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A subjective view on some Intellivision games


Gernot

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I wrote this in another topic about Tower of Doom. In a 1993 Interview, Daniel B. described the game as being 80% complete when Mattel Electronics closed. "I had concentrated on the special effects and mechanics, but I hadn't put in the game play and strategy that I had had in mind." In 1987 INTV released the game. John Tomlinson through Realtime Associates completed the game. Daniel Bass being unavailable at the time described Realtime Associates efforts as follows. "He got one of the other programmers to finish it up, but he didn't add any game play either, he just tidied up the loose ends so that the game had an ending and wouldn't crash." http://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/interview_daniel_bass.html

 

Regarding that screen with code/password, could it be a programmers tool to replay the same randomised layout for testing? A dissassembly/analysis should give the answer.

 

----------

And regarding Air Strike, the helicopter is interesting. It flies straight towards you so if you crash it also crashes. It's not hard to shoot down and you can out run it if you like. It hadn't been incorporated into the game yet as it is programmed only to appear on demand from the player. Intellivisionlives.com says the programmer promised enemy biplanes. It's too bad this game was cancelled by Mattel.

 

This thread is great. I wouldn't have known about the Air Strike helicopter otherwise. Same thing goes for the other unfinished games that are pretty much undocumented.

 

----------

Another one is the Dreadnaught Factor Prototype. The Dreadnaught Factor is a great game but it's not easy. You have to advance through several dreadnaughts to see all the advanced weaponry. So most people don't see them. The prototype has all the advanced weaponry on the first dreadnaught. Unfortunately its programmed for testing and no enemy weapons harm your ship, so not a playable game; except for level 6. If you're good at the Dreadnaught Factor get the prototype rom file and play Level 6, it's tough but you experience all the dreadnaught's weaponry right from the start.

Edited by mr_me
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thanks mr_me, i will do my worst ;)

 

now i'm afraid to complete my task, i hope it won't crash, it would be poor, and neither i can see any reason why, if i'm right i managed it at home already to level 24 so it's not far to 32 which i really assume will be the last, probably the game just ends resp. resets, this i could imagine, but unlike for "shuttle cock" i can't see anything which points in direction of a crash.

 

but i can imagine well it's only to 80% finished and yes of course the password screen could have been ment only for developing, i wrote already that you will need this to develop a procedural generated game, somewhere you have to enter your magical number respectively replace it with a different number (usually a common number with a special meaning for us humans a 13, or 24, or my birthdate, the year of independance and such), this number is base for all meanings something can have. for a game like pioneer it's i take i.e. 196612180 as static value and i build the solar system representing this number out of 9 digits. i.e last two digits stands for total count of bodies it doesn't have to be the value of my magical number i declare 80 = equals to 32, next for has life yes/no, if which body index, next temperature of body (central star surface temp. for the system, body surface temp. for planets), and so on... afterwards i can draw numbers and new systems will be build from the random values, each planet is based again on my magical number plus i.e. the body index e.g. 3 and i draw a new number out of this "seed" and since "same numbers result in same numbers" (196612183 is a new number and the result will be something quite different but it's in this way still static it still all depends on my first entered magical number and i declare again this drawed number equals to my prescripted conditions for body #3 "earth", next iteration) the shit works, that's it more or less, in general that's the idea of "magic numbers" a static value to generate numbers out of it.

 

thus it's true

int getRandomNumber()
{
     return 4;  // Chosen by fair dice roll.
                // guaranteed to be random.
}

no you won't draw new numbers with this, but i had to laugh when i saw it, because yes indeed i need a static value to build around.

when i start such a project i don't have to care much about the rand stuff i determine which number has which meaning and 4 is as good as any other.

since 4 is as good as any other (it's a problem i have with maths, one is as good as any without a meaning/value, meters or potatoes that's the difference) and if i need a long number a "magic number" becomes handy, my birthdate i won't forget.

 

caugh, any ostrich can count, we put far to much weight in this. his problem is that he can't differ his eggs from a tennis ball. in other terms, counting lentilles won't bring us humans far.

besides this is another point the young devs didn't liked to follow my idea of "pioneer", some educational meaning behind all that space action and number fumbling.

young or not, others understood me well but they didn't had the power to influence it - not anymore i have to say, it was once a democratic process - it turned to what they called a "meriocracy" and i asked them "if that is fact then why i don't lead and why i never liked to lead in this way?". but not the veterans lead the most egoistic lead - unfortunately even in open source projects.

i'm more for a caterpillar type of project, any segment knows itself what it has to do, the head isn't important he didn't even controls the segments of a caterpillar, he might give the direction for where to find food.

