Indenture for the 2600...

[Nukey Shay]

I'm using the 8k assembly to do this...so some of the maps will take a bit of "conforming" to work with the Adventure engine (Adventure is not designed to work with asymmetrical playfields). Vertical resolution might be doubled in the future to help with this...but I'm not sure if enough screens will fit (the program only allows 256 screens anyway...so some of the mazes will need to be trimmed back - the swiss cheese maze definately). I've got about a 3rd of the screens in place, so some of the room links are still broken. In game 4, I placed all of the game objects below the yellow castle and locked up the bat and 4 dragons in the white castle so you can explore a bit. I used Indenture's added objects whistle, flashing key, green key, blue dragon, and 2nd dot (to open left panels)...and that left 2 bytes a ram free (which I used for the timer)...not enough ram to cover the game tokens...but I'll think of something You can reach the green castle, but it's mazes are not done yet (so it just leads into the number room)...and the area to the north of Craig Pell's room is also not reachable (currently).

 

BTW the regular dot is due south of the yellow castle, and the larger dot is right on top of the whistle. The whistle also functions correctly - stopping an on-screen bat when you hold it.

indentur.zip

[Nukey Shay]

Just figured out how to deal with multiple resolutions...so more detailed mazes are no longer a problem (and would no longer waste memory for normal screens). Luckily...I haven't been working on any of it's complex mazes yet

[ATARI TROLL]

This rocks so far Nukey!

[cosmosiss]

Hey Nuey. I just tried it on my Jr., and there's some rolling issues. When going through the game selection screen, it will start rolling when it gets to #3 and when a dragon open it's mouth. At some point the game crashed, but I'm not sure if it's a hardware issue.

 

I don't know if it's on my end. I just thought I'd mention it.

[sandmountainslim]

What is the story of this game?

What do the flashing key, whistle etc do?

Tell me more.

Wp

[SeaGtGruff]

What is the story of this game?

What do the flashing key, whistle etc do?

Tell me more.

Wp

Indenture was a game that Craig Pell did for the PC, which included the three original Adventure levels, plus two more. The two new levels (4 and 5) have a much larger map, with a bigger dot that opens the way into the new area, just like the way the smaller dot opens the way to the original hidden room.

 

I just found this, and it looks really cool! Too bad it's unfinished.

 

Michael

[Lauren Tyler]

How do you get to the new area in Indenture? I could never figure that out...

[SeaGtGruff]

How do you get to the new area in Indenture? I could never figure that out...

I can't seem to play the game on my new computer-- it runs, but it's REALLLY SLLLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW-- so I can't tell you where the big dot is. But you put the big dot in one of the rooms that has a line for a wall-- like the one that goes to the secret room in Adventure. It's the room with the line on the right side, but through the catacombs, on the other side from where the white castle is. Then you put a few more objects in the room so you can pass through the line.

 

The unfinished 2600 Indenture game works the same way, except you put the big dot in the room that has the line on the left side, just below the white castle. Some of the new area is in the 2600 Indenture game, but not all of it.

 

Michael

[Nukey Shay]

Actually, either dot can get you into the expanded area...so long as the small dot is not at it's "home" screen. I left all objects out in the open in game 4 (with the bat and dragons locked up in the white and black castles), so you can experiment easily. The big dot lets you pass through left panels...while the smaller dot still allows you to pass through right panels. There's a pattern of panels that Indenture uses in the expanded area, so you must juggle between dots in the expanded area to be able to pass through the necessary screens to unlock "the big secret" connected to the use of number tokens. None of that was added here, because Indenture's game world was impossible to duplicate due to the limited horizontal resolution (the main reason that I gave up on it). Tho now with the new Adventure kernel's abilities (isolated panels & mixed screen modes), it might be pretty close if anybody wants to pick it up. There's still the 256-screen limitation that would need to be corrected tho.

[SeaGtGruff]

There's a pattern of panels that Indenture uses in the expanded area, so you must juggle between dots in the expanded area to be able to pass through the necessary screens to unlock "the big secret" connected to the use of number tokens.

