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Colossal Cave Adventure

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:25 am
by sorchard
The attached zip contains three disk image files:

- A clean .scp flux image captured from an original disk
- An .xml file converted from the .scp file by hxc floppy emulator software
- A .dmk file that will run in xroar (type BOOT to run)

Edit: Needs a 64K machine to run

The original disk is mixed density and has a custom sector numbering scheme that cannot be represented by the more basic disk image formats.

The .dmk file was created by a custom script as the hxc software fails to export a usable .dmk file.

The script may turn out to be useful for converting mixed density disks in general, so I will put it up on gitlab when I've refined and tested it some more.

Re: Colossal Cave Adventure

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 11:22 pm
by Alastair
Thank you. I look forward to trying it out.

Did the original need a 64k Dragon, or is this a result of removing the copy protection?

Re: Colossal Cave Adventure

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 12:00 pm
by sixxie
That's dead clever. Now then, how does one get anywhere in this game... ;)

Re: Colossal Cave Adventure

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 12:38 pm
by robcfg
Does it really need 64KB?

And, does it change the memory map for copying things from disk to the high memory area?

I remember asking Stew about it during the meetup :mrgreen:

Re: Colossal Cave Adventure

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 1:58 pm
by sorchard
The original definitely required 64K. Browsing the disk contents reveals elements of the Flex OS, which lives in high memory. The third sector appears to contain some map0/map1 switching code. I don't want to look too closely as I would like to play the game properly without spoilers :)

Compressing either the dmk or the xml results in a file size >40K, so I don't imagine it would be easy to get working on a 32K machine.

The copy protection is 'simply' the combination of double and single density tracks with peculiar sector numbering.
I haven't modified anything beyond copying the original disk contents to a virtual disk format that supports the weirdness.

I've played a little on xroar and have solved a couple of simple puzzles. Definitely a pencil and paper job this one :)

Re: Colossal Cave Adventure

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2023 9:57 pm
by Alastair
sixxie wrote: Thu Oct 12, 2023 12:00 pm That's dead clever. Now then, how does one get anywhere in this game... ;)
IN
get everything you can see (sadly GET ALL does not work)
OUT
travel south until you reach the grate
OPEN GRATE
D
and I'll leave you to it :D

(Don't forget to pick up the axe after the dwarf appears, and to THROW AXE, GET AXE whenever a dwarf reappears.)