Got it all back - at last

[Julian]

Well most of it

Freshly delivered from the depths of my parent's loft before they move house - some things are missing, most frustratingly my cassette decks...

The two computers (a 32 and a 64) seem to work just fine, slightly tarnished cartridge contacts and without an standard rf cable anywhere (who would have thought that would be a problem...) I had to resort to using my RGB/scart cable that never once worked in the past but works just fine now (I guess more TVs support RGB these days).

I'm now weighed down with a few boxes of Dragon paraphenalia, books, magazines, tapes (lots of tapes) and even joysticks and a lightpen

What I can't do is test any of the software without a working cassette deck so I thought I'd list it up here - I think most of this is in the archive but some of it I guarantee is not so if anyone can help me get it transferred to a digital copy some help would be appreciated!

So here is the list (in the order I pulled them out of the boxes):
Rainbow Writer
Turtle Graphics
Sprite Magic
Worlds of Flight
Drone Datatank
Cricklewood Incident
Night Flight
Red Meanies
Wings Of War
Mansion of Doom
Gridrunner
Everest
Salamander Software Games Compendium D1
Laser Zone
Golf
Fishy Business
Quest
Machine Language Tutorial
Teleforth
Super Spy
Transylvanian Tower
Movie Producer
Dodo
Moon Hopper
Graphics Animator
Frogger
UgH!
Flipper
Ice Castles
Module Man
Cuthbert & The Golden Chalice
Bandito
Skramble
Cashman
Fury
Morroco GP
Zaxxon
Strategic Command
Shark Treasure
Beanstalker
Airball
747 Flight Simulator
Fire Force
Jungle Search
BC Bill
Doodlebug
Boulder Crash
Touchtyping Tutor
Monster Maths
Fun To Learn
Formula One
Jerusalem Adventure 2
Demon Seed
Bubblebuster
Planet Invasion
Cuthbert In Space
Mansion Adventure 1
Caverns Of Doom
Juniors Revenge
Mazerace/Spellbox
Pettigrews Diary
Pit Fiend
Donkey Kong
Danger Ranger
Beam Rider
Pedro
Rommels Revenge
Keys Of The Wizard
Slide
Fearless Freddy
Tea Time
Datafall
Scarfman
Katepillar Attack
Glaxxons
Ultimate Adventure 4
Toppler
Barmy Burgers
Intergalactic Force
Space War
Copta Snatch
Buzzard Bait (with dongle)
Programmer Utilities
Return Of The Ring
Ring Of Darkness
Assembler (no idea which one)
Caverns Of Chaos
Trapped! (I have a vague memory that this might be my own coding effort)
Juxtaposition
Lunar
Telewriter
Total Eclipse (1.1 and 1.3)
Total Eclipse Editor 1.4 (this is definitely mine - a more advanced version than the one I had published in Dragon User)
Alcatraz
Deadwood
Flag
Volcanic Dungeon
Escape
Defense
Startrek
Breakout
Blitz

There are probably more but not all of the tapes are correctly labelled and of course no guarantees that the tapes actually work either - 25 years of being stored in a warm/hot loft probably haven't done them any favours

[Julian]

Forgot to mention there are a number of books too:

The Working Dragon 32
Best of PC World Software for the Dragon 32
Further Programming for the Dragon 32
PC World 35 Programs for the Dragon 32
Virgin Games for Your Dragon 32
The Dragon 32: Dragon Companion
PC World Educational Programs for the Dragon 32
Sixty Programs for the Dragon 32
Motorola 6809 Assembly Language Programming

If I have the patience I will scan these

[Alastair]

After a quick check against the .CAS archive page I have highlighted in red everything that does not appear there and thus requires further investigation (as this does not mean that they are not in the archive because it is possible they may have been uploaded and can be found in the Uploads section of the forum). Anything in blue is a comment by myself.

747 Flight Simulator
Airball
Alcatraz
Assembler (no idea which one) [difficult to tell if you don't know which one!]
Bandito
Barmy Burgers
BC Bill
Beam Rider
Beanstalker
Blitz
Boulder Crash
Breakout
Bubblebuster
Buzzard Bait (with dongle) [the archive has cracked copies so that they can be played without the dongle]
Cashman
Caverns of Chaos
Caverns of Doom
Copta Snatch
Cricklewood Incident [appears in the archive's listing as The Cricklewood Incident]
Cuthbert and the Golden Chalice
Cuthbert in Space
Danger Ranger
Datafall
Deadwood
Defense
Demon Seed
Dodo [although it appears as Do Do in the archive I assume that they refer to the same game]
Donkey Kong
Doodlebug
Drone Datatank
Escape [the archive contains version 1.0, is this also version 1.0?]
Everest
Fearless Freddy
Fire Force
Fishy Business
Flag
Flipper
Formula One [appears in the archive's listing as Formula 1]
Frogger
Fun to Learn
Fury
Glaxxons
Golf [various companies released a game with this title, several are in the archive]
Graphics Animator [although it appears as Graphic Animator in the archive I assume that they refer to the same program]
Gridrunner
Ice Castles
Intergalactic Force
Jerusalem Adventure 2
Jungle Search
Juniors Revenge
Juxtaposition
Katepillar Attack
Keys of the Wizard
Laser Zone
Lunar
Machine Language Tutorial
Mansion Adventure 1
Mansion of Doom
Mazerace/Spellbox
Module Man
Monster Maths
Moon Hopper
Morroco GP
Movie Producer
Night Flight
Pedro
Pettigrews Diary
Pit Fiend
Planet Invasion
Programmer Utilities
Quest
Rainbow Writer
Red Meanies
Return of the Ring
Ring of Darkness [appears in the archive's listing as The Ring of Darkness]
Rommels Revenge
Salamander Software Games Compendium D1
Scarfman
Shark Treasure
Skramble
Slide
Space War
Sprite Magic [the archive contains version 2.1, is this also version 2.1?]
Startrek
Strategic Command
Super Spy
Tea Time
Teleforth
Telewriter
Toppler
Total Eclipse (1.1 and 1.3) [I've had some problems with Total Eclipse as related in another post does your version 1.3 alleviate this problem?]
Total Eclipse Editor 1.4 (this is definitely mine - a more advanced version than the one I had published in Dragon User)
Touchtyping Tutor
Transylvanian Tower
Trapped! (I have a vague memory that this might be my own coding effort)
Turtle Graphics
Ugh!
Ultimate Adventure 4
Volcanic Dungeon
Wings of War [not presently on the archive page, but I have uploaded it (you can find it in the Uploads section)]
Worlds of Flight
Zaxxon

