For Fans of Old Infocom Games - Something New

[+DrVenkman]

It's not a "true" Infocom game but it sure hits a lot of the same buttons.  As discussed on the most recent Retrocomputing Roundtable show, a new interactive fiction game was just recently released by developer Stephan Vogt, Hibernated-1 (Director's Cut), is now available as a pay-what-you-want titled on itch.io:

 

https://8bitgames.itch.io/hibernated1

 

The suggested amount is only £4, which comes to a few cents over $5 at today's exchange rate. 

 

The game has been released for a ton of retro-systems, from 8-bit Atari, Apple and  Commodore systems to Speccy's and classic Macs. Even more impressively, the download ZIP archive contains disk images for all the supported systems. The Atari version is a 130K ED format ATR and loads and plays great on real hardware via my FujiNets and from the built-in CF card interfaces on my XEL/XLD and Incognito machines. A boxed physical release styled after Infocom titles of old is being prepped for later this summer.

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

awesome, I'd say pile on!

this is how we say thank you and get a good showing going!

thanks Dr. V!

Edited June 9, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[bfollowell]

I'm pretty sure I'll be picking this up!

 

[adam242]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

 

Just downloaded to check it out, and I will almost certainly be purchasing a physical copy when available.

Love me some old Infocom sci-fi adventures.

[zbyti]

Yes, awesome game, I ended up this one year ago but I'll do it again with new DC version :]

[+MrFish]

Any screen shots of the graphics for the Atari 8-bit version?

 

[zbyti]

@MrFish atr seems to be corrupted  I played HB1 on C64 and ZX.

[zbyti]

I see new DC version was released 2 days ago hibernated1_DC_R7 and A8 version now works. But sadly no GFX here.

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by zbyti

[+MrFish]

Oh, ok... I didn't realize the game wasn't finished yet.

 

[Wrathchild]

31 minutes ago, zbyti said:

But sadly no GFX here.

The interpreter won't, however I thought with something like Tristam Island they were going to pop a Rasterconvter image as a loading screen but maybe disk space didn't permit that?

[zbyti]

Maybe it's a chance for HB1 addon on A8 too? https://8bitgames.itch.io/eight-feet-under

[zbyti]

2 hours ago, Wrathchild said:

The interpreter won't, however I thought with something like Tristam Island they were going to pop a Rasterconvter image as a loading screen but maybe disk space didn't permit that?

I think if you contact with the author of the game and help A8 version will have title screen.

[+DrVenkman]

2 hours ago, MrFish said:

Oh, ok... I didn't realize the game wasn't finished yet.

 

Why do you think it’s not finished? 

As for disk space, it’s a 130K ED .ATR. I looked at it with a sector editor and it appears pretty full. May not be a lot of room for a title screen or graphics file. Then again, Infocom’s classic titles never had nor needed graphics. 

[zbyti]

If someone is interested it's my map for classic version :]

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by zbyti

[+DrVenkman]

I love this stuff …

 

[thank you]

31 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

I love this stuff …

 

pics or it didn't happen.  oh wait...

[Gunstar]

I just pre-ordered the physical version of the game. It won't be released until August and I may have to wait a while for it to reach me after that, but it will be worth it! I love Infocom games, I've started re-collecting originals and when saw a physical copy could be bought that looks very similar to my Infocom titles, I couldn't resist. I need this in my collection too.

 

https://www.polyplay.xyz/navi.php?suche=Hibernated+1+-+Directors+Cut&lang=eng

 

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by Gunstar

[Beeblebrox]

22 hours ago, zbyti said:

Maybe it's a chance for HB1 addon on A8 too? https://8bitgames.itch.io/eight-feet-under

Just checked out the pages for Eight feet under. Nice mix of text and Graphics available on other platforms.

 

Sorry to go off on a related tangent. I happened to clock that within the page zbyti posted in the link above there is a link to the Daad Adventure Writer. 

https://github.com/daad-adventure-writer/daad

 

Interestingly the list of targeted machines (inc 8 bit's like the C64) doesn't include A8. 

 

I am just generally imaging text adventure utilising the full graphical potential of our A8s with Rastaconverted images (Full or 1/3 or even 2/3 top half of a screen).

