From Newsgroup: comp.sys.cbm
This is an interesting read. Check out:
http://members.tripod.com/~panks/apse.html
As everyone now knows, I recovered up to 85% of the original source code
from my old game by pure luck -- hidden within the track and sectors of on
old (and long overlooked) programming disk was my game. It took a sector editor to bring it back to life (after all, there wasn't even a directory entry for the program). I then recoded the remaining 15% purely from
memory.
And thus, what you can download since July of 2003:
http://www.geocities.com/dunric/c16.html
The story follows:
Introduction
Nostalgia is said to bring out the best in people. Even after years
have passed, I still long for the original disks to my very first game.
The game itself was a mere 52kb in length, but the scope of the project spanned 8 months of my life. Countless hours were spent at the computer, perfecting what was inherently an imperfect game. Setting aside school, friends and even family, I labored in front of my old Commodore 128 to
create what is now considered my very first full-length game: Westfront.
The full-length title of the game was a tad obscure: Enchanter: West
Front to Apse. But the main ideas behind the game were not.
Technical Details
Considering that I had played just about every text adventure known to man, it was a modest effort. The game itself spanned 208 blocks on disk,
which roughly translated into 52 kilobytes total. That isn't a very large
game (at least by today's standards), but for the BASIC 7.0 in native Commodore 128 Mode, it was a whopper of a program! The game had origins on
the C64, and was quickly remodeled for 128 mode after variable space ran
low.
The game itself was approximately 206-210 blocks long, had some 70
rooms, 85 nouns, 32 or so verbs, and was WINDOWed in that the sprite
graphic that you see in the link above was displayed above the actual room description. At the bottom were displayed highlighted Function Key
commands, accessible by pressing the appropriate function key.
I also used a sprite for the Long Range Mapping feature of the game,
which displayed a blueish, 3-dimensional lined landscape with a flashing
white dot that displayed the player location. The Short Range Mapping
feature, depending on the room entered, would display the tavern interior,
the shop interior and the church interior in multi-color, SHIFTed and COMMODORed Keyground-style Graphics.
Gameplay
Much of the game revolved around exploring sections of Norway,
including Oslo, Trondheim, Stavanger, Bergen and the Flora island. There
was also a Smurf village in the game, and part of the game involved
rescuing Smurfette and drugging Asriel (from one of Papa Smurf's potions)
and bringing his hide back to Handy smurf (for some equipment and armor items). Hey, this wasn't a kid's game!
Also, if memory serves me, the player was supposed to visit some
fellow named Gomar in a treehouse, read from one of his books, and have
him explain worldly mysteries to the player helpful in finishing the game.
Finally, the player took a boat to the Lighthouse on Flora Island and found several weapons, armor and possibly a backpack. There, they'd take
the boat back to Bergen (I think), locate an open plain under a "deep blue sky", read from a scroll (either that, or incant a magical ring) and
Mordimar the Evil Magician would appear. Looks like someone played the NES game Immortal, huh? :)
Anyway, the player would win by defeating Mordimar and saving Smurf Village.
A look back...and forward
There are many stories behind the development of this game. First,
there were the countless hours spent reading TSR Hobbies "Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons Beginner Module 1", and the companion "Player's
Handbook". Without these two books, Westfront would probably never have existed. I also attribute Westfront's existance to playing Magnetic
Scrolls "The Pawn" during the Commodore's heyday. That game served as the basis for the layout and structure of my humble text adventure.
Next, there were the self-beta testing sessions, mostly spent in frustration with squashing bug after bug after bug! This would consist of pressing the RUN/STOP and RESTORE keys repeatedly throughout a programming sessions. Eventually the keys worn down and I had to get my Commodore 128 repaired. Ugh!
Finally, I remember the humorous look on my cousin's face when he
played the game for the first time:
Ryan: "Why can't I examine anything?"
Paul: "Oh, you just examine _objects_ in the game..."
Ryan: "Oh, ok...hey, what's the wine for?"
Paul: "You drink it..."
Ryan: (drinks wine)..."Ok...I'm now in Smurf Village. How the hell did _that_ happen?"
Paul: "Keep playing, it gets better..."
Another individual whom beta-tested my game was my other cousin, Tim McLaughlin. He had a fun time exploiting the bugs in the game to his advantage:
Tim: (issues a GO NORTH command) "Ok, I just moved north..."
Paul: "You can use abbreviations, you know..."
Tim: "Really? Coooollll...."
Paul: "Try typing: GO NO instead of GO NORTH."
Tim: "Ok...Oh, neat! I like that feature!"
Tim: "Can I pick up the tree?"
Paul: "No."
Tim: (issues a GET TREE command in the forest) "It says 'Ok.' "
Paul: "Huh?"
Paul: "Check your inventory..."
Tim: (INVENTORY command reveals that he now has the TWO-HANDED SWORD)
" What the heck? "
Paul: "Wait a minute!..."
The development of the game progressed from a simple two-word parser (courtesy of an issue of Compute!'s Gazette) to the remodeling from the initial C64 version and finally into the form described at the beginning
of this article. In time, I managed to play a MUD online via telnet, and I then modeled the Village Shop after it (or at least I tried). This proved unremarkable, as there were several bugs in the Shop routine of the game.
I also discovered that the WIELD command tacked on a "(wielded)." text string to the end of any item that the player attempted to wield. This led
to a most frustating error:
>inventory
>You are carrying:
BACKPACK.
LANTERN.
TWO-HANDED SWORD (wielded).(wielded).
Play value, most important
Despite the bugs in the game, Westfront had some redeeming play value
in that it taught the end user patience. Sorely lacking in the game was thorough or even partially complete instructions. There was a nice introduction, to be sure, but the HELP command during game play displayed
six terrible suggestions, among them:
"5. Relax. Think as the computer would. If a noun or verb doesn't make sense, take a break from the computer and come back later on, refreshed
and ready to try again."
Needless to say, both Ryan and Tim scoffed at the HELP command's usefulness!
Some Final Thoughts
When I finally get around to locating that damn disk, I'll put up this game -- bugs and all -- for others to experience and enjoy. Mostly, I'd
like to pay homage to my Commodore roots and re-release a version for
Windows (without the bugs). For now, I am left searching for that long
lost disk, hoping one day to resurrect the game in full. Although a
partially complete version was resurrected a month ago, it contained only
the first 40 or so rooms and had yet to implement much of the verbs (only
the first 12 were completed, out of 31). I will work to find the complete version, and once that turns up, you can bet this page will be replaced by something more informative.
UPDATE! July 24, 2003! I located an old version of my game! Upon reworking
it, I have managed to recover 85% of the game as it was! Click here!
(scroll down to "West Front to Apse" description, with download).
http://www.geocities.com/dunric/c16.html <<<
Post Script:
The only thing missing from the original? Smurf Village (for obvious
reasons). I decided to instead use Golden Elves and an evil sorcerer named "Vladamir". Obviously it is a satire, but at least it doesn't use the
names!
Since "rediscovering" the old game, I have written five or six more
adventure games. One of them, entitled "Mystic Castle", is a Commodore 64 adaptation of "West Front to Apse". 80% of the room descriptions in Mystic Castle were originally a part of West Front to Apse, circa 1994/5.
Sincerely,
Paul Allen Panks
dunric@yahoo.com
--
panks@sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System -
http://sdf.lonestar.org
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