Dog Star Adventure

SoftSide Publications 1979

Aka:: Death Planet, Dog Star 2, StarWars Adventure, Star Wars Adventure, Death Star Adventure, The Dog-Star Mission
Language:: English
Authors:: Lance Micklus
Systems:: BASIC
Platforms:: Apple II, TRS-80 , TRS-80 CoCo
Genres:: Based on film/TV/radio, Science fiction, Type-in
Related:: Captain 80 Book of BASIC Adventures [1: Atlantean Odyssey, 2: Dog Star Adventure, 3: Thunder Road, 4: Deadly Dungeon, 5: Revenge of Balrog, 6: Fortress at Time's End, The, 7: Temple of the Sun, 8: Lost Ship Adventure, 9: Spider Mountain, 10: Lost Dutchman's Gold, 11: Journey to the Center of Earth, 12: King Tut's Tomb, 13: Voyage to Atlantis, 14: House of Seven Gables, 15: Sorcerer's Castle, 16: C.I.A. Adventure, 17: Arctic Adventure, 18: Adventureland]
Entered by:: dave, Garry, Gunness, Juan, RetroBasic, Strident
Added:: 02-12-2010
Edited:: 15-05-2022

Synopsis

Plot

The evil General Doom and his Roche Soldiers are ready to launch an attack against the Forces of Freedom, led by Princess Leya. Enroute to a secret command center on the planet Harris 7, Princess Leya's ship was attacked by Doom. She is now being held prisoner on one of his battle cruisers. It is a sorry day indeed!

The capture holds extra prizes for Doom and his men: onboard Princess Leya's ship is the entire treasury of her Freedom Fighting Force in a chest containing Melidium Crystals, the currency used in this galaxy. The Princess is also wearing a necklace made of shinestones. Encoded in one of the stones is the location and strength of her Freedom Fighting Force. Hopefully, Doom has not yet discovered the secret of the necklace.

Notes

Dog Star Adventure is reputed to be the first text adventure to be published in a magazine: the May 1979 issues of SoftSide.

The game is heavily based on Star Wars. As a result of being the first ever published text adventure listing it has been both officially and unofficially ported many times, to multiple machines, often without crediting the original author.

Several of the more common ports of the game also change the title and insert direct references to Star Wars.

Official releases...

The game was originally published on tape by TRS-80 Software Exchange for the TRS-80 Model 1 Level II. It was first advertised in SoftSide, vol. 1, no. 7, April 1979, p. 2.

It was then published by SoftSide Publications as a BASIC type-in listing for the TRS-80 in SoftSide, vol. 1, no. 8, May 1979, pp. 8–15, 17–23. There is a user-submitted correction (by future adventure author Thomas Hanlin III) in the September 1980 issue. SoftSide later sold the program on disk.

It was next published by SoftSide Publications as a BASIC type-in listing for the Apple II in Appleseed, vol. 1, no. 1, January 1980, pp. 35–?. (The magazine was renamed to SoftSide Apple Edition after the first issue.)

It was "ripped off" as Mighty Mormar by Charlie Bartlett and published by MICRO-80 as a BASIC type-in listing for the TRS-80 in MICRO-80, issue 12, November 1980, pp. 24–29. There were bug-fixes in the December 1980 issue, p.12. Micro-80 also supplied the game on cassette. Mighty Mormar is sometimes listed as Mighty Moramar in archives online.

The original version was next published by 80 Northwest Publishing in 1981 as a BASIC type-in listing for the TRS-80 in The Captain 80 book of BASIC adventures, pp. 87–96.

It was then published by EMAP National Publications as a BASIC type-in listing for the TRS-80 in Computer & Video Games, issue 8, vol. 1, no. 8, June 1982, pp. 58-60, 63.

The original author, Lance Micklus (together with David Librik?) produced new versions for the Color Computer, TRS Model I and Model III in 1981 that were sold and marketed by Adventure International as DEATH PLANET: The Dog Star Adventure (Other Venture #5). These versions of the game have noticeable presentation changes (with a Scott Adams-style screen layout) and also a few map/gameplay tweaks. The CoCo version of this release seems to be missing from the archives.

The (original?) TRS-80 version was republished by Misosys as part of the disk compilation Lance Micklus' Greatest Games; and also included on several similar compilations by other retailers.

Unofficial releases and ports...

The initial version of the game was unofficially ported to the Commodore PET by David Malmberg. This PET version was subsequently widely distributed amongst user groups and ported to other machines.

There are additional variations for C64 under titles such as StarWars Adventure, Darth Vadar Adventure, or Death Star Adventure. Some are derivations from the Apple version and some were produced from David Malmberg's PET port. Steven Darnold and The Compuduck were responsible for some of these releases. They were widely distributed through "public domain" libraries.

The original game was unofficially ported to the TI-99/4A by Barry Traver. Date unknown.

The Mighty Mormar variant of the game is listed for Spectravideo/MSX in the SVI & MSX Australaian User Group library program list.

The David Malmberg PET version was subsequently ported to Amiga BASIC by Don White in 1985.

It has been ported to the Sharp MZ-80A (as Dog Star Adventure aka Dog Star 2). This version is believed to have been created by Greg Chapman and dates from March 1987.

Robert Nelson is credited for the (presumably unofficial) Microsoft BASIC port that Alan Laughton used as the basis for his Microbee version (which he titled The Dog-Star Mission).

TRS-80 Coco & Dragon conversions of this game have been produced by Jim Gerrie.

An unofficial port for Amstrad CPC was produced by SRS in 2020.