Aardvark title "Quest"

robinsonmason · Post by **robinsonmason** » Sun May 29, 2011 10:14 am

Hey guys, I was wondering if you might know of this title called "Quest" by Aardvark software. Unfortunately, it's not the same as the text adventure "Quest" that's in existing collections I've seen for the VIC-20. It's more of a simple character graphics 2D RPG. A CoCo fan came looking for it on my C64 site, but I'd also love to see the VIC-20 version listed as "13K VIC-20".

Here's the Aardvark advertisement: http://c64walkabout.com/index.php?optio ... t-or-found

Here's a TRS-80 CoCo screenshot: http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/quest.html I can imagine a VIC-20 version looking similar...

And here's a similar title by the same company, Wizard's Tower for the C64: http://gb64.com/game.php?id=11272&d=18&h=0

BTW, there is a Dungeons of Death title, also listed as "13K VIC-20".

I have no idea what Dungeons of Death looks like, but someone just picked up the TRS-80 CoCo version in a collection: http://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/for-sal ... -shipping/

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Mon May 30, 2011 5:24 am

Couldn't they be two of those 'ghost titles' never released for the already declining VIC, but still appearing in some ads (e.g. space vultures on cart, etc.)?

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Mon May 30, 2011 8:41 am

13k would imply +8k RAM expansion needed (do the math heh).

Games called Seawolfe and Pyramid were released by Mogul, so they might be one and the same. Still, my job is to document everything and then prove if they got released later, so I'll be adding these blank entries to GB20...

robinsonmason · Post by **robinsonmason** » Mon May 30, 2011 11:53 am

Could be, Orion, though a VIC-20 owner who called in a phone order as the advertisement directs would have been disappointed! I thought I read somewhere long ago that Aardvark did more direct by mail/phone sales than stocking of software shop shelves, but I could be mistaken.

Mayhem, Mogul Communications is listed at GB64.com as having released three in that advertