! (a lot for these vintage machines).

Summary between ports:

System	Free Memory
Sinclair	30,553
Atari	22,923
Commodore	31,754
Apple IIe	21,760
Amstrad	27,995

It's fun the warning the manual says:

Caution:

When creating a real adventure, it is possible to run out of memory, which would cause an error in operation and likely corrupt your database. Use the option M from the Main menu every so often to see how much available memory you have left. For safety's sake, leave yourself plenty of space

of course... plenty of space...

The idea was to convert as many games for Atari (yeah, I know not many players are going to play it in this machine; however, it was something always got my attention since I had ADW from the 80s). With the help of the great parser Unpaws for Z80 Quill games from IF Archive I was able to see the code and automates the process.

finally, I had to make three kinds of conversions:

text padding from 32 to 40 ("wasting" memory)
modifying the Atari screen resolution to 32, but with side effects losing last three lines for printing (including if the input line is at the bottom).
converting the CRLF-tabs (is like a tab of 16 characters with the Quill does in the Sinclair)

Software

AdventureWriter Disk Image
AdventureWriter file version
French AdventureWriter French rare version

Scans

New Games

Feasible games I was able to convert successfully:

The Quill Demo (zx)
The Quill Demo 32 (i) (zx)
The Quill Demo 32 (i) (iii) (zx)
Diamond Trail (zx) (casa)
Aural Quest (zx) (casa)
Commando (zx) (casa)
La Princesa (g2f) (zx) (casa)
Magic Castle (zx) (casa)
The Rifts of Time (zx) (casa)
Time Quest (zx) (casa)
A Spell of Christmas Ice (zx) (casa)
Survival (zx) (casa)
Sea of Zirun (zx) (casa)
Countdown (zx) (casa)
The Dragonstar Trilogy Part II (zx) (casa)
The Adventures of Barsak the Dwarf (i) (g2f) (zx) (casa)
Alter-Earth (i) (zx) (casa)
The Hexagonal Museum (i) (zx) (casa)
Classroom Chaos (i) (g2f) (zx) (casa)
The Moreby Jewels (ii) (zx) (casa)
Last Will and Testament (ii) (g2f) (zx) (casa)
Sorcerer (zx) (casa)
Leo Wanker's Quest (zx) (casa)
Quest for the Holy Joystick (i) (ii) (iii) (g2f) (zx) (casa)
Wychwood (zx) (casa)
Abington (zx) (casa)
Bungo's Quest For Gold (zx) (casa)
Day Trip (zx) (casa)
Goldwood (zx) (casa)
School (zx) (casa)
School 2 (zx) (casa)
Treasure (g2f) (g2f) v2 (zx) (casa)
Dragon Notacare (zx) (casa)
Escape From Sylon 6 (zx) (casa)
Evil Realm Darkness (zx) (casa)
Faulty Towers (zx) (casa)
Fuseman (zx) (casa)
Goldseeker (zx) (casa)
Jhothamia 6 (zx) (casa)
Rescue From Doom (zx) (casa)
The Prophecy (zx) (casa)
The Warrior's Return (zx) (casa)
Time Lords Amulet (zx) (casa)
Whistle (zx) (casa)
Within The Pentacle (zx) (casa)

(i) used 32 characters width to avoid many text padding thus saving bytes, otherwise wasn't fitted.
(ii) I had to use ". " for CRLF.
(iii) it has been filled every message with 8 spaces for padding.
(g2f) it has a presentation screen in g2f, done with Integrator 3.0.
(zx) original Sinclair game

All these fixes make games (sort of) unreadable, but it was the only option to fit the whole game in ADW.

G2F

Integrator is a tool to join a G2F picture before an executable. Several neat conversions from the original ZX games were done, from Arkadiuz and Kaz: G2F gallery.

Legacy

Games made with AdventureWriter by other authors (obtained from atarionline.pl)

Adventure
The Atlantis Adventure
The Bow Of Beura
The Breath Of Life
California Gold
Corsair!
The Hyams Adventure
Rescue (this comes bundled with AdventureWriter)
Saucer
World Of Pleasure
The Island is it an ADW game?
The Adventure Trilogy a game compilation with: The Caves Of Madness, The Mansbie Quest and The Computer Solution
The Caves Of Madness
The Mansbie Quest
The Computer Solution
Agent CIO and its help
Odieus Quest For The Magic Flingshot
Denis Through The Drinking Glass
The Tomb Of Death
Adult games compilation it has World of Pleasure

These are other games found at atarimania.com

Magic Castle this was made in 2005, different text layout from above conversion
Casebook of Hemlock Soames #1 (The) There are two adventures here: "Murder at Mathison Manor" and "Pursuit of Dr. Mortenson"
Casebook of Hemlock Soames #3 (The) (part 1 & 2)
Star Voyage 1 / Star Voyage 2
Star Voyage 3 / Star Voyage 4
AdventureWriter French this is a French version, dumped by atarimania :)
L'Enigme du Triangle commercial game from Atarisoft France
AURA Adventures a game compilation including: The Atlantis Adventure, The Bow Of Beura, The Breath Of Life , Corsair! and The Island
The KGB Kill
Magic this comes inside Adventure French version
Dr D Adventure (19xx)(-).atr new found

Games found at homesoft

Computer Adventure it needs confirmation if it is done with ADW

Games found at Page 6

Atari Adventure It's the same as "Computer Adventure". Which is the real name?

TODO

Identify UDG's and map them to the more similar Atascii
Convert c64 ADW & Quill games

Acknowledge

Many thanks to authors and owners of the different software/sites where I retrieved information: to atari , atarimania, atarionline.pl, atariage, wikipedia, world of spectrum, homesoft, and many others.