Temple of Apshai Trilogy Maps

[Lord Thag]

On 7/21/2021 at 8:19 PM, ballyalley said:

 

Sure, I remember you "Lord Thag."  I've enjoyed all of your contributions to these couple of Apshai threads over the last, gulp!, decade (how is that even possible?!?).  It's fascinating to learn that you have all of the Dungonquest games in their boxes-- except Morloc's Tower-- because of this thread.  I wouldn't have expected that to happen.  Over the years this thread has grown from a simple place for me to post a couple of maps into a place where people sometimes discuss their memories of the game.  Since you have all but one of the games, maybe you can show us your Apshai collection in a video.  I'd love to see that video posted here.

 

Adam

Just realized I never posted pics. Here's the Apshai set, I have everything made with the engine on the Atari but Morloc's Tower:

 

[ballyalley]

23 hours ago, Lord Thag said:

Just realized I never posted pics. Here's the Apshai set, I have everything made with the engine on the Atari but Morloc's Tower:

 

That's a nice collection.  I like that the fantasy series use black boxes and the sci-fi series uses yellow/gold boxes.  I don't think I noticed that before now.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

On 9/14/2021 at 1:44 PM, Iori said:

I wonder if you have the same obsessions as me in general, or is it restricted to the Dunjonquest games?

 

I don't think that I've ever gotten deep into a game like I've done with the Apshai series.  Possibly the closest I've come is with Miner's 2049'er sequel, "Bounty Bob Strikes Back," on the Atari 8-bit computers.  After I looped Miner 2049er two or three times, I tried to perfect playing the follow-up game, but I could never get past the level called "Acid Rain," which seems impossible to me.  I didn't want to cheat by looking up how to complete it, but maybe it's time to that now.

 

Adam

[+MrFish]

23 hours ago, Lord Thag said:

Just realized I never posted pics. Here's the Apshai set.

 

Nice set!

  

23 hours ago, Lord Thag said:

I have everything made with the engine on the Atari but Morloc's Tower.

 

Funny, the only one I ever owned was Morloc's Tower. It's quite rare...

 

[Tempest]

On 9/14/2021 at 5:30 PM, ballyalley said:

From time to time, I make a search for the Macintosh version of "The Temple of Apshai Trilogy."  My previous searches have always come up fruitless, or, at least, with non-working copies.  I just did a search and came up with a site that claims to have an archive of the game in zipped a2r and StuffIt format:

 

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/32357-temple-of-apshai-trilogy

 

I thought that a2r files were for the Apple II, but perhaps the format has opened up to other platforms.

 

I have no way to test these files.  Is there someone here who can use it on a real classic-era Macintosh or somehow emulate a vintage Macintosh?

 

Adam

 

It's also here

 

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/temple-of-apshai-trilogy

 

[ballyalley]

On 9/17/2021 at 6:03 PM, Tempest said:

[The Mac 128K version of "The Temple of Apshai" is] also here

 

http://macintoshgarden.org/games/temple-of-apshai-trilogy

 

 

Thanks for that link to the Macintosh Garden website.  After reading the comments about the disk dump of the Macintosh version of "The Temple of Apshai," the game seems to work fine on actual early Macintosh computers, but it doesn't run correctly at full speed under emulation using "Mini vMac."  Here are some screenshots of the game.  These include the title screen and the first two rooms that are encountered on the first level of "The Temple of Apshai."

 

The title screen, in its hi-res B&W glory:

 

 

Brian Hammerhand enters the Dunjon and his adventure begins!

 

 

Brian contemplates searching for a secret door on the east wall.

 

 

You will notice that one screenshot from the game has the proper gothic font, while one does not show the correct font.  In the comments area, "Apple2Forever" notes: "I tried this game on the 128k version of Mini vMac rather than the regular Mac Plus version, and it uses a different 'gothic' style font instead of standard Chicago 12 point. I have included another screenshot to illustrate. I assume this is the intended font and some difference in the later hardware prevents it from displaying properly."

 

I checked around YouTube to see this game running on the Macintosh and I couldn't find anything at all.  I'd love to see the B&W animation that is offered from this version of the game.  "jkheiser" mentions the movements and the sound in the comments: "This game has some epic title screen music that makes good use of the Mac's 4-voice audio capabilities. The dungeon-crawling animation is fluid, too."

 

Does anyone have the knowledge to get this game running and to be able to capture footage of it?  Perhaps someone can explore the first level and show some encounters with some of the unfriendly creatures that inhabit all versions of the deadly Temple.  At the very least, don't we all need to see how the Antmen look on the macintosh?

 

(This B&W version of the game is a long way from the B&W version that originally came out on the TRS-80!)

 

Adam

[+MrFish]

20 hours ago, ballyalley said:

Does anyone have the knowledge to get this game running and to be able to capture footage of it?  Perhaps someone can explore the first level and show some encounters with some of the unfriendly creatures that inhabit all versions of the deadly Temple.  At the very least, don't we all need to see how the Antmen look on the macintosh?

