Hi,

The past couple of weeks I'd got interested in adventures again and stumbled across your project here.
I don't know how I missed it before - I guess 'SAGA' didn't ring any bells with me.

Anyway - what you've done here is fantastic!

Your BBC version runs so much better than the C64 or Spectrum ones which are a lot slower - and it's great to have some graphics with the game.

I think the idea of making enhanced master only versions of BBC games is great - it would really bring BBC games up to the level of the other 8bit micros that had more ram.


Could you provide the source code - I went to that mercurial webpage but the zip I downloaded doesn't appear to contain anything:
http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/hg/sagarework
I'm quite interested to add the graphics to a PC version of the game.

I'd also like to know the format of the graphics and how to extract it from the Spectrum/C64 versions.

I got the PC version from the if-archive site:
http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXscott-adamsXinterpretersXscottfree.html

There's a nice one here too:
http://www.heinpragt.com/advent/advent.php

Also - here's a new interview with Brian Howarth:
http://www.solutionarchive.com/interview_brian/


Anyway - I added a loader to your disc (just for waxworks so far) so I could play it easier - attached here...

- PJ

Yeah I guess I really ought to upload the source code here, even if it's just to provide an offline backup. As I was planning to do a full source release it fits with my plans. Now I just need to have a word with samwise to work out the mercurial connection details.

The details for some of the graphics schemes can be found on AI memorial (yes, the site is ugly, but I designed in 1999, when the Internet was less flashy). The specific type used by the Brian Howarth games is "LDP". Of the other formats serious changes need to be made to fit them with the BBC's limited colour palette.

I may even finish it off, now that I actually have an Electron and a Beeb and one of Mr Hitchen's ABRs, I can get around to writing the ROM version!

Thanks for that - just what I needed - I have the pictures decoded now (from a spectrum dump)!
Cool site - the 'The engines used' link doesn't work but everything else does

-PJ

I think I need to contact Samwise to get my user set up for Mercurial, until then, just to make certain I've got an offsite backup, the attached zip file is the source code for the interpreter.

In the tools directory are two hacky bits of C that I used to munge the raw data files (I use the TRS-80 format datafiles) into the compressed format I use and another one to extract and mangle the graphics from a Spectrum .sna. These are full of dead code, so don't use them as examples of good programming

Hi,

Thanks for the source code - that's the non-graphics version right?

Anyway I just finished playing Waxworks.

That was a lot of fun!

Actually it's the first adventure I've completed since Sphinx Adventure I think!
It brought back a lot of memories - like frustrating mazes for instance :-)

I think the graphics really helped me get into it - text is just too dry for me these days.

It was great I had the program - I helped myself along a little with being able to carry 100 items and having an everlasting torch!
Also I could see the room numbers which helped with mapping - it's surprising with only 41 rooms and it still felt quite large.
Well that explains why I managed to finished it in a week instead of 3 months.

It also reminded me of how adventures can get a bit annoying if you don't know the exact noun and verb combination.

Can you share any notes of how the engine works - I've noticed that a '*' in front of a word means it's a synonym and as I have the 'c' source I can probably work it out eventually.

I'd be interested in maybe trying to write my own game using this engine.

And I'll have to play some of the other ones now - will your converter source just work to get the other Mysterious Adventures on the BBC - or is there any gotcha's I should know about?

Thanks

- PJ

Ah; I forgot the graphics code and osvars - it has been 2 years since I touched the code I've attached an updated archive which should hopefully compile.

There's quite a few articles on the Internet about the SAGA engine as the original BASIC version got published in a BYTE magazine article in 1980ish. The best description of the format is included with Alan Cox's Scottfree interpreter. (http://ifarchive.giga.or.at/indexes/if- ... tfree.html).

The converter included will turn a TRS-80 style data file into a compressed one for which the engine will work for most of the SAGA style games (what should work: all the Scott Adams ones, The Mysterious Adventures, the first two questprobe and sundry others). The most complete list of them is at CASA (http://www.solutionarchive.com/list/system%2C11/).

Unfortunately the graphics will only work with the mysterious adventures, as other formats used a different technique (some of which I can decode).

Converting from some of the binary formats may require some work; which I may do some time.

Hi Tautology,

Thanks for that info.

I'd actually found your database description at:
http://aimemorial.if-legends.org/gameform.html
which was a lot of help.

I added a mapper to my pc version of the game so I can see how all the rooms are connected which was neat.
There's actually two rooms I saw listed that I don't think I entered:
19.Dustbin and 33.Crowded Lounge. - secrets!

And I also got the LoadDatabase() subroutine to dump all the information out in a more understandable format.

Finally I understand how they used to write Adventures!

The action list was particularly interesting - so basically it's:
if (A & B & C & D & E) do action 1,2,3,4.

for instance:


I'll have to try another adventure now:

I'll know what to type with the list of valid verb,noun combinations - which could make it a lot easier.


- PJ