Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

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8BitAG
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Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by 8BitAG »

(Following on from a discussion on Stardot and observations made by the excellent forum members there...) The earliest multi-format Level 9 adverts (and indeed the BBC one from around the same time) list the games as being available in both 16K and "32K" format...

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...These 16K versions... including a potential Spectrum 16K one, don't appear to be listed in the ZXDB database or indeed archived online anywhere. Similarly, the ZX81 versions (presumably 16K only) don't appear to be listed or archived.

Does anyone have any knowledge of these? Similar adverts make appearances in various magazines, until Dungeon Adventure was released and the games started being listed as requiring "32K".

As an aside, the date of publication for Colossal Adventure, Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure in ZXDB is currently 1983... The advert above dates from September 1982, so that 1983 date is incorrect. Dungeon Adventure is also advertised in some January 1983 magazine issues, so it seems like it just scraped a 1982 release date too.
Last edited by 8BitAG on Fri Jan 17, 2020 8:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by zedex82 »

This looks like an advert stating it is for the BBC Model A (16k) and BBC Model B (32k). I would imagine that when this advert was printed the Spectrum version was not available. I guess they were creating the spectum version at the time and did not want to miss an opertunity to advertise the fact it will be available on another platform other than the BBC.

As far as I can remember Colossal Adventure was only ever available on the 48K Spectrum when it was released.
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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by 8BitAG »

zedex82 wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:55 pm This looks like an advert stating it is for the BBC Model A (16k) and BBC Model B (32k). I would imagine that when this advert was printed the Spectrum version was not available. I guess they were creating the spectum version at the time and did not want to miss an opertunity to advertise the fact it will be available on another platform other than the BBC.

As far as I can remember Colossal Adventure was only ever available on the 48K Spectrum when it was released.
There is a similar, but different advert for the BBC alone...
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The first advert I posted seems to indicate it was available for ZX81 and Spectrum. You'd expect a Spectrum 16K version to be available if you saw that advert. Like I said, it was printed (in different forms) in multiple magazines.

Image

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Mike Austin has said in the past; "We targeted computers down to about 8K. I have a feeling we may have done a 4K version [of Colossal Adventure] at some point. The text usually compressed to about 25% of its original size."
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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by zedex82 »

If you look at page 89 of the Software Index Magazine

https://archive.org/details/SoftwareInd ... 3/page/n89

It shows Colossal Adventure needing 32k. Confusing
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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by 8BitAG »

zedex82 wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 8:16 pm If you look at page 89 of the Software Index Magazine

https://archive.org/details/SoftwareInd ... 3/page/n89

It shows Colossal Adventure needing 32k. Confusing
As I mentioned before, in the later adverts, that came along in 1983 after Dungeon Adventure was released the "16K" versions have obviously been retired and the "32K" versions are standard.

The original version advertised for Nascom was 16K only, despite the later version for Nascom (which appears alongside the known Spectrum version) as needing 32K.

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Level 9 had an earlier "smaller" version of Colossal Cave that only required 16K. It seems, from adverts, that this was definitely made available (albeit maybe only for an extremely short time) for BBC. The original advert in the thread, definitely implies it was also available for Spectrum and ZX81.

Remember, this is before Level 9 were properly established. When they were duplicating their games on TDK cassettes in the plastic bags with the coloured card inlays.

(I am, of course, aware that it wouldn't be the first time that a format was listed in an advert that a game was never actually ported to. :) We have quite a few examples of that! It could easily be that these adverts were placed at a time when they were really close to, or hoping to, get 16K versions for the Spectrum, ZX81 out but, for various reasons, that never happened... Would've been a few disappointed customers responding to the adverts if that were the case, I imagine.)
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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by 5MinuteRetro »

8BitAG wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 8:27 pm Remember, this is before Level 9 were properly established. When they were duplicating their games on TDK cassettes in the plastic bags with the coloured card inlays.
...and that gives me a reason to indulge in my occasional obsession of looking up on Google Street View the addresses of ancient software houses. :) Here's the Level 9 HQ. Looks pretty nice.

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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by 8BitAG »

Just adding a note here to say that Mark Hardisty, of the Classic Adventurer, contacted Mike & Pete on our behalf to ask about the Level 9 games...

Mike answered...
Yes, there were quite a few 16K versions in the early days. The main difference was usually that the text was precised down to a very small size. I don't have a comprehensive list unfortunately.
So, yes, 16K versions existed, so I guess we can assume that they existed for the formats mentioned in those adverts; namely BBC, Nascom (which is confirmed anyway), Spectrum, and... ZX81!
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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by Morkin »

I may have mis-remembered this but wasn't the Speccy 48k version already a cut down version (of the original Adventure)?

I guess as your aim was just gathering treasures it was the sort of text adventure that let you cut bits out if needed, rather than having a sort of full 'integrated' solution.
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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by 8BitAG »

Morkin wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 10:40 am I may have mis-remembered this but wasn't the Speccy 48k version already a cut down version (of the original Adventure)?
No, the Spectrum 48K version of Colossal Adventure was an *expanded* version of the original Adventure.
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Re: Colossal Adventure/Adventure Quest... 16K?

Post by Morkin »

Ah right. My bad.

I think my first encounter with this was "Classic Adventure". Always got confused with the different releases... :?
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