Page 1 of 1

How to save adventure created with PAWS?

Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 4:20 am
by jetsetmike
I currently have several emulators running on my PC and I want to write an adventure using PAWS. This is no problem as I can save a snapshot as I go but I want to be able to save out a stand alone adventure. Currently PAWS writes a tape file when I ask it to save adventure. Trouble is I have no tape recorder to use (even if I could attach to my PC and make it work).

So my big question is can any emulator be used to save my adventure and if so, which emulator and how please.
Mike

Re: How to save adventure created with PAWS?

Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 6:56 am
by 8BitAG
Hi Mike,

I'm a regular user of PAWs, writing text adventures back in the day and brand new adventures during the past couple of years. Although I do have a couple of copies of the PAW, I tend to do all my development on an emulator these days.

In my opinion, and also the opinion of the guy who wrote the software, the best version of PAW to use, running on an emulator, is the Spectrum +3 version... It ensures compatibility across the board and also loads in overlays from disk automatically, so you don't need to faff about with tape controls. You can save a game out both to disk and tape from this version.

Saving an adventure as a standalone game is easy. You just save it out to a new tape file that can be created in the emulator. This is a emulated file, in .TAP or .TZX format, that can be read by pretty much every emulator and modern storage solutions for real Spectrum... This is the standard format that games are shared in these days (if you're not outputting to an audio file/real tape.)

(Once you create the blank .TAP/.TZX file, there is normally some virtual tape controls in the emulator that you can hit record on so that when the PAWs saves out the game, the game is 'recorded' on that emulated file.)

If you've got any questions about using PAWs etc. then please ask. There's quite a thriving community using the Gilsoft tools like the Quill, the PAWs, and DAAD these days, so we can help with virtually anything.

I personally use inPAWs for development on PC these days, regularly exporting the game in a few clicks to run on my emulated copy of the PAWs. Most of my games then end up being converted to DAAD which allows me to target the Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Commodore 64, MSX, Atari ST, Amiga, and PC (DOS).

Re: How to save adventure created with PAWS?

Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 7:08 am
by 8BitAG
Here is a screenshot of what I have running when I'm developing a PAWed text adventure...

Image

Anything I code on the PC can be tested in PAWs on the Spectrum emulator within a few seconds. It's the best of both worlds... the speed and convenience of text editor-driven source code with the instant testing of the Spectrum PAWs.

Re: How to save adventure created with PAWS?

Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 7:52 pm
by jetsetmike
High 8BitAG

Thanks for that info and I will give the +3 a go and also look at inPAWS you mention.

Back in my Speccy days I used PAWS a lot and thought I would have another go with PC.

Would like a spectrum but out here they are going for about 200 pounds!!!!!
Mike

PS Any idea where I can download a copy of the +3 PAW as I have only found about two versions and none say which version they are!

Re: How to save adventure created with PAWS?

Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:03 pm
by 8BitAG
What is often labelled the "+3 version" is actually the CP/M version, especially on sites that aren't currently maintained.

The officially authorised Gilsoft repository is here, on Stefan Vogt's site...
http://8-bit.info/the-gilsoft-adventure-systems/

The +3 version is on there.