A Blast from the Past!

HellRazor

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I wrote this computer text adventure game for the Commodore 64 back in the mid-80's. I'm not sure what possessed me to do a google search for it today, but I did, and I found a YouTube video and someone posted the actual game files on Archive.org! What a trip, I haven't seen this thing in over 30 years! Damn, I love the internet!

Kreen2.jpg

This was written using an obscure C64 text adventure creator called Adventure Writer by CodeWriter Corp. (so you can blame them for the awful color scheme, lol). I think I uploaded the game to Quantum Link (and/or maybe to America Online) back in the day. It's pretty cool to see that it's floating around out there in cyberspace after all these years!

It's somewhat primitive, and there are a lot of spelling errors, but hey, it was my first effort! :) You can even play the game via emulator at Archive.org!

Play Kreen II on Archive.org

There was a KREEN I game also, but I'm not sure if I ever actually finished or released that one.

Now I wish I could find my old C64 QUESTRON II character editor! It was the first program I ever actually coded myself, written in Commodore 64 Basic (of course). You could edit all your stats and inventory with it. I'm pretty sure I uploaded that one to America Online. It's too bad there isn't a full archive of the AOL software library somewhere.
 
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You're the Michael C. Martin who did "Weishaupt Scholars", etcetera? I have approxmiately a billion text adventure games, and knew your name sounded familiar.
 
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I tried playing but can't read big chunks of the text. Is there anyway to change the purple font or do something else that makes it readable?

NVM I figured it out. Press F12 then go to video settings and play around in there. I applied a "Scale 2x" filter and it made the font readable so I think it is a resolution issue with playing a high rez moitor.
 
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Jesus that is one tough parser!!!

I died twice from lack of water after finding a canteen and standing next to a pool of drinkable water. "Drink water", "fill canteen", "use canteen on pool", "fill canteen with water" etc etc

Nothing works!
 
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You're the Michael C. Martin who did "Weishaupt Scholars", etcetera? I have approxmiately a billion text adventure games, and knew your name sounded familiar.
Nope, there must be another one of us. I did a couple of text adventures, but I think this one was the only one I ever actually uploaded anywhere.
 
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Jesus that is one tough parser!!!

I died twice from lack of water after finding a canteen and standing next to a pool of drinkable water. "Drink water", "fill canteen", "use canteen on pool", "fill canteen with water" etc etc

Nothing works!
You have to find a water source. I think there is a river nearby!

Yeah, the parser is pretty primitive. 2-word commands only. This ain't no Infocom classic, that's for sure! :)
 
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I tried playing but can't read big chunks of the text. Is there anyway to change the purple font or do something else that makes it readable?

NVM I figured it out. Press F12 then go to video settings and play around in there. I applied a "Scale 2x" filter and it made the font readable so I think it is a resolution issue with playing a high rez moitor.
The bad thing about AdventureWriter is the terrible color scheme (against blue background, no less)! There is one combo you can barely read in the emulator!
 
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I think there may be a bug in the game that makes it unfinishable (either that or it's a puzzle I have forgotten). When you open the manhole cover you should be able to go Down but the game isn't accepting that direction.

I actually found C64 disc images on Archive.org for both my game and the AdventureWriter software! I downloaded a C64 emulator and I am going to see if I can open the game files in AdventureWriter to see if there is a bug. What a kick if I end up fixing the game over 30 years later, lol!
 
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I played quite a few of these back in the day, excellent memories and very nice to see someone that worked on these gems post here!
I used to love the old text adventures, especially from Infocom! The first computer I ever worked with was an old WANG word processor at work. They had Colossal Cave on the network and once I played that I was hooked! Bought my first C64 and the first games I ever bought and played were ZORK II and ULTIMA III.
 
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I tried playing but can't read big chunks of the text. Is there anyway to change the purple font or do something else that makes it readable?

NVM I figured it out. Press F12 then go to video settings and play around in there. I applied a "Scale 2x" filter and it made the font readable so I think it is a resolution issue with playing a high rez moitor.
Thanks, I had no idea about those commands! Sure makes it a lot easier on the eyes! :)
 
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You have to find a water source. I think there is a river nearby!

Yeah, the parser is pretty primitive. 2-word commands only. This ain't no Infocom classic, that's for sure! :)
I found the water source and I have the canteen. I just can't do anything with the water source even though it says it is "drinkable"!

I would appreciaate a spoiler at this point :)
 
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Apparently, back in the day I didn't bug test this as thoroughly as I thought I did.

I'm pretty sure you are supposed to be able to enter the manhole, but the game won't allow it. And unfortunately, AdventureWriter compiles source files for your game into the executable C64 code, and without the source files, I can't use AdventureWriter to inspect the game logic and fix the bug. :(

I remember that the creature you needed to kill was down in the sewer, which was basically a dungeon where there were several more items and puzzles you needed to figure out before you could encounter the creature. I think the shotgun was needed to kill it (either that, or a laser rifle that you would find elsewhere). One of the magic items you needed to finish the game was under an unbreakable glass dome, and to reach it, you needed to play a violin found elsewhere in the sewers, which would shatter the glass. You would also eventually find and rescue the princess. The flashlight would only work for a limited number of moves before the battery ran out and stumbling around the sewers in the dark would eventually cause you to fall into a chasm or something and kill you.

Another bug I found was that the player is unable to drop the flashlight when it is turned ON, or the canteen while it has water in it - these probably become a different "item" when on/filled and I neglected to include game logic to handle dropping them in those states.

Ah, well. Still cool to see this again 30+ years later. I'm a lot more detail oriented these days! :p
 
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I don't get why I can't drink the water directly from the pond! ;)
 
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