The Eyeball Mural

I thought that's what you meant... the quotient will be either zero or non-zero, correct? If zero, then stop; if non-zero, then repeat previous. Right?

Very interesting, thanks for the insight! I understand the scoring logic as you explain it. As for why Tarmin doesn't include the sixth digit in the score counter, if I had to select one of your three guesses (and I'm obviously just speculating) I suppose the space consideration might be most likely, given that Tarmin seems to be a rather complex execution. Again, that's just my naive assumption: the code and programming techniques for Tarmin might be simple as heck and I just don't know any better.

"Sweet!" (Get it?) Seriously though, nice find.

That is awesome, thanks for sharing that! Maybe it is just the way the Intellivision handles rollovers, or maybe it was a standard procedure for the programmers. That makes two games that display this behavior. There must be others...

Just dropping in for a *bump* and some public encouragement for the folks at Atari to get behind this project, and continued best wishes for all those involved in making it happen.

It goes down to level 256, then resets to level 1 and counts "down" to 256 again. Then repeats...the process goes on forever. I'm posting notes on a potential strategy guide in this thread if anyone is interested: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/223326-ad-d-treasure-of-tarmin-gameplay/

I haven't found any posts about rolling over or flipping the treasure score counter in "AD&D Treasure of Tarmin" (although I could have missed something in my search) so please forgive me if what I relate here has already been discussed. In 1986 I began a marathon session of "Treasure of Tarmin" on my Intellivision II and played the game over the course of several days. To "save" my game I would simply leave the console powered on with the game in progress, press "1+9" on the controller keypad to pause the game and blank the screen, then place the console on a shelf behind some books to protect against housecat-induced accidental resets. I'm sure many readers have done something similar. My goal in playing this lengthy session was to roll the treasure score. I played the easiest difficulty level, and after I had acquired the armor and goodies needed I began speedrunning the dungeon levels, harvesting treasures and doing as little else as possible, all to build the score and roll the counter. Lots of "whoosh whoosh whoosh" with the teleport book, as some say. After rolling the score at 100,000 I was intrigued to see that instead of resetting the counter to zero or adding another digit the Intellivision replaces the first digit of the treasure score (the ten-thousands place) with "ciphers," beginning with punctuation characters. I had earned over 150,000 points when my console was innocently and accidentally reset by a visitor when I was out of the house one day. I never made another attempt, nor tried to discover the extent of (and logic behind) the character substitutions... until now. Playing on the Nostalgia emulator, with its wonderful save game feature, I've begun probing the depths of the Tarmin dungeon and documenting the treasure score anomalies. Here is what I've learned, plus some basic exposition for those who don't quite know what I'm talking about: On the castle map screen there appears a treasure score counter. It occupies a six-digit space on the right of the screen, just above the player's attribute scores (this treasure score aligns with the six-digit attribute scores directly beneath it). The counter is blank when no treasure has been collected; that is, no digits are entered on the counter. When digits appear they are black in color, against the tan background of the island silhouette. Since there are no treasures in the game with values in single digits, the minimum number of digits in the treasure score is two. The ones place is scored in the fifth digit in the counter (this number is always zero), with the tens place scored to the left of that in the fourth digit; the hundreds place is scored in the third digit, and the thousands place in the second digit, natch. The ten thousands place is scored in the first digit. The sixth digit (to the right of the ones place) remains empty (blank). This means a nominal maximum treasure score of 99,990. When this score is exceeded, the last four digits of the counter roll over and continue to count upwards, but the first digit changes to a non-numeric character. To wit: 100000 reads as :0000 110000 reads as ;0000 120000 reads as <0000 130000 reads as =0000 140000 reads as >0000 150000 reads as ?0000 160000 reads as @0000 170000 reads as A0000 180000 reads as B0000 Here are some screenshots showing the rollover, plus a graphic of all the scores as they are displayed. This is as far as I have explored as of this posting, with the game still in progress. At first I thought the ciphers were more-or-less random, but upon the abrupt veering from punctuation to capital alpha characters (which seemed to proceed in alphabetical order) I thought there must be a pattern I didn't understand. I began investigating the available knowledge about the Intellivision character set, but all this seemed to do was enlighten me on what choices the system has in selecting ciphers, and not much insight into how the ciphers might be chosen, until I found the Intellivision Wiki article on the Graphics ROM (GROM). This article includes a table that shows the Intellivision character set ordered in the sequence that the GROM deals with them. The table makes it easy to see that the treasure score counter is first cycling up through numerical characters in proper order, then at rollover it begins substituting non-numerical characters in order according to the GROM's library. This realization takes a bit of the fun out of the discovery process henceforth, since the table effectively maps out the future ciphers, but it doesn't tell me everything I'd like to know. I still have these questions: Q. Why use only five digits (or cards) in the score counter when the other counters below are using six digits / cards? Q. Why leave the sixth digit blank, and not the first? Q. Why implement ciphers instead of just rolling back to zero for the ten-thousands place? Q. What happens when all the characters have been cycled through? Does the process repeat? Do garbage tiles appear? Does the score freeze? Q. Is this behavior a glitch, an intentional routine, the result of a limitation, or what, exactly? Is it "correctable?" This is one of those little in-game quirks that many may find unremarkable but which I (and maybe others) find interesting. I suppose any of the skilled programmers or analysts in this community could quickly understand at a glance what the game and the console are doing when these counter substitutions are made, but to me the inner workings of the hardware and the software are a bit exotic and mysterious, and for that reason interesting to me. Understanding simple matters like this makes for a bit of a detective job for the noob I am. I assume that disassembling or decompiling (which is correct?) the code, coupled with some patient analysis, could explain this behavior easily, but I haven't found the application(s) I need to view the code. Is this due to the Blue Sky Rangers putting the chill on access to their IP? (Which is their right, of course.) At any rate, if anyone can answer these questions, or simply gets a kick out of this stuff like I do, I'm all ears. Maybe these are more questions for Tom Loughry (hint: nurmix, are you there?)

