Page 1 of 2

Black Island Adventure (rarity!)

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 10:30 am
by Gunness
Hi folks,
I'm stuck in B.I.A. which runs on the Jupiter Ace, and I have a hunch that nobody has heard of either of these :lol: But I hope that some of you will be willing to join me, anyway.

The Jupiter Ace was a rather odd British computer in that it used FORTH instead of BASIC. Consequently very few games were made for it, and they were all rather primitive. B.I.A. was the only adventure released for the Jupiter, and it’s not the best out there, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to solve it. Alas, I'm stuck in part 2 out of 4.

If you feel like helping, get a Windows emulator here.
Unzip and run it.
Press F6 and select Others -> Jupiter Ace

Go to this page and download the TAP file.

Extract BIA_1to4_parts.TAP from the zip archive.

use File -> open tape to open it.

then type
load black island
to run the game

If you need help to get up and running, let me know.
Hope to hear from some of you soon :thumb:

Re: Black Island Adventure (rarity!)

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:59 pm
by Alastair
Gunness wrote:Hi folks,
I'm stuck in B.I.A. which runs on the Jupiter Ace, and I have a hunch that nobody has heard of either of these :lol:
Half right, I've heard of the computer but not the game.

From looking at the partial solution in the archive I take it you want help from part 2 onwards? Give me a day or two to catch up, unlike some on this forum I cannot finish an adventure before the download even starts :D

Re: Black Island Adventure (rarity!)

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 9:16 pm
by Gunness
Alastair wrote:Give me a day or two to catch up, unlike some on this forum I cannot finish an adventure before the download even starts :D
:lol: :lol:
That's the kind of impression I like to give!

Anyway, as should be apparent from the map, I have made some headway into part 2, though no earth-shattering breakthroughs have been accomplished. Who knows, I might have missed something in part one.

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:42 pm
by Alastair
I can now offer a little help with part 2.

If you go east of the location on the map (1) marked "Open Sea" you will find yourself in an area of sea with no wind. BLOW WHISTLE then explore, you should find a means to stop the lupins from wilting. What to do with the lupins, the cork tree, and various other items I yet have no idea.

(1) Though I am still mapping out the area, I think the arrow returning back to "Open sea, falling water" is an error, there are about five or six such locations running north as there are also "Open sea, roar of breakers" locations.

Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:41 am
by terri
Gee - two great minds working on one puzzle - you don't need me. I am the slog-and-try-again type.

Let me know how you make out. At this point I am not ready to do another emulator. Can't even remember how the ones I have work!

Enjoy, fellow adventurers. Kepp us hposed on how you make out.

Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:29 am
by Gunness
@Alastair: You're right - as it turned out, I had a more complete map of part 2 - however, the mapping is fairly complex, and at times I wonder whether the sea locations really are that numerous or if there is just some random text added into them. I have uploaded the correct map (you may have to refresh your browser to see the new map)

Like you, I have no idea as what to do with the lupins, sirens or really much else.

@Terri, please join in - we need your help!

Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:34 am
by Gunness
Well, I'm heading off to Sweden for the weekend. I expect nothing less than massive progress once I return :)
Or maybe I'll settle for any kind of progress!

Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:03 pm
by Alastair
Thanks for the new map as I hadn't found the sirens.

There are two more things I've discovered. First is a really horrible pun that I wouldn't have discovered if I hadn't opened the game in Wordpad in the search for verbs, and even then it took a few minutes for me to twig it (no pun intended from me, as it concerns a tree). To obtain some cork, find the cork tree and type
DISEMBARK
(highlight to see the clue, and you really do as it's that bad).

Second, if you go east of "Off north coast of (brown) island" you will find yourself in life-threatening stormy waters
BREAK SPHERE
Heading north or north-east takes you to one of the locations off the coast of Black Island, but as this isn't the only way to reach those locations I guess this action achieves something else, perhaps the parrot is giving a clue.

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:26 am
by terri
Jacob, you really, really want me to play this game? Alastair runs circles around me, not that I mind, mind you. He is just so much better.

