V1.1 of Dragon Gold Cave now released.
dragon11.zip can be downloaded from the link in the YouTube walkthrough description.
---
versions.txt
Dragon Gold Cave version history
v1.1 - 03 March 2026
Source code converted to assemble with the modern "SB-Assembler 3" from
https://www.sbprojects.net/sbasm/ .
Code completely refactored around a new set of more efficient and powerful
pointer routines, backported from later game "Treasures of the Gnomefolk".
"FIND_WORD:" parser routine re-written predominately around register rather
than pointer access, speeding the game up somewhat.
"Boulder bug" fixed - On the marshlands, "EXAMINE NORTH" or "X N" no longer
examines the boulder. This was due to a stray token in the boulder object.
"Pixie village UP exits" bug fixed. Erroneous "UP" exits from five locations
in and around the Pixie Village, leading to "Bottom of small pit" have been
deleted. This was due to a "copy and paste" error on creating those room
records.
v1.0 - 25 July 2025
Initial version released:-
Assembled with AS8 assembler by T.E.Jones.
Well remembered both, and please forgive the long post.
Sadly, it's not that particular Dingly Dell, which I can at least partly blame on memory limitations.
There are a few caveats on playing this game on such an (emulated) antiquated system and it does lack some niceties one might take for granted from the later 80s home computer boom.
12K RAM was available on this system (fully loaded) and programming the venerable 8008 makes any Z80-based system seem like a supercomputer by comparison. There were just 17 spare bytes remaining in the original 1.0 version of the game.
With just one addressing mode, it's a bit of a juggle just to read/write a byte from RAM, and you need more instructions (i.e. use more memory) just to accomplish things that could be done much
more efficiently on the later microprocessors.
Apart from being no PUSH/POP and the limitations of an internal hardware 7-level stack, I also noticed there is no indirect jump instruction on the 8008. Even the 4004 has that.
So that necessitated self-modifying code as a workaround, to implement the dispatcher for the game's bytecode interpreter.
Still, I think the design of the 8008, (from the original Datapoint 2200 design) is an absolute marvel, certainly legendary and obvious its legacy has carried forward to the present day.
Although I believe the Micral N did have a floppy disk option, I did not have access to any known disk operating system or what we would know nowadays as drivers. Therefore no load/save option available in this game.
I had to modify the emulator just to get it to support flashing an image into RAM (just like the Sol-20 emulator), as the original did not support this, also the emulator in its original form requires recompilation in order to change the loaded image (i.e. game), so I added the command-line option to specify this.
Also, there seems to be something hard-coded into the emulator's input routines making it completely ignore any blank lines. So if you are (like me) prone to sometimes just pressing "ENTER/RETURN" while thinking, while playing text adventures, then the game may seem like it has hung. In fact all you need to do is enter any character such as a letter, number or space bar etc... then press <ENTER>, and the input will be processed.
That's why the intro section shows the unusual request of pressing "C" and "RETURN" to continue.
In every other way, I have to say the Micral N emulator is excellent and I am glad that one does exist.
Also, there are no directions to "obvious exits" printed on the screen in this game, it is down to the player to discover them, which I know would not suit all players.
Still, it was highly enjoyable to create a small if somewhat whimsical, (I might say almost a pastiche) of a simple fantasy world inside this old computer, which to my knowledge has never had any text adventure running on it previously. Not too surprising since it was initially intended for taking scientific measurements.
In any case, have fun (or otherwise). :)
V1.1 of Dragon Gold Cave now released.
dragon11.zip can be downloaded from the link in the YouTube walkthrough description.
---
versions.txt
Dragon Gold Cave version history
v1.1 - 03 March 2026
Source code converted to assemble with the modern "SB-Assembler 3" from
https://www.sbprojects.net/sbasm/ .
Code completely refactored around a new set of more efficient and powerful
pointer routines, backported from later game "Treasures of the Gnomefolk".
"FIND_WORD:" parser routine re-written predominately around register rather
than pointer access, speeding the game up somewhat.
"Boulder bug" fixed - On the marshlands, "EXAMINE NORTH" or "X N" no longer
examines the boulder. This was due to a stray token in the boulder object.
"Pixie village UP exits" bug fixed. Erroneous "UP" exits from five locations
in and around the Pixie Village, leading to "Bottom of small pit" have been
deleted. This was due to a "copy and paste" error on creating those room
records.
v1.0 - 25 July 2025
Initial version released:-
Assembled with AS8 assembler by T.E.Jones.
Fascinating stuff. I hope to have s look at the emulator when I get home next week.
[From reading the screenshot.] Good old Dingly Dell. We don't meet Rumpletweezer running the Dinky Tinky shop down there do we?
You can't beat a bit of Python....a classic Eric Idle sketch. I am old enough to remember Jackanory on BBC1.
Well remembered both, and please forgive the long post.
Sadly, it's not that particular Dingly Dell, which I can at least partly blame on memory limitations.
There are a few caveats on playing this game on such an (emulated) antiquated system and it does lack some niceties one might take for granted from the later 80s home computer boom.
12K RAM was available on this system (fully loaded) and programming the venerable 8008 makes any Z80-based system seem like a supercomputer by comparison. There were just 17 spare bytes remaining in the original 1.0 version of the game.
With just one addressing mode, it's a bit of a juggle just to read/write a byte from RAM, and you need more instructions (i.e. use more memory) just to accomplish things that could be done much
more efficiently on the later microprocessors.
Apart from being no PUSH/POP and the limitations of an internal hardware 7-level stack, I also noticed there is no indirect jump instruction on the 8008. Even the 4004 has that.
So that necessitated self-modifying code as a workaround, to implement the dispatcher for the game's bytecode interpreter.
Still, I think the design of the 8008, (from the original Datapoint 2200 design) is an absolute marvel, certainly legendary and obvious its legacy has carried forward to the present day.
Although I believe the Micral N did have a floppy disk option, I did not have access to any known disk operating system or what we would know nowadays as drivers. Therefore no load/save option available in this game.
I had to modify the emulator just to get it to support flashing an image into RAM (just like the Sol-20 emulator), as the original did not support this, also the emulator in its original form requires recompilation in order to change the loaded image (i.e. game), so I added the command-line option to specify this.
Also, there seems to be something hard-coded into the emulator's input routines making it completely ignore any blank lines. So if you are (like me) prone to sometimes just pressing "ENTER/RETURN" while thinking, while playing text adventures, then the game may seem like it has hung. In fact all you need to do is enter any character such as a letter, number or space bar etc... then press <ENTER>, and the input will be processed.
That's why the intro section shows the unusual request of pressing "C" and "RETURN" to continue.
In every other way, I have to say the Micral N emulator is excellent and I am glad that one does exist.
Also, there are no directions to "obvious exits" printed on the screen in this game, it is down to the player to discover them, which I know would not suit all players.
Still, it was highly enjoyable to create a small if somewhat whimsical, (I might say almost a pastiche) of a simple fantasy world inside this old computer, which to my knowledge has never had any text adventure running on it previously. Not too surprising since it was initially intended for taking scientific measurements.
In any case, have fun (or otherwise). :)
Interesting. I shall have a fumble tomorrow provided I make it back from my brother's planned expedition to cross a bridge between the two peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
That sounds a bit more exciting than what I am doing. I hope all goes well.