Spectrum Computing

before you flame me, just to be clear, I cannot replicate the sheer awesomeness of the original. this is a drastically cut down version tailored to fit on the 16k spectrum. hopefully, the screenshot alone gives enough info. in order to conserve space, i removed quite a few locations and jettisoned the idea of a parser altogether, viewing it as unnecessary. this is as close as I could get. I'd try a zx81 version, but EightyOne has problems with the display.

https://ibb.co/jumsbx

Good luck fella, adventure games are a great way to learn. draw out your map first, that makes creating the array for the locations so much easier.

Lot of great articles and books that go through the whole process.

Invent and Write Games Programs for the Spectrum - Noel Williams. That is my fav book about writing games for the spectrum in Basic (at the moment anyway..)

It's got an general title but its mostly about writing adventure games. It covers everything you need in depth, lots of diagrams and is well written.

The INPUT magazine series that you can find on archive.org is nice high level introduction to 80s microcomputers. In the UK this was a popular series many families bought this so 'the kids can learn computers'. Why this is useful is you have a program that is shown on 4-5 systems. For stuff like general concepts its nice to see how they were implemented on different systems. Sometimes it helps a concept sink in if you can see it done in 4-5 different types of basic.

INFOCOM has a big section on archive.org you can look at the programmers notes, lots of company stuff that is useful in creating adventure games.

If you want to try and squeeze The Hobbit into 16K then it's your time and Good Luck.

Why don't you look into coding a text-compression routine first though?
They're pretty easy to write and you'll end up with a lot more memory to play with.

MrPixel wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 1:17 am before you flame me, just to be clear, I cannot replicate the sheer awesomeness of the original. this is a drastically cut down version tailored to fit on the 16k spectrum. hopefully, the screenshot alone gives enough info. in order to conserve space, i removed quite a few locations and jettisoned the idea of a parser altogether, viewing it as unnecessary. this is as close as I could get. I'd try a zx81 version, but EightyOne has problems with the display.

A very simplistic BASIC-only version of The Hobbit is actually a cool idea!

I suggest you get as far as you can, then submit the result to CSSCGC

As it is it's more sophisticated than half the csscgc entries, so just submit it!
Shaun is waiting for text adventures!

i put it in new software 2018, took a bit of time to upload, thank god for fuse

You could try giving this book a read. It's written for the 48K Spectrum, but with some trimming you could probably get something that fits on the 16K. The location descriptions would likely take up the most memory, so halving the lengths of those would help. Additionally, while the book READs the strings into a giant array, this wastes memory as it duplicates them in both the program and the variables area. Instead, you could use a RESTORE nnnn statement each time you need a string from memory, and then READ only a single string at a time.

Kweepa wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:47 am As it is it's more sophisticated than half the csscgc entries, so just submit it!
Shaun is waiting for text adventures!

Agreed - just hand that bad boy in. Should also add - you don't want to write a game so good it wins CSSCGC

Nomad wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 5:30 am

Kweepa wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:47 am As it is it's more sophisticated than half the csscgc entries, so just submit it!
Shaun is waiting for text adventures!

Agreed - just hand that bad boy in. Should also add - you don't want to write a game so good it wins CSSCGC

will the other members be able to run the game in snapshot form?

djnzx48 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:53 am You could try giving this book a read. It's written for the 48K Spectrum, but with some trimming you could probably get something that fits on the 16K. The location descriptions would likely take up the most memory, so halving the lengths of those would help. Additionally, while the book READs the strings into a giant array, this wastes memory as it duplicates them in both the program and the variables area. Instead, you could use a RESTORE nnnn statement each time you need a string from memory, and then READ only a single string at a time.

is there a download link for the book in pdf form

MrPixel wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:07 pm will the other members be able to run the game in snapshot form?

It’s your call, but I strongly recommend to not distribute games as snapshots. Snapshots contain machine model and other configuration information, including attached peripherals, which will disrupt a user’s settings. Just create a regular TAP or TZX file.

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:29 pm

MrPixel wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:07 pm will the other members be able to run the game in snapshot form?

It’s your call, but I strongly recommend to not distribute games as snapshots. Snapshots contain machine model and other configuration information, including attached peripherals, which will disrupt a user’s settings. Just create a regular TAP or TZX file.

but then how will i be able to distribute it?

MrPixel wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:07 pm will the other members be able to run the game in snapshot form?

Sure, I think most emulators support snapshot. Some people submit their entry in snapshot form, others tape, micro drive or disk its up to you.

I was always partial to using tap's for when I was asking questions about a project and I had a problem.

When I am doing work on projects I have the project and all the assets I put them either on the micro drive or a disk image.

MrPixel wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:31 pm

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 4:29 pm It’s your call, but I strongly recommend to not distribute games as snapshots. Snapshots contain machine model and other configuration information, including attached peripherals, which will disrupt a user’s settings. Just create a regular TAP or TZX file.

but then how will i be able to distribute it?

A file is a file is a file. How were you planning to distribute a snapshot?

I might be wrong but I think Mr Pixel has inadvertently mistaken 'snapshot' for snapshot as in a 'picture'.

[mention]MrPixel[/mention] , I'll send you an email later this evening how to make a tape image (.TZX, .TAP), or emulator snapshot image (.SNA, .Z80) like the one you already sent for your Wolfman project we're working on (which I think we should prioritise ), and how to distribute it.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Tue Apr 24, 2018 5:40 pm I might be wrong but I think Mr Pixel has inadvertently mistaken 'snapshot' for snapshot as in a 'picture'.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVczf8Or8xo[/media]