 

but hey, cybernetic is obsolate, today their model is "synergy" so the head becomes more important as in a cybernetic model (lifts shoulders and smiles) even if the output of the head equals to 0.

especially if the head denies any input from the segments it will output 0. that's simple arithmetic. 1 x 0 = 0 and not 1, no matter how high the value is in this equation, it's 0.

they should have played more "NUMBER JUMBLE" :)

that was in fact the reason why i wrote "they must have had something in mind with the repetive 0 equations".

 

It reminds me also of a song from a swiss songwriter "in an airplane": "hey you we are running out of fuel" - "what? i can't hear you it's too loud" - "we are running out of fuel" - "what?" - "dammit, we are running out of fuel!!!" - "i stll can't understand" but as they ran out of fuel and the motor stopped both didn't said a word anymore.

if the head denies any input from the segments :)

 

in shuttle cock not only the score shows wild behave, long before it crashes it starts to draw strange artefacts on the screen sometimes, sometimes "clouds" (looks like a tetris T-block) pass the window, quite funny, i asked myself if it possibly was ment as the space debris you be warned of steady, sometimes the whole cockpit is shattered, you can literally feel it won't end up well.

 

and if i sound complicated or write long explanations, try to explain the simple game everybody knows when i put my hand on top of your and you put your on top of mine and i put my other hand on top of your...

and then add a third person.

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NUMBER JUMBLE

from a different ward

 

i was searching for a clip (some music), then is stumbled over this:

Donald in the land of mathmagic

fascinating

 

"it can also be found in a game" of course, in any good game.

Edited by Gernot
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I'm very sorry but i've broke the spell.

Somewhat of the mystery is gone.

 

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TOWER OF MYSTERY

 

has an end and works fine ;)

(pardon me but i can't see no lose ends or "unfinished" except for the sound, but it might have get completed afterwards by ?, i don't know)

The game is certainly quite hard because you can only play at hardest skill level and esach time you play the game is generated new.

 

It's still a hard and addicting game and the real quest begins with the end, what makes this game more as just unique.

 

 

I won't tell much about how to play it, in general it's equal to "Tower of Doom".

I'm about to write a story instead of instructions, that won't make things to obvious.

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Instead of instructions i wrote this little story

 

 

Tower of Mystery
(advanced with or without)

"A role playing trip into a different time and dimension"


Prolog

Our Hero faces a hard trial he should lift the secret of the
"Tower of Mystery". He passed many trials before, mastered the
"Cloudy Mountain", escaped the claws of the "Minotaur" and won
many battles. This mystical tower looked like it was made for a
hero of his size and cleverness.


The Tower

When he arrived and examined th Tower to find an entrance he couldn't find on, there was no option left as to climb it to see if the the tower was to enter from the top. Right when our hero climbed over the pinnacles of the tower he could see a stairway into the tower. Soon as he touched the ground he checked his armament. Not much a sword, a shield, a chain mail under it leather skirt, a pair of magical boots in which you never freeze and which never get wet, made of a strange orange material (he enherited them from a time traveller). To supply he carried enough gingerbread and dryed fruits for the trip into the tower.
Very pleased he was by this little chest in which he could carry far more things as its small size will let assume (he "inherited" it from the same timetraveller who due to circumstances can't make use of it anymore).

As he stepped downstairs into the dark he couldn't perceive anything special, there wasn't even much to hear. He didn't expected that there will be much to perceive except of the increasing darkness. But even his own noises, the sounding of his steps and the rattling of his armament seemed to be swallowed by the nearly invisible walls. This he felt is a strange if not mysterious fact. He doesn't had to wait long and the first being slided soundless in his direction. Due to experience our hero held his sword always in hand (even in the night) and he defeated it with easiness. What was left of the being was not a corpse it was something like glowing ashes and our hero thought "they seem to be supernatural, it looks like this being can resurrect life anytime".