 

I usually don't mess around with too much pre-System 7 stuff. I have a handful of various Mac Emulators running on both Windows and a Mac mini for just about everything after that.

 

I was able to get it running in Mini vMac, under a Plus and 128K model. As noted, the font defaults to Chicago for a Plus, and the intended Gothic font for a 128K.

 

Running it is flaky on both. Music plays ok at the beginning, but then a continuous tone is heard after that (had to mute).

The game can lock up at various points during gameplay, and yes, the anamation is way too fast.

It didn't seem to lock up until at least entering a dungeon though. Was able to equip my adventurer without any problems.

 

Graphically, everything looks fine, and I can create, save, and restore characters.

 

[Tempest]

I remember getting it launch on my Mac SE from a boot disk, but I didn't get around to playing it.  I'll have to try and see.

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, MrFish said:

...the anamation is way too fast.

 

Apparently nobody tried setting the speed control. Mini vMac defaults to 8x speed. So, a quick adjustment and the animation speed is fine.

 

Mouse operation is nice. Your character moves to whatever point you click on the screen.

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by MrFish

[+MrFish]

Here's a few screenshots.

 

 

    

 

    

 

 

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, MrFish said:

The game can lock up at various points during gameplay...

 

Alright, I've got the game emulating just fine now in Mini vMac.

 

The problem was that I was booting from the game disk directly. The solution was to boot from a System 6.0.8 disk first, and then mount and load the program from the Apshai Trilogy disk from there.

 

[+MrFish]

Here's a screenshot of the icons.

 

 

 

[ballyalley]

25 minutes ago, MrFish said:

Here's a few screenshots.

 

 

 

Look at that: a cat.  You see that you have also tried exploring Merlis' Cottage in the game "Upper Reaches of Apshai."  It's good news that more than the first game works.  I like that your testing a bit more of the game.  The graphics look crisp, but that cat looks a bit too cute for inclusion here.  But, then again, Merlis' Cottage is a whimsical level.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

20 minutes ago, MrFish said:

Here's a screenshot of the icons [on a Macintosh desktop]

 

That looks fantastic to me.  I had forgotten that the original Mac only shipped with 128K of RAM.  That's the same amount as the Atari 130XE.  Amazing!

 

I love the idea that "The Temple of Apshai Trilogy" requires the oldest Macintosh computer to run properly.  I wish that I knew someone local to me who owned an original Mac so that I could see this game played on real hardware.  If an original Mac is available, then what is required to get the Apshai Mac disk image onto a real 400K disk?  Can the later 800K Mac disk drives use 400K floppy disks?

 

Adam

[+MrFish]

48 minutes ago, ballyalley said:

That looks fantastic to me.  I had forgotten that the original Mac only shipped with 128K of RAM.  That's the same amount as the Atari 130XE.  Amazing!

 

I love the idea that "The Temple of Apshai Trilogy" requires the oldest Macintosh computer to run properly.  I wish that I knew someone local to me who owned an original Mac so that I could see this game played on real hardware.  If an original Mac is available, then what is required to get the Apshai Mac disk image onto a real 400K disk?  Can the later 800K Mac disk drives use 400K floppy disks?

 

Yeah, it looks pretty clean, as many black and white Mac games did. Running on 128K... well, 1-bit graphics take up a lot less space.

 

Apparently it doesn't require a 128K Mac to run, as people seem to be running it fine on Mac SE's (not SE30).

 

[leech]

2 hours ago, MrFish said:

 

Yeah, it looks pretty clean, as many black and white Mac games did. Running on 128K... well, 1-bit graphics take up a lot less space.

 

Apparently it doesn't require a 128K Mac to run, as people seem to be running it fine on Mac SE's (not SE30).

 

Hmm, did they ever make a IIGS version?  I would guess if they had it would have been similar to the ST / Amiga one.  I should try the MiSTer Mac Plus core and see if it is working and try the Apshai Trilogy there.

[+MrFish]

48 minutes ago, leech said:

Hmm, did they ever make a IIGS version?  I would guess if they had it would have been similar to the ST / Amiga one.  I should try the MiSTer Mac Plus core and see if it is working and try the Apshai Trilogy there.

IDK, but I doubt they did. They usually don't go back and re-release a title for the same platform -- unless it's some kind of super hit; I wouldn't say the Apshai Trilogy qualifies for that. Although the IIGS was kind of its own platform, when it came to the 65816 side.

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by MrFish

[Tempest]

No iigs version, just a IIe version

[ballyalley]

3 hours ago, MrFish said:

 

Yeah, it looks pretty clean, as many black and white Mac games did. Running on 128K... well, 1-bit graphics take up a lot less space.

