Bulletin Board

Readers helping other readers

Below are some new queries I've received recently from readers looking for hard-to-find games, or who are in need of specific help. If you can help answer any of these requests, please don't be shy about chiming in with an answer! --EM

Dear XYZZYnews,

In your "Adventure Game Interfaces" [XYZZYnews #7], you made mention of ICOM, creators of the classic black-and- white Mac game, Deja Vu. Do you have any idea if it is available anywhere, for any amount of money? I have about eight old black-and-white Macs that I lend out to people and use myself -- I'm trying to track down as much of the truly wonderful software as I can remember from that era (my first computer was an original 128K)...

Hope you can help me in my (oddball) quest,

David Reynolds
dreynolds@extensis.com

I've been desperately trying to find a copy of an old game called Hacker. The game starts with just the word "LOGON:" and you have to work your way from there. Or so I hear. Anyway, if anybody could find me a copy/download of the game for any system at all, I would be eternally grateful.

Hope you can help me in my (oddball) quest,

Andrew Dudzik
adudzik@geocities.com

When I was a young man around the early '80s, I had a BBC micro and played a text adventure called Castle of Riddles by Acornsoft. Now I'm a bit older, I thought I'd see if it's still available in PC format on the Internet. That's how I discovered this incredible following for text adventures. I also discovered XYZZYnews, which is great. Through your pages I am hoping to find either a PC version of Castle of Riddles or a walkthrough.

After much research and work, I managed to obtain a BBC micro emulator for the PC, as well as a disk image of Castle of Riddles, so I can now play it as it was originally intended -- complete with slow response times!

If anyone knows of hints or a walkthrough I would be grateful -- and has anyone converted this game to Inform or other PC-playable version? It had some interesting room-types and puzzles which may be quite tricky to implement in Inform so it might be a challenge for someone!

Andy Corbett
Andy.Corbett@postoffice.co.uk

I have been playing through Zork I. Many times in the game there are references to the manual. I downloaded the game off the Infocom Web page and don't have the manual. Is there anywhere to get it? Thanks.

David Vecchio
vecchio@pineknot.com

Adventure Maze Maps

You'll need to view them in a [monospace] font like Courier, in Windows Notepad for them to look right. [see column below]

Graeme Cree
GraemeCree@aol.com

    MAZE 1 (All alike)
Loc.  N  S  E  W  NW NE SW SE U- D-
  1    1  2  3 18 -- -- -- -- !  --
  2    3 15 17  1 -- -- -- -- 16 16
  3   --  4  2  1 -- -- -- -- -- --
  4    5  6  3 -- -- -- -- -- -- 20
  5*  --  4 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  6   --  7  4 21 -- -- -- -- -- 22
  7    8  7 22  6 -- -- -- -- 23 25
  8    8 --  9  7 -- -- -- -- -- 26
  9   10 14 11  8 -- -- -- -- -- #
 10   --  9 11 13 -- -- -- -- -- --
 11    9 -- -- 10 12 -- -- -- -- --
 12*@ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 11 -- --
 13*  -- -- 10 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
 14*  -- --  9 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
 15*  -- --  2 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
 16   -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  2  2
 17*  -- -- --  2 -- -- -- -- -- --
 18    1 18 19 18 -- -- -- -- -- --
 19*  -- -- -- 18 -- -- -- -- -- --
 20*  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  4
 21   -- --  6 22 -- -- -- -- -- --
 22   -- 23  7 21 -- -- -- --  6 --
 23    7 24 -- 22 -- -- -- -- -- --
 24*  -- -- -- 23 -- -- -- -- -- --
 25*  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  7 --
 26*  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  8 --
      !=Hall of Mists, West
      #=Bird Room
      *=Dead End
      @=Pirates Chest is here

