Garry Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 I asked this on the CASA forum and didn't get any response, so I'll try again here where we have many more Atari users. In the early 1980s (probably 1981), The UK Atari Computer Owners Club started producing a newsletter called (surprise, surprise) The UK Atari Computer Owners Club. In issue 2, they started issuing software from their own software library based on contributions from members. This included two adventures. In issue 3, the newsletter became a professionally-printed magazine. In issue 6, they started an adventure column. In issue 8, the magazine's name was changed to Monitor and included their first type-in adventure 'Nightmare Reflections' (by Steve Hillen). This issue also had the instructions for 'Moonbase Plato' (author unknown), but the adventure itself was only available by sending a blank cassette or disk and payment of £4.95. In issue 9, they introduced full-colour covers. In issue 12, they had their second type-in adventure 'Simple Adventure' (by Steve Hillen). The last issue was issue 21. By the time they wound up, they had about 14 adventures in their library. The rights to the magazine and the library were acquired by Page 6 and the following games can be downloaded from their web site at http://www.page6.org/ukacoc/library/lib-adventure.htm: Outpost (Anthony Ball) Spectre of Castle Doomrock (Scott Smith) Stoneville Manor (Nigel Haslock, but actually an uncredited port of the Apple II game by Randy Jensen published in Creative Computing) The Folly of Ezrhar'd Kkhann! (Alex Kells) Unfortunately, the full library was not made available to Page 6, as the masters had been lost. The following games have not yet been found: Berg (Steve Hillen) City of the Dwarfs (Adrian Cox) Demon (Adrian Cox, but possibly the same as 'Demon Adventure' published by Page 6) Diamond 1 & 2 (Scott Smith) Idol Island (J P Crackett) Lost in Time (M Maestranzi) Mini Adventure (Steve Hillen) Moonbase Plato (author unknown) Simple Adventure (Alex Kells) The Citadel (Steve Tullett) The Valley (Steve Calkin) If you have any of the lost games in the second list, can you please let me know here or via a PM so that we can get these games preserved. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Hi Garry, Thanks for dropping by, I always loved your enthusiasm for text adventures and it was a pleasure reading your columns in Page 6. I think The Valley is actually the ASP Software game with just slight changes. There are tons of unique UKACOC programs, quite a shame the vast majority are missing in action. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garry Posted June 22, 2019 Author Share Posted June 22, 2019 Nice of you to say so. The columns were very popular for some reason and I really enjoyed writing them. I had a great relationship with Les and we used to write really long letters to one another (before the days of email and the internet). I have returned to adventuring in a big way over the last few years and am a big contributor to the Classic Adventure Solution Archive. I still play them, write them and write about them. I think of myself as an adventure historian nowadays, hence the desire to preserve some of these old lost titles. I have been building up quite a collection of Atari adventures that I'd like to contribute to Atarimania (both 8-bit and ST), but couldn't see any obvious way to submit them. What's the best way to get them to you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Please feel free to share anything here, it sometimes takes time to update our pages and uploading the material to AtariAge directly will at least make it readily available to everyone before we add it to Atarimania. Many thanks! -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garry Posted June 22, 2019 Author Share Posted June 22, 2019 Shall do. What about corrections or updates to existing listings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 There can definitely be both, the original for preservation and any fixed version so the game can be played properly. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garry Posted June 22, 2019 Author Share Posted June 22, 2019 I meant corrections or updates to the data, not the software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 (edited) A PM should do. The problem is that many game pages date back from 2002 or 2003 when there weren't as many fields in the database and they haven't been updated since. While we do have the information most of the time, it just hasn't been added (though changes are made regularly, they're usually invisible to visitors). -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Edited June 22, 2019 by www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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