Search for the Lost Orb

[Kevin Edwards]

Hi,

Whilst sorting through a load of disks I found a disk based adventure called 'Search for the Lost Orb'

Has anyone heard of it before? I've no idea who did it or where it came from...

[leenew]

Hi Kevin,
That's a new one on me.
It isn't listed on the adventure game solutions archive either.
What machine is it running on?
Could you upload the files?
Thanks,

Lee.

[Kevin Edwards]

Hi Lee,

It's for the Beeb AFAICT.

Here's the disk image. Can't tell you any more about it i'm afraid.

CH."B.SEARCH"

Hope it's of interest to someone!

Cheers,
Kevin.

[leenew]

Thank you,
I will see what I can find out about it (if anything)...

Lee.

[fuzzel]

Just done a few searches including The Micro User and can't find it anywhere. I'm assuming it's an amateur production as there are no copyright messages in the initial loader file or on running the game proper.

[leenew]

Hmmm... I can't find anything either.
It does look quite professionally done to me though..

Lee.

[lurkio]

Calling CASA...

Come in, CASA...

[fuzzel]

I've just started exploring the game and you're right lurkio, it is very professionally done. Most locations have a decent amount of descriptive text. The colon at the command prompt reminds me of some of the earlier Acornsoft games by Peter Killworth - Doom, Philosophers Quest and Castle of Riddles.
I'll continue to explore and maybe I'll find further clues to the authorship.
Kevin, can you remember where you got the disk from ?

[fuzzel]

I've now explored this mystery game for a few hours and mapped the first 30 odd locations. I've collected a handful of objects, met my end in several interesting ways and solved my first puzzle ! The presence of a ram save / load function (STORE / RESTORE) suggests it was made around 1987 or later (this function was adopted by the big boys (Level 9 and Robico) from around that date). I think Central Computing also adopted it.

[fuzzel]

Very sneaky this game. There are a couple of locations in the main section of the game where there's an object hidden in the main description.
Reminds me of What's Eeyore's and the bread in the King's Orchard - I needed help to find that one.

[Kevin Edwards]

Hi guys,

I've done a bit more digging and have remembered a bit more about the disk.

I knew a lot of people who developed Beeb games and a Cambridge connection is quite possible - Acorn / Acornsoft? I travelled to Cambridge and London quite a bit during 1985-87 so i'm guessing I picked it up during one of those trips. It was on a disk with some utilities that a friend of mine ( Andy Bray ) wrote so there is a chance he or one of his friends wrote it. Andy worked as a contractor for Acorn and knew many people in the Beeb world too.

It certainly is a professionally produced product, but i couldn't see any name or information about the authour. It obviously wasn't published as someone would recognize the game. I can only conclude that it was an abandoned title that just never made it to market.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Kevin.

[tautology]

Interesting - it's not one I've heard of - I can add it to CASA.

[lurkio]

Interesting - it's not one I've heard of - I can add it to CASA.

It's already there. All you have to do is call.

I've done a bit more digging ...

Thanks for the upload and the info, Kevin.

[fuzzel]

Thanks Kevin, you'll be pleased to hear I'm enjoying the game immensely. I've managed to escape from the first section of the game but have got a bit stuck in the second section. I keep dying of thirst due to the bucket I'm carrying around having a hole in it. Never mind, I shall persevere. Would your friend Andy Bray be the same guy who co-wrote the Advanced User Guide ? If so perhaps it was he or one of his co-authors Adrian Dickens or Mark Holmes who wrote it.

[Kevin Edwards]

Yes, Andy co-wrote the AUG. IIRC The authors were all at Cambridge, but at different colleges when they wrote the AUG. This adventure was several years later i believe when Andy worked for Acorn as a contractor around 1986/7. Sadly, I lost touch with him shortly afterwards so can't ask him if he knows any more about it. I still believe that this could be the work one of the established adventure writers from Acorn / Acornsoft, or possibly Andy himself. Jon Thackray, who wrote Acheton, was also one of the coders who worked on the Beeb's OS in the early days. Could he be a candidate? I'm guessing that each adventure creator has their own style that can be recognised by those that play their games?

