The Curious Case of The Missing Victorian

[hoglet]

Hi all,

I was going to play The Curious Case... this afternoon, but then I got distracted. The database format is quite well documented in the GilSoft manual, so I had a go at writing a Java tool to read in the database, and re-write the messages, locations and objects tables with a arbitrary text justification. The only tricky bit was figuring out the GilSoft text compression scheme.

Here's it running in Atomulator justified to 32 columns wide:

It's even possible to combine it with a SoftVDU driver, and get lower case:

I've also separated the interpreter from the database file, so it should be very easy to port any other Quill adventures to the Atom.

Anyone got any requests or recommendations for the next one to do?

Stuart, one useful output of this is a word document containing all the messages, locations and objects, on which you can run Word's spelling and grammar checkers. Would you like me to send you this?

Dave

[oss003]

Anyone got any requests or recommendations for the next one to do?

Hi Dave,

did you try VDU40x24?

Greetings
Kees

[hoglet]

Hi Kees,

I didn't, because I didn't have a copy to hand, and its also not in the archive.

I'll give it a try if you could post a copy, but it might look a bit squished. It would need to avoid memory locations #2800 - #6300.

Dave

[richardtoohey]

Stuart, one useful output of this is a word document containing all the messages, locations and objects, on which you can run Word's spelling and grammar checkers. Would you like me to send you this?

Would be quicker than waiting for people like me to try and finish the game!

[aerworuld]

Stuart, one useful output of this is a word document containing all the messages, locations and objects, on which you can run Word's spelling and grammar checkers. Would you like me to send you this?

That would be most excellent Dave, thank you!

Stuart

[hoglet]

That would be most excellent Dave, thank you!

Sent.

Dave

[hoglet]

Stuart,

One thing In noticed was that the Quill interpreter makes OSWORD A=1 calls that read the system clock. I assume this is to permit you to write puzzles that have limited think time. I haven't yet implemented this.

Is this a feature The Curious Case... makes use of?

Dave

[aerworuld]

That would be most excellent Dave, thank you!

Sent.

Dave

Cheers Dave. Received with thanks! Im on a late one at work tonight so I will have a play with that tomorrow; should save a lot of work

With regard to the OSWORD calls I did have one instance where something is destroyed if not collected in a certain times but I can't remember if I used that facility or somehow linked to player movement/turns. I do remember reading something about it in the manual though..

Sorry I can't be more specific now, I can check tomorrow when I'm back to the puter?

[hoglet]

Hmmm, seems like I have some bugs in the Atom version

Dave

[hoglet]

Hmmm, seems like I have some bugs in the Atom version

Bug found and destroyed. When line wrapping to 32 chars, some of the locations were ending up at more than 255 characters. Instead of using several forced space chars ('@') to pad each line lines, I switched to using a single forced newline ('>') char, and this fixed the problem.

Dave

[oss003]

Hi Dave,

The font is good readable in my opinion.

I have an (almost) working source of VDU20x24. There are a few CTRL-keys to execute some functions, do you want me to remove these to have a bare VDU40x24?

Greetings
Kees

[hoglet]

Kees,

Do what ever is easiest.

I'm keen to give this a try

Dave

[oss003]

Hi Dave,

I have attached the source code of VDU40x24. Printing the font works ok but not all functions are working.

- CTRL-1 -> prints input buffer (doesn't work)
- CTRL-2 -> switch between VDU32/40 without CLS (doesn't work)
- CTRL-3 -> switch to VDU32
- CTRL-4 -> switch to VDU40
- CTRL-6 -> print characters with bit7=1 inverted (doesn't work)
- COPY-key -> copy screen character into inputbufffer (doesn't work)

I have to check other versions because I think this one was used for a game.
The original source is somewhere in my disk archive but my original disk doesn't work

Greetings
Kees

[hoglet]

Hi Kees,

Is there any chance you could compile me a version that loads to 0800. I don't have the right tool chain setup to compiles the sources.

Dave

[oss003]

No probemo.

Greetings
Kees

[hoglet]

Hmm,

Looks like there is probably a page zero conflict with the Quill interpreter (uses 19-6F), as the spaces and punctuation are coming out underlined:

I'll have a dig around tomorrow.
Dave

[hoglet]

Hi Stuart,

Not sure how I managed it, but I just completed the adventure and managed to get a score of 155 out of a possible 150. Not sure if this is a bug or a feature, like the volume going to 11.

It's a really excellent, atmospheric game!

Dave

[aerworuld]

Hi Stuart,

Not sure how I managed it, but I just completed the adventure and managed to get a score of 155 out of a possible 150. Not sure if this is a bug or a feature, like the volume going to 11.

It's a really excellent, atmospheric game!

Dave

Thank you Dave, it's kind of you to say that! I had a lot of fun putting it together and I'm glad folks are getting some enjoyment from playing it!

That's impressive with the score; not quite sure how you did that either.. I wish I could say I meant it that way but I think it might be a bug. I'll have a little look int that

Stuart

[hoglet]

That's impressive with the score; not quite sure how you did that either.. I wish I could say I meant it that way but I think it might be a bug. I'll have a little look int that

I worked out how I managed to 155/150. Every time you visit Bennett's Body on the Steep Slope, you get an additional 5 points.

Maybe you need to make the body vanish once you have seen it.

Dave

[aerworuld]

That's impressive with the score; not quite sure how you did that either.. I wish I could say I meant it that way but I think it might be a bug. I'll have a little look int that

I worked out how I managed to 155/150. Every time you visit Bennett's Body on the Steep Slope, you get an additional 5 points.

Maybe you need to make the body vanish once you have seen it.

Dave

I suspected that might be the case as pretty much everything else can only be used once. I've sorted it now but it pushed me over the edge for space in the db so I've trimmed down a location description somewhere else to fit

Thanks for the heads up!

[hoglet]

Hi Stuart,

Is beta3 still the most current version?

Dave

[aerworuld]

Hi Stuart,

Is beta3 still the most current version?

Dave

Yeparooney

[aerworuld]

When TCCOTMV comes out of beta it would be nice to get a few more reviews... had some interest on twitter but was wondering if any peeps here had any ideas?

Btw, I've followed Nic Outterside (Pendragon, EU) on twitter but he has a locked account and I havent been accepted yet... how cool would it be if he would consider a review for old times sake lol

Stuart

[richardtoohey]

RetroGamer magazine do reviews of new old software ... but not sure how you'd get into that.

http://www.retrogamer.net/

Dunno if they are more interested in graphical games.

Good luck.

[aerworuld]

RetroGamer magazine do reviews of new old software ... but not sure how you'd get into that.

http://www.retrogamer.net/

Dunno if they are more interested in graphical games.

Good luck.

Thank you Richard I wonder if the cassette version comes off they might consider it!