The Dungeon

He wasn't very surprised when suddenly the next goggle-eyed gnome faced him and provoked him to a fight. For a moment he thought about a return, but he displaced this thought because this tower is not of comon nature and it could be it will cost his life if he tries to exit the tower before he mastered the test. Soon he found the next stairway down to the next deeper level of the tower. But he hasn't visited the whole floor and he decided to explore more, maybe he can find one or two useful things. But except of an old Boot there was nothing to find. All along his way was colored mists which seemed to vanish and reappear. He stayed away as good as he could, but once he had to cross a crimson colored one it was a bad experience and in future he took care not to cross their path, other mists seemed to have no noticeable effect. He used them to get the proper timing to run unaffected through such a mist.
There was even magic teleporters which transported you to a random place in the level. Since he got no harm from this magic he decided to use them for his advantage.

He returned to the stairs and entered level two of the tower. Except that the corridors was different to the last level nothing differed from it. As he rested he asked himself if it would make sense to get the old boot which he had seen in the level above. But it would mean he would have to go up one level and he wasn't sure what could happen due to that. He flipped a coin and decided to upstairs - nothing happened except that everything was again dark around him. But he remembered well where he saw the boot and returned with it to the second level.

Suddenly he remembered an old man who he met on his way to the tower, he warned him and adviced him to return before it's to late and he will get lost in the 32 levels of the tower. But how could the old man know that the tower has 32 levels? Did he survived the Tower, has he heard of one? Maybe he's the Wizard himself who created this mysterious tower. But maybe it's just grapevine or the old man like to make me scary, "but any fear i must kill before it grows else it swallows me faster as any of these goggle-eyed gnomes".


The Magic

On every corner he met the same luckless creatures which little surprised him and as he fought himself through the dungeons and corridors he viewed his almost as friends to be called foes.
He found on his way many items of special intertest and riddled about what they might have for an use. A boot, a bottle of uncertain color with some fluid in it which interested him less by now as a scroll. It was something written on it and unsuspiciously he mumbled the words while he was reading them. As soon as he noticed his mistake he found himself iin total darness in a different area of the level and felt that he had luck that the magic of the spell wasn't stronger. He started to get interested in that Bottle he still got and risked to empty it. That was done well and he felt like he could mess with the devil himself. As he used up all his magical items he went to search for more treasures, just a couple of steps from where he left he discovered the same bottle of the same uncertain color and though, "that must be the same bottle as i drank before and i'm sure here was nothing hidden before, it seems this bottle will always return".

As the time passed he began to feel mercy for the beings in this tower. There eyes seemed to beg for mercy and not for dead.
"What if these lost souls are all valiant heros who failed iin their mission and forever can't escape from the tower"? He decided never again to think of such "this demon won't ride me"!

He tried once to use the boot to bribe a monster but it didn't worked out well and he had again to depend on his sword. Thus he decided to depend in battles on his sword and not on his talents in conversation. As he stepped deeper into the tower he found more and more items of interest. A crooked stick which sended out flahes of lightning if pointed against a gnome, that was a very powerful weapon and he used it with great caution until it was used up. Deeper in the tower he found necklace and as he took the necklace on he felt more powerful, not far from this he discovered a mortar put as he picked up the mortar the necklace he used before jumped off his neck, "that's a powerful black magic" he put his sword beneeth the mortar and it turned to a magical sword which serviced well in beating the monsters of the towers deeper levels. Sometimes when he reached a deeper level of the tower magical things changed their appearance, certain magic stopped or started. A candlestick can be as magical as a scroll, sometimes things have to be used others like the cloaks or books have to be kept to make use of them, sometimes they start to be magical only together with other treasures.

He found two flasks along the way, both of the same color and after the good experience with the first bottle he drank first one and after he perceived nothing bad he drank the second. Right when he took the first sip he found himself in front of the mystical tower. He met the old man a second time and he told him the same words as before. But there was now a white cross in front of the tower and he knew it wasn't there the first time he passed here. Immediately he felt that he must have been here many times and that it wasn't the second time he met the old man. Nevermind, what really worried him that he had to get into the tower a second time to uncover its secret magic.


The Curse

Exactly like the first time he examined his armament and it was in the same condition as it was for the first time. Not even the gingerbread or the dried fruits has getting fewer. Despite all of this our valiant hero fought himself again through the towers dungeons and he felt more and more as he would have already become a doomed of the tower. He started to make marks in distance to the tower to count how many times he must have passed the old man, he knew now that he had been many times in the tower. But this only encouraged him and he tried harder to reach his goal, "i will uncover the secret of this cursed mystical tower"! Even when he already felt like a doomed and didn't even counted his markings anymore. As deeper he went into the tower (and his claws) as faster and more powerful his enemies became. New treasures brought succes or failure, "if would be possible to profit of the experiences of the last attempts", but he could only remember it shadowy, not their exact color or function. So he had to experience the effect of the treasures and potions each time new what a big handicap was.

