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Re: Catacombs

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 10:23 am
by Strident
Uka wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 9:28 am But this topic used to be named "Catacombs/Cornucopia"?
It did. I've changed it. It'd be less confusing to have a separate thread for Cornucopia; this one is already a bit of a mammoth read. :)

I'm really impressed with how much of Catacombs has been solved. If the original PET game was as interesting as the remake then it's even more of a shame that it has been lost, and largely forgotten for so long.

Re: Catacombs/Cornucopia

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 10:39 am
by Alex
Uka wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:56 am so if we can't even solve the fourth one, is it worth to try out the fifth? :)
Sure, why not. Let's crack it :lol: For now I'm playing another game but soon I'll will have some time.

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 11:41 am
by Alex
Apart from the few problems that remain unsolved. Catacombs wasn't that hard and was actually quite fun to play. It reminded me of playing Horror Hotel (PC) also a long and complex, but solvable game.

If you really want to play a hard game you should try Demoniak (Amiga/Atari/PC) or The Galleon (c64).

Re: Catacombs/Cornucopia

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 2:16 pm
by Strident
Uka wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:56 am Although I've heard that in 1991 Supersoft has re-published at least "Witch Hunt" with bugs cleaned and digitized sounds added - but that could be just a press-review version that was not released commercially.
Yeah, that's an odd one.

Sue Medley was reviewing the whole Classic Quests series, first in Syntax and then later in Red Herring, having paid over £20 for each of the games... which was definitely a rip-off in 1991 for what were, at the time, "ancient" adventures. She didn't think much of Goblin Towers and Forestland.

Witch Hunt, reviewed on page 29 of Red Herring issue 2, faired slightly better but the first two "PC" copies Sue had were bugged. It was only with the third copy that things started working. That was the "1991" version with added speech and sound effects.

I think the whole experience must've put her off the series for good as she never went on to cover Cornucopia or Catacombs.

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:53 pm
by Canalboy
Strident wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:23 am
Uka wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:56 am Infocom games did have some clear endings, but that's not the case with all the others. Especially early games created by a single author, like all the five Classic Quests.
No, that isn't quite true. The Brian Cotton games *are* fairly unusual in not having at least some ending text. Canalboy is an expert on the very early mainframe adventures.

It's worth reading Jason Dyer's blog if you want to get an idea what other adventures at the time that Catacombs originally came out, were like: https://bluerenga.blog/all-the-adventures/.

(If people do start playing Cornucopia, it would be worth making a new thread for that.)
O
Slightly off topic but Jason, Russell Karlberg and myself spent many a happy and frustrating week on Warp which I managed to get from Dan Hallock in the States and put up on IFDB. Likewise John Laird's Hauntis worth a look. He is still around on email too.

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:40 am
by Alastair
Alex, taken from your post in the Cornucopia thread.
These verbs are only in Catacombs:
defile
stamp
swim
wake
This would suggest that these verbs are important in Catacombs. Stamp and swim we know about but what of the other two?

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 8:21 am
by Alex
I did make a small error there :oops: . Awake in Cornucopia isn't Awake, but wake. So there are only three verbs unique for Catacombs.

Yes, I had the same idea for the remaining three verbs. I didn't use defile yet.

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:21 am
by Uka
Alastair wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:40 am Stamp and swim we know about but what of the other two?
I am not sure that "defile" is important. Yes, you can defile the altar, but that would only mean getting to hell = death. The good book warns us not to defile the holy altar, so could that be something you have to do? I doubt that. Maybe only a way to call the rider?..

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:28 pm
by Alex
Well could be that the verb only has been added to have another way to die.

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2025 12:49 am
by Strident
Over on Renga in Blue, LanHawk has posted some hex edits that will fix Catacombs and should allow it to be completed:
https://bluerenga.blog/2023/08/13/catac ... ent-102688

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2025 5:15 am
by Uka
Great news, thanks!

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2025 5:08 pm
by Alastair
Interesting, I will have to re-read through this thread to remind me of numerous things before I make any attempt on the game.

That said, if per LanHawk's post you are supposed to use the sword on the web and you cannot coat the sword to protect the sword in some way from the acid, are you instead supposed to first do something to the web to neutralise the acid? Once I get around to re-playing the game I will try a few things out to test this idea before I replace "18" (the sword) with "1C" (and yes, I do know what this is - that's one of the disadvantages of decoding the text).

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2025 10:05 pm
by Alastair
I made the random number change and the dark hooded figure on horseback has turned up, plus the horse has delivered its present! Since I have had no success in getting past the web I will make the second change and see how things develop.

Re: Catacombs

Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2025 10:10 pm
by Alastair
With the second change I have managed to score 250 out of 250, my thanks to LanHawk. However the mystery of the purple sphere remains, having gone to all the trouble in getting the sphere there appears to be no use for the thing. Also the zombie bug remains, the zombie can be dealt with before the bug appears but what if the reason for collecting the sphere is to get the zombie to follow you and have the zombie deal with the web or some other problem? Many questions remain and unless a bug free version appears the answers may remain elusive.