8bitAG.com/info

Games for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, Amiga, Apple ][ and the rest of the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. Pleas for help, puzzles, bug reports etc.

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Strident
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8bitAG.com/info

#1 Post by Strident » Wed Nov 07, 2018 2:03 pm

As I haven't posted about most of this stuff on here, I thought I'd give it a quick mention.

As well as having pages about my own games & my homegrown adventure games book, my website also has a small collection of other stuff on it. I'm gradually adding more, with plenty of archive information & reference material to come, but for now...

http://8bitag.com/info/

includes...

An archive of magazine adverts related to the Spectrum/Amstrad/C64/PC publisher, The Adventure Workshop... which aims to highlight how many titles are "lost" or MIA.

An interview with Zodiac Software's Andrew Lowe.

Mark Cantrell's excellent (unpublished) PAWs programming booklet 'Process One', from back in the day.

Some guides for using inPAWs to create PAWs adventures for Speccy & Amstrad.

Like I said, there's more to come at some point. They've all been individual links previously, so I'm just adding them to a combined page.

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#2 Post by Gunness » Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:57 am

Thanks - excellent info! I've nicked the Andy Lowe interview - or at least added a link to his profile. Very entertaining read :thumb:

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#3 Post by pippa » Thu Jan 10, 2019 4:12 pm

Hi. There seems to be a bug in the Play Online QAOP version of Trolley Mania. After opening the grate with the rod, I can't search the drain for the keys. It works fine on the .z80 snapshot version, but not the online one.
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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#4 Post by Strident » Fri Jan 11, 2019 12:17 pm

The version on the site has had some additional responses coded in, to make it a little easier in that section... as that's where most people were getting stuck.

The original version, which is the one on Spectrum Computing, iirc... requires you to FEEL (IN) WATER (it probably accepts a few other things but I can't remember what they were).

Not a bug. But a tweak to accept a wider range of responses. :)

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#5 Post by Strident » Fri Jan 11, 2019 12:22 pm

Actually, I'm wrong about that... looking at the code... FEEL is a synonym for SEARCH...

Hmmm...

SEARCH WATER: AT 13 NOTZERO 66 ZERO 69 MESSAGE 45 ANYKEY MESSAGE 46 ANYKEY CREATE 7 SET 69 DESC DONE;
SEARCH DRAIN: AT 13 NOTZERO 66 ZERO 69 MESSAGE 45 ANYKEY MESSAGE 46 ANYKEY CREATE 7 SET 69 DESC DONE;
SEARCH WATER: AT 13 NOTZERO 69 SYSMESS 65 DONE;
SEARCH DRAIN: AT 13 NOTZERO 69 SYSMESS 65 DONE;

I can't see why that response isn't working. And definitely why it's not working in the v1 but it's working in the v1.2... Will need to investigate further. :)

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#6 Post by Strident » Fri Jan 11, 2019 12:52 pm

Hmm... I'm not sure what's happening as I can't replicate the bug...

This is me, going straight for the bar and then doing the drain stuff... works fine...

Image

Image

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#7 Post by Strident » Fri Jan 11, 2019 12:55 pm

Versions 1.2 and 1.0 don't really differ too much, version 2 just adds lever drain responses to the lever grate/cover ones...
LEVER GRATE: AT 13 ZERO 66 ABSENT 11 SYSMESS 66 DONE;
LEVER GRATE: AT 13 NOTZERO 66 SYSMESS 64 DONE;
LEVER GRATE: AT 13 ZERO 66 PRESENT 11 MESSAGE 43 SET 66 DONE;
LEVER DRAIN: AT 13 ZERO 66 ABSENT 11 SYSMESS 66 DONE;
LEVER DRAIN: AT 13 NOTZERO 66 SYSMESS 64 DONE;
LEVER DRAIN: AT 13 ZERO 66 PRESENT 11 MESSAGE 43 SET 66 DONE;

LEVER GRATE: AT 13 ZERO 66 ABSENT 11 SYSMESS 66 DONE;
LEVER GRATE: AT 13 NOTZERO 66 SYSMESS 64 DONE;
LEVER GRATE: AT 13 ZERO 66 PRESENT 11 MESSAGE 43 SET 66 DONE;

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#8 Post by Strident » Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:00 pm

Oh! I've found it, I think!

I've used flag 69 is another place!

Both versions will be bugged!

(Attempting to correct)

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#9 Post by Strident » Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:35 pm

I've uploaded a revised version 1.3 up to http://8bitag.com/games/trolleymania.html of the Spectrum version. I'm just building a new Amstrad version now.

The "play online" version won't be updated until/unless Spectrum Computing update their version of the files. I will send them the new ones.

Basically, the trolley counting routine (when there was more than one trolley in the location) used the same flag as the one set when you'd retrieved the keys... You'd only see this bug on a couple of occasions which is why I hadn't noticed it sooner... although the grate/drain had been an issue for one or two people... I hadn't realised why.

Thanks for spotting that bug! I can't believe I managed to use the same flag twice... particularly as I was being very careful to actually document the use of the flags in the game code!

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#10 Post by pippa » Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:04 pm

Thanks.
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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#11 Post by auraes » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:36 pm

Hello,
I don't know if it's the right place for that, but on some of your games, like Deer Creek, we don't have time to see the title picture; there's no waiting for a key to be pressed. I've noticed this on many other PAW games, is it coming from the emulator?

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#12 Post by Strident » Wed Apr 22, 2020 7:14 am

Yes, it's your emulator. It's not a title picture... it's a loading screen. If you've got fast loading turned on then you won't have time to see the loading screen. :)

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#13 Post by auraes » Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:59 am

Okay, that explains it. Thank you.
PAWs is really a great tool, and I can easily display a font with accented characters (and I like that!)

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#14 Post by Strident » Mon May 25, 2020 4:04 pm

Some recent additions to the INFO page include...

Information about some of the UK homegrown text adventure companies of the late 1980s and the 1990s...
http://8bitag.com/info/homegrown-advent ... anies.html

Collections of early Artic and Level 9 advertising...
http://8bitag.com/info/artic.html
http://8bitag.com/info/level-9.html

Other things that are new since my original post...

An interview with Gary Power, of Pelagon Software...
http://8bitag.com/info/pelagon.html

A profile on Tom Frost/Tartan Software...
http://8bitag.com/info/tartan.html

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Re: 8bitAG.com/info

#15 Post by auraes » Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:36 pm

May I suggest you to use a high-performance compressor for your png picture files? A gain of more than 60% appears on some pictures.
https://compresspng.com/

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