No one can tell how many times he met the old man but once he
set his feet on the steps to the 32th floor and to freedom.
To his surprise he found himself right in front of the tower and there was no white cross to see anymore. "Finally i've made it, i mastered the Tower of Mystery", and was about to celebrate his victory as he noticed a vellum with words and numbers scribbled on it.

+-----------------------+
| |
| Strength 13 |
| Stamina 4 |
| Charisma 3 |
| Level 32 |
| |
| ID ##80 - #### - #### |
| Password #### |
| |
+-----------------------+

He thought, "am i of such a weak character, me who mastered so many battles"? Unconciousely he mumbled the numbers while he read them and like through magic he found himself exactly above the stairs to the 32th level and to freedom. Immedistly he wanted like to get one level higher to the stairs to the 31th floor. After a couple tries he noted following:

+-----------------------+
| |
| Strength 13 |
| Stamina 4 |
| Charisma 3 |
| Level 31 |
| |
| ID ##79 - #### - #### |
| Password #### |
| |
+-----------------------+

He tried it further but thought it won't be as easy as it looks right now. And like assumed after a couple of floors this method didn't worked anymore.

As he entered the tower once again for a new time, fearless knowing that to die in the tower is not like the real dead he also met the old man again. but this time he had a different smile on his face if not to say a demonic laughter and our valiant hero started to freeze.

He tried to get rid of the spell of the Tower of Mystery and went to the nearest settlement. But the numbers didn't let him rest, even when he amused himself he had to think of them.
One morning he woke up in cold sweat and thought it must have all been a nightmare, but there was this vellum and his own notes and they was a evidence for that it wasn't a dream.
So he had to return to the Tower of Mystery again and again to uncover it's final mystery.

It's no mystery that he is a doomed of the Tower of Mystery.



Gernot Schrader

 

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thanks thegoldenband,

it could be helpful even if many items differ in function or appearance, also traps "Mystery" hasn't so many but therefore it always changes randomly all colors except for the clouds.

As a general advice anything from "Tower of Doom" can be helpful.

 

I didn't liked to list all and to be honest i can't yet, i haven't played it very often and only managed it twice to master it and this only like a low down cheater by saving the game often.

On the other hand this allows to test out the functions of the collected treasures which can be surprising.

The story isn't even a walk through, it didn't liked to tell more as i think is needed to explore the game and its mysteries yourself.

 

There is no character or mission selection, the character is always the same at start but i didn't think this spoils the fun each game you make different experiences and the resulting character will differ due to your playing (a completely unarmed you will never have except you would drop your only weapon at start). Many treasures/potions differ much to your description for "Tower of Doom" or how they are listed in the instructions to it.

 

The main difference is the possibility that you could start a preset game once the system how the ID and Password is generated from your stats.

The previous posted clip is an evidence for that this will work, i entered a slightly modified code which i retrieved from a emulated play to a play on my Intellivision and to restart the game on the stairway to level 31.

You won't keep your collected treasures, weapons and potions, but cashed treasure count, experience and character points will be taken over.

Obviousely it would be possible to restart from any point with any stats once the "magic number" is known.

 

Which is as it seems the final mystery of "Tower of Mystery".

 

The problem (or even chance) is that the the 4 digits long "seed" (Password) will change everytime you restart which means the stats will be interpretet different each run and result in a different "ID" for the character and his progress even when you exit the tower with exactly the same treasures, points and stats.

This could help to evaluate how the "ID" is generated from the sats and the seed, i assume the "ID" is only generated using equations and not random generated, the only number which i assume that will be random is the "Password" this is the key number to generate all world and player relative global numbers from (except for the variables, armament, collected but present items or magical powers, this won't and can't be generated since it will change with every game even if you would play twice the same). since the "ID" will reflect your character this number together with the "Password" will regenerate a given setup no matter if the globales will be randomly drawn by it because same numbers result always in same numbers.

 

A hint if one likes to play it and to enter the code on the setup screen.

