For Fans of Old Infocom Games - Something New

[8bit_era]

On 8/15/2021 at 4:32 PM, glurk said:

I didn't do much...  It's just the stock Infocom interpreter setup to run the .z3 file.  It was just a matter of setting it up to work, which is easy if you know how.  I just got done with making images of all 24 Infocom games (newest revisions) so I knew how...

 

It's so ODD that he didn't release TRS-80 versions, other than the CoCo one.  I mean, Zork FIRST came out on TRS-80 originally....

Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party  There was of course a reason why Hibernated 1 DC had not been ported to the TRS-80 Model 3 and 4. But it's probably not what you expect it is. It's simply that I wasn't able to automate the process. Hibernated 1 DC now supports 30(!) home computers from the 80s and early 90s. With so many target systems, you can imagine that I don't want to do anything by hand. Before I started porting and expanding the classic Hibernated from 2018 to the Z-Machine, ultimately resulting in the Director's Cut, I created a set of BuildTools that assists me with creating disk images and bundling releases. (ref. https://github.com/ByteProject/Puddle-BuildTools) What the BuildTools do is simple: they take my PunyInform source, compile the game to an Infocom story file and then and generate 30 ready to use disk images from it. That allows me to focus on writing rather than fiddling around manually with disk images for every supported system. That being said, the major problem with Model 3 and Model 4 was, that there simply is no command line utility available that allows adding the story file to the disk images in an automated build environment. The BuildTools are Linux based, which turned out to be very efficient and a gift for all the other platforms but it's been a real problem finding a command line tool for Linux that supports manipulating TRS-80 M3/4 disk images. I intentionally said WAS, because TRS-80 Model 3 and 4 are now officially supported by the BuildTools. It kinda is still a hack, because if you're on a Linux system you need to execute a Windows binary using Wine to get the files on a TRS-80 disk. You don't need to use Wine if you're working with WSL2 though, like I do. 

 

Anyway, after I've added support for TRS-80 Model 3 & 4 to the BuildTools, I was able to officially port the game to said systems, which I did. I rolled out release 12 of Hibernated 1 Director's Cut some weeks ago and it now comes with self-executing disk images for both systems. Note that the Model 4 flavor uses the M4ZVM interpreter that my buddy Shawn Sijnstra made. He helped me with the creation of sanitized disk images for the BuildTools as well. Another pretty significant news regarding the release 12 of H1DC is that I recreated a way of making use of Infocom's late 2-disk interpreter for the Atari 8-bit. The advantage is that you can now make use of the full 128k a v3 Z-Machine game can have and you don't have to deal with disk sizes. This was actually very hard to achieve since the knowledge how to do this was... let's say a little bit lost in time. You cannot use a stock Z-Machine file, instead you have to manipulate it by setting various flags and also split it at the right offset. There is no compiler to do this anymore so I have to patch the compiled binary before it is being split at the desired offset.  You can see the result looking at the screens below. BTW... I've added targeting the late Infocom Atari 8-bit interpreter to the BuildTools as well. If you fire up the buildscript it uses by standard the older single disk interpreter, but if you execute the buildscript with flag -2 it will build your game using the late, 2-disk interpreter. The process is documented in the BuildTools readme. 

 

Happy adventuring

[Chris+++]

How cool! I didn't even know Inform was available for eight-bit computers. It's such a great utility. I'm glad I checked out this thread. Thanks, Dr. Venkman!

I'll certainly be picking up Hibernated 1. I'm a pre-graphics Infocom fanatic. It's beyond awesome that you've created something in that vein, Stephan. It ain't as easy as it looks, and it doesn't even look easy.

 

[Gunstar]

My pre-ordered Atari 800/XL/XE edition of H1DC arrived a week or two ago. And though I haven't played it yet, I opened it, took out the poster and have it and the box proudly displayed with the rest of my burgeoning Infocom (and hopefully more Poly-Play/Puddle games in the future, especially since a few are already out for digital download) collection, now over-flowing into my slightly-redesigned HHGTTG shrine. Hopefully I'll have to move my war game collection up-top to make room for more Infocom and Puddle text adventures.

 

A copy of the paperback book edition of 'Stationfall' was also obtained and added, though I have yet to own the game or it's prequel 'Planetfall.'

 

I'll have to go visit Poly-Play again and see what has been released for the TRS-80 Coco, since releases for it were mentioned above and since I have one myself now (as seen partially in the picture, still awaiting it's own monitor).

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Gunstar

[Gunstar]

I see it's only H1DC out for the Coco so far, just like the Atari 8-bit.

 

  By the way guys, while I was waiting for the release of the Atari 8-bit edition of H1DC, I often visited Poly-Play for updates on my order, and while there on several occasions I purchased other products from them that all were filled and shipped and arrived very fast from Germany, or Poland, sorry I forget offhand which. They have good prices and reasonable shipping, even half-way around the world and seem to manage to ship faster than other's from the same region.

 

I've bought several very reasonably priced, new old stock Avalon Hill classics from them, in there very collectible sturdy boxes with little extras inside too. and I got the vinyl keycap labels I used for my custom Atari 800CX computer from them as well. Available in black and white. I bought a couple other items that I don't recall at the moment, but I'm very happy with service and prices.

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Gunstar

[Chris+++]

Awesome collection!

 

[Gunstar]

Thanks @Chris+++, I've got a few more things, but I'm actually in the middle of doing repairs and modifications on my whole installation there, and just taking pics of it all here and there where work is finished or framing it to to specific stuff and hide areas. When I'm done and everything is set I'll put pictures up in a blog or album in my profile. If you are really interested in seeing more, I have an album of older pictures of my collection on another forum site.  But pm me as I'm really not trying to push a show-and-tell on my collection on the community masses that may care less.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Gunstar

[Chris+++]

Understood. Will do.