Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

People are still making stuff for the Sinclair related machines. Tell us about new games and other software that runs on the Spectrum, ZX80/ZX81, Pentagon and Next.
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Blerkotron
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

Alessandro wrote: Thu Nov 01, 2018 6:51 pm
Blerkotron wrote: Thu Nov 01, 2018 6:45 pm
Spoiler
Did you check the bath? Perhaps something to help you go fishing would help?
I suspected that too.
Spoiler
I guess I have to use the hook to get the item out of the bath, but the hook won't come away, and nothing in my possession seems to help.
Spoiler
There's something in the bathroom itself that'll help you with the hooks.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by R-Tape »

^Yep^, and it's not only doors and boxes that you OPEN ;)

I really like the direction the game takes after that, thumbs up Blerk!
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Blerkotron
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

Thanks! It's always hard to know how an adventure will be received so it's great to see so many people playing and enjoying it! :)
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

It seems strange to me playing a Spectrum text adventure in which you type 'I' (inventory) and the output is 'your keys and a mobile phone' :D

Anyway, cool adventure!
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Alessandro
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Alessandro »

Another dead end...
Spoiler
I managed to spill some of the monster's blood on the floor, but I cannot pick it up. I tried with the bottle but I cannot make any use of it.
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Blerkotron
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

Alessandro wrote: Fri Nov 02, 2018 4:59 pm Another dead end...
Spoiler
I managed to spill some of the monster's blood on the floor, but I cannot pick it up. I tried with the bottle but I cannot make any use of it.
Spoiler
Something from one of the kitchens will help you here. You may have seen it already but had no use for it until now.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Alessandro »

I did it! :D Here is the complete solution:
Spoiler
(You begin outside your house) GO FRONT DOOR, GO DINING, EXAMINE SIDEBOARD, OPEN DRAWERS (you find the menu), USE PHONE (it does not work), GO KITCHEN, OPEN FRIDGE (the ready meal is inside), USE MEAL WITH MICROWAVE (you hear a noise from the letterbox), GO DINING, GO HALLWAY, GET CARD, EXAMINE CARD, GO DINING, GO CUPBOARD, USE PHONE (you find the shed key), GET KEY, GO DINING, GO KITCHEN, GO BACK DOOR, OPEN SHED (you find the package), GET PACKAGE, GO GARDEN, GO KITCHEN, GO DINING, OPEN PACKAGE, GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO BEDROOM (you see the cat), TAKE CAT (you notice the presence of the book), GET BOOK, (you end up in the run-down kitchen), OPEN MICROWAVE (you find your keys), GO BACK DOOR, GO DINING, EXAMINE DEBRIS (you find a stick), GET STICK, GO CUPBOARD, EXAMINE JUNK (you find an instant camera), GET CAMERA, GO DINING, GO HALLWAY (the black creature is here), GO LANDING, USE STICK WITH HOLE (you find a screwdriver), GET SCREWDRIVER, GO BEDROOM, EXAMINE CORPSE x 2 (on the second time you find your phone), GET PHONE, USE SCREWDRIVER WITH PHONE (you remove the battery), USE BATTERY WITH CAMERA, EXAMINE BASKET (you find a box of matches), GO LANDING, GO HALLWAY, USE CAMERA (the creature disappears and you now have a photo of it), GO LANDING, GO BEDROOM, GO BATHROOM, OPEN TOILET (you find a wooden mallet), GO BEDROOM, GO LANDING, GO HALLWAY, GO DINING, GO CUPBOARD, USE MALLET WITH HOOK (it falls on the ground), GET HOOK, GO DINING, GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO BEDROOM, GO BATHROOM, USE HOOK WITH BATH (you extract a remote control), GO BEDROOM, GO LANDING, GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, EXAMINE PICTURES, EXAM SOFA (the cat is hiding under it), GET CAT (the cat is hungry), USE REMOTE WITH TV (after an interlude you return to the run-down kitchen), GO DINING, GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, GET REMOTE, USE REMOTE WITH TV (you are brought to your lounge), GO HALLWAY, GO DINING, GO KITCHEN, EXAMINE BIN (you find the ready meal), GO DINING, GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, USE REMOTE WITH TV (back to the dark house), GIVE MEAL TO CAT, GET CAT (you find a key), GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO OFFICE (a monster comes out of the mirror), GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, USE REMOTE WITH TV, GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO OFFICE, EXAMINE DESK, OPEN DRAWER (you find a bottle of brandy), GET BRANDY, USE MALLET WITH MIRROR (the mirror is smashed), LOOK (a shard of mirror is there), GET SHARD, GO LANDING, GO HALLWAY, GO DINING, USE SCREWDRIVER WITH FIREPLACE, GET POKER, GO HALLWAY (you are in the dark house again), GO DINING, EXAMINE FIREPLACE, USE POKER WITH ASHES, (you find the long key) GET KEY, GO CUPBOARD, USE KEY WITH TRAPDOOR, OPEN TRAPDOOR, EXAMINE SLAB, TAKE KNIFE (the book reacts to blood), GO TRAPDOOR, GO DINING, GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO OFFICE, (the monster is here), EXAMINE MONSTER (it is covered with sores), EXAMINE SORES, GO LANDING, GO HALLWAY, GO DINING, GO KITCHEN, OPEN MICROWAVE (you take the dead rat), GO DINING, GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO OFFICE, USE RAT WITH MONSTER, USE SHARD WITH MONSTER (blood flows on the floor), GO LANDING, GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, USE REMOTE WITH TV, GO HALLWAY, GO DINING, GO KITCHEN, OPEN CUPBOARD (you take the flask), GO DINING, GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, USE REMOTE WITH TV, GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO OFFICE, USE FLASK WITH BLOOD, GO LANDING, GO HALLWAY, GO DINING, GO CUPBOARD, GO TRAPDOOR, USE BLOOD WITH KNIFE (the knife falls to the floor), GET KNIFE, GET BOOK, GO TRAPDOOR, GO DINING, GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, USE REMOTE WITH TV, GO HALLWAY, GO DINING, USE BRANDY WITH BOOK, USE MATCHES WITH BOOK (you think about the cat), GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, USE REMOTE WITH TV, EXAMINE SOFA (the cat is there no more), GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO OFFICE, USE KNIFE WITH PHOTO, GO HALLWAY, GO LOUNGE, USE REMOTE WITH TV, GO HALLWAY, GO LANDING, GO BEDROOM, GO BATHROOM, USE CAT WITH BATH (you find yourself in darkness), USE MATCHES (you see an oil lamp), USE MATCH WITH LAMP, GET LAMP, EXAM SHELF, GO DOOR, GET STICK, USE STICK WITH EFFIGY (you find a bronze key), GET KEY, GO DOOR, EXAMINE BASKET, OPEN BASKET (the cat comes out of it), USE KEY WITH CLOCK (the book is here), USE LAMP WITH BOOK.
Now, what can I say? That was good fun; a "light" adventure so to speak, but really atmospheric - I appreciated the detailed and evocative descriptions very much. Quite a nice way to get back to text adventures after a long time I hadn't played one; everything felt "logic" and in no way twisted to the point of hair-pulling :D
Spoiler
And I am an avid lover of cats, so the presence of Shadow is a huge plus!
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Blerkotron
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