[Julian]

You beat me to it.... was going to check against the archive when I got some time

The Golf title is the Salamander Software one.

As for the total eclipse problems, until I can get the tape transferred to wav or cas format I really don't know. The original tape is missing (which suggests I have yet another box of treasures left somewhere) so whatever problems the 1.3 version fixed I really can't say.

The copy of Escape just gives the title so I have to assume that it is the 1.0 version

Sprite Magic also doesn't show a version number - just a copyright date of 1984 which I imagine all of them have.

[Alastair]

The Golf title is the Salamander Software one.

The Salamander version is in the archive.

As for the total eclipse problems, until I can get the tape transferred to wav or cas format I really don't know. The original tape is missing (which suggests I have yet another box of treasures left somewhere) so whatever problems the 1.3 version fixed I really can't say.

The problem I have is with my copy of version 1.3, the problem being that the universe does not match the map of the universe shown in Dragon User (a map that states that it is for v1.3). So I wonder if all copies of v1.3 shipped with the same universe layout.

The copy of Escape just gives the title so I have to assume that it is the 1.0 version

Sprite Magic also doesn't show a version number - just a copyright date of 1984 which I imagine all of them have.

You may have to run these programs to discover their version numbers, which I appreciate is something that you cannot do at the moment.

[Julian]

The Total Eclipse universe map is procedurally generated from a random seed - the result being that the map doesn't actually exist as such. If the random number generator in your (assumedly) emulated computer is any different from the one in a real Dragon then the universe will be different.

The easy test is to to simply run a loop and see if the rnd function consistently returns the same sequence against that from a real computer - any differences mean that a game like Total Eclipse would be essentially unplayable since the odds of finding a substitute seed that gives useful results is pretty slim.

I spent a lot of time (I mean a LOT of time) pulling Total Eclipse apart when it was released and a good 99% of that I have forgotten and lost all my notes on. The program itself isn't actually all that complex drawing heavily on the simplistic trading elements of other open-ended space-trading/combat games (*cough*ELITE*cough*) without any of the complexity of the space combat bit that made such games truly interesting with a staying power that has yet to be equalled.

The editor I wrote was an attempt to access the deeper elements of the game which I quickly came to realise didn't actually exist - the complexity being locating the sources of the hardware you needed and where to trade to get the cash to buy the hardware without getting yourself killed. I suspect if I was to go back and look at the game again I might come to different conclusions - I was pretty young at the time with fairly different perspectives on what makes a good game. It also marked the tail end of my interest in 8 bit computing of that time, after that I messed around with the 42 column semi-graphics modes to produce some scrolling demos along with multi-channel music but that was just an effort to prove I could do what the 16 bit computers were doing. The results weren't particularly impressive...

[Alastair]

The Total Eclipse universe map is procedurally generated from a random seed - the result being that the map doesn't actually exist as such. If the random number generator in your (assumedly) emulated computer is any different from the one in a real Dragon then the universe will be different.

The easy test is to to simply run a loop and see if the rnd function consistently returns the same sequence against that from a real computer - any differences mean that a game like Total Eclipse would be essentially unplayable since the odds of finding a substitute seed that gives useful results is pretty slim.

Interesting, until now I thought that only the letter codes changed but that the resources of each planet stayed the same. I've been attempting to play Total Eclipse on T3 rather than XRoar simply because I've never got around to buying a USB joystick, but I always assumed that T3's random number generator was accurate. Perhaps I'd better do that test...

[Julian]

I have to admit that I gave up on deciphering on the universe generation engine. All I remember was agonising hours of tracing through the code before realising I was getting nowhere fast (this is more my then ignorance of formal methods than any particular complexity). Deciphering the save game was substantially easier, these days there are extensive tools for doing this automatically of course but instead I had to make do with loading and saving and repeatedly, the only saving grace being I had two Dragons working side-by-side.

The use of a random number generator to work the universe generation engine is moot but I don't know for sure if it uses the standard generator or if it implemented one itself - it was only when you replied that I even considered that it may not be standard...

[Sarah]

Yes, that's a good point. If the random number generator used by the game is interrupt based then it may well give different results running on T3; otherwise I'd guess there's a decent chance of it behaving the same way.

[snarkhunter]

Assembler (no idea which one) [difficult to tell if you don't know which one!]

I believe it would just take loading it once to make sure, or LIST-ing it to see if any Copyright information will be displayed.

Lunar

This one is most likely to be "Lunar Rover Patrol" (Dragon Data).