Denial

TNT wrote:OTOH: why change software and risk adding new bugs when there is a tested hardware solution?

I took the time myself to improve the interoperability of a program I had written some time ago (VICtoria Gold, with orion70) with FE3.

Unless I'm mistaken, there has been no official release of your interpreter anyway yet. So why should one be concerned about a non-existing product?

Publish, or perish.

I don't think we should keep the pressure too high on people working on this project (i.e., Infocom adventures in FE3). What's been done is so stimulating, that I even changed my avatar, and now it's the face of Sherlock as seen in the front cover of The Riddle of Crown Jewels - obtained from a cropped screenshot done with the PGM converter, of course .

Just let's keep focused on the core: is there a way to modify the Z-machine, so that one can save games also on a *.d81? If not, I will happily 1) Play without saving games (long saturday afternoon session ) or as an alternative 2) Try and install switch disk buttons.

That's all. In the meanwhile, TNT, why don't you make the work done until now public, so that everyone can start playing with the *.D64 versions of the 24 adventures?

orion70 wrote:I don't think we should keep the pressure too high on people working on this project [...]

In principle all those not involved in the beta test have not seen more than the discussion about the Z-code interpreter, and some screenshots.

You could understand, that some people simply might get impatient.

I tried the *.d81 adventures with a real VIC on the FE3 this afternoon, and the work great!
Unfortunately, I never experienced the disk access time of a real VIC before (used to play them in VICE, with 1541 emulation disabled ), so it took a while to get used to the enter something - wait - read text routine. Great experience anyway - if someone two years ago had told me that it was feasable , I'd never believed him .

No need for D71/D81 just to play the game. From my earlier post:

TNT wrote:There is enough free sectors on tracks 17 and 16 for the interpreter, so you don't need to swap disks except when saving and restoring. Beta versions use separate prg for interpreter and D64 for data because only the first changes.

You should be able to quick format the data disk to fix BAM, then copy the interpreter on it as it will only use tracks 17 and 16.

TNT wrote:You should be able to quick format the data disk to fix BAM, then copy the interpreter on it as it will only use tracks 17 and 16.

As CBM DOS uses these tracks at first to write files on a (presumably) empty disk, this should work indeed.

But generally, writing on a disk with direct access data being present - and them even being unallocated in the BAM due to the quick format - is just enough to make my toes curl.

Bringing up this thread - just to ask TNT if there are news about this stimulating project... Sorry for being impatient, but I can't wait to see this treasure being available to everyone who loved Infocom adventures .

I could provide PDF booklets for each game, taken from scans of the original manuals, and even kits to print and build your reproduction of the adventure boxes - stuff already publicly available on the internet of course, no copyright infringement or something .

IIRC, we were stuck at the point that one couldn't save games on the D81 version, nor use the two D64 disks on the FE3 without the switch disk buttons.

My point is: first step should be to publish both versions of the games, then someone will work the problems out for sure, while the others will enjoy the adventures with VICE...

Lack of time... lack of sleep... so when I have time I usually sleep

That's the point! Why don't you make the work done til now available for everyone, then let someone else continue to develop it (or if you wish: help you develop it), and save a lot of time for sleep...

Necro-bump. Is this now dead? Please say it's not.

It depends on TNT and Mike (who created the d81 versions). You probably now that, as a beta-tester, I have all the adventure disk images (both d64 and d81 for the FE3), but I won't let anything available without the author's permission.
They work flawlessly, and it's a pleasure to play the Infocom adventures on the VIC! I even created reproductions of the original Zork boxes and their content for the little friendly computer, for my personal use .

Hope TNT is still reading us .

I'd love to see some photos of your boxes and contents. That sounds really cool.

Did the saving issue ever get solved?

Nope, no save issue available yet. Only VICE snapshots, or looong sessions on the real VIC .

As for pictures, I'll post some of them in the next few days, but don't tell Infocom .

That's what I thought. Still, VICE saves are better than nothing. In reality I probably play more on VICE than the real hardware at the moment as I only have access to an LCD TV and the poor old Vic looks awful on it!

I look forward to seeing your photos - and don't worry it's just between you and me...

OK. Hey, I even changed my avatar, see if you recognize this one