hlabrand

Hello again, Digging this thread back up as I am happy to announce that "Tristam Island" will get a physical edition for the TI-99/4A! The gorgeous box is inspired by the design of Infocom's boxed, and in true Infocom tradition, will contain some feelies and goodies on top of the disk. You can pre-order on PolyPlay's website at the following link: https://www.polyplay.xyz/Tristam-Island-TI-99-4A_1 Thank you everyone for your support while making this game!

This thread is getting old but there is no better reason to dig it up than to announce the game is now slated for a physical release this summer!! You can pre-order the Atari ST version here: https://www.polyplay.xyz/Tristam-Island-Atari-ST_1 There are a few goodies in the box along with the disk Polyplay physical releases are always very nice, and this one is no exception, with a gorgeous Infocom-style box! Very happy this is finally happening, and thanks everyone for the support

Hey Bikerbob! I can give you a few pointers for sure! The game was written using the Inform 6 programming language, which is a special-purpose language for text adventures that was created in 1993. There are lots of great resources to learn the language, like "The Inform Beginner's guide", all available for free online. If you'd like to see what the language looks like, here is the source code of a recreation of "Adventure", that you can open with a text editor : https://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/source/inform/Advent.inf I also used the PunyInform set of libraries, which are very optimized in particular for 8bit machines, and has been getting some traction lately. There is a Github repository (https://github.com/johanberntsson/punyinform) and a Discord server where you can ask questions (https://discord.gg/BFgezk7D) Once you have generated the game file, you can play it using JZip fo the ST; see here: https://github.com/hlabrand/jzip-atariST Finally, another option (instead of Inform/PunyInform) is the tool "DAAD". The programming is a bit simpler, maybe not as powerful, and the games aren't usually as big; but you can make graphical adventurs with it Here is for example a game released on the ST by my friend Stefan, created with DAAD : https://8bitgames.itch.io/rabenstein I hope that helps! feel free to start a thread or to send PMs

Hi all! Sorry for updating an old thread, but just wanted to mention that I just published Release 3 of this game. This has minor enhancements and bugfixes and hopefully a speed boost too! And there's a French version now available, for all the francophone ST users lurking out there... I will be back in 2022 with a new game!

A while ago, I came here to ask for help to compile JZIP, an Z-Machine interpreter (for Infocom and Infocom-like files) for the Atari ST. I finally got around to creating a Github repository for it, if anyone is interested : https://github.com/hlabrand/jzip-atariST What's in there is the final release (JZIP 2.1) + some code to support accents, and termcap-related stuff added in. The compiled binary is here : http://ifarchive.org/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/zip/jzipst-2.1.zip This means you can now play French, German, Spanish, etc. interactive fiction in the z3, z5 or z8 format on your ST! There could be some improvements to the code, particularly in terms of speed (see issues), if anyone wants to take a look at it. (I don't have time right now to look at it, but pull requests are welcome.) I hope someone enjoys it!

Just wanted to mention a review of the game for the Atari ST over at AtariCrypt: https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2020/12/tristam-island.html Someone also reported to me that the game was working fine on a MiSTer, if you were wondering i announced recently that I'm unlikely to update the game at this point (it's in good shape, so I'm taking a break!), but be sure to let me know if you have any trouble with the setup - any improvements to my toolchain is useful for future releases

I'm not even sure creating an itch.io account is required ; you might have a download link in your email from when you bought, which should take you to a special page. (I know that when I send out a free key, people don't have to create an account to download.) Maybe since you preordered that email just shows the placeholder text files that were there when it was still preorders? In any case there should be new packages now

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Well, when players discover two sources of infinite points, you have to patch ? But thank you ?

Just published a new package with the .st file + a folder with its contents ! It should be easier to set up now Thanks for letting me know!

@darwinmac I was under the impression that it was good form on the ST that a splash screen exit to desktop instead of launching the program, as it allows the user to, for instance, choose the resolution. (The interpreter supports both low and medium res.) I initially had a GFA Basic script that does both, but not everyone has GFABasic. I think i'll leave it like that. @DarkLord no worries! Thanks for the suggestion. I have a small quality-of-life update for a few platforms planned for tomorrow, so I'll include that too. Wait 24h and you'll be able to play it

I assumed (maybe I'm wrong?) that ".st" files were disk image files, just like ".dsk" files for other computers. I think there is a tool (Omniflop?) that'll write the contents of a .st on a floppy. For what it's worth, hatari opens the contents of an .st file as a floppy. The disk also contains, in the "AUTO" folder, a program that displays the splash screen. The intented behavior is that, when you start the ST (or emulator) with that floppy (or .st file) in, the splash screen displays. But you can just start the ttp program on tristam.z3 ! And yes, no idea how it runs on a gotek... i suppose you can extract the contents of the floppy from hatari? @MasterMotoroladid it once for me but i couldnt replicate the feat

You're welcome Greg! FYI everyone: I just updated the package, as one of the files for the F18A interpreter was corrupted. Thanks @InsaneMultitasker for noticing and fixing this!!

Maybe? I don't really know, I've never used one The game is mostly text but it's already packed/encoded in a smart way natively, which gives a 25-30% compression factor. But there's still room to pack more, as frequencies of letters are preserved. (It's every 3 lowercase letters is packed in 2 bytes, but you also pay more for uppercase and such) Does using a packer make the game slower? Or is there a decoding process at the beginning somehow?

It has! hlabrande.itch.io/tristam-island There are digital feelies with the game: a postcard set in the game's universe, and an Invisiclues-style hint sheet. There were 2 exclusive digital feelies for pre-orders, but note the "digital" - they probably will end up in the physical edition Along with other feelies that you can't digitize, probably...