Mystery Of The Java Star (1984)

[lurkio]

Mystery Of The Java Star is a multi-part puzzle game written in BASIC for the BBC Micro. It was released on cassette-tape in 1984. The player has to track down the location of a centuries-old shipwreck and then dive down to the seabed to recover the treasure that the ship was carrying. The game is both intriguing and incredibly annoying, as Dave's review ably explains. The game also seems to have bugs.

Mystery Of The Java Star had been missing from bbcmicro.co.uk because the file WITCH on the existing Beeb tape-image at StairwayToHell was corrupt, but it's now been reconstructed. (The Electron tape-image was used as reference.) The restored tape version of the game has been transferred to a DFS disc-image.

The BASIC programs are quite large and they save and load data to and from the filesystem, so they have to be run with PAGE at &E00 on a BBC Master. (I.e. the disc-image is currently incompatible with a BBC Micro Model B.)

Play the game online [seems to be unreliable (bug reported)]:

• http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=2897

Download the game:

• JavaStar.ssd

  DFS .SSD disc-image of Mystery Of The Java Star

  (200 KiB) Downloaded 159 times

Instructions:

• At EveryGameGoing.com

Rearrange the preternaturally neatly torn message. It's basically a sliding-block puzzle using manually typed-in coordinates instead of user-friendly cursor-key controls.

More sliding blocks. More fiddly coordinates to type in.

Welcome to London, city of yellow skies, square clocks, and half a St Paul's.

Visiting a series of famous London institutions.

An instantly recognisable aerial view of Jamaica.

An early alpha version of Google Maps.

Yes, that's meant to be a helicopter -- not an exploding red microphone.

A suspiciously shallow sea.

A frustrating part of the game. Moving the little boat is painfully slow.

[lurkio]

To play the game, see my previous post (above).

Who knew the seabed was bright green?

More incredibly slow movement as you search the three levels of the sunken ship for treasure.

The weirdest part of the game by far. If you find the ruby, it starts to magically burn your hands. "What can you do?" the game asks. The answer is off-the-wall and utterly inexplicable.

Good question. (Also: what's the use of a game that's impossible to play???)

Apparently I "solved the mystery of the Java Star", but I'm still not sure how.

This must be the saddest of humble-brags. Sorry.

[lurkio]

I've attached a (barely) playable disc-image of the game to the first post in this thread.

[danielj]

I could never actually find the wreck... It was near impossible so far as I could tell to the extent that I thought the elk version was bugged!

d.

[lurkio]

I could never actually find the wreck... It was near impossible so far as I could tell to the extent that I thought the elk version was bugged!

Ha! Yes, the game's extremely finicky about where you position the little yellow boat before you dive if you want to actually find the shipwreck. You have to be almost pixel-perfect. But it can be done! (Whether you'd actually want to is another story.)

[danielj]

I wonder if a revised edition which is a bit less finicky would benefit things. I realise it seems quite tedious in the modern day and age, but I quite enjoyed this as a kid (up to the point I couldn't find the blasted ship!)



d.

[Michael Brown]

Hopefully I have finally got a BBC B version of the game working from disc.
Originally the game needed to be run at &E00 which prevented the saving of the "skip game" data from parts 1 and 2 to disc.
However since only a few variables (A%, D%, P% etc which don't get lost when loading a new file) are saved it was possible to remove the load/save bits of the first 2 parts and save them as separate files (BRISAVE and LONSAVE) which load at &1300 allowing the saving and loading of files CH1/SCO and CH2/SCO to/from disc.

All four parts of the game are loaded at the lower address of &1100 hopefully allowing enough room for each part to work.
I have removed all bits from each part that are not needed for disc use to make more room.
If anyone would like to play through the game, to check for any bugs.

BTW the 2 files CH1/SCO and CH2/SCO have been saved from hacked gameplay to allow play testing of later levels with enough cash left.
Both files are from gameplay with level 1.
CH1 has £11990 cash left
CH2 has £11915 cash left.

It could be possible to make these 2 files have £0 cash until a new completed game is saved to them and also have them checked for the amount and if £0 then print something like either "NO CHEATING" or "ERROR" or even make the game reload the previous part again so that you MUST play the game fully.
If anyone has any thoughts on any of these, let me know and I may add such a routine once someone has confirmed the game is completable.

regards,
Mick.

mysteryofthejavastar.zip

(68.01 KiB) Downloaded 109 times

[jms2]

Thanks for posting this improved version! I actually had this game back in the 80s, and I remember struggling through the early stages hoping that the game might improve. When the explorable plan of the ship appeared it was quite exciting - at last, something like a real game! Followed by the disappointment of realising how slow it was...