Additional notes on the mazes, discussing how deep the player can explore and what happens when the player "runs out" of dungeon... the info here is verified with recent gameplay: THE DUNGEON MAZES The total number of maze levels is 256, irrespective of which difficulty setting is selected. After exiting the final maze level displayed on the castle map screen the player descends into the next numbered level, but this and further levels do not appear on the map. These subsequent levels are populated with additional minotaurs, often several per maze level, offering the player numerous chances to acquire the Treasure of Tarmin and win the scenario. Game difficulty increases as the the player descends, with monsters gaining strength and bombs becoming more dangerous. Treasure values increase as well, and the mazes are stocked with more powerful items. After exiting level 256, the player enters a new level 1, and the level numbers begin to count to 256 once more. This new level 1 is not the original level 1 that the game began with; it is a newly generated level, freshly stocked and populated. Any layout and aspect similarities to the original level 1 are coincidental. The game difficulty resets and then increases as the player descends deeper still, in the same manner as the first descent. This process may continue indefinitely, and the player can explore as many levels as desired, with the option to win the game present each time a minotaur is spawned during level generation. If the player eschews claiming the Tarmin Treasure then one can continue to acquire treasure without any known limit.

Here are my notes thus far on the dungeon mazes. One thing I haven't addressed is the layout of the maze tiles. The 3D renders I linked to previously seem accurate at first glance but one issue I have with them is that none of them depict open entrances into the maze, instead showing only doors and hidden doors. In actuality many mazes have entrances in the form of open hallways. More to follow on that matter... for now, here are the facts I feel confident in, which examine how the mazes are portrayed on the castle map screen, maze layout basics, maze navigation basics, and the natures of gates and ladder exits: THE DUNGEON MAZES The dungeon lies beneath the inaccessible castle on the island, and comprises multiple mazes. Each maze is paired with another maze of the same map color, one atop the other. Several maze pairs may be found adjacent to one another along a tier. These tiers are aligned horizontally across the map and stacked or nested vertically. The mazes are connected vertically via down ladders (upward travel is not available), which serve as level exits. Mazes do not directly communicate with other mazes horizontally. Instead, magical gates provide transit between mazes along a given level. The dungeon is from one to six mazes wide from east to west, but only one maze wide from north to south. The uppermost tier, or tier one, may contain up to six maze pairs; tier two up to five maze pairs; tier three up to four maze pairs; tier four up to three maze pairs; tier five up to two maze pairs; and the lowermost tier, tier six, contains one maze pair. On the easiest difficulty setting (game select 3), the dungeon is one tier / two levels deep. On the easy difficulty setting (game select 2), the dungeon is two tiers / four levels deep. On the medium difficulty setting (game select 1), the dungeon is four tiers / eight levels deep. On the hard difficulty setting (game select disc), the dungeon is six tiers / twelve levels deep. Each maze is a 12 x 12 grid in total, made up of four 6 x 6 tiles in combination. This means that there are 144 discrete grid squares per dungeon maze. Each and every grid square is accessible to the player. There are no "solid" or "filled" grid squares, and no grid squares which do not permit access via hallway, door, or hidden door. Every maze is generated by randomly selecting and combining