Some games not working

[mfc]

I'm having trouble getting these 4 games to work on BeebEm:
Artemidorus
Mample
Tanks (Design People)
William the Conqueror

Not sure if they are bad dumps or they just require some specific settings I might be missing. I attached them to this post if anyone with more knowledge wants to check it out.

[billcarr2005]

With Tanks, do you have the disk write protected?
Loading the file SELECT and LISTing lines 49 - 54 the program is *SAVEing different files.
Line 5 also contains

Code: Select all

?&202=?&FFFC:?&203=?&FFFD

which has the effect of pressing BREAK on an error.

[mfc]

You're right, I totally missed that! Works fine now, thanks.
No luck with the other 3 though.

[Michael Brown]

Artemidorus has a DATA file missing.

In the second file ARTEM, line 35 selects Drive 2 and line 40 *LOADs DATA 2C18.

Data from &2C18 is recalled at line 290.

Do you have the DATA file?

Mick.

PS if you remove lines 35 and 40 then you can play the game. Its not that bad!

[mfc]

Thanks Michael, unfortunately I don't have the DATA file I got the dump from here or the TOSEC set (don't remember exactly).

That's odd it's selecting drive 2 do you know if the game was a dual disk/tape game or something? Or maybe it was a tape to disk conversion that went wrong.

I could delete those lines to at least check it out, but I have no idea on how to even edit the files, is there any command that will allow me to do it? I'm not well versed in the BBC world as you probably noticed.

[Michael Brown]

Basically without the DATA file the game is broken.
It may work without it, but might not work properly.

However, I have in the meantime transferred William The Conqueror to disc.

I have amended the first file WILLIAM to include a option of pressing ESCAPE to quit the long tune and skip to part 2.

I have also amended the filename for part2 from william to willia2 as DFS cannot have 2 names the same.
Also I have amended the game so when you quit - the computer resets instead of selecting the PAGE=&E00 Bad Program etc.

Hopefully I have got it right...
Mick.

WilliamConq.zip

(12.16 KiB) Downloaded 175 times

[Michael Brown]

Just taken another look at Artemidorus.

If the DATA file is lost then all ten screens that came with the game are lost too. However, it is possible to poke some new screens into the memory from &2C18 onwards.

If you type ?&2C18=1 then the top left cell on the screen will rise by 1 block and if you type ?&2C19=2 then the cell to the right of it will rise by 2 blocks etc until you fill the grid with new shapes and so on into the next screen etc etc and then type *SAVE DATA 2C18+ (length of datas file).

I will have a go at making a temporary first screen and saving it as the DATA file and will post it here next week. Maybe we could all design at least one screen - 10 are needed.

Mick.

[Michael Brown]

Actually, Had a bit more time yesterday than I thought I would get, so I was able to create not one but ten new screens.

Had a look at both Crystal Castles and Castle Of Gems and then tried to create some screens that were nothing like them.
One problem was that if you created a maze where you had blocks infront of others then a shadow was left by both you and the baddie, so I have had to design levels that had the higher blocks at the back.
New DATA file saved from &2C18-&3000 (3E8 in length) using 10 levels of data with 64 cells per screen (3E8/10=64).

Also in the ARTEM file moved the HIMEM=&2C18 from line 5 to line 35 as corruption occured just before &3000 otherwise.
Also added the VDU23;8202;0;0;0; at line 31 to turn off the cursor.
More important - altered line 350 from IF NN=9 to NN=10 in order to display the 10th screen (which is where the HIMEM distortion occured).
Also added some FOR/NEXT loops to delay the game when you loose a life and also at GAME OVER.

Lastly, tidied up the loader and put gaps after full stops in the text and added PAGE=&1100 to load the main game to allow plenty of room between the top of the game and the DATA file at &2C18.

This is the best I could do with what has been found.
Hopefully, the lost DATA file (with the original/correct screens) will turn up at some point.

regards,
Mick.

Artemidorusrepaired.zip

(2.96 KiB) Downloaded 164 times

[mfc]

Thanks a lot Michael! William works fine now, I'm not even sure how you did what you did with Artemidorus, but it's pretty damn impressive.
Game is not bad at all as you said and your levels are pretty enjoyable.

Impressive to see all this enthusiasm around the BBC even after all these years

[Michael Brown]

Artemidorus still has a few issues. Mainly some bad collision detection.
My screens are simply 00's, 01's, 02's up to 09's saved as the lost DATA file from &2C18-&3000.
Thery are just temp until the original lost DATA file turns up on some disc somewhere (as they can do).
It would be possible to amend the game if the DATA file does turn up to include both sets of screens (just like Castle of Gems).

Glad William is working as I have added this title to one of my newer games discs.

As for enthusiasm, I think thanks to the internet and the forum members, more has actually got achieved the last few years than during the whole 1980s.

Just look through the forum at the pooled achievements of finding, restoring and posting new and old games.

Just recently, we have been able to get the following working correctly for the first time on the BBC B ...

Airlift by Bug-Byte (originally OS 1.0)
Martians by Micro Power (originally OS 1.0)
and now...
Lunar Invasion by Alternative (from Triple Decker 3 originally for the Electron)

Hopefully over the next few years we can find/restore BBC conversions of...
Kastle by Tynesoft and Battlezone Six by IJK.

regards,
Mick.

[mfc]

Yeah the preservation project is a very important one and the only way these games will still be available in the future and the efforts put from several forum members here towards that are very impressive so my sincere thanks to all of you.

Maybe one day that data file for Artemidorus will also show up