I don't think the "last" screen has anything to do with the number tokens. It's just a "cool" screen. I mean, I guess you could say the thingy on it might be a hint, but I never needed that hint, so I never thought of the thingy in those terms.

 

Michael

[Lauren Tyler]

OK, so you need the Big Dot. But where is it? Anyone know?

[SeaGtGruff]

OK, so you need the Big Dot. But where is it? Anyone know?

I'm playing Indenture again in DOSBox, and I realize I was mistaken. (It's been so long since I've played it!) You don't need the big dot to get into the new area; you just need the little dot.

 

In the "old" area, there are four screens with magic barriers-- two with a magic barrier on the left, and two with a magic barrier on the right.

 

When you find the little dot in the black castle and put it on either screen having a magic barrier on the right, then put a few more objects on that screen, you can pass through the magic barrier. The upper screen (near the yellow castle) goes to the secret room with Warren Robinett's name in it. The lower screen (near the white castle) goes to a secret room with Craig Pell's name in it, which also leads to a gigantic "new" area.

 

There's also a second dot-- a big dot, shaped like a diamond-- that's hidden in the new area. As with the little dot, it's in a dark maze, and if you're carrying something you can tell when you find the right screen, because your light will flash. The big dot lets you go through the magic barriers that are on the left.

 

There are several more magic barriers in the new area, and you'll need to go through some of them to reach all the areas. You'll need to get the little dot and bring it inside the new area so you can pass through the magic barriers on the right.

 

You'll also need the bridge to get to one of the new castles.

 

Michael

[SeaGtGruff]

By the way, when I play Indenture with DOSBox, the sprites are messed up. Is there something you need to set to make them look normal?

 

Michael

[Luc]

It seems that Indenture uses a certain graphics mode that Dosbox doesn't support (yet), although the new version (v0.73) claims to support more graphics modes than the previous release. I don't really think you can set up the program to correct this, but maybe someone in the Dosbox forum knows more about it.

[edyensid]

Here is a good post about getting Indenture to work well in DosBox:

 

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?...284725c90a6bd5e

 

I just used it recently to finish my old maps.

 

Ed

[SeaGtGruff]

Here is a good post about getting Indenture to work well in DosBox:

 

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?...284725c90a6bd5e

 

I just used it recently to finish my old maps.

 

Ed

Way cool! Thanks, I'll try it out!

 

Michael

[Chris++]

If the four tokens are inside the Golden Castle when you bring the Chalice in, you get a long message from Craig, including information on how to obtain the T-shirt that he originally made in limited numbers.

 

The larger dot allows you to pass through a LEFT-hand line, but the accessed areas are the same. You're just entering them from their opposite sides. I use the large dot merely as an object, as you need two objects (plus the small dot) to move through any of the right-hand lines ("panels") -- and there are too few objects in the game to do this efficiently, enabling you to search all the secret areas, without a lot of tedious object-juggling.

 

A good trick is to lure the dragons into rooms with lines in them, drop the objects of their desires so they don't leave, and return to kill them once you've found the sword -- turning the dragons into stationary objects that count toward the necessary two. The dragons guard their own favorite tokens (1 2 3 4), in addition to their original VCS hordes (Grundle = bridge, magnet and black key, etc.).

 

The bigger dot is located within a catacomb, which itself lies within a secret area. A great way to find these locations, if you want to bypass the fun of exploration, is to use the available maps (check out the Indenture thread in the 2600 forum). I still have Stan, Jr.'s old maps in my mailbox, if anyone needs those.

[Chris++]

Here is a good post about getting Indenture to work well in DosBox:

 

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?...284725c90a6bd5e

 

I just used it recently to finish my old maps.

 

Ed

 

Thanks, Ed! I've been playing Indenture for years, always with the "thinner" keys and dragons (fortunately, the -v switch in the DOSBox prompt allows you to turn off the VGA) -- and now it actually looks right! I can find the green key without squinting and looking hard! It really blended into the background colors in its 16X16 "version."

 

I actually signed up to that silly forum (I'll be the most short-lived member they've ever had!), so I could access the cat's e-mail address and thank him for providing his patch four years ago.