The setup screen is called at the title screen with the top action keys.

To enter the numbers, especially to finally send the entered code to the game use only the right controller, using the left to send the input won't work and the game returns to the title screen instead to start immediatly after entering the "Password".

On the Intellivison console (not so in an emulated play) i recognized that the setup screen is sometimes garbled and you can't enter anything after switching the console on (first start of the game), in this case just start a game by pressing of the disc, reset and the setup screen will be displayed proper.

 

Very obvious that the setup wasn't only ment for developing the game, it's part of "Tower of Mystery", it makes this game really advanced and to an outraking masterpiece of procedural generated roleplaying.

 

The "magic number" (the key how to generate the "ID" from the stats) won't regenerate all of your stats though it's not suitable to rerstart a game from a certain point in the tower but it could be a fantastic tool (key) to regenerate a certain game setup by entering a given seed (Password) at start. Unlike usual the game would offer you the same treasures and potions with the same effect (the locations inside a level will vary, this i recognized even whith saved game stats).

 

Most of all i'm satisfied with the fact that i did well to trust in the game and in my prevision that it works as expected.

There is to repeat myself not much which is to miss except except of the sound and prescripted things (if the latter will be missed at all).

It's certainly harder as "Tower of Doom" because it has no easy preset towers with less levels and certainly not suitable for little children to play, on the other hand it might even not be as hard as "Tower of Doom" can be because you can't have an unarmed character.

 

"Tower of Mystery" is more "open world" as "Tower of Doom" and somewhat unfinished but very close to a finished game, it leaks only of a few details, like a prescripted goal to reach but on the other hand a "boss" in any further sense (something prescripted i have to reach) spoils the idea behind a procedural generated game.

If at all a "Grail" would have to be random as well, but i guess this would make the quest near to impossible to solve if you can't know if it's a candlestick or a bracelet which you need.

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Tower of Mystery
(advanced with or without)

"A role playing trip into a different time"


Prolog

Our Hero faces a hard trial he should lift the secret of
the "Tower of Mystery". He passed many trials before,
mastered the "Cloudy Mountain", escaped the claws of the
"Minotaur" and won many battles. This mystical tower
looked like it was made for a hero of his size and
cleverness.


The Tower

When he arrived and examined the tower to find an
entrance he couldn't find on, there was no option left
as to climb it to see if the tower was to enter from the
top. Right when our hero climbed over the pinnacles of
the tower he could see a stairway into the tower. Soon
as he touched the ground he checked his armament. Not
much; a sword, a shield, a chain mail under it leather
skirt, a pair of magical boots in which you never freeze
and which never get wet, made of a strange orange
material (he inherited them from a time traveller). To
supply he carried enough gingerbread and dried fruits
for the trip into the tower. Very pleased he was by this
little chest in which he could carry far more things as
its small size will let assume (he "inherited" it from
the same time-traveller who due to circumstances can't
make use of it anymore).

As he stepped downstairs into the dark he couldn't
perceive anything special, there wasn't even much to
hear. He didn't expected that there will be much to
perceive except of the increasing darkness. But even his
own noises, the sounding of his steps and the rattling
of his armament seemed to be swallowed by the nearly
invisible walls. This he felt is a strange if not
mysterious fact. He doesn't had to wait long and the
first being glided soundless in his direction. Due to
experience our hero held his sword always in hand (even
at night) and he defeated it with easiness. What was
left of the being was not a corpse it was something like
glowing ashes and our hero thought "they seem to be
supernatural, it looks like this being can resurrect to
life anytime".


The Dungeon

He wasn't very surprised when suddenly the next goggle-
eyed gnome faced him and provoked him to a fight. For a
moment he thought about a return, but he displaced this
thought because this tower is not of common nature and
it could be it will cost his life if he tries to exit
the tower before he mastered the test. Soon he found the
next stairway down to the next deeper level of the
tower. But he hasn't visited the whole floor and he
decided to explore more, maybe he can find one or two
useful things. But except of an old Boot there was
nothing to find. All along his way was colored mists
which seemed to vanish and reappear. He stayed away as
good as he could, but once he had to cross a crimson
colored one it was a bad experience and in future he
took care not to cross their path, other mists seemed
to have no noticeable effect. He used them to get the
proper timing to run unaffected through such a mist.
There was even magic teleports which transported you to
a random place in the level. Since he got no harm from
this magic he decided to use them for his advantage.

