"In the Woods" from partially converted Sanyo PHC-25 version |
I looked back into my files and I still had the files from the AX-2 distro. This was good because when I searched on the Net again, I couldn't relocate the file. Maybe it has been taken down-- AX-2 was a commercial product. Seems like things are heating up a bit when it comes to copyright issues. The Cocotalk folks were discussing the ethics of porting and re-coding on their last podcast. Don't know if I am doing anything wrong. I am reusing old code I find on the Net, but I feel a little better about the fact that I don't sell any of the programs which result from my efforts. I'm just using code as material for my own little retrocomputing coding projects. I always try to leave references or even add references to the original authors.
NEC Trek Intro (Compare with above) |
NekTrek Game Screen |
The following is a transcript of my son Charlie's attempt at translation (via text messaging). You can see the english instructions I was able to get out of his attempts in the video of my MC-10 version of the game:
- "Before the clock strikes 12:00, you must get to the village, marked by the diamond()"...
- "However, if:"...
- "You run into a big tree(?) marked by the "
- Something about eating five
- "Then you'll die"
- I don't know if it's saying if you do or don't eat them
- Oh they're mushrooms!
- I think the last part says something about waiting for the mushrooms before you get to the village
- Do you know the gameplay for this?
- Also just so you know, I'm saying the clubs are mushrooms
- No, my final verdict is that the mushrooms are poisonous and eating 5 kills you
- And then the last part is warning you to hurry before too many appear
Thanks Charlie! Your input, as always, makes a vital contribution to my programming efforts. I also have to thank Darren (Mechacoco) for the use of his TIMER USR routine to allow me to properly keep track of the seconds countdown like in the original.
I used my replacement for the PLAY command to translate some of the music from the original using only the SOUND command of the MC-10. Here is that subroutine:
0 DIMN(21)
1 CC=1:FORC1=1TO63STEP3:N(CC)=VAL(MID$("087103113129142149161171181185193200203209215219221223229231233",C1,3)):CC=CC+1
2 NEXT:GOTO12
4 FORCC=1TOLEN(M$)STEP2:SOUNDN(ASC(MID$(M$,CC,1))-64),ASC(MID$(M$,CC+1,1))-48:NEXT:RETURN
11 FORC1=1TO250:NEXT:RETURN
12 M$="G4G4G4A4B4B4":GOSUB4:REM TEST SOUND
Because MC-10 Basic is usually faster than NEC Basic, I was able to add a little challenge. The delay loop on input gets shorter for each successfully completed screen. So controlling the player avatar, which I made an X (instead of an @) should get a little more challenging (faster) as you progress. I also added a cumulative score to tally your diamonds from each completed screen. The original didn't seem to keep track from screen to screen. I also added a high score routine. Not sure what characters were originally used, but I suspect that it was the card suit characters: the spade for trees, the diamond for your goal, and the club for mushrooms. I used the up arrow for trees, since they kind of look like pine trees, periods for "little" mushrooms and the astrix for the diamond. I'll leave it to you to judge if they work. Here's a vid of what I came up with:
Addendum
Based on some input from Keiichi Shiga on the Japanese Vintage Computer Users group on Facebook, I fixed up the instructions. I also, changed the way that the score is displayed. Now it counts down from the 20 diamonds that you start with every screen followed by your total cumulative score. Also, your lives countdown from 5 for mushroom hits. When you hit zero... you're dead.
The game "In the Woods" can be found and played under "Our Classic Basic Games" menu item on our GameJolt Page: https://gamejolt.com/games/jgmc-10games/339292. Just select "Play Game" then click "Play Our Classic Basic Games," select "In the Woods" from the cassette menu and finally type RUN and hit ENTER. Then enjoy a classic Japanese 8-bit BASIC computer game from the early 1980s.
Addendum to the Addendum (Dec 2023)
I realized that the game port of In the Woods and my port of Nostromo were both originally part of a distribution of BASIC game programs put out by the Japanese software company ASCII Publishing called AX-2. That distribution originally had a menu program with some fancy graphics to access the various games. So I decided to try to update both Nostromo and In the Woods with a recreation intro screen from the AX-2 disto. There are some other programs from that distro that I will also try to port, and when I do so, I will also use the intro screen:
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