Getting files from 8" format to 5.25"

[bxdanny]

lowrybt1 is the one who originally posted that Adventure game disk, so clearly that is the one he's talking about, it's from Aurora Software, not from Aardvark.

I mentioned that I had tried (a few years ago) to speed it up with a sort of index file. The speedup wasn't as big as I'd hoped, but it was noticeable, so I'm posting it here now, along with ports I did to other platforms (65U, CP/M MBASIC, and GWBASIC).

The 65D disk image is like the one Mark posted: an 8" disk image that uses a 5.25" version of 65D (directory on track 12, etc.) The game logic is unchanged from the original OSI version, just with access to the room descriptions speeded up and serial compatibility added. The "index file" is not a true file, but a sector of binary data containing indexes into the room description file (which starts on track 13).

The other versions do contain fixes to some spelling and grammatical errors in some displayed text, as well as making the word CLOSE no longer act as a synonym for OPEN. (What it is that may need to be CLOSEd I'm not sure. The pirate's treasure chest? The grate between the surface and the cave?) The GWBASIC version (which will also run under QBASIC) is very speedy and always responds immediately.

The game does seem like a pretty accurate reproduction of the original Adventure game. I was able to use a map I found online (at https://rickadams.org/adventure/maps/CaveMap.jpg) to navigate and find most of the treasures. The one big difference is that there is only one maze instead of two. There are also some minor differences in connectivity in the vicinity of the Complex Junction and the Dirty Passage near it.

EDIT 5/8/2024 7:54 PM: I thought I had tested the 65U version on both serial and video configurations, but I guess I hadn't, as the version on the disk image in the ZIP file locks up on video systems. To fix it:

1) LOAD"ADVENT"
2) Type in the following two lines:

25 IF PEEK(11665)=1 THEN CZ$=CHR$(13)
34 PRINTCZ$;:ZZ=PEEK(K):RZ=RND(1)

(Line 25 is new, line 34 is a change to an existing line.)

3) SAVE