four 6 x 6 tiles. The tiles are selected from a tile library populated by an unknown number of specimens. This system provides for pattern recognition and memorization while allowing a great amount of variability and unpredictability. Such a system limits the utility of map-making but gives a player the opportunity to navigate the maze based on familiarity with tile layouts while retaining elements of surprise and confusion with the overall maze configuration. Each maze features an unobstructed hallway running along the perimeter of the maze. This perimeter is nominally empty save for the eyeball murals, eye-shaped sprites that mark the entrances which lead into the maze's interior. There are eight eyeball murals per maze, two on each side of the perimeter. Eyeball murals are found in the outer perimeter hallway only, and are always located four grid squares from a maze corner. Each eyeball mural is placed directly opposite another one on the far side of the maze. After entering the maze interior, if the player is able to walk straight across the maze without changing direction, the player will arrive on the opposite side of the maze, re-emerging into the perimeter hallway at the site of another eyeball mural. These imaginary lines between eyeball murals, or meridians, form a hash across the total maze grid, two lines running north to south, and two lines running east to west. A maze will have one or two ladder exits which lead down to the next maze. Ladder exits are always aligned to the maze meridians designated by the eyeball murals. In other words, ladders are always found along paths leading directly across the maze from one eyeball mural to another. Ladder exits are only found along north-south meridians, and not along east-west meridians, except when they coincidentally lie at an intersection of meridians. So, if the player is having difficulty locating a ladder exit, the player can start in the perimeter hallway, enter the maze interior at the site of an eyeball mural on either the north side or the south side of the maze, and move directly across the maze until the ladder exit is encountered. For mazes with two ladders, any eyeball mural on the north or south sides will lead to an exit. For mazes with only one ladder, consulting the castle map screen will allow the player to align with the correct meridian in order to find the way down to the next level. Gates are only found in the east and west perimeter hallways, in a grid square adjacent to a centerline leading across the maze (in other words, in a grid square that sits on a tile border). Gates are not found in the north and south hallways. Since the dungeon depicts multiple mazes east to west across the island, but only a single maze north to south, there would be no destinations for gate transit in northerly and southerly directions. Also, gates will not be found to allow transit back to an adjacent maze which was gated out of. Gates will be found on the sides of mazes leading to unexplored adjacent mazes only. Furthermore, if space separates adjacent mazes, then gate travel between the two mazes is not offered. Only immediately adjacent mazes communicate via gates. Each maze level is color-keyed on the castle map display to indicate its nature or aspect: green for war, blue for spiritual, and tan for mixed. The colors of the eyeball murals in each maze level correspond to that maze's map color, and therefore also indicate the nature or aspect of the maze. These colors hint at what sorts of monsters and attacks the player can expect to encounter in a given maze, as well as what items and weapons are to be found lying about. Note that the colors (natures) of gates, and the colors (natures) of the mazes the gates depart from and lead to, do not neccessarily correspond. Also note that the tan color used for mazes on the map screen does not match the tan color used for items within the maze, but this discrepancy does not affect gameplay in any way.