He returned to the stairs and entered level two of the
tower. Except that the corridors was different to the
last level nothing differed from it. As he rested he
asked himself if it would make sense to get the old boot
which he had seen in the level above. But it would mean
he would have to go up one level and he wasn't sure what
could happen due to that. He flipped a coin and decided
to upstairs - nothing happened except that everything
was again dark around him. But he remembered well where
he saw the boot and returned with it to the second
level.

Suddenly he remembered an old man who he met on his way
to the tower, he warned him and advised him to return
before it's to late and he will get lost in the 32
levels of the tower. But how could the old man know that
the tower has 32 levels? Did he survived the Tower, has
he heard of one? Maybe he's the Wizard himself who
created this mysterious tower. But maybe it's just
grapevine or the old man like to make me scary, "Any
fear i must kill before it grows else it swallows me
faster as any of these goggle-eyed gnomes".


The Magic

On every corner he met the same luckless creatures which
little surprised him and as he fought himself through
the dungeons and corridors he viewed his almost as
friends to be called foes. He found on his way many
items of special interest and riddled about what they
might have for a use. A boot, a bottle of uncertain
color with some fluid in it which interested him less
by now as a scroll. It was something written on it and
unsuspiciously he mumbled the words while he was reading
them. As soon as he noticed his mistake he found himself
in total darkness in a different area of the level and
felt that he had luck that the magic of the spell wasn't
stronger. He started to get interested in that Bottle he
still got and risked to empty it. That was done well and
he felt like he could mess with the devil himself. As he
used up all his magical items he went to search for more
treasures, just a couple of steps from where he left, he
discovered the same bottle of the same uncertain color
and though, "That must be the same bottle as i drank
before and i'm sure here was nothing hidden before, it
seems this bottle will always return after its use".

As the time passed he began to feel mercy for the beings
in this tower. There eyes seemed to beg for mercy and
not for dead. "What if these lost souls are all valiant
heros who failed in their mission and forever can't
escape from the tower"? He decided never again to think
of such "this demon won't ride me"!

He tried once to use the boot to bribe a monster but it
didn't worked out well and he had again to depend on his
sword. Thus he decided to depend in battles on his sword
and not on his talents in conversation. As he stepped
deeper into the tower he found nmore and more items of
interest. A crooked stick which sent out flashes of
lightning if pointed against a wall, that was a very
powerful weapon and he used it with great caution until
it was used up. Deeper in the tower he found a necklace
and as he weared necklace on he felt more powerful, not
far from this he discovered a mortar, but as he picked
up the mortar the magical necklace repelled off his
neck, "That's a powerful black magic" he put his sword
beneath the mortar and it turned to a magical sword
which serviced well in beating the monsters of the
towers deeper levels. Sometimes when he reached a deeper
level of the tower magical things changed their
appearance, certain magic stopped or started.
A candlestick could be as magical as a scroll, sometimes
things had to be used others like the cloaks or books
had to be kept to make use of them, sometimes they
turned to be magical only together with other treasures.

He found two flasks along the way, both of the same
color and after the good experience with the first
bottle he drank first one and after he perceived nothing
bad he drank the second. Right when he took the first
sip he found himself in front of the mystical tower. He
met the old man a second time and he told him the same
words as before. But there was now a white cross in
front of the tower and he knew it wasn't there the first
time he passed here. Immediately he felt that he must
have been here many times and that it wasn't the second
time he met the old man. Never mind, what really worried
him that he had to get into the tower a second time to
uncover its secret magic.


The Curse

Exactly like the first time he examined his armament and
it was in the same condition as it was for the first
time. Not even the gingerbread or the dried fruits has
getting fewer. Despite all of this our valiant hero
fought himself again through the dungeons of the tower
and he felt more and more as he would have already
become a doomed of the tower. He started to make marks
in distance to the tower to count how many times he must
have passed the old man, he knew now that he had been
many times in the tower. But this only encouraged him
and he tried harder to reach his goal, "I will uncover
the secret of this cursed mystical tower!" Even when he
already felt like a doomed and didn't even counted his
markings anymore. As deeper he went into the tower (and
his claws) as faster and more powerful his enemies
became. New treasures brought success or failure, "If
only it would be possible to profit of the experiences
of the last attempts", but he could only remember it
shadowy, not their exact color or function. So he had to
experience the effect of the treasures and potions each
time new what a big handicap was.