[tautology]

I randomly found this sitting on my desktop and have done a bit of reverse engineering on it - extracting all the messages and locations.

That's the good new.

The bad news is that there are absolutely no clues as to the author in the message base, and not much space in files to have a hidden signature.

It's a very large game: 203 rooms but somewhat light on objects

[8bitAG]

Are there any clues in the system/programming techniques being used? Is it similar to any other games out there?

[tautology]

Not really; it's pretty standard 6502 adventure code.

[fuzzel]

Anyone familiar with a linguistic technique called stylometry ? It can be used to analyse the words and phrases used by an individual as a sort of fingerprint and was in the news earlier this week when linguists who had used the technique announced that they believed Beowulf was the work of one person.

[tautology]

Attached is a dump of the messages and rooms (it's not perfect as I didn't bother with punctuation and capitalisation). Plus the python code I used to dump in.

[Kevin Edwards]

Thank you for your hard-work. Sorry I couldn't provide any more information. It looks like the author will remain a mystery!

[Canalboy]

Well I managed to finish this one in the end although with 710 points out of a possible 800 (or about that maximum as the game says). Many thanks to Fuzzel for the (ahem) slight manipulation of the object inventory and lamp and thirst timers. I suspect that without these I would never have finished it as it was a real toughie even so. A good game though and thoroughly recommended notwithstanding the odd bug or two and some atrocious spelling. An excellent twist ending too and some very clever puzzles await the dedicated player.

I have uploaded a trizbort and pdf conversion of the completed map to CASA which is awaiting administrator approval before it appears there.

Canalboy

[fuzzel]

It’s a very good game that one. An unofficial Acornsoft game in my book. Didn’t get going in it so will have to revisit it at some point.

[Chrysophylax]

Hi folks,

Newbie here. I found this game on a BBC emulator and have got to the second part but am now stuck by a gorgoyle and a tentacled monster in a tunnel. Anyone got any clues?

Chrys

[fuzzel]

Hi folks,

Newbie here. I found this game on a BBC emulator and have got to the second part but m now stuck by a gorgoyle and a tentacled monster in a tunnel. Anyone got any clues?

Chrys

Hi, welcome to the forum Chrys, Canalboy would probably be your best bet for advice - not sure if he's around at the moment though. I'll check again later and if he hasn't replied I'll dig out my map and notes and see if I can help. Hope you're enjoying the game btw, it's one of the best beeb adventures I've played in the last few years, a great discovery by Kevin.

[Chrysophylax]

Hi Fuzzel,

Thanks very much, I appreciate the help!

Chrys

[fuzzel]

Ok, I've found my notes (from lockdown 2020) but disappointingly there's no walkthrough, probably due to me aborting the game before I thought I had a good chance of finishing it. I have written down some solutions to various puzzles though so I may be able to help. Which objects have you collected so far?

[Chrysophylax]

Hi Fuzzel,

I've not learned how to take more than four items from the first part, but I can access the following: branch, silver rod, bucket, orange, rope, lamp, matches, dynamite, axe, keys, paper sack, sword and dead sheep.

Regards,

Chrys

[fuzzel]

There's an important object you need near the start. This is one of those games where objects are hidden in the description sometimes which is a bit sneaky because for the most part the objects are listed after the location is printed and you'd assume they always are (this is a particular bugbear of mine). Later on I'll check my list of objects in the first part of the game against your list and see if you're missing anything else.

[Chrysophylax]

Fuzzel,

You have just saved what is left of my sanity. Thank you.

You previously mentioned that you kept dying of thirst. There is one object that you can't recover without a second source of water - have you solved this yet or can I help you with that one?

Regards,

Chrys