Fairground Fantasy - Seriously WTF Is Going On?

[daelectron]

I have a tape called Fairground Fantasy by Abrasco. It states it is a text adventure with the graphics of a fairground.

The instructions tell you to load the game with CLOAD. You then need to type RUN to get it started. It shows a fairground, plays some god-awful music, pointlessly scrolls the screen five times then craps out with OK. You can then CLOAD some instructions which tell you some background on the game. When these finish a screen says something like Reset your Dragon, then CLOAD the final part and type RUN.

If you do this in XRoar, it doesn't seem to work very well; you get a ?OM error when you load in the final part with CLOAD "GAME". However, if you type: PCLEAR 3 (ENTER) and then CLOAD "GAME" the game at least does start.

The game can be listed and appears to be complete and not corrupted.

However, as you wander around it crashes out on almost every move. Try going on the waltzers - blue screen appears with HELP in big letters. Quite.

Say 'no' to the gypsy who wants to read your fortune, then go North. Screen crashes out immediately.

I loaded up the .CAS version from the archive and it has exactly the same errors.

Anyone got any idea of how to play this, or whether or not all original cassettes were totally unplayable?

[Alastair]

Listing shows the following:

Code: Select all

9 IFPEEK(32767)<255THENPCLEAR2: [snip] :POKE 32767,255

When using XRoar (either Dragon 32, or 64 in 32 mode) before running the game PRINT PEEK(32767) gives 255 so the rest of the line is not carried out.

A simple POKE 32767,254 before running the game seems to solve the initial problems, though I don't know if it solves everything else.

[sixxie]

This reinforces the idea that the initial RAM state of the Dragon 32 differs to the 64 (it's almost certainly entirely down to what sort of chips are used, in what organisation). My 64 starts up with that location containing 255, so it wouldn't work there - suspect the game was only ever tested on a 32 before release!

[zephyr]

I have a tape called Fairground Fantasy by Abrasco. It states it is a text adventure with the graphics of a fairground.

The instructions tell you to load the game with CLOAD. You then need to type RUN to get it started. It shows a fairground, plays some god-awful music, pointlessly scrolls the screen five times then craps out with OK. You can then CLOAD some instructions which tell you some background on the game. When these finish a screen says something like Reset your Dragon, then CLOAD the final part and type RUN.

If you do this in XRoar, it doesn't seem to work very well; you get a ?OM error when you load in the final part with CLOAD "GAME". <snip>

I have just uploaded a slightly modified (bug fix) version of the game to the Uploads section.

[Alastair]

This reinforces the idea that the initial RAM state of the Dragon 32 differs to the 64 (it's almost certainly entirely down to what sort of chips are used, in what organisation). My 64 starts up with that location containing 255, so it wouldn't work there - suspect the game was only ever tested on a 32 before release!

On start up my Dragon 32 contains the value 240 at location 32767 (locations 32760 to 32766, inclusive, are all zero).