Another jam packed Balrog column full of your favourite tips, letters and news items...

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News

Castle Sargos

Is the name of a tape only adventure from new software house DBFA Software, the plot is your standard Swords & Sorcery story-line - An evil (and very powerful) sorceror lives in said castle and you, as the hero, must defeat him. For more details, write to David Holland of DBFA Software at 11 Bailey Court, Lawtons Acre, Alsager, Stoke-on-Trent, ST7 2YH.

Guild special offer

Tony Collins from Guild Adventure Software (who, as mentioned in AA75, now sell all the old Recreation Re-created titles) is offering a special low-priced compilation of 'The Hermitage', 'Teacher Trouble', 'Into the Mystic' and 'Davy Jones Locker' for Balrog readers. The disc-only compilation costs only £10 (a saving of £6!) - just mention that the Balrog sent you and you'll get the saving! Write to Guild at 760 Tyburn Road, Erdigton, Birmingham B24 9NX or telephone (021) 749 2585 (9 to 9).

Contacting the Balg

To get in contact with the Balg, write to him at Amstrad Action, Future Publishing Ltd, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, AVON BA1 2AP or e-mail at cazsjw@uk.ac.leeds.dcs.

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Balrog's Postbag

The Balg receives literally hundreds (well nearly!) of letters every month and cannot possibly print them all - however don't despair, even if your letter has not been printed, I promise you that I have read and digested it!

PD GAC Games?

'...As you are running a competition I thought it would be an idea to have the best adventures put onto a selection that will be available on PD. Of course that depends on the authors permission but it is a great way of getting your name known. Simon Avery (and Ken Bond HBalg - Balg) is a good example of this, many people have bought his commercial adventures because they have already played his adventures on public domain and knew his work well.'

Debby Howard, Adventure PD

What a great idea Debby! So, if you would like your entry in the GAC competition to go public domain if it doesn't win then please mark it as PD and I will pass it on to Debby - who knows it could be the start of your adventure programming career!

Adventure recommendations

'I would like to recommend 'The Spiro Legacy' by Ken Bond. I had to return my disc (due to my own fault) and he returned it with two extra adventures 'The Base' and 'The Island'. These are the best adventures I have played since 'Scapeghost'. Thanks Ken! I hope that the covertape may soon have an adventure, and I especially liked one reader's idea of putting an Infocom adventure on tape which would then have to be transferred to disc. AA72 had a 128K disc-only database, so why not a good adventure?

Michael Stirling, Dundee

Ken's games certainly are very good - one of the reasons why he was awarded an honorary Balrog some issues ago. As to having a disc only adventure on the covertape, it's a great idea but I'm not sure how popular it would be - what do you think? Write in to the usual address!

Space Crusade

'...Is Space Crusade likely to follow Hero Quest onto the CPC?'

Steven Dale, Aberdeen

Yep!

Magnetic Blues

'I have accidentally copied over my Guild of Thieves game which I enjoyed a lot. Please can you supply me with the address of Magnetic Scrolls so that I can replace it.'
John Truss, Salop

Magnetic Scrolls are at 1 Chapel Court, London SE1 1HH. Tel 071 403 4325. Good luck!

Hitchhikers Query...

'...Can you get Hitchhikers Guide on tape?'
Richard Chare, Southport

Sorry Richard - Hitchhikers Guide was a disc only game which is now unavailable. As to your PS concerning Andy Peters from Childrens BBC - consider it done!

New magazine

'I am presently writing an adventure magazine called Other Realms. It deals with most aspects of adventuring including role-playing, board games and much more. I will send you a copy when it is finished, but I have a favour to ask you - Could you please let people know that I am desperate for adventure games on the Amstrad for reviewing purposes.If people do send me adventures, I will send them back along with the review printed in Other Realms. Please do me that favour, or else Other Realms cannot go ahead!'
The Daemon, 4 Cornwall Avenue, Knuzden, Blackburn, Lancashire BB1 2DD.

Good luck with the magazine - don't forget to send me a copy when you get it finished!

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Clue Cauldron

This months clue cauldron is on Grange Hill. Thanks to Thomas Christie from Grangemouth for the hints and map.

