Colossal Cave Adventure

[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.

[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?

[sixxie]

That's dead clever. Now then, how does one get anywhere in this game...

[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

[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

[Alastair]

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

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