Alternate Reality: The City by Philip Price for Atari 800

[Xebec's Demise]

On 12/17/2022 at 8:54 PM, scottinNH said:

Alternate Reality, as a work unto itself, contains no suggestion it is a virtual reality.

If Mr. Price intended to communicate this was virtual, it never manifested in the works that were published.

 

All the gamer knows is this they are real, contained in a world controlled by your captors.

Actually, we don't even know it's a physical world, or what it is. Story interrupted.

 

Simulated reality is a very, very common theme in science fiction.

William Gibson. Neal Stephenson. Philip K. Dick especially.

 

 

False, in The Dungeon you escape the virtual reality, breaking into an alien computer control room.

 

There are many obvious clues too, like the very title of the game itself, "Alternate Reality." If you were merely abducted by aliens that's not an alternate reality, that's the same reality.

 

You don't roll stats for your current existence nor do you need to be 'connected' to your current existence.

 

You're truly very unfamiliar with Alternate Reality, much like the others attempting to unfairly criticize the game recently, like @zzip and @NorbertP. It's odd that this topic has been here nearly two decades with very little unfounded criticism of the game and suddenly a group of you who are clearly ignorant about the game all show up at once to unfairly criticize it.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Xebec's Demise

[Rafael1138]

Hi, anyone can help me with this? I have tried multiple ATR files and all load but after creating the character and loading Disc 1 Side 2 I get stuck here:

 

 

The Fujinet keeps loading but nothing happens. I have tried with files from Itarra and other websites. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

 

Thanks.

[Beeblebrox]

3 hours ago, Rafael1138 said:

Hi, anyone can help me with this? I have tried multiple ATR files and all load but after creating the character and loading Disc 1 Side 2 I get stuck here:

 

 

The Fujinet keeps loading but nothing happens. I have tried with files from Itarra and other websites. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

 

Thanks.

What is your A8 setup? Stock A8 or upgraded? 

 

I am not familiar with Fujinet but I presume you have all the atr's mounted before loading the first? (Where I am assuming the game has multiple atr images as it came on mutiple disks originally(?).

 

Perhaps share the links to the atr's you are using or upload them here. 

Edited October 9, 2023 by Beeblebrox

[Rafael1138]

Alternate-Reality-The-City_Atari-8-bit_EN.zip

8 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

What is your A8 setup? Stock A8 or upgraded? 

 

I am not familiar with Fujinet but I presume you have all the atr's mounted before loading the first? (Where I am assuming the game has multiple atr images as it came on mutiple disks originally(?).

 

Perhaps share the links to the atr's you are using or upload them here. 

Hi,

 

Im using the attached files that I grab from Irata.online.

 

I mount all the disks in the fujinet and boot them:

 

 

I got the intro and then the character screen. I have tried creating a new one and using a temporary one and the result is the same. The game get stuck. I have tried other version with no different result.

 

Probably I'm doing something wrong but can find what.

Edited October 9, 2023 by Rafael1138

[Wrathchild]

what does the 'R' mean here, with D1S2 I think you should be using a copy of that file and it needs to be writable as the copy protection updates sectors on entry/exit to overlay code, e.g. enter a pub. 

[_The Doctor__]

R is read only and

W is write enabled

so disk 2 needs to be 'W' writeable

Edited October 9, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[Rafael1138]

6 minutes ago, Wrathchild said:

what does the 'R' mean here, with D1S2 I think you should be using a copy of that file and it needs to be writable as the copy protection updates sectors on entry/exit to overlay code, e.g. enter a pub. 

Yep, you both were right, it was my fault, Disk need to be in Writable mode, now I can see

 

Thank you a lot to both of you for your help!!!!!!! really appreciate it! 

[Xebec's Demise]

@Rafael1138 I'm happy to see you got help from @Wrathchild and @_The Doctor__ so quickly! I was online and randomly checking here for something else when I noticed your questions just now. I wasn't even following my own topic! I just experienced a similar issue yesterday, trying Altirra emulator for the first time with Alternate Reality. Alternate Reality can cause issues and confusion due to how unusual it is, it's not your fault at all, it's just a fairly complex and unusual game that stores information about your character in other places besides just the character disk. Actually, I doubt any other Atari games secretly store information about your character on the actual game disks in addition to a character disk?