No one can tell how many times he met the old man but
once he set his feet on the steps to the 32nd floor and
to freedom. To his surprise he found himself right in
front of the tower and there was no white cross to see
anymore. "Finally i've made it, i mastered the Tower of
Mystery", and was about to celebrate his victory as he
noticed a vellum with words and numbers scribbled on it.

+-----------------------+
| |
| Strength 13 |
| Stamina 4 |
| Charisma 3 |
| Level 32 |
| |
| ID ##80 - #### - #### |
| Password #### |
| |
+-----------------------+


He thought, "Am i of such a weak character, me who
mastered so many battles?" Unconsciously he mumbled the
numbers while he read them and like through magic he
found himself exactly above the stairs to the 32nd level
and to freedom. Immediately he wanted like to get one
level higher to the stairs to the 31st floor. After a
couple of tries he noted following:

+-----------------------+
| |
| Strength 13 |
| Stamina 4 |
| Charisma 3 |
| Level 31 |
| |
| ID ##79 - #### - #### |
| Password #### |
| |
+-----------------------+


He tried it further but thought it won't be as easy as
it looks right now. And like assumed after a couple of
floors this method didn't worked anymore.

As he entered the tower once again for a new time,
fearless knowing that to die in the tower is not like
the real dead. He even met the old man again, but this
time he had a different smile on his face if not to say
a demonic laughter and our valiant hero started to
freeze.

He wanted to get released from the spell of the Tower of
Mystery and went to the nearest settlement. But the
numbers didn't let him rest, even when he amused himself
he had to think of them. One morning he woke up in cold
sweat and thought it must have all been a nightmare, but
there was this vellum and his own notes and they was an
evidence for that it wasn't a dream. So he had to return
to the Tower of Mystery again and again to uncover its
final mystery.

It's no secret that he became a doomed of the
Tower of Mystery.



Gernot Schrader

Edited by Gernot
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Suggestions welcome.

 

I didn't liked to make a common instruction or walkthrough for this game, i already broke the spell and awoke this sleeping beauty.

Instead i decided to writ a short story which should tell you enough to play the game but won't reveal all of its secrets.

 

Tower of Mystery.pdf

Edited by Gernot
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  • 2 weeks later...

of course mthompson.

 

Space Shuttle (Unfinished) (1983) (Mattel) h.rom.zip

 

(exactly the one i didn't uploaded and didn't documented, funny)

 

 

and now for something complete different

 

i didn't liked to spoil "sea quest" that's why i like to post this here.

 

 

i had written down a short version of a fairy tale (in the bad apple thread) but lost it, maybe i will post it here (not now).

but i "stumbled" over this, years ago i had the idea to make a comic strip, but i left it unfinished because i felt it's to naive (made that ready so i will use it)

 

post-41280-0-30262400-1524181925.png

that's what heroes do to bad guys :)

but the really important thing is the hedgehog (in this picture)

 

hasn't much to do with the fairy tale, but it's a tale of it's own about a sleeping hero, unfinished as one can see, i colored it color by color to grant i can keep the same colors through the whole story (i used to work only with cyan, magenta, yellow, contrast (b&w), thus i had to keep the blends, you won't reach it exactly a second time)

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

SOME CORRECTIONS TO TOWER OF MYSTERY

 

i stated that it runs fine, but it seems i was very lucky the first couple of tries.

also i discovered that it runs most stable in MAME (the reason follows)

 

i recorded a gameplay on the console, which is hard enough, the game has many dead ends you can run into and certain times it's enough to touch an item and it will halt.

i know this problem from procedural generated games, we had similar problems in pioneer and never got rid of them for real.

under certain conditions it can happen that an object is "empty" and if you have no error routine for this case the game will hang.

intentionally (in the case for pioneer) Tom liked to get rid of such errors we knew from frontier as well.

but i have to say when he explained me this i wasn't surprised "it's caused by generating, i guess you can't get rid of such Tom, you can only write workarounds".

you can control it if you use a certain pattern (no extreme values), but eh, intentionally Tom didn't liked to have patterns for pioneer.

 

such empty objects are many in "tower of mystery", it seems the game loses data sometimes when you approach to a level deeper.