    MAZE 2 (All Different)
Loc.     N  S  E  W  NW NE SW SE U  DD
 1 MTL   2  4 11  5  7 10  9  3  6  %
 2 MLT   3  5  9 10  4  8  1  7 11  6
 3 tLM   4 11  6  2  9  1  8 10  5  7
 4 MtL   5  2  8  1 10  6  3  9  7 11
 5 MLt   6  7  4  3  8  9  2 11 10  1
 6 TLM   1 10  3  7  2  5 11  4  8  9
 7 TML   8  6  1  4 11  2 10  5  9  3
 8 LMt   9 12 10 11  3  7  4  6  2  5
 9 LMT  10  3  5  6  1 11  7  8  4  2
10 tML  11  8  7  9  5  3  6  2  1  4
11 LTM   7  9  2  8  6  4  5  1  3 10
12 *$    8 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

     *=Dead End
     $=Vending Machine
     %=Long Hall, West
     M=Maze
     L=Little
     T=Twisty
     t=Twisting

Hi there. When I was a little boy, I went and played in the basement of the Lawrence Hall of Science where they had a small number of primitive terminals (I can still remember the sound of the teletypes!). On those machines, you could (if I remember correctly) login to the "Plato" network. On that system was a primitive D&D- like game whose original name I can't remember, but it was renamed "Adventure" for a short while. The game was taken off of the Plato network, and I moved onto other things, as little boys are wont to do.

I know it wasn't the classic text adventure, "Adventure," because it had Ultima I-like vector-based graphics for going into a dungeon, finding a Vampire or Balrog, and seeing its representation on screen. I remember some details about the game, like being ranked with other players based upon the success of your character. I sorely miss that game. Could you set my feet on a path to finding this lost source code/game? I would appreciate it beyond words. Thank you.

Paul Forbes
pforbes@mail.in.opcode.com

Several years ago I tried America Online for a short while. I downloaded an IF game called Dragon Quest for Windows 3.1. However, later I got a new hard drive, gave the other away, and I've never seen the game since. I looked on the IF archive, do you have any idea where it might be?

Chad Schultz
chadschultz@yahoo.com

I am looking for information, about an old Infocom game called Mines of Titan. I acquired the game from someone I know at work. Can you tell me where I can get any manuals, maps, relating to the game. I keep seeing something about a visitors guide, when I play it. I would appreciate any help you could give me. The game was made about 1989, in cooperation with Westwood Assoc. & Infocom Inc. Warm regards,

Charles Mock
cmock@usa.net

Hello, I have a request for your XYZZYnews bulletin board. After a 10-year-break, I recently rediscovered Infocom and other IF games. I went straight to my local store and bought the Masterpieces package. Unfortunately, it didn't contain Hitchhiker's Guide, one of the games I was hoping to solve this time, nor Shogun. (Probably due to copyright reasons?) Are there any other editions available in Europe that contain either of these?

Any help is appreciated.

Florian Edlbauer
florian_edlbauer@yahoo.com

Sometime in my youth I played a text-adventure game on Spectrum. I cannot remember the name of this game and thus ask if you, or some reader of XYZZYnews could identify it. The game was said to be easy but I wasn't all too good with English back then.

Here's what I remember of the game: it was one of those where some places had a picture. I kind of remember that spectrum rendered the pictures... they were quite simple.

In the game you had to put on a helmet before you could walk somewhere, then you got a sword by sleeping on a beach, did something in some village of some sort, travelled through some forest with some item telling you where to turn next, met a bear who had to be fed or he ate you. Last thing I remember is some haystack but I got stuck there then. Unfortunately this is all I remember of the game. I'd much like to play it through sometime so it would stop haunting me =)

Jari Komppa
Jari.Komppa@viherjuuri.fi

I'm looking for a text game called The Mist, based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King. I'll pay anything for it. PC only please.

Paul Neveu
aupser@worldnet.att.net

I've had a copy of StarCross for years, got it around '83 for the c64 (actually, my parents got it, I was six at the time). Now, recently I've pulled the packet out to use the map as I played it on the PC, during which I found something interesting.

A copy of 'The New Zork Times' Vol II, No. (Infinity) Summer 1983. This is just the cover sheet; I dug around some of the old NZT archives, and found it was six pages (three printed pages); all this has is the first page and the order form. Has the front page, with the top story "Zork Users Group Will Shutdown" and the order page for the same user group for caps and things.

I'm not sure if this is valuable, but there might be someone out there who would be interested.

Fox Cutter
lmb@ieway.com

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