 

I convert a lot of rasta images and am amazed at what the A8 is more than capable of in that respect. Whilst they use up a lot of the A8 resources, (DLIs, PMGs, data etc), to display them, for a graphical text adventure there is certainly potential. Especially considering compression techniques can vastly reduce the space needed for them and now storage really isn't an issue for most when running games off carts like Side3, AVG, or devices like SIO2SD. Loading each would be virtually instantaneous in some cases. (I often browse Rastaconverted images on Side 3 and they take less than a second to load).

 

FYI:

DAAD Adventure Writer

(Linux, MacOS, Windows)

DAAD is a multi-machine and multi-graphics adventure writer, enabling you to target a broad range of 8-bit and 16-bit systems. It was written by Tim Gilberts in the late 80s as an in-house solution for the legendary adventure forge Aventuras AD. It allows maintaining a single source file and then compile a database that is runnable through the interpreter of the target machines.

 

BTW one of my fav images which was posted on the Rastaconverted images pages over the last few years is MistsofSagorious.

Imagine this in an A8 graphical/text or even point and click adventure game:

 

MistsofSagorious

 

 

Here's an incompleted attempt of mine at visualising a graphical adventure/point and click, where likely the icons at the bottom would be in 2 x colour Hi res graphics mode:

 

XEX files of both attached

 

Anyway - apologies for going off on a tangent. I'll check out the new text adventure sometime - love the box art - thanks 

 

 

barkeeprpgsmincomplete3.xex MistsOfSagorious.xex

Edited June 10, 2021 by Beeblebrox
adding more info

[Gunstar]

4 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

Just checked out the pages for Eight feet under. Nice mix of text and Graphics available on other platforms.

 

Sorry to go off on a related tangent. I happened to clock that within the page zbyti posted in the link above there is a link to the Daad Adventure Writer. 

https://github.com/daad-adventure-writer/daad

 

Interestingly the list of targeted machines (inc 8 bit's like the C64) doesn't include A8. 

 

I am just generally imaging text adventure utilising the full graphical potential of our A8s with Rastaconverted images (Full or 1/3 or even 2/3 top half of a screen).

 

I convert a lot of rasta images and am amazed at what the A8 is more than capable of in that respect. Whilst they use up a lot of the A8 resources, (DLIs, PMGs, data etc), to display them, for a graphical text adventure there is certainly potential. Especially considering compression techniques can vastly reduce the space needed for them and now storage really isn't an issue for most when running games off carts like Side3, AVG, or devices like SIO2SD. Loading each would be virtually instantaneous in some cases. (I often browse Rastaconverted images on Side 3 and they take less than a second to load).

 

FYI:

DAAD Adventure Writer

(Linux, MacOS, Windows)

DAAD is a multi-machine and multi-graphics adventure writer, enabling you to target a broad range of 8-bit and 16-bit systems. It was written by Tim Gilberts in the late 80s as an in-house solution for the legendary adventure forge Aventuras AD. It allows maintaining a single source file and then compile a database that is runnable through the interpreter of the target machines.

 

BTW one of my fav images which was posted on the Rastaconverted images pages over the last few years is MistsofSagorious.

Imagine this in an A8 graphical/text or even point and click adventure game:

 

MistsofSagorious

 

 

Here's an incompleted attempt of mine at visualising a graphical adventure/point and click, where likely the icons at the bottom would be in 2 x colour Hi res graphics mode:

 

XEX files of both attached

 

Anyway - apologies for going off on a tangent. I'll check out the new text adventure sometime - love the box art - thanks 

 

 

barkeeprpgsmincomplete3.xex 22.11 kB · 4 downloads MistsOfSagorious.xex 22.09 kB · 4 downloads

Thanks, Mists is one of my earlier conversions and a fav of mine too.

[+orpheuswaking]

13 hours ago, Gunstar said:

I just pre-ordered the physical version of the game. It won't be released until August and I may have to wait a while for it to reach me after that, but it will be worth it! I love Infocom games, I've started re-collecting originals and when saw a physical copy could be bought that looks very similar to my Infocom titles, I couldn't resist. I need this in my collection too.

 

https://www.polyplay.xyz/navi.php?suche=Hibernated+1+-+Directors+Cut&lang=eng

 

 

Holy crap that is beautiful. I am not supposed to be buying any new stuff right now but I think I have to have that. 

