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Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 3:34 am
by 16KVIC20
Other systems, including the C64 were lucky enough to get The Graphical Adventure Creator , or The Quill to help users less able in programming to write their own text adventure.
I certainly fall into this category, my coding is awful, and I don't have the time or inclination to improve at this point.
Is there any sort of program like this that was released for our VIC 20? I'd imagine it would need 32K, so I'm not holding out much hope.
BTW, it needn't be graphical, text only is fine. There was an earlier version of GAC, which was just The Adventure Creator.
I'm hoping to finish an adventure on the BBC, but it would be good if I could also write it for the VIC 20, as that is the machine of my youth.
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 10:10 am
by orion70
Bitshifter developed a Z-code interpreter for Infocom format adventures, and gave us the most famous IF ported to the VIC. He says
Bit Shifter wrote:The source code is available at personal request.
Try contacting him. With this, you may program your own adventures in Z-code, and play them on a VIC-20. Of course, it's not possibile to include graphic screens.
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 12:41 pm
by Kweepa
What are you using to create it on the Beeb?
It would suck to have to recreate it entirely!
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 4:35 pm
by DarwinNE
I developed a tool called AWS2C that allows to generate a C source code obtained by parsing a language called AWS:
https://github.com/DarwinNE/aws2c
The language has been created by Aristide Torrelli and it is inspired by GAC. I used it to write The Queen's Footsteps and Two Days to the Race. The C code is cross-compiled for the VIC20 with Cc65. Text is Huffman-compressed.
I write AWS directly using a text editor, but Aristide created a visual tool to write it (documentation is in Italian, but the program can run with an interface in English):
http://www.aristidetorrelli.it/aws3/Avventure.html
There are some minor incompatibilities between Aristide's tool and AWS2C as the target is quite different in the two cases.
I wrote a very succinct documentation of the AWS format here:
https://github.com/DarwinNE/aws2c/blob/ ... ription.md
In general, not all aspects of AWS2C are well documented. If you give a try, don't be afraid to ask.
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 4:36 pm
by 16KVIC20
I'm using The Graphical Adventure Creator, which also had a C64 version. There was also the simpler The Adventure Creator, which was the same, without graphics option.
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 4:39 pm
by 16KVIC20
DarwinNE wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 4:35 pm
I developed a tool called AWS2C that allows to generate a C source code obtained by parsing a language called AWS:
https://github.com/DarwinNE/aws2c
The language has been created by Aristide Torrelli and it is inspired by GAC. I used it to write The Queen's Footsteps and Two Days to the Race. The C code is cross-compiled for the VIC20 with Cc65. Text is Huffman-compressed.
I write AWS directly using a text editor, but Aristide created a visual tool to write it (documentation is in Italian, but the program can run with an interface in English):
http://www.aristidetorrelli.it/aws3/Avventure.html
There are some minor incompatibilities between Aristide's tool and AWS2C as the target is quite different in the two cases.
I wrote a very succinct documentation of the AWS format here:
https://github.com/DarwinNE/aws2c/blob/ ... ription.md
In general, not all aspects of AWS2C are well documented. If you give a try, don't be afraid to ask.
Very interesting DarwinNE. I'l certainly take a look. It may be beyond me, not just because of the italian (I do speak Spanish and French well though, so I may find that part OK). I'm not great at coding, which is why I need something like GAC.
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 4:41 pm
by 16KVIC20
orion70 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 10:10 am
Bitshifter developed a Z-code interpreter for Infocom format adventures, and gave us the most famous IF ported to the VIC. He says
Bit Shifter wrote:The source code is available at personal request.
Try contacting him. With this, you may program your own adventures in Z-code, and play them on a VIC-20. Of course, it's not possibile to include graphic screens.
What is Z code? I think that may display my coding abilities all in one go.
Thanks though Orion 70, I'll take a look for sure.
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:42 am
by 16KVIC20
OK, so that BitShifter interpreter, if I have understood correctly, requires 32K +3K expansion, which I believe I can achieve with my MEGA CART.
If I have also understood, the disk operates really slowly though, if used on real hardware. Would this also apply to SD2IEC?
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:20 am
by Vic20-Ian
It should be much quicker with an SD2IEC
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:52 am
by 16KVIC20
Vic20-Ian wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:20 am
It should be much quicker with an SD2IEC
This is what I had hoped, also the MegaCart has that SJ loading thing, if I recall, which speeds things up even more.
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 6:40 pm
by JavaJack
Re: Graphic Adventure Creator/The Quill - Did the VIC get one?
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 11:06 am
by 16KVIC20
Interesting. Thank you JavaJack. Further study required I feel, one day, when I get a chance.....