 

however, funny is (or it points in this direction) if you play it in MAME you can save the game whenever you like, if you save and reload the game often the errors vanish.

but if you play without saving they can happen quite often.

 

i really managed it to get to level 27 on the intellivision and stupid me had the idea to use a holy handgranade (resp. it's replacement "the crooked stick") with the result that i died in level 27 (shit!). so no clip of the complete gameplay (yet).

 

meanwhile i know what is allowed to do and what not, some things are extremely critical, i.e. whenever an item you hold changes its shape magically, i.e a boot becomes a candlestick (which would belong to the idea i'm sure) it becomes useless, respectively it turns to such a dead end, you have to get rid of it.

there is one scroll in each game which means "reset" (as effect of the error), scrolls should be passed by, anyway they have no useful magic powers.

if you keep this in mind the game is playable, nonetheless you will often run into a dead end, i.e. if you forgot what items you have, or just wonder "huh, what's that, let's try" bang, locked!

 

but apart from this (caugh) "cosmetic things" it's playable and fun to play.

and the final riddle is still forcing me to play it (ok one could disassamble it to see how the values are generated, even if i could do that, but that is questionable, it won't be very sportive)

 

 

yet something different

 

i took the heavy load to split (as far as this was needed) almost all intellivision games for the proper use in MAME (so all games will appear proper as available and you won't have to load them wit the filerequester)

 

means also i updated the hash table for roundabout a lot of games (mostly IntyBASIC), so MAME will show now about 240 intellivision cartridges.

 

to share the hash table will be no problem.

i won't share the games so easy (even if all of us own them legally i assume, but however anyone could download them here and that's not good)

but i guess i can share most of the rest (for scientifical interest) it's really a tedious work to split all the files according to the memory mapping.

 

it's really just for "scientific interest", MAME isn't by far as good as jzIntv, some games are completely unplayable (all soccer games and i expect more since this is standard as standard can be. one would have to play them for real to find the errors and not only watch if the title loads).

but well maybe someone likes to toy around with MAME

or likes to nail some errors down, maybe the MAME team will be grateful.

 

besides i managed it to get "quest" run partwisely, it now loads the title screen and introduction as well as the selection screen, but as soon as it should start it halts, it has something todo with the bankswitching needed for this game.

i managed it to perform the bankswitching, but i have no idea how to preload data to the low addresses in MAME (has no use it seems).

 

to the IntyBASIC, some are weird mapped, they work well on an Intellivision (at least with the help of LTO Flash), but some fail completely in MAME.

the problem is MAME only accepts common addresses like "5000" "4800" "A000" "C000" and so on, but many IntyBASIC games load to i.e. "2100" or "C100" this isn't recognized by MAME. (except you load a .rom with the filerequester)

i managed to get most of them running in MAME (except "Deep Zone"), with filling the sections up to the recognized address i.e. add 100 words in front to "C100" so it will be "C000".

Edited by Gernot
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  • 4 years later...
On 3/25/2018 at 8:59 AM, mr_me said:

And regarding Air Strike, the helicopter is interesting. It flies straight towards you so if you crash it also crashes. It's not hard to shoot down and you can out run it if you like. It hadn't been incorporated into the game yet as it is programmed only to appear on demand from the player. Intellivisionlives.com says the programmer promised enemy biplanes. It's too bad this game was cancelled by Mattel.

Cancelled is not the right word. "Not pursued" is more correct. There were dozens of little snippets of game ideas that were not pursued to completion—Robinson didn't publish them all. In this case the ideas for B-17 Bomber, with its long flight over enemy territory, Biplanes, with its maneuverability, and P-47 Fighter-Bomber, a hybridization of the two, had been floating around in various stages of development since 1978. B-17 Bomber was activated for Intellivoice and Biplanes for Some of Theirs (Triple Action). The popularity of Biplanes led to P-47 FB being explored further as Air Strike. Air Strike was developed a lot further than the version published by Robinson. A different hybridization can be seen in Cheshire/Activision's Dreadnaught, which keeps the top down view of B-17 Bomber but is focused on overcoming ground-based defenses as in P-47 FB.

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On 12/3/2022 at 8:10 AM, Walter Ives said:

...A different hybridization can be seen in Cheshire/Activision's Dreadnaught, which keeps the top down view of B-17 Bomber but is focused on overcoming ground-based defenses as in P-47 FB.

Sounds like Mission-X, although that's an arcade conversion.

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