Thanks for the kind words, Alessandro - I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Kozelek »

Thanks to a tiny little bit of help from Alessandro's walkthrough (Yes, I know, I've always been awful with text adventures :lol: ) I managed to finished the game as well.

I love the story, the writing and the atmosphere. Seriously, this is one of the 8 bit text adventures I've enjoyed the most in recent times. I have to check the rest of your adventure games, and seriously, you have to write more like this one!

I don't think it's just a small story. Text adventures this large were considered "full length" during the days of the ZX Spectrum (though it may still be short by today's standards) Definitely, I finished playing it with the impression that it was as long as this story needed to be.

There is just this one thing that felt a bit weird in my opinion:
Spoiler
I had problems to understand the actions of the protagonist, risking his own life when he was about to burn the book for good, just to save the life of the cat. But perhaps that's just my problem, as I never had any pet.
In any case, a really good little horror adventure for the ZX Spectrum. Two thumbs way up!
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

It's what I like to call my "Sigourney Weaver moment".
Spoiler
Ripley does exactly this in the final stages of Alien. It makes no sense for her to risk her life to save the cat, but she does it anyway. :-)
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by stupidget »

I'm trying to get this game to work on my +2 via my DivMMC, but, it keeps saying 'out of memory.' All other 128k games, such as Gandlaf Deluxe, work fine.

Anybody else managed to get this game game to work via a DivMMC?
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

I've seen another DivMMC user complaining of the same thing, but I'm not sure why this would be because I'm not familiar with the hardware. It sounds like it's loading in 48K mode for some reason (you can get the same effect in an emulator by selecting a 128K machine but going to 48K before loading) but I dunno what influences that.

