"Q-Warrior" demo by "Opus 2"

e5frog · Post by **e5frog** » Sat May 03, 2008 7:05 am

Hi there!

I got these cassettes and a few others (at home recorded) when I bought an early VIC with the PET-keyboard recently:

I also sold them for 350 Swedish Kronor to a collector friend... Maybe to cheap yes, but it resulted in me paying only 100 SEK for the computer - that was half the shipping price.

I wonder about that Q-Warrior tape with the yellow DEMO-sticker..

The cassette and the load-picture says the company is called "Opus 2" but I can't find any such name for any other VIC-game... The package and cassette has Swedish origin. The inlay says "Package design by Lars Törngren", "Linköping SWEDEN 1983" - Linköping being a Swedish city, the cassette is marked "Programdistributören" has a Lindköping telephone number and is copyrighted to "POUS 2 SOFTWARE", "England 1983"

I don't think it's the same as the Bug-Byte version (although I haven't managed to load that one in VICE). And I also haven't been able to load this Demo further than the intro-screen, then it locks up, at best it has a white cross over the red screen with seemingly random graphical characters - I'm guessing it LOAD ERRORs.

Just thought I should ask.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sat May 03, 2008 8:04 am

I guess you can compare if need be... here's the Bug Byte version...

http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/misc/Q-Warrior.zip

e5frog · Post by **e5frog** » Sat May 03, 2008 6:07 pm

I tried again, and the intro loaded fine, it displays OPUS 2 yada yada and then seemed to put "SYS7424" in the keyboard buffer (from 631) and then POKE198,7 or perhaps 8 I didn't check thoroughly... and after that it simply LOAD:s

I don't quite get what that does, does it save that SYS until the next part is loaded or how does that work?

After loading for about 24 turns it displays that red screen (it was already red at the intro) and the white cross all over the screen in whatever characters...

I tried pressing all keys and when pressing 'G' it started the demo - displaying the same screen as I got from Bug Byte's Q-Warrior, but now with moving objects... As it's a demo I didn't seem to be able to do anything more...

I tried the .prg file I previously downloaded (not yours Mayhem) and finally understood that I could only start the game with the joystick - and it looked just the same as the demo...

I wonder who the heck "OPUS 2" is and why they released a demo of Bug Byte's game? Are they mentioned anywhere on the Bug Byte release of the game - on the inlay or so?

It feels a little better now that I got it going, but it seems a little strange how that white cross looks and why there's no information neither on screen nor on the inlay that I need to press 'G' to start the demo.

johncl · Post by **johncl** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:21 am

Ok, I just got the Q-Warrior original, but the tape inside says OPUS by APS 1985, also for Vic20. Furthermore the tape has the Liberty House address which is the same as printed on the back of the Bug-Byte inlay.

Is this the original tape for the game? Or is there an Opus game that might have been accidentally put inside the Q-Warrior tape?

e5frog · Post by **e5frog** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 12:03 pm

Perhaps someone else made it and then it was sold along? Maybe they tried to release the demo under their own label?

johncl · Post by **johncl** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 3:22 am

Possibly, I guess I should whip out my Vic20 and test it to confirm that it is indeed Q-Warrior.

e5frog · Post by **e5frog** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 5:17 am

Here's a complete photo of the demo I had:

It's all Swedish text except the title name.

Maybe it was called something else in another country?