[Finished] SPACE WARZ text adventure game

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Ghislain
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[Finished] SPACE WARZ text adventure game

Post by Ghislain »

One of the advantages of now having an SD2IEC reader for my real VIC-20 is that it's easier to navigate old disks than even using an emulator. I transferred much of my old disks, regardless of content, to D64 images several years ago.

I came across several games I had worked on that I thought were lost forever, or that I had even completely forgot about. One of them was a tongue-in-cheek text adventure tribute to the Star Wars movie called "Space Warz". My best guess is it was made in 1993, plus or minus two years. It has a 40+ verb-noun word vocabulary, with 15 locations. Works on the unexpanded VIC-20.

Considering that I'm pressed for time and that I'm creatively burned out somewhat, it's fun to unearth these lost games that I used to work on and put them out with a (c)opyright date from the past.

Image

Image


I'm creating a splash screen, a loading menu, etc... before I release it.
Last edited by Ghislain on Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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GreyGhost
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Post by GreyGhost »

Looks really cool. I can't wait to try it out.
Rob
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

Name: Space Warz
Author: Ghislain
Released: September 23, 2012 (originally programmed in 1993)
Requirements: Unexpanded VIC-20 + Disk Drive.
Description: A text-based adventure of interactive fiction.

I found another lost gem among my old VIC-20 disks. Here it is, revamped and improved with a hi-res splash screen intro with two famous pieces of movie music along with instructions on how to play.

It is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to that film that took us to a time that was long ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Image

Download.

Discuss.
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joshuadenmark
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Post by joshuadenmark »

Hi Ghislain

Thanks! just love text adventures. Looking forward to spend time with this one :D
Kind regards, Peter.
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Jeff-20
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Post by Jeff-20 »

I know right away from the screenshots that this is going to be interesting. I'm carrying a wallet in Jabba's hutt? :lol:
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

Thanks, all. I live reviving these old games I worked on because it's a lot easier to polish what's already been done than to create a whole new game from scratch.

Another old game that I've been adding improvements to lately was a TRACK & FIELD clone, I had actually started to work on in the 1980s. Only one event was programmed for it, the 100m dash. It was a fun game though--me and my other VIC-20 friends would spend whole afternoons shaking the joystick to see who could run the fastest time. I'm not sure what (c) date I would assign to it--1988 or 1996, the latter which had improved on the joystick mashing by forcing the player to circle the joystick according to the arrow icon, and by adding custom characters. I also had programmed additional custom characters for more events like the long jump, javelin, hurdles and the high jump. But since the game's been sitting in limbo for 16 years waiting for me to program those additional events, I'll just put it out there soon with just the one event. I think it's good enough as it is. Though I could just put a teaser in the main menu that says "Coming Soon" showing what potential future events in the series will be featured :)

Other old games from the 1980s I found on my old disks:

Sumo Wrestling -- A two player joystick VS keyboard mashing exercise. He who mashes their control device the most, wins!

Galactic Battle -- Two players control their ASCII ships and shoot at each other (joystick VS keyboard).

Adventure World -- A friend of mine made this. It's a 3-room DND text adventure. When you reach the end, it tells you "TO BE CONTINUED IN ADVENTURE WORLD II".

I also found a bunch of custom characters I had worked on, but never actually made the games for:

Street Fight -- was going to be used for a Double Dragon clone.

Ms. Vic-Man -- I was going to use the VICMAN game and convert into a Ms. Pac-Man clone (with the 4 mazes, 7 floating fruits, etc).

Viceye -- for a Popeye arcade game clone.

Tankwar 1944 -- This was going to be a tactical WW2 tank battle game between the US and Germany. The concept was later revived and improved on when I finally made Theater of War (which featured more than just tanks).

I'm not sure if I'll ever finish or refine any of the above. Maybe I can just make a slideshow with mockup screens. Proudly Presents... the Vaporware Collection!

After I'm finished with the 100m dash game, I definitely need to finish my Edgar Allan Poe adventure game. After that, I might take elements from my two uncompleted C64 RPG games: QUEST REALMS and ULTIMATE QUEST to make another VIC-20 RPG game. I'd be re-using graphics and maps. I might just call it ULTIMATE REALMS... ha. (Not sure about calling it Realms of Quest IV).


So I wonder outside of me, how many unreleased VIC-20 homebrew games are there out there? There could be a never-seen or almost-finished masterpiece somewhere in the ether, sitting in somebody's garage or crawl space.
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Kweepa
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Post by Kweepa »

I'm playing this now, but I can't pick up the coin. Is there a trick, or a bug? There's nothing obvious...

Fun though!
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

Kweepa wrote:I'm playing this now, but I can't pick up the coin. Is there a trick, or a bug? There's nothing obvious...

Fun though!
Oh...

type GET $5 COIN

That should work.
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Kweepa
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Post by Kweepa »

I was having trouble typing the $ with an emulator.
Will try again, thanks!
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