Character Locations:

Hollo At start of game he follows you
Dog Near Flats
Pusher More wasteland
Imelda Edge of Fence
Mr. Griffiths Grange Hill Entrance

Objects Location Purpose

Glass Eye Pensioner's Flats Pick up to avoid slipping
False teeth Pensioner's Garden Pick up to avoid being bitten
Telescope End of Street Red herring
Walkman Staff room Get this to approach home safely
Candle Canal Need this when in duct
Matches Pensioner's Garden Use to light candle
Paper plane Outside pipe Used to get matches
Dead cat Subway Give to Imelda
Bone Canal Give to dog
Torch Gap in Wall Red herring
History Book Sewage tank Use it to get paper plane
Felt pen More walls Red herring
Chair leg More wasteland Use to break boiler room padlock
Fishing rod Patch of grass Use to get bone

/*#include "Map of Grange Hill"*/

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Clue-sniffing with the Balrog

This months hint packed cluepot comes to you from:-Dave Adams (St Helens), Laurence Boyce (Leeds), Peter Clarke (Ipswich), Jonathon Constable (Kendal), Peter Knowles (Barnsley), Robert Melody (Surrey) and Dyved the Black (Sancton).True adventurers through and through!

Angelicus Saga

In part 1 lift the carpet to get the crowbar.
The answer to the riddle is "leaf".

Base

The combination for the safe in the governor's office is turn dial right 6, turn dial left 5, turn dial left 3, open safe.
The torch is under the bed in the spare room.
To cross the catwalk, wait when you hear the footsteps and then keep going south.

Book of the Dead - Part 1

Don't climb down the rope if you are carrying anything or you will be killed. When leaving the rubbish dump go north to avoid the thugs.

Dungeons Amethysts Alchemists n Everything

To get the potion of strength (which you need to open the alchemists tower) - take the sword and go and kill the dragon.Give the whip to the nun (!)The amethyst is found inside the pan.

DAAW

To get past the Balrog, give him the adventure game!
Be careful before going down the dark stairway.

Grue-Knapped

Throw the tights to catch the bat and then give it to the cricket.
Catch the fish with the whip, worm and bent pin.

Guild of Thieves

Shake palm tree to get a coconut.

Heavy on the Magick

To get past the hydra in 'Rook of Hydra', get the snake carved with an undine from Wraithvale.
Find the mirror and use it to destroy the medusa.
The 'call' spell is used to summon Apex, but beware of psychic overload when casting it.

Hobbit

To get past the trolls, go north, wait three times and then go south.
To get the ring, get captured by the nasty goblin whilst with Thorin, wait once and then say to thorin "break window", say to thorin "carry me", say to thorin "w", se, e (try not to get captured by a goblin). To get out of the Goblin Dungeons, get captured again, talk to Thorin again, SE, U, NW, E, open door, U.

Dave Adams has come to the aid of Pervez Choudhury's problem in Firestone - you can talk to the knight, but you must 'TALK TO MAN' as the parser doesn't recognise 'KNIGHT' and the chasm is crossed by 'WALK PLANK' as long as you are wearing the spiked running shoes - otherwise you will slip off!

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Lords & Ladies of Adventure

William Huddleston, Lord of Adventure, has written asking me to mention (yet again) that the Lords of Adventure are not a solution service - when you write please do not ask for a full solution but instead specify your problems in the adventure. Also don't forget to send an SSAE!

Bestiary, Blue Raider, Firestone, Quad X & Wizards Castle.
Lee Davies, The Flat, 415 Whitehall Road, Bristol B55 7BP.

Fantasia Diamond, Fish, Future Wars & Guild of Thieves.
Bilbo Baggins, 67 Philip Avenue, Nuthall, Nottingham NG16 1EB.

Grange Hill, Great Escape & Knightmare.
Thomas Storey, 27 Queens Drive, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26 2JU.

Star Wreck.
Steven Kenny. Tel (0942) 213195.

Star Wreck.
James Morley, 27 Rowlestone Rise, Greengates, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD10 ODS. Tel: (0274) 616674

Hollywood Hijinx & Scapeghost.
Gwynn Hopkins, Albion House, Llandre, Nr. Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY24 5BS.

