"Bally's Alley" by John Collins (1980)

Jason Dyer made a post about an interesting little text adventure for the Bally Astrocade system. He was able to get a version of the game running from source code typed-in by Paul Thacker in November 2022 from a printed listing and handwritten notes of the original author, which were preserved by Bally Astrocade hobbyists. This game fits in 4K of memory, which is quite a feat of programming by the author. Jason wasn't able to complete the game because he ran into some apparent bugs. My MC-10 version contains bug fixes to ensure that it can be played to completion. 

The following is a map of how far Jason got (pink box) from the start (green):

The problems were probably a result of a few slightly misinterpreted numbers by Thacker from the handwritten notes.

I have two proposed fixes to the hand recorded list of variables:

• @(17) change from 370 to 3170. This allows the player to move on to room #19 of the Color Maze, which I don't think Jason would have been able to do. This was my best guess of where a typo would most likely have occurred to prevent a move to room #19 (and the whole subsequent section), as the method of room number parsing only allows jumps from 1 to 2 (plus or negative) from the current room number. So the problem had to be either #17 or #18 that was preventing movement onwards in the Color Maze. The handwritten note for room # 17 looked like it had a possibly partial "1"that needed to be added to its 3 digits (370)-- just the hint of a "1" in front of the "7." When I tried it, it worked. 
• @(14) change from 1603 to 10603 (this one is optional). Thacker's version just lets you go N from the WELL directly into the COLOR MAZE, which I think undermines a puzzle Collins wanted/was working on. I suspect he had some problems with his room number parser, possibly due to rounding errors (a problem for the MC-10 version) that might have been frustrating him. I've fixed these problems now, but Collin's handwritten notes have numerous scribbled-out numbers and replacements for the room data. This data had to be entered directly by the user, to help conserve memory.

I think the problems with transcription and the parser combined were what was preventing Jason from being able to initiate interaction with the WELL and also the similar PURPLE room puzzle. Both these rooms need to have 5 digit numbers to initiate a COMMAND prompt after typing a DOWN direction. But only the PURPLE room (room #20 on my map) had 5 digits. It is possible that Collins had switched to 1603 for the WELL room (#14) just as a kluge, to temporarily deal with these problems.

# of Room Jumps------>
Rooms	Get a Command?	+2	+1	-1	-2
17			3	7	0
New 17		3	1	7	0
20	1	0	6	0	8
14		1	6	0	3
New 14	1	0	6	0	3

The trick with the WELL is to be carrying the KEYS, have just tried to move DOWN, and then issue the command UNLOCK when prompted. This should take you to the COLOR MAZE room with the LAMP (I'm sensing that Collins was inspired by Crowther's original, Adventure and its formula of "get lamp").

Similarly, in the problematic PURPLE room (it's red in my MC-10 version), the player must have just tried to move in the DOWN direction, and then must issue the command "F."  I'm not sure what "F" stands for, but perhaps "Find" or "Fire," because the player must also be carrying the OIL (but the LAMP doesn't seem to be required in the original). I changed it so that if the player types "F" or "L" (Look) or "S" (Search), a descent downward to a new section which I call the "Echoing Cave" is initiated (room 30 "No Way Up" in my map below). It also might simply be for "Fall" (If so, wouldn't "J" for jump be better?)  However, since the COMMAND parser only looks at one or two characters (G for Get, DR for drop, L in unLock), it doesn't much matter. Apparently Collins mentioned that people could play the game "for weeks." I can understand why.

The descent takes the player to an area, where the rooms don't have descriptions. Instead, I'm pretty sure each room makes a different noise. I don't have Jason's patience to get an Astrocade emulator running, so I'm guessing based on a rough knowledge of Astrocade BASIC (original and extended versions). Maybe there are some screen effects too. I'm not super familiar with the system but I was able to build some knowledge converting Clyde Perkin's classic "O-Jello"4K "Othello" game, which has a wicked AI opponent for a 4K game. Each room has a slightly different tone/pitch to its sound. This is an absolutely intriguing game dynamic. I don't think I've ever seen a text adventure from this era that uses sound as a critical part of the navigation/description system. It could be a first.

My new MC-10 version fits into 4K like the original (I am in total awe of Collins) and has a few other "fixes" (possible improvements). I added an "L" Look command that can be used in any room to redisplay the description as well as other function ("S" for search will have a similar effect, and both will also accomplish the "F" Find/Fall action). I also added save/load to the main menu and an extra hint to help with the purple room puzzle. I made it so that the player must have both the LAMP and the OIL to descend into the Echoing Cave, based on the assumption that the player needs these items to navigate "the darkness." BALLYSAL.C10 for MC-10 emulators can be found here, but people should be aware that my colors for the Color Maze will be different from those of the Bally Astrocade original:

The MC-10 version can be played online at the Internet Archive.

BALLYSAL.C10 can also be found and played online at the Color Computer Archive (Thanks Guillaume!)

I have managed to play it to completion. I'm not sure if 956 is a good score, but your score is decreased by how many moves you take. Since I was using maps and cheats (most importantly reading the source to know what to do), I suspect it's a pretty high score compared to what a real player, working from scratch, would be able to get:

Unlike Jason, I used maps and a temporary modification to the room display routine to print the room numbers (and to allow me to jump to rooms). This helped keep me well-oriented for my own map making. The following are two maps that I created, the first one based on those he posted:

Adjustments to Jason's Map for my new MC-10 version:

My additions to Jason's Map (for the MC-10 version):

Thanks to Jason for the inspiration for such an interesting "Reading Week" coding project, and for his map making and game history and links, which are so helpful when it comes to bug chasing. I'm curious if any of the Astrocaders will figure out other more accurate fixes to Thacker's groundbreaking work. I never know when I bug fix whether I am helping to restore/complete a programmers original vision, or mangling a classic piece of software. I hope it is the former. This one certainly deserves it.