Dungeons of Death (Vic-20, 1983), Preserved.

In a previous post about Dungeons of Death, I've mentioned that the only available dumped version was completely unplayable: a major bug was affecting the progress of the game.

The original major bug which stopped the game at the first dungeon door.

Thanks to one of  Hokuto Force's coders Flavioweb, I'm glad to announce that Dungeons of Death has been now fully restored and finally playable.

The dungeon is now fully explorable.

An example of combat from the working version.

The restoring process has started from the bugged dumped tape where Flavioweb spent a good amount of hours trying to fix all the glitches in the Basic code. However, despite the struggle, after a few days we were able to test the first working copy I have ever seen of this obscure dungeon crawler from Aardvark Games. 

You can download the package with the working .tap file and documentation from the link below. Just remember to use an expanded Vic-20 with 8k or 16k memory on either real hardware or emulator. Also, since the documentation is essential to play the game properly, I've spent some time to ocr the scans and correct various minor typos and inconsistencies. 

Download Game and Documentation

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Credits
Original Supply: Dr. Strange
Documentation: Dr. Strange
Code Restoration: Flavioweb

The Dragon's Eye (Commodore 64, 1984), II (†)

Thanks to one of the readers, I'm able to publish a new relevant document about the Dragon's Eye C64 conversion. As you can read from the previous article here, this game has an existent C64 conversion which doesn't have any correspondence in any official Epyx catalogue.

Thanks to Trypticon, I can publish the scans of a German book which has a relevant Dragon's Eye mention. Rombachs C64-Spieleführer (1984) contains some infos about the C64 version and as far as Trypticon told me, the book confirms that the C64 seems to be merely a rough PET conversion. 

Book references: Rombachs C64-Spieleführer, 1984, ISBN: 3-7930-0486-4

Here's a translation of the Dragon's Eye review from German. 

Game idea: Dragon's Eye belongs to the Fantasy and Roleplay games. You choose a name and a sword and get a number of spells assigned by the program. Then one goes on it's way to find the Eye of the Dragon. During this, a number of monsters are encountered, which need to be killed with a lot of skill. This task needs to be completed during 20 days. At the end of the game, the program judges the skill of the player.

Design: The location and vitality status of the player is represented with an overview and a map. Only the colours blue and white and the block graphics of the C64 are used. The same is true for the display in battle mode. Sound effects are not used in the game.

Rating: This Basic program written for older Commodore hardware does not reach the standard of the fantasy games written for the C64. Insofar it is only suitable for outright fans of fantasy games or collectors.
Rating: 4/5*

On the third page there is a mention of the fact that the game was programmed originally on the PET.

So this document proves something really important from an historical point of view: the conversion of Dragon's Eye has been done before the 1984. 

The next step dictates me to find an original version in its own original support or at least a proof of its existence as official release.  

Thanks again to Trypticon for his submission and translation from German. 

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* 1 = Best.

ZorkQuest: First Interactive Comic ever?

I really never noticed the existence of the ZorkQuest series. My fault.

This morning while I was browsing the internet during my breakfast, a version of ZorkQuest: Assault on Egreth Castle for C64 just popped up in front of me. I have been probably too much caught into the main series to miss this minor spin off of the main Zork Saga. 

Apparently, during the 1988, Infocom managed to produce two chapters of this series, which were completely different from the main and more popular Zork text adventures:

Zork Quest: Assault on Egreth Castle (1988, Infocom, interactive computer comic book)

ZorkQuest: Assault on Egreth Castle Cover, 1988

Zork Quest: The Crystal of Doom (1989, Infocom, interactive computer comic book)

ZorkQuest: The Crystal of Doom Cover, 1989

What is really particular about them is that they are not even games; they pretended to be a sort of interactive books where your role is less then minimal. From a CRPG point of view, they would be better described as an anti-role playing games, where you are neither actor nor narrator but a Über spectator, with a really limited range of choices. 

ZorkQuest: Assault on Egreth Castle can be called an interactive comic book. The game consists of text accompanied by pictures, somewhat similar in visual style to comic books; the interaction is restricted to the player's choices that affect the storyline. The player is able to experience the story from the points of view of the several main heroes, witnessing their personal stories intertwining. Several playthroughs are necessary to experience the story in its entirety.

Source: Moby Games 

Despite the enthusiasm of the guys on the advertising, ZorkQuest is more a  first attempt to create a bland fantasy game illustrated comic on a computer. I was initially expecting a Fantasy Fighting Game Book structure, but both experiments don't comprehended a magic/health or combat system at all. The unique aspect is they probably are the two official interactive comic ever made on the c64. 

However all this awkwardness, both titles will go straight in my wishlist. 

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Images sourced from Moby Games

Lone Wolf: Flight from the Dark (Advertising, 1984)

While I'm busy with some other surprises I will probably publish in the next days, here's an advertising for the first Lone Wolf Game published in the 1984 to promote Flight from the Dark (ZX Spectrum). The total amount of games dedicated to Lone Wolf Gamebooks is restricted to three and only one of these was published on the C64 (Lone Wolf - The Mirror of Death). This advertising, anyway, contains the original flavour of the popular Gamebook series and since I have always been a great fan of its illustrative style, I publish this lost double page ad with particular pleasure. 

Telengard (Commodore PET, 1981), Preserved.

During my Christmas break I had been looking around for copy of Telengard for PET but after few days of researches I realized that nothing was available on the web. When I was losing hope, for curiosity I reopened my Telengard boxed set and well, the PET version of Telengard was sitting on the same tape of the C64 one. It was just there, beside me. 

After few days of attempts yesterday night I've managed to dump a fully working copy of Telengard for PET usable on all the more common emulators like Vice; and, if you able it, you can transfer it on a support to make it working on your PET (good luck with that anyway). 

The game itself has the same structure and look & feel of the original one, apart from the fact that all the sprites are represented by basic symbols and lines. All colours, obviously, have been translated for the typical monochromatic and fascinating PET palette.

Main Screen

Name selection screen

Entering the Dungeon

Help Screen

The dumped copy is available for download here. If you experience any problem or glitch just let me know, I will try to sort it out.

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Thanks to Ian Gledhill and his Ubercassette for the help.