Adventure Quest, Angelique a Grief Encounter, Arnold Blackwood Trilogy, Big Sleaze, Black Fountain, Bugsy, Case of the Mixed-Up Shymer, Castle Blackstar, Castle of the Skull Lord, Crystal Theft, Cursed Be the City, Cutthroats, Dracula, Dungeon Adventure, DAA, Enchanter, Escape from Koshima, Espionage Island, Fantasia Diamond, Fish, Football Frenzy, Frankenstein, Gnome Ranger, Gremlins, Guild of Thieves, Haunted House, Hermitage, Hitchhiker's Guide, Hollow Graphic, Hollow Text, Hollywood Hijinx, Hunchback, Imagination, Inca Curse, Infidel, Ingrid's Back, Jack the Ripper, Jinxter, Kingdom of Hamil, Kobyashi Naru, Lancelot, Leather Goddesses, Lifeterm, Lords of Time, Lurking Horror, Mansion, Mindshadow, Monsters of Murdac, Mordon's Quest, Mountains of Ket, Mystery of Indus Valley, Myth, Necris Dome, Never Ending Story, Nova, Nythyhel, Pawn, Planet of Death, Planetfall, Questprobe, Rebel Planet, Rigel's Revenge, Robin of Sherwood, Robocide, Seabase Delta, Shard of Inovar, Sharpe's Deeds, Ship of Doom, Smashed, Sorceror, Souls of Darkon, Spellbreaker, Spytrek, Star Wreck, Subsunk, Theseus, Top Secret, Venom, Very Big Cave Adventure, Winter Wonderland, Wishbringer, Wolfman and Zork I, II & III and all Interceptor games!
Graham Wheeler, 2 Burford Close, Southdown, Bath, Avon BA2 1JF. Tel between 10am and midnight (0225) 426919.

Colour of Magic, Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Nightmare, Quest for the Golden Egg-cup, Shadows of Mordor, Times of Lore, Werewolf Simulator & Wizard Warz.
Douglas Thompson, 14 Cosgrove Close, Peterborough PE3 7JN.

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Help!

Laurence Boyce from Leeds is stuck in four games -He doesn't know how to get out of the house in Werewolf Simulator, cannot discover how to put the bucket of hot coals on the snow in Imagination and is stuck in the first location of both Lifeterm and Wizbiz!Jim from Cambridge has been tearing is hair out over the 'Mystery of Arkham Manor' - can people please send in any tips for this game as Jim is really stuck!

Jonathon Constable from Kendal has made a raft in Shadows of Mordor but is not sure what to do next - any ideas? Jonathon is also stuck in Lord of the Rings - he can't get through the dark tunnel after Merry Brandybuck's house, he's tried everything but the game keeps crashing.

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Just for Laughs

This months humorous responses are all from Amir Mansour in London. Thanks a lot Amir!

Lurking Horror

Try pouring the tarry liquid.

Planetfall

Read the computer file about zork.Search Floyd.Turn Floyd off and search him.

Sorceror

Frotz the gnome at Bozbar land.

Welladay!

Try cooking the spider.

Wishbringer

Try torturing the Evil Ones cat.

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Programming with the Balrog

Aron Watson from New Zealand has written a loader for finished PAW adventures. The idea is for messages (eg copyright) to be displayed while your game is loading. Your adventure's filename will have to be inserted into the File Control Block. Also change the message too. Now assemble it into a .COM file using an assembler (eg MAXAM). Make sure your new loader is on the same side of the disc as your game. Now run the loader. The loader should disable the status line at the bottom of the screen, clear the screen, print your new message, load in your adventure and run it - Giving your great adventure that extra touch. ORG &F000 LD HL,&100 LD DE,&F000 LD BC,&150 LDIR ;Shift Proggy to top of memory. JP PROG. RETPROG. LD DE,MESOFF. ;DRIVE IS A: message turned off. LD C,9 CALL &0005 LD DE,CURSOR ;Home cursor LD C,9 CALL &0005 LD DE,COFF. ;Disable cursor blob. LD C,9 CALL &0005 LD DE,CLS. ;Clear screen. LD C,9 CALL &0005 LD DE,STRING. ;Print message. LD C,9 CALL &0005 LD DE,&100 ;Load address for adventure - &100 LD (&FFF5),DE LD C,&1A ;Set DMA address CALL &0005 LD DE,FB. ;Open file LD C,&0F CALL &0005 LD IX,&80READ. LD DE,FB. ;Read Sequential. LD C,&14 CALL &0005 CP 0 JP Z,BUFF. JP NZ,CLOSE.BUFF. LD (&FFF0),IX ;File memory buffer increase. LD BC,(&FFF0) LD HL,(&FFF5) ADD HL,BC LD (&FFF5),HL EX DE,HL LD C,&1A CALL &0005 CALL READ.CLOSE. LD DE,FB. ;Close file. LD C,&10 CALL &0005 LD DE,CON. LD C,9 CALL &0005 JP &0100 ;Run adventureFB. DEFB 00 :File Control Block. DEFB "GAME " ;Change to adventure DEFB "COM" ;filename. DEFB 00 DEFW 00 DEFB 00 DEFB 00,00,00,00 DEFB 00,00,00,00 DEFB 00,00,00,00 DEFB 00,00,00,00 DEFB 00 DEFB 00,00,00STRING. DEFB " Game loading...$" ;Change to new message.CLS. DEFB &1B,&78,"$"CURSOR. DEFB &1B,&48,"$"COFF. DEFB &1B,&66,"$"CON. DEFB &1B,&65,"$"MESOFF DEFB &1B,&00,"$"

Hope it works! - Balg.

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GAC Programming clinic

This month I'll continue adding to our bank adventure started last issue as well as telling you more about how to work GAC...

My first puzzle!

Not only are we going to add more locations to our bank adventure, we'll also be adding a puzzle (a locked bank vault door) and a maze! Room 1 Room 2 ---------- -------- N ! Large ! ! ! ! ! Bank !_________! Bank ! W _!_ E ! Vault ! (door) ! ! ! ! (gold) ! ! ! ! ---------- -------- S Room 4 ! Room 3 ---------- --------- ! High ! !Outside! ! Street !_________! Bank ! ! (key) ! ! ! ! (hole) ! ! ! ---------- --------- ! V To sewersFirst let's add the extra locations -Room 3 'You are outside the bank. Exits are north and west. 'Connections: N 2 W 4Room 4 'You are on the the highstreet. There is an exit to the east and you can go down to the sewers. 'Connections: E 3 D 5and amend the old locations...Add the message 'The bank vault door lies open to the east. ' (We're not going to allow the adventurer to close the vault, just open it) in Room 1.Remove the exit 'west 1' from room 2 (as we'll be putting a door between these two locations) and add south 3. Also add to the end of the room description 'There is an exit to the south and a large bank vault door to the west. 'Now let's add a maze - lets have the maze as a sewer complex beneath the high street...Room 5 'You are in a dank sewer. You can see daylight above. 'Connections: U 4 N 8 S 7 E07 W 6Room 6 'You are in a smelly sewer. 'Connections: N 7 S 8 W 5 E 6Room 7 'You are in a slimy sewer. 'Connections: N 6 W 7 E 7 S 8Room 8 'You are in a sewer. 'Connections: N 7 S 8 W 8 E 8So let's go over what we've got now - we've added a lot more locations, including a four room sewer maze which should be good (and could be made a lot harder if you changed all the location descriptions to be the same!). Now, we still want to add -Start in room 8Put a key in room 8Add a door to Room 2Add a puzzle which lets you open the door with the key...Starting in room 8 is easy - just go to the 'Begin where?' menu and change it to 8! As to putting the key in room 8, follow the same approach as the bar of gold from last issue - ie..Nouns 2 KeyObjects 2 a key starts in room 8 and weighs 1.Messages 2 The key looks important...Low Priority:-11: IF (VERB 7 AND NOUN 2 AND HERE 2) GET 2 OKAY END12: IF (VERB 8 AND NOUN 2 AND CARR 2) DROP 2 OKAY END13: IF (VERB 16 AND NOUN 2 AND AVAI 2) MESS 2 ENDAdding the door and the puzzle element is the complicated bit -Add MESSAGE 3 'The door is wide open...'add 'door', 'vault' and 'bank' as noun 3 and add the verb 'unlock' to the verb list (make it verb 18).Now go the local room conditions and add a condition for room 2 -IF (VERB 4 AND SET? 3) GOTO 1 WAIT ENDIf you typed 'West' and marker/flag three is set (ie the door is open) the go to room 1 (the bank vault).Also add IF (VERB 4) MESS 4 WAIT END to the list (if type go west and marker is not set then print message 4 (which we make 'You can't walk through doors you know!'))And finally addIF (VERB 18 AND NOUN 3 AND CARR 2) SET 3 WAIT ENDWhich basically says if you typed 'UNLOCK DOOR' and you have the key on you then set the door to be unlocked.Finally we want to add the message about the door being open to the end of the room description so we need to go to the high priority conditions menu and add -1: IF (AT 2 AND SET? 3) MESS 3And we should be ready to rock and roll! Pat yourself on the back if it works - 'Bank adventure' now looks much more like a proper adventure than the two location 'thing' we created last month! If it doesn't work then look at the errors box to see what you've done wrong...Save it as a datafile called bank.

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Competition Time!