[Beeblebrox]

52 minutes ago, Gunstar said:

Thanks, Mists is one of my earlier conversions and a fav of mine too.

@Gunstar  Ah, thought it might be one of yours but wasn't sure.  Honestly it was probably one of the earliest Rastaconverted images which made me take a step back an gaze in awe at just how good the A8 can be when pushed graphically. So much potential for Rastaconverted images in games in the right hands IMHO. As you prob know from the Rastaconveter image thread I am pretty much obessed by converting images now. Got some nice ones in the oven as we speak so hopefully post em this weekend.  See you there.

 

I digress - all this talk of text adventures reminds me it's been 25 odd years since I played Hitch Hikers GTTG. 

[zbyti]

https://darwinne.itch.io/the-queens-footsteps

https://darwinne.itch.io/two-days-to-the-race

 

and new in the series:

 

https://darwinne.itch.io/silk-dust

 

[ilmenit]

Many years back I created a framework to create point&click games:

Unfortunately nobody at the time was willing to make a game using it and the project got abandoned. However this year for Global Game Jam a team from Poland did a PoC game using it https://globalgamejam.org/2021/games/asteroidy-przyczyną-nieszczęść-życiowych-9 . According to information from the forum https://atarionline.pl/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=5850&page=1 they want to finish the project in near future, expanding the game engine further.

[Beeblebrox]

2 minutes ago, ilmenit said:

Many years back I created a framework to create point&click games:

Unfortunately nobody at the time was willing to make a game using it and the project got abandoned. However this year for Global Game Jam a team from Poland did a PoC game using it https://globalgamejam.org/2021/games/asteroidy-przyczyną-nieszczęść-życiowych-9 . According to information from the forum https://atarionline.pl/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=5850&page=1 they want to finish the project in near future, expanding the game engine further.

@ilmenit I came across the adventure creator in that thread back in April when I was cramming as much reading as possible of AA topics after my 20year break from all things A8.

 

Reading the thread at the time and thinking "at last" I was also quickly disappointed when it became apparent it never then picked up some momentum as you say. Especially when you could incorporate impressive visuals to great effect (Youtube vid). Reminds me of point and click games like Lure of the Tempterss on the ST. 

 

I too also read about the Global Game Jam game Asteroidy using the engine. Very encouraging that the game engine is being revitalised. I'll eagerly watch from the sidelines in coming months. Fingers crossed.

 

I am not a coder - (alas I neither have the skills set or brains for it ) - but I do plan to start drawing my own images to then convert with Rastaconverter. Probably use Graphx2 initially with my newly aquired Wacom graphics tablet. I watched a few video tutorials about Graph2font but thats a whole different ballgame and doesn't really give me the colour/definition output I want. Tbh I am hooked on the amazing images only Rastaconverter running millions, (often Billions),  of evaluations it can provide. At times it might be hit and miss and takes immense patience as is the nature of these things. That's half the challenge and appeal - but honestly when you get a good image and boot it up on real A8 hardware for the first time........it's all worth it.

 

Here I go again, sorry for going off on a tangent on this Text adventure thread - my bad. 

[ilmenit]

for the point&click game gfx in RastaConverted you would need to disable Player/Missile GFX for the cursor. RastaConverter is ready for this:

 

Command line option: /onoff=OnOff File
Text file that describes where to turn on and turn off usable registers.

The format of each line in "OnOff file" is:
REGISTER OFF|ON FROM TO
REGISTER is one of the following registers: COLOR0, COLOR1, COLOR2, COLBAK, COLPM0, COLPM1, COLPM2, COLPM3, HPOSP0, HPOSP1, HPOSP2, HPOSP3

OFF turns off the usage of registers in lines, ON turns on. ON is default for all the registers in the whole picture.
FROM is line number in picture starting from 0
TO is line number in picture up to Picture Height-1

Every line in "OnOff file" is processed one after another.

Example: To turn off usage of player 0 and player 1 in picture of height 240 pixels use the following OnOff file:
COLPM0 OFF 0 239
HPOSP0 OFF 0 239
COLPM1 OFF 0 239
HPOSP1 OFF 0 239