I will consider it, taking into mind that one more emulator is just one more thing I need to remember how to do.

Hope you enjoyed Sweden.

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 10:36 pm
by Alastair
I've made it to part 3, the strange thing is that neither the sphere nor the cork seem to matter, perhaps they are red herrings. Or in the case of the sphere, maybe you aren't supposed to be able to move directly from "Off north coast of (brown) island" to "Off coast of black island" but a bug allows this.

So how to finish this part? From "Cruel rocky coast, Sirens" go (usual highlight trick)
S then
LAUNCH LIFEBOAT
EMBARK
E
keep going E until you reach the end then keep going W until the game instructs you to load the next part
As the end part as given above is a little anticlimatic it could be that more is required, possibly with the aid of the cork. As it is I've reached part 3 with the lupins as the only thing in my inventory, I'll now wait until you catch up, let's see if you can reach part 3 with anything more than just lupins...

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:34 pm
by Gunness
See, it just helps a lot to go away for a few days, and voila, your problems are solved :D
Now I recall where I got stuck last time around. I had found the lifeboat but hadn't thought of the EMBARK command, so I was simply stuck in that bloody boat. Thanks a lot for clearing things up. Furthermore I never managed to collect the bark and I would never have thought of that command in a million years.

It does seem like an odd ending for part two, and that shaft at the far eastern end of Black Island is really begging to be utilized somehow, isn't it? I'll explore further.

For the time being, I've toyed around with part 3 a bit. I've tried to map the initial area, but it is tricky since I (currently), like you, only have the lupins. I've found the sword and tried following the vole around, but it seems to walk back and forth a lot so I'm not sure what the use is.

Anyway, I'll investigate more tomorrow. But I'm certainly glad to have you "aboard"!

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:55 pm
by Alastair
Gunness wrote:For the time being, I've toyed around with part 3 a bit. I've tried to map the initial area, but it is tricky since I (currently), like you, only have the lupins. I've found the sword and tried following the vole around, but it seems to walk back and forth a lot so I'm not sure what the use is.
Vole? I haven't found one of them, but I have found a 'tove' and followed it about, not that it seems to help.

Anyway, I've managed to map the maze, it's a pain as you cannot use any of the swords to help with the mapping, but at least there are no sudden death locations - unlike part 2 - though you do have to watch out for the Jabberwock. I've also obtained the vorpal sword, once you have that the Jabberwock runs away from you.

Now, having refreshed myself with "The Jabberwocky" (see links below) I have an idea as to what to do next.

http://varatek.com/scott/jaberwocky.html
http://varatek.com/scott/jaber_defs.html

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:15 pm
by Alastair
Finished!
In part 3 the main puzzle is mapping out the maze, it is then a question of guessing the right verbs for the sword and the t?mt?ms.
Part 4 has many occurrences of sudden death, so save often.

I also played it again from part 2 onwards but without collecting the cork or taking the route that requires breaking the sphere. It seems that one or the other, probably the cork, is required if the lifeboat is to reappear - not that this stops you from completing the game: another bug to go with the likely one mentioned above?

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:30 pm
by Gunness
Congratulations on finishing this! Obviously your adventuring skills are more developed than mine.
Re: the vole, I was fairly tired when I wrote it, so I mixed up "vole" and "tove". Besides, I'm not all that familiar with The Jabberwocky, so perhaps some of the finer details are lost on me (it certainly doesn't seem to have a lot to do with parts 1 and 2, though).

So far I have mapped 16 locations in the maze - I think I have explored all the rooms so far very carefully. I have found the tomtom and the tamtam, along with the virpal, verpal and vurpal swords. But no sight of the vorpal sword. Is there any point to the tove?
And does this passage from the poem have any significance?:
"So rested he by the Tumtum tree"
The game doesn't recognize "wait" or "rest".

A gentle nudge, if you please!

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:03 pm
by terri
See? See? I told you so :lol: You should listen to this old lady. Three kinds of swords that start with "v"???

Now, if either of you are wanting to tackle Fredreick's game suggestion of Cottage, I am stuck there...