[aerworuld]

Thanks for posting this improved version! I actually had this game back in the 80s, and I remember struggling through the early stages hoping that the game might improve. When the explorable plan of the ship appeared it was quite exciting - at last, something like a real game! Followed by the disappointment of realising how slow it was...

Absolutely! This was one of the first cassette games that I got back then.. I seem to remember that it was a Christmas or birthday present.

Despite the speed and the quirkiness of the game I used to really enjoy it.... maybe that's my rose-tinted nostalgia glasses talking though

[jms2]

It definitely had an air of mystery about it (as the title suggests). I think this was achieved by the staged nature of the game; you didn't know what was going to come up next. At the time I was too naive to realise that a dodgy part 1 & 2 strongly implied that subsequent parts would be equally dodgy!

[fuzzel]

Excellent work again lurkio. The BBC games restoration project continues. Btw I loved the pictures you put up with your wry comments attached.
Here's a brief review in The Micro User September 1984:
Mystery of the Java Star: Four part adventure with each part loading separately. You can only progress to the next part when you are successful in the previous one. The object is to search for a shipwreck and in it find a ruby called the Java Star. The game climaxes in a real time search of the sea bed with restricted air. Shards.
And here's what Alice had to say about it in the November 1984 issue of The Micro User:
One for the family: THE Mystery of the Java Star by Shards Software is an unusual game in four parts (only four?). You have to recover the gold and the Java Star - a ruby - from a shipwreck somewhere in the South Atlantic. In the first part you choose one of three levels of difficulty which gives you either£ 12,000 £8,000 or £4,000 to play with. You must then piece together some "scraps of paper" (a 6*7 matrix) to make a map and a message. This part is quite clever because they vary each time you play. In the second part you have to visit places in London to get further information and funding. There is a choice of 31 places and it takes a while to pick out the relevant ones. Fleet Street is particularly good - I old my story so many times I hardly needed to find the treasure. To finish this section you have to answer the same five questions —a pity because this could have been randomised. In the third part you have to locate the correct island. In the fourth you must dive, in real time, to recover the treasures, and then you have to solve the mystery of the ruby. Rather like Eskimo sculpture, it's meant to be felt rather than seen. Some nice pictures, music ("We are sailing", "If I were a rich man") and probably best played as a group or family. But not "educational".
There are also adverts by Shards featuring the game in TMU July 1986 p129 and TMU December 1986 p130.

[Michael Brown]

Hi All,
There is an error with JAMAICA.
Loading the original file at &E00 gave a TOP of &4AF3 as the game was &3CF3 in length.
My version running at &1100 gave a TOP of &4BF6 which broke the game with 'NO ROOM AT LINE' errors.
Therefore, I have split this part up into two.
JAMAICA now has a TOP of &4AE0 which is less than the original because lines 3000 onwards (which play a tune and load Part 4) are now saved as JAMCONT and this is run in after JAMAICA has been completed.

At the same time, I have amended the instructions that I wrote for this game which were originally taken from Every Game Going.
According to game play and the Dragon 32 inlay, in Part 4 the instructions should say SPACEBAR to signify 'in position' instead of identify close objects.

I have also added a bit of text showing that you get either £12000, £8000 or £4000 to start with depending on which level of difficulty you choose.
I have changed the bit about using a blank disc to a 'save disc' as this term is used during playing/saving the game.

I have not altered WITCH yet as the TOP of this part is only &53B6 and the original was &5332 so may not error out. I will leave that for the play testers to find out. I am sure I can split this too if needed.

regards,
Mick.

mysteryofthejavastar.zip

(68.12 KiB) Downloaded 95 times

[Michael Brown]

Hi All,
There was another error in the JAMAICA file at line 410.
It is when you use Z to enlarge and get the MAXIMUM page. If you press Z again then line 410 has a GOTO300 (which doesn't exist) and this should be GOTO290.
This is an error with the tape copy and not caused by hacking to disc.
Now fixed.

I will keep testing, but so far that looks like it (oops!)
Only found it by accident.

Mick.

mysteryofthejavastar.zip

(68.21 KiB) Downloaded 89 times

[Michael Brown]

Now had a play through this and so far looks OK.
Just added a TIME delay to line 3160 of BRISTOL to allow the "CHAPTER TWO LOADING" message more time to display itself on screen.

Mick.

mysteryofthejavastar.zip

(68.26 KiB) Downloaded 83 times

[iamaran]

I've just noticed that a disc version was added to the http://www.flaxcottage.com/ archive on 07/10/2021 if this is of interest.