What I do know is that the other chap managed to get it going by making a snapshot of the game in an emulator and loading that on the DivMMC instead of the TAP file. If all else fails that might work for you too.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by 8BitAG »

Presumably you have a regular +2 rather than a +2A or +2B?
8-bit Text Adventure Gamer - games - research.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Alessandro »

DivMMCs and DivIDEs boot 128K Spectrums in USR0 mode, and under that, the adventure will always return an Out of memory error, presumably due to PAW's way of storing data across memory banks. This also happens with other PAW-authored 128K-only titles (e.g. Monster, Grimalkin The Cat).

To load them in 128 BASIC you could employ Velesoft's 128 BASIC Z80 snapshots for DivIDE. I cannot test them right now (I am not home) so download them and see what happens.

Copy the three Z80 files on the interface's memory card. Enter the interface's menu. Select the game tape file by highlighting it and press T, then run one of the three Z80 files according to your machine. The game should load automatically.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by stupidget »

Well butter my baps, that worked perfectly. loaded it up, took a Snapshot and it loads as normal now. Cheers
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

Thank you, Alessandro - would you mind if I adapted your post into a section in the documentation? With credit given, of course. :)
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Alessandro »

stupidget wrote: Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:24 pm Well butter my baps, that worked perfectly. loaded it up, took a Snapshot and it loads as normal now. Cheers
Great! I am glad to know that :D
Blerkotron wrote: Tue Nov 06, 2018 4:28 pm Thank you, Alessandro - would you mind if I adapted your post into a section in the documentation? With credit given, of course. :)
Sure I wouldn't! Go for it. ;)
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by WIWC »

Playing it.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

I just posted a quick update (1.01) which fixes a few typos and adds some new messages based on difficulties I saw people having with a few of the puzzles. There is also an updated HTML version which uses some of the more advanced features of Adventuron!

More details here:
https://blerkotron.itch.io/unhallowed/d ... 1-released
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Alessandro »

Hi [mention]Blerkotron[/mention], here's an update to the fix. This should work under all circumstances (tested by myself with ESXDOS 0.8.6).

1. Download Velesoft's .Z80 snapshot pack from the above link and copy them to your CF/SD card.
2. Press the NMI button on your interface, then select the UNHALLOWED.TAP file and press I.
3. While still in the interface menu, select one of the three snapshot according to the Spectrum model you are using and press ENTER.
4. The game will load and run as normal.

Optionally, before copying Velesoft's snapshots to your card you can rename them to 128.Z80, PLUS2.Z80 and PLUS2A.Z80 to better distinguish them in the file menu, because ESXDOS has no long name file support at this time and will truncate their names.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by PQR »

Blerkotron wrote: Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:38 pm Not silly, it's a beautiful font!

http://www.type-invaders.com/sinclair/clairsys/
Thank you! It gives me great joy to see Clairsys being used.

And congrats: very nice work on the adventure!

-Paul
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by WIWC »

Seems pretty good.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

Alessandro wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 8:21 pm Hi @Blerkotron, here's an update to the fix. This should work under all circumstances (tested by myself with ESXDOS 0.8.6).

1. Download Velesoft's .Z80 snapshot pack from the above link and copy them to your CF/SD card.
2. Press the NMI button on your interface, then select the UNHALLOWED.TAP file and press I.
3. While still in the interface menu, select one of the three snapshot according to the Spectrum model you are using and press ENTER.
4. The game will load and run as normal.

Optionally, before copying Velesoft's snapshots to your card you can rename them to 128.Z80, PLUS2.Z80 and PLUS2A.Z80 to better distinguish them in the file menu, because ESXDOS has no long name file support at this time and will truncate their names.
Thank you, Alessandro - that's fantastic! I'll update the docs for the next version.
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Blerkotron »

PQR wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 9:08 pm
Blerkotron wrote: Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:38 pm Not silly, it's a beautiful font!

http://www.type-invaders.com/sinclair/clairsys/
Thank you! It gives me great joy to see Clairsys being used.

And congrats: very nice work on the adventure!

-Paul
I spent so long staring at it in the PAW editor it seemed weird to go back to the standard ROM font when I reset. :)

Amazing work, Paul - thank you so much!
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Re: Unhallowed - a spooky text adventure for Halloween

Post by Andre Leao »

At last completed this brilliant adventure, one of the best I have ever tried. Superb in all aspects, and, as an animal lover and owning 9 cats, I particulary enjoyed Shadow :)

Just one small note, if you go to save Shadow without the knife, you get stuck on that room...

Review soon at the blog, but it is a mega game, for sure.
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