 

So, I ran into a very similar issue myself using Altirra to Play Alternate Reality for the first time. By default the drives are set to Virtual Read/Write or VRW, probably so people will read and write to a virtual disk without unintentionally modifying their original disk images. However, this won't work with Alternate Reality past the first time you play, unless you make sure to save your virtual disk image of Disk 1 Side 2 and either change the drive setting to Read/Write or R/W when using the save or continue saving the virtual disk each time you play, making sure you use that most recent virtual save for playing your character going forward. 🤦‍♂️

[Xebec's Demise]

I just joined an Alternate Reality yesterday after having not visited for a very long time. Right off the bat, I ended up excitedly getting a potion off an imp I barely managed to kill with my bare hands. The imp nearly killed me, taking me down to within 1 or 2 hit points of ending my life. I looked at the potion and it was black, I tasted it and it was bitter, I sipped it and it seemed safe. I felt I would take a risk, so I drank it without further study. I ended up drinking a potion of delusion, so now I'm being deceived of all my stats and they keep rapidly changing, going up and down and all over the place. As you can see in the picture, I was delusional, feeling like I had 161 hit points while on level 0.

What other game does that, showing you the wrong stats for your character because you're delusional? I don't think I've come across another. I'm waiting outside the healer now because I know I only have 1 or 2 hit points until my death, but Alternate Reality is trying to convince me I have 161 hit points, I'm seriously delusional about my health. 😁

Edited October 9, 2023 by Xebec's Demise

[Wrathchild]

@Xebec's Demise Nice to see you back in your happy place 😃

[phuzaxeman]

On 12/8/2022 at 7:12 PM, Xebec's Demise said:

Isn't the main theme of both Alternate Reality and The Matrix that you discover your mind has been involuntarily placed within a virtual reality?

 

Did you not see this post here and the article I linked to quoting Philip Price?

Hi, I'm joining this talk late. I grew up with AR and I spent a half decade on the game. I also wrote a review many years ago. It's my top 3 8bit game of all time. I just started playing the game recently after decades of not playing AR on my PC.

 

To answer your question, I never got the impression that your mind was placed in some kind of virtual reality. The premise of AR is that you were abducted by aliens and placed in a doorway into the city of Xebec Demise.

 

 

[zzip]

18 hours ago, phuzaxeman said:

Hi, I'm joining this talk late. I grew up with AR and I spent a half decade on the game. I also wrote a review many years ago. It's my top 3 8bit game of all time. I just started playing the game recently after decades of not playing AR on my PC.

 

To answer your question, I never got the impression that your mind was placed in some kind of virtual reality. The premise of AR is that you were abducted by aliens and placed in a doorway into the city of Xebec Demise.

 

 

I think it's something you would have discovered in the unreleased AR games

[phuzaxeman]

8 hours ago, zzip said:

I think it's something you would have discovered in the unreleased AR games

If that's true, that would conflict with the original epilogue and the actual lyrics from the music about returning home. Can you share where you're getting your information about unreleased AR games and virtual reality?   

[+CharlieChaplin]

29 minutes ago, phuzaxeman said:

If that's true, that would conflict with the original epilogue and the actual lyrics from the music about returning home. Can you share where you're getting your information about unreleased AR games and virtual reality?   

 

On the internet, where else ? At one time Gary Gilbertson himself wrote the background information for all AR titles that were planned, see here:

 

 

And regarding similarities between AR and The Matrix read my posting that follows after that one...

(from December 13, 2022).

 

Returning home would have been one option, taking revenge would have been another option... - they did not want to reveal (or spoil) the ending right at the beginning of the game.

 

... and also some posts above... (scroll to January 2):

 

 

[phuzaxeman]

20 minutes ago, CharlieChaplin said:

 

On the internet, where else ? At one time Gary Gilbertson himself wrote the background information for all AR titles that were planned, see here:

 

 

And regarding similarities between AR and The Matrix read my posting that follows after that one...

 

 

I've read the discussion. In the Matrix, the matrix is a computer-generated dream world designed to keep human under control. There is nothing in any of Gary's lyrics in AR that suggest AR is some kind of matrix world to keep humans under control like the movie. Nor does the epilogue say anything anything to suggest it. AR epilogue includes the premise that you were abducted by aliens and placed in a doorway into the city of Xebec Demise. In the opening sequence of both the City and Dungeon, you literally see the alien ship zapping earth. The AA discussion on AR was almost 20 years after the release. 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by phuzaxeman

[+kheller2]

You are abducted from Earth.  Anything after that is up for discussion.  No one said your AR was on earth. 

[phuzaxeman]

Creator Phillip Price sums up his vision in his interview on what the ultimate goals in the final game, "a person in the final game in the series would have to make some heavy choices. Should I annihilate the planet we are orbiting that is populated with aliens who had kidnapped me? Should I just return to Earth? Should I take the alien megaship I am in with me to Earth? Should I destroy it? These were all final choices in the end, each with probabilities of certain consequences occurring from those choices." 

 

Interview: https://dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/PRICE.HTM

 

Price doesn't suggest there is virtual world in which humans are being controlled like in the Matrix.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by phuzaxeman

[phuzaxeman]

7 minutes ago, kheller2 said:

You are abducted from Earth.  Anything after that is up for discussion.  No one said your AR was on earth. 

Yes, you are abducted from earth and then placed in a doorway into the city of Xebec Demise.