The Quill (ZX81 Version) - Work in Progress

[XavSnap]

Hi Gus !

It's wonderfull.

I plan to make my one "Text-Adventure" engine when i coded "Something to do: in Paris"... the "XaDventure" engine !

The Quill was a game compiler.

1/
You can retrive the frensh software test in the Ordi-5 number 13.
(in Frensh : pages 46-47-48 at http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/djv/ or
http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/n13/download/ ... _13_46.png
http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/n13/download/ ... _13_47.png
http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/n13/download/ ... _13_48.png
)

2/
Is it possible to make a compiler to build a map and an action script?
My idea is to build a vb program on windows how can rebuild a game using a Windows editor (easy to use)!
It will be able to rebuild a "P" file, using actions, map and objects.
But, i don't know how to code this items.
Can you help me to retrive the game structure (data base and location infos.)
It will be my next project.


3/
"Adventure" games seem to use this "Quill" engine on Zx81 !
Adventure "A" to "D".
Adventure "C" : "?in a space shuttle?" and
Adveenture "D" : "espionage island"(->>http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/k7/).
It seem to be codded on a Spectrum with "The Quill"... (ascii chars text!)

Have Fun !

[XavSnap]

Hi,

Where's the map table location ?

[gus]

Hi Xav !!!

Well it's good to know that you have some interest too

first of all, The Quill is a tool that let you build your own adventures (the Editor mode) and then play them (the Interpreter)
What I do in this first stage and I do it first because it the more interesting part for me, was develop from scratch the Game interpreter for the ZX81, so I can make use the editor on the Spectrum (development enviroment ) and then export the Database (locations, conections, user messages, system messages, vocabulary, actions and events) reformat it and asemble the game interpreter and the database in order to obtain an P file with the final game

Right now I'm porting The Crystal Frog, a big Adventure with a lot of locations (60), user messages (more that 100), actions and events, with a huge vocabulary (near 150 words).
This is the first real test for the Interpreter, so when I finish this stage we can be sure that the Interpreter is working fine and of course we can play The crystal Frog on a zx81 with at least 32Kbytes of RAM

So, in reply to your question, I think that It will be great to count with a new Window$ based editor.

But I need to finish the interpreter first, because the structure of the database can be altered in this early development stage...

I keep the Quill language specifications, right now I will not try to improve it.
That way if you want to know how the Interpreter works, the original The Quill manual will apply 100%

Mercy,
Gus

[gus]

3/
"Adventure" games seem to use this "Quill" engine on Zx81 !
Adventure "A" to "D".
Adventure "C" : "?in a space shuttle?" and
Adveenture "D" : "espionage island"(->>http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/k7/).
It seem to be codded on a Spectrum with "The Quill"... (ascii chars text!)

It's true, those adventures use ASCII chars on the ZX81, I saw it some time ago...

But I do some check on the WOS and the only adventures that Artic authored with The Quill are:
Adventure G: Ground Zero and Adventure H: Robin Hood

Then I think that the people at Artic was used some in house authoring system prior to Adventure G....

There are an Artic Tribute Page at http://adventure.if-legends.org/Artic_Computing.html but I can't find any technical info here

Just one observation:

The format of the screens

[Locatition Description]

"I CAN ALSO SEE:"

And the command prompt "TELL ME WHAT TO DO"

Comes, without dude, from The Quill...

So I will try to unquill the Adventure A so we can confirm this idea...

Enjoy it,
Gus

[gus]

Report:

Tha Adventure A is not Quill Authored

1) The unquill.exe util reports that the file is not a valid Quill Adventure File

2) testing the game on a spectrum let us see that the prompt "TELL ME WHAT TO DO" the same on all turns, and I know that on the Quill Adventures the interpreter has 4 different prompts and on each turn displays 1 in a random way.

3) The Game has not a cursor, just like on my first Quill81 interpreter and on the Spectrum the Quill presents to the user a flashing cursor.

So I keep my original idea, maybe the programmers at Artic makes his own adventure system...

Gus

[XavSnap]

Hi Gus,
I will try to install unQuill !

http://www.winpaw.com/download.htm

Have Fun !

[Shaun_B]

The news article about this ZX81 version of the Quill which featured in the PC magazine Micro Mart read:

///Sub header///
Write your own

///Body copy///
Whilst on the subject of game creating utilities, the popular adventure maker The Quill Adventure System is currently being converted to the Sinclair ZX81, which would be quite an achievement and may end up requiring more than a 16K RAM Pack to work.
This work is being carried out by ZX81 enthusiast and member of the RWAP [ZX81] forums (probably the best community of enthusiasts on the Internet, or at least the best one I've found) known as Gus. You would have thought that lacking anything close to a real keyboard and the infamous 'RAM Pack wobble', the black doorstop wouldn't exactly be the ideal platform for such a development kit, however a surprising number of text adventures were released for the 8-bit back in the day, and if you haven't got a keyboard overlay or an alternative upgrade then at least there is emulation.
Anyway, if you want to create a piece of monochrome interactive fiction with one of the most unsophisticated computers of the 1980s, point your web-browser at tinyurl.com/ZX81Quill, which has the latest build as well as discussion about this development.

I don't have a scan of the page as I don't have a scanner working, but there was also an image printed of the Quill in action on the ZX81.

Regards,

Shaun.

[XavSnap]

Hi,

I'm working on a Visual Basic Quill editor.
I had a look to the "UnQuill" codes to get tables structures... but i don't able to retrive them!
I had to disassemble the demo and retrive all commands.
I don't know if i can rebuild a binary "P" file... or a TASM text file...
Gus, if you had to rewrith the ASM codes, it can help me to parse and rebuild all tables.
>to patch the binary or the text ASM file!

Note: the "Kitc"hen and "Hall" command are the same ID in your demo.

[gus]

The news article about this ZX81 version of the Quill which featured in the PC magazine Micro Mart read:

///Sub header///
Write your own

///Body copy///
Whilst on the subject of game creating utilities, the popular adventure maker The Quill Adventure System is currently being converted to the Sinclair ZX81, which would be quite an achievement and may end up requiring more than a 16K RAM Pack to work.
This work is being carried out by ZX81 enthusiast and member of the RWAP [ZX81] forums (probably the best community of enthusiasts on the Internet, or at least the best one I've found) known as Gus. You would have thought that lacking anything close to a real keyboard and the infamous 'RAM Pack wobble', the black doorstop wouldn't exactly be the ideal platform for such a development kit, however a surprising number of text adventures were released for the 8-bit back in the day, and if you haven't got a keyboard overlay or an alternative upgrade then at least there is emulation.
Anyway, if you want to create a piece of monochrome interactive fiction with one of the most unsophisticated computers of the 1980s, point your web-browser at tinyurl.com/ZX81Quill, which has the latest build as well as discussion about this development.

I don't have a scan of the page as I don't have a scanner working, but there was also an image printed of the Quill in action on the ZX81.

Regards,

Shaun.

A million Thanks for the article Is really good to know that this little work is enjoyed by other zx81 enthusiast

Gus

[XavSnap]

Hi,

Diassembled Gus's demo here:
http://zx81.ordi5.free.fr/thequill/TASM.ZIP

Have Fun.
Xav.