 

Thanks to the help of Mr. Fish (both publically and privately) today, I have got "The Temple of Apshai Trilogy" running on an emulated Mac.  I have just created a character on a Mac 128, so the gothic font is shown correctly.  I took the first roll of the dice when I created my character, who I called "Brian" (you know, he is Brian Hammerhand, after all).  I've equipped my character and I'm about to go exploring.  Take a look at my stats; they're quite average (that's what happens when you play by the rules):

 

 

The emulator doesn't seem to allow for screenshots, so I captured the screen when it was a window and then cut off the outside window so that you can just see only the game screen.  I also can't make a screenshot when the emulator is running in full screen mode.

 

I've taken out my printed map of the Atari 8-bit game and I'm gonna see if I can start some trouble.

 

Adam

[leech]

21 minutes ago, ballyalley said:

 

Thanks to the help of Mr. Fish (both publically and privately) today, I have got "The Temple of Apshai Trilogy" running on an emulated Mac.  I have just created a character on a Mac 128, so the gothic font is shown correctly.  I took the first roll of the dice when I created my character, who I called "Brian" (you know, he is Brian Hammerhand, after all).  I've equipped my character and I'm about to go exploring.  Take a look at my stats; they're quite average (that's what happens when you play by the rules):

 

 

The emulator doesn't seem to allow for screenshots, so I captured the screen when it was a window and then cut off the outside window so that you can just see only the game screen.  I also can't make a screenshot when the emulator is running in full screen mode.

 

I've taken out my printed map of the Atari 8-bit game and I'm gonna see if I can start some trouble.

 

Adam

Bwian, eh?

 

Nice!  I keep intending to pick one of the 8bit platforms and try to go through all of the games in the series.  I remember mostly just playing Hellfire Warrior, Gateway to Apshai and Temple of Apshai Trilogy.

[ballyalley]

31 minutes ago, leech said:

Bwian, eh?

 

Nice!  I keep intending to pick one of the 8bit platforms and try to go through all of the games in the series.  I remember mostly just playing Hellfire Warrior, Gateway to Apshai and Temple of Apshai Trilogy.

 

For a moment I thought, "Bwian?"  Did I spell it wrong?  Was the gothic font's "r" mistaken for a "w?"  And then... Boom!... I got the joke and my grin spread very wide!  Perhaps, one day, my character will across a snake of some kind, perhaps a Giant Python, in the game.

 

Each platform always offers something a bit different.  The Amiga/ST series has the best graphics (of course they have that 16-bit advantage, don't they?).  My favorite 8-bit version is the Atari "Trilogy."  I've already noticed that this Mac version probably has some treasures in different places and also offers some monster variety on the first level of Temple of Apshai compared to, at least, the Atari version of the game.

 

I'm really digging these B&W graphics.  In 1985, when the Mac version was released, I would have preferred to play the game in color, but now the B&W graphics that are on display really offer something a bit different.  Give the Mac version of the game a try.  From my brief experience with the game so far, it plays very-much like the Amiga/ST ports of the game, but the B&W graphics make the game feel fresh to me.

 

I've still got to play through the four "Hellfire Warrior" levels.  It's too bad that that true Apshai sequel wasn't included in the Trilogy.  It would be nice to be able to play that game with the improved gameplay and graphics that are offered by the machine language remake of the "Trilogy."

 

Adam

 

[Tempest]

5 minutes ago, ballyalley said:

I'm really digging these B&W graphics.  In 1985, when the Mac version was released, I would have preferred to play the game in color, but now the B&W graphics that are on display really offer something a bit different.  Give the Mac version of the game a try.  From

I love the Mac for just that reason.  I've got a bit of a monochrome fetish.

[+MrFish]

I love the old black & white Mac stuff.

 

[Laner]

16 hours ago, leech said:

Hmm, did they ever make a IIGS version?  I would guess if they had it would have been similar to the ST / Amiga one.  I should try the MiSTer Mac Plus core and see if it is working and try the Apshai Trilogy there.

It appears to work in MiSTer, kind of. I tried the "hacked" .dsk available at Macintosh Garden, and I could get to the gameplay, but it's fairly buggy.  Not sure if it's the game itself or the core. 

[+MrFish]

8 minutes ago, Laner said:

It appears to work in MiSTer, kind of. I tried the "hacked" .dsk available at Macintosh Garden, and I could get to the gameplay, but it's fairly buggy.  Not sure if it's the game itself or the core. 

 

20 hours ago, MrFish said:

Alright, I've got the game emulating just fine now in Mini vMac.

 

The problem was that I was booting from the game disk directly. The solution was to boot from a System 6.0.8 disk first, and then mount and load the program from the Apshai Trilogy disk from there.

 

You'll probably need to load the program using the method I'm describing here. It basically amounts to starting up from any System 6.0.8 disk, mounting the hacked Trilogy disk, and loading the program from there. You lose the custom font (at least in Mini vMac), but otherwise the game is fully functional.