Hi to all,
Some time ago, looking for adventures and adventures writing tools, I founded an old program called The Quill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quill) This program work on the Speccy and on some more powerfull computers...
I really like this program's idea, nothing new I know, but I like it so I think in making a version for the ZX81
Then I take a copy of The Quill manual and start working on a new version, I do all the programming on assembly, and I have now implemented close of 80 percent of the interpreter (it needs 4072 bytes of RAM).
I do test it with a little adventure developed on The Quill manual like an example, and you can check the results.
Like I say it's a work in progress but I like to share with other ZX81 users
Here is a little screenshot
And of course you can find the P file on the attachment.
I hope some of you like it so we can chat about programming new adventures using the The Quill Language, and if there are some interest I will advance with the Editor programming.
Porting (or re-writing) Quill would be a great achievement - there are plenty of adventures written in Quill which could be moved across, although it depends on how much memory is left for the actual adventure, once the interpreter is loaded.
RWAP wrote:Porting (or re-writing) Quill would be a great achievement - there are plenty of adventures written in Quill which could be moved across, although it depends on how much memory is left for the actual adventure, once the interpreter is loaded.
Keep on with the project
Hi, Thanks for your comments
Well, actually I'm porting an adventure called The Crystal Frog http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0006116 re-released by Gilsoft on 1985 for the Spectrum.
this is good because its a large adventure and let me test the engine
This adventure works on 48K Spectrum machines, so I'm testing the results on a TK85 with 48Kbytes of RAM.
I do the following in order to convert the adventure.
1) Use unquill.exe to obtain a Text File of the Adventure Database.
2) Do some minor editions on the Text File, in order to remove apostrophes or any other character that is not available on the ZX81
3) I developed a small parser program on the PC that takes the Text File and generate an Include File with the Database on ASM format.
4) Finally Assemble the engine with the database on a P file
So in a future if someone like to write an adventure for the ZX81, can use a "modern" design workstation (Spectrum 48Kbyes ) and when the adventure is complete, I can translate it to the ZX81 in a very short time. So we can have new adventures that fit on a "standard" 16 Kbytes machine.
Thats great work. I had a look if doing the same for Zork would work but the files are too big. About 90k. I believe Level9 adventures used its own language too but not sure what size the adventures are. Less then 48k anyway as they are available for the spectrum.
Shaun_B wrote:Quill ZX81 has been mentioned in this week's Micro Mart.
Regards,
Shaun.
Well thats sound good, but I must say that I dont know what is Micro Mart can you give me some aditional info ???
Thanks Shaun !
Gus
It's a weekly PC magazine which is published in the UK - http://www.micromart.co.uk - it has a 'retro' column, written by me, as well as Mac, Linux and Amiga (by other people).
Shaun_B wrote:It's a weekly PC magazine which is published in the UK - http://www.micromart.co.uk - it has a 'retro' column, written by me, as well as Mac, Linux and Amiga (by other people).
I glimpsed that whilst browsing in Sainsbury's Any chance the article can be scanned in and uploaded for people outside of Britain?
I noticed too that in the latest issue 76 of Retro Gamer, Andre Baune's Bowl-AB is mentioned with a screenshot.
) and when the adventure is complete, I can translate it to the ZX81 in a very short time. So we can have new adventures that fit on a "standard" 16 Kbytes machine.
can you give me some aditional info ???
Any chance the article can be scanned in and uploaded for people outside of Britain?