I've been casually working on a guide to Treasure of Tarmin for a long time, and lately I've been getting my notes organized and putting more effort into the idea. If the community will forgive me for acting as if this thread is my own personal soapbox I'd like to post some of my notes and crowdsource a little criticism and fact-checking from anyone who might be interested. I don't want to flood so I'll space my posts a bit. I'll note in my posts whether I am confident in my facts, whether I am speculating, and whether I am posing questions which maybe someone else can answer but which I haven't been able to. I'll start with the map in the game. The following words I believe to be accurate and factual, but if anyone disputes or questions anything please speak up! THE MAP The map is termed The Castle Map in the game instruction manual, although the map data most relevant pertains to the dungeon, not the castle itself. The map displays a south elevation view of the Tarmin game environment, incorporating an exterior view of the castle proper, and a cutaway view of the subterranean dungeon. The castle and dungeon are situated on the Island of Tarmin, which is bounded by an unknown body of water. When viewing the map, the player looks north, regardless of the direction indicated by the compass (which is relevant to gameplay but not map viewing). East is to the right of the screen, west is to the left, and south is behind the viewer. The crescent moon hangs in the eastern sky, and the south side of the castle faces the viewer. The player is denoted by a blinking cursor, which the manual calls The Flashing White Dot. When the player moves northerly or southerly through the maze the player's blinking cursor will seem stationary on the map, and when the player moves easterly or westerly through the maze the cursor will be seen to change position in the appropriate direction. The map scene depicts a black sky, with a crescent moon shining among eleven points of celestial light. This night sky persists as long as the game is in progress. If the player dies, the player cursor is replaced by a tombstone, and night carries on. If the player defeats the minotaur and gains the Treasure of Tarmin then the golden glow of the coming dawn vanquishes the moon and stars along with the darkness.

I do what I can Anything to promote Tarmin to its rightful place in history.

When I was a young Atarian in the early and mid 1980's my friends and I really enjoyed glitching Atari 2600 games by flipping the power toggle rapidly until the desired result appeared on the TV. Many glitches induced like that are playable, with deformed sprites and deranged playfields. Plus glitch screens are fun to look at!

Here are some blog posts about Tarmin that explain some advanced gameplay tactics and strategies, among other things. I'm not sure who the blogger is. http://avanteideas.com/just4fun/category/intellivision/

I loved this game in the middle 1980's, and played it a bunch. I found it intuitive and the gameplay came easy for me. The wonky driving seemed like typical Intellivision stuff and I just worked around it. I always wished the player could explore more of the city's buildings. This was one of those games that pushed the envelope but still left me wanting even more: more items, more mission objectives, more map, etc. But, being an Imagic title it delivered. In those days, my gaming buddies and I never hesitated to put money down for Imagic games for Atari or Intellivision. The games were almost always a cut above and the packaging was something to behold when new. Unboxing Imagic stuff is something we talk about to this day! I enjoyed comparing Safecracker to Activision's Private Eye, and would sometimes alternate playing the two in a single session, conflating the two in my mind and imagining it was all part of a larger espionage game. I've played Safecracker recently and I enjoy it as much now as I did three decades ago. I also recently re-read the EG review of the game from 1984, which was positive. I've attached a clipping if anyone is interested.

*bumpworthy*

Oh, not at all! I just like to do my little bit to keep the flag flying high on this project. I'm happy knowing that the wheels are still turning. This stuff needs to see the light of day.

Moved on to Seaweed Assault on Stella, and Mr. Robot on Steam.

I really like Seaweed Assault. Lots of work, love and attention to detail were put into that, it seems. I'm hoping to buy the boxed cart from the store before they're all gone.

I like it!

Some very nice artworks made from old cartridges, seen on deviantART. I searched but didn't find these in the forums. Did I miss them? Perhaps the creator of these is a member here? Click through to embiggen: http://fav.me/d7k9qgb http://fav.me/d7k9mwx http://redekerplan.deviantart.com/

Atari-Derived Verse Expressing a Noble Tale Using Rhyming English (or: A Sexpartite Haiku Micro-Epic with Easter Eggs) move and poke about access found but maybe not proximal or right keep your faith devout each grate opens on the spot yellow, black and white blind erratic route abject greed and fiendish plot takes without a fight disbelief gives out on you go with tiny dot touch the name in light captured roundabout unlike other prey you've caught pulsing colors bright echoes climb and shout now you boast of battles fought daring, humble sprite