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Infocom protos?


davidcalgary29

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Well there are several unfinished Infocom games (Resturant at the End of the Universe, Abyss, a Robin Hood game, etc.), but to the best of my knowledge none of those have been found or released. I don't think there are any 8-bit specific Infocom prototypes because the games themselves weren't developed for a specific system (with a few exceptions). Instead they made interpreter for each system that could read the various game files (which contained the game story and logic). So there's probably no reason that most Infocom games couldn't be ported to the 8-bit, as long as there's an interpreter that will run the game (certain games required more advanced interpreters).

 

Did the 8-bits get the v3 or higher interpreter?

 

Tempest

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Tom Hunt compiled Mini-Zork I as well as six other games about ten years ago. I think it was just plain version 3.0 that he used. Shouldn't be too difficult to convert other existing programs, though it's possible the Infocom titles we didn't get actually used a higher version of the interpreter...

 

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Edited by www.atarimania.com
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  • 2 weeks later...
A proto of Restaurant???

 

 

Ooohhhh....

 

It didn't get very far, pretty much just the surface of Magrathea. I have no idea how playable it was, but I doubt any of the Infocom guys are going to let it out.

 

Douglas Adams was more interested in doing Bureaucracy instead, so the game got delayed until it was just dropped. Bureaucracy is an alright game (damn hard), but I would have rather seen Restaurant.

 

Tempest

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Did the 8-bits get the v3 or higher interpreter?

I doubt it. The whole point was larger memory area, and few 8-bits had consistent ways to expand their memory beyond 64K.

 

(meanwhile, I'm still hoping to make a PS/2 keyboard interface and get an interpreter running on the Sega Genesis someday...)

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Did the 8-bits get the v3 or higher interpreter?
I did start looking into what would be involved in taking one of the C64 engines from the later titles, e.g. Border Zone - which uses a v5 interpreter, or either Bureaucracy/Trinity/A Mind Forever Voyaging which were C128 only, I think due to needing an 80 column display. Possibly (as with the C based generic interpeters) it could be possible to make a 6502 engine that detects and adapts at runtime to the version of the game loaded.

 

The main issue with it depends on how much RAM the game needs which is largely based on the amount of 'resident' data it needs to load. The interpreter itself is only ~8K. The remaining memory was then used as a 'swap/cache' area for the game data as required, e.g. by moving location.

 

The v3 games didn't use large resident areas (between 16K and 25K) and so this was OK for the A8's.

The v4 games were larger and so needed the 128K the C128 provided (why not the 130XE?).

But the v5 Border Zone runs on the C64 so maybe worth looking at, also more Inform stuff could be played.

 

Also, as I'm using a cartridge to store the game data it seems to make life a little easier (i.e. no disk swaps) and I'm still to extend the save features to permit saving states to flashcart and probably cassette too.

 

Regards,

Mark

Edited by Wrathchild
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I got a ZZAP! megatape with Zork 1 on it, I've seen this being called Mini-Zork on some Infocom website.

This cut-down version of Zork is the only tape version and was issued by Activision for the excellent Commodore 64 magazine from UK

 

mini_zork.sized.jpg

 

 

Here's my Infocom collection:

http://videogamecollectors.com/gallery/album301

Edited by thomasholzer
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  • 4 weeks later...

The latest version of the Infocom Facts Sheet has this mysterious entry in the list of "Unfinished Projects":

 

 

Name					  ?	 V.A	   Z-C   Length
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Abyss			  D	 1.890320   6   109416

Milliways			 D	15.880512   5   62928
				 D   184.890412   6   79152

 

 

Does this mean that these prototypes have been found?

 

Tempest

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The latest version of the Infocom Facts Sheet has this mysterious entry in the list of "Unfinished Projects":

 

 

Name					  ?	 V.A	   Z-C   Length
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Abyss			  D	 1.890320   6   109416

Milliways			 D	15.880512   5   62928
				 D   184.890412   6   79152

 

 

Does this mean that these prototypes have been found?

 

Tempest

Milliways is an alternate title for Restaurant at the end of the Universe, right?

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I got a ZZAP! megatape with Zork 1 on it, I've seen this being called Mini-Zork on some Infocom website.

This cut-down version of Zork is the only tape version and was issued by Activision for the excellent Commodore 64 magazine from UK

 

I have that one also. This was from the decline of Zzap! 64 though. Pretty much everything after 1988 was terrible.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Milliways is an alternate title for Restaurant at the end of the Universe, right?

 

Yes. The full game title was to be (I think):

 

Milliways: The Resturant at the End of the Universe

 

 

 

 

Tempest

i'd like to know more about this prototype.

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Milliways is an alternate title for Restaurant at the end of the Universe, right?

 

Yes. The full game title was to be (I think):

 

Milliways: The Resturant at the End of the Universe

 

 

 

 

Tempest

i'd like to know more about this prototype.

 

So would I, but I don't actually have it. Someone does though, because they know the file size...

 

All I know is that it starts on the surface of Magrathea and goes from there. I didn't think it got very far, but that file size says otherwise...

 

Tempest

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i think i have a lead.

# The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Stu Galley

Stu Galley was the Programmer i believe.

Thats a lead, isn't it?

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/restaurant.html

 

"I started work on the "Restaurant" project after finishing "Moonmist" at Infocom. However, it did not get very far at all. Douglas Adams was working on a Dirk Gently book at the time, so he engaged a friend to collaborate with us. This man was a good writer, but he didn't understand interactive stories very well, and I found it difficult to work with him. After a few months, the project was abandoned, leaving the "Heart of Gold" crew still standing on the surface of Magrathea!"

 

So if we can contact the programmer, Stu Galley. We should be able to make progress.

http://www.infocom-if.org/authors/galley.html

Left infocom in '89

Edited by Josh
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i think i have a lead.

# The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Stu Galley

Stu Galley was the Programmer i believe.

Thats a lead, isn't it?

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/restaurant.html

 

"I started work on the "Restaurant" project after finishing "Moonmist" at Infocom. However, it did not get very far at all. Douglas Adams was working on a Dirk Gently book at the time, so he engaged a friend to collaborate with us. This man was a good writer, but he didn't understand interactive stories very well, and I found it difficult to work with him. After a few months, the project was abandoned, leaving the "Heart of Gold" crew still standing on the surface of Magrathea!"

 

So if we can contact the programmer, Stu Galley. We should be able to make progress.

http://www.infocom-if.org/authors/galley.html

Left infocom in '89

 

Old information. I'm sure lots of people have tried to contact him over the years. Maybe he finally found the files? Like I said, this version and file length info is brand new, so someone must have finally found something quite recently. The question is: who...

 

Tempest

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