Zolan Adventure, The
Softek Software International 1982
- Aka:
- Zolan
- Language:
- English
- Authors:
- Kevin Porter
- Systems:
- BASIC
- Platforms:
- Spectrum
- Genres:
- Science fiction, Treasure hunt
- Entered by:
- dave, Dorothy, Exemptus, Strident, WhenIWasCruel
- Added:
- 20-10-2010
- Edited:
- 30-09-2021
Synopsis
Plot
While exploring the remote planet Zol 1X you hear rumours of a fabulous treasure. It was buried in a tomb by Zolan, once emperor of the whole cluster, before the Terran conquest many centuries ago. Although many people have searched for it, the missing treasure has never been found. You decide to find it.Notes
May have been sold by the author, Keven Porter, himself prior to the game being distributed by Softek.The original game was for 16K Spectrums. There is a (non-official?) 48K version archived online which skips the introductory program and adds a custom font.
Resources (Upload file)
- Solution
- by Dorothy
- Map
- by Exemptus
- Further Info:
- Search at Museum of Computer Adventure Game History
- Search at Spectrum Computing
- Search at The Tipshop
- Search at World of Spectrum
[+] Users currently playing this game
- —
Advertised as a 16K game (Your Computer, Oct. 82, p.138), but can't be, as it loads a character set on a high address. Far too limited and simple, with ad-hoc input parsing, feels more like a magazine type-in. Has the distinction of being one of the first published text adventures on the Speccy.
Interesting... especially as it's clearly labelled 16K on the game inlay... I wonder if there is more than one version floating around on the Internet?
Yes, there are two different versions currently (as I type this) archived on Spectrum Computing.
The first (the .TAP file) looks like it is the original 1982 file. Strangely, the intro program has an error in it (easily fixed) but the game itself loads fine and has the standard fault. That version is a 16K program.
The .TZX file is completely different. It does not have the introduction program on it and, as you point out, it loads in an additional fault, making it not run on the 16K machines. I'll flag it up on Spectrum Computing. I'm guessing it's either a later re-release or, probably more likely, a version that a third-party has created, much later.
Thanks, you seem to be right. I hadn't noticed the second version, but it looks like the original one, and it runs in 16K, which makes sense. The other one is probably republished.
*additional font (not fault!)
I've actually started investigating a few games like this because there are a ton of .TZX files in the Spectrum archives, all with extremely similar loaders with their titles in yellow centred on a black screen and a custom font added, that I think may be later artificial creations.