As mentioned last month, we're running a competition for the best game written using GAC. To stop people cheating and sending in games they wrote three years ago (not that we don't trust you or anything) we've decided to write a little storyline:-'You are intrepid editor Rod Lawton, saviour of the innocents and all round Mr. Nice Guy, who has been magically transported to the Balrogs lair - quite what will happen next is unknown but you must rescue a damsel in distress, Princess Cathy, who the Balg has captured for his dinner...'That's it - all you have to do is use your new-found GAC skills to write an adventure based around the above storyline. The prize? The winners game will appear on a covertape, which will probably lead to more fame than Michael Jackson and oodles of money (err... well probably not but you can dream!)The closing date is not till 1st November 1992 so you have lots of time to write in to the GAC clinic with questions as well as reading the programming tutorials. The only other stipulation is that games must be sent in with a full solution and map as well as any other items that you think might be helpful (ú5 notes appreciated!) - if you're game has a really clever routine, or a really hilarious response then tell me when you write in - else I might not see it! Remember there is no rush to send your game in so wait a while to read the next few issues tutorial...

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PD or not PD?

If, for some unlikely reason, your adventure doesn't win, then you might be interested in entering it into a public domain library - Debby Howard from Adventure PD has asked for people who are interested in their games being released on PD to please mark them as public domain. I'll then pass the best games onto Debby and she'll put together a Balrog Adventure disc.

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Booklet

This article is the tip of the proverbial iceberg in explaining the use of GAC - if you're serious about using GAC then write to GAC Booklets, c/o AA enclosing a cheque/postal order for ú3 and we'll send you the instruction book! However you don't necessarily need the book to use GAC but it certainly helps!

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What next?

That is up to you! Next month I will continue the tutorial, but I would prefer to answer readers questions - if anyone has any queries concerning GAC then write to GAC Programming Clinic at the usual AA address.

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Editing and deleting things

To edit something (such as a room location or a condition), follow the procedure to enter it, and instead of empty lines to edit things on, you will get what was there before. To skip to the next part just press ENTER/RETURN. You are free to edit things as you go along, but don't press ESCAPE before you get to the "Which room/object/line number...?" else your changes won't be kept!To delete something, follow the procedure to enter it, but edit the first bit of data to be a blank line (ie no spaces) - this can be done be repeatedly holding down the CLR key.For example, to edit object one from 'a bar of gold' to read 'the mystical lost treasure of Nanu-Xanu', just press O from the main menu (for objects), choose object 1, edit the line using CLR, DEL and the cursor keys and then press enter until the "Which object number?..." prompt appears at the bottom of the screen. Then just press escape and the change will be committed to the computers memory.

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What is a marker/diagnostics?

Markers and counters (sometimes called flags or variables) are very important to any adventure game - without them it would be very difficult to write even the simplest puzzle.There are 256 markers, which can only be true or false. They are set by using the SET and RES commands (see example of the bank door above) - thus if marker 3 is set (true) then we say that the door is open, else if it is unset/reset (false) then the door is closed. Markers are tested using the SET? and RES? commands. These markers are very useful for puzzles which need to test if something is true or false (ie a door open/closed, night/dark, hungry/full etc.).There are 128 counters, numbered from 0 to 127. They are most frequently used to store the number of moves since a particular event (eg in the dark) but could be used for keeping account of how many gold coins you have etc. Counter 0 holds the score and counters 126 and 127 hold the turns count since the start of the game.When you are testing an adventure, the way to return to the main menu is to press the ESC key, as usual. This gives you the message "Press D for diagnostics or ESC to escape...". If you press the "D" key, then all the markers and counters will be displayed on the screen. For the markers, a filled circle indicates "SET" and an unfilled one "RESET". the values of the counter are given as you would expect. To get back to the main menu just press ESC again, or press any other key to get back to the game (this is very useful for debugging the adventure).

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Errors

Any adventure you write will develop bugs as you go along - some of them more serious than others. There are several errors than can occur from within GAC and most of them will throw up one of the error messages listed below:-

Message not found - means exactly that, you haven't set up the message that the routine is referring to. If you get this immediately, check that you have loaded in the quickstart files (QS.ADV) as this has all the system messages.

Room not found - commonly caused when you have a GOTO to a non-existent room or a connection which leads to a room which has not yet been created.Object not found - means that you have tried to pick up, drop or describe an object which doesn't exist.

Marker not found - Means you have tried to access a marker which does not exist.Counter not found - means you have tried to access a counter which does not exist.

Illegal value - Means you have tried to look for a verb, noun, adverb etc with a number greater than is possible or have tried to load a counter with a number greater than 255.The legal ranges of numbers are:- Rooms : 1 .. 9999 Objects : 1 .. 255 Messages: 1 .. 255 Verbs : 1 .. 255 Nouns : 1 .. 255 Adverbs : 1 .. 255 Markers : 0 .. 255 Counters: 0 .. 127 [which store: 0 .. 255]Usually an error is caused by a typing error or forgetting to enter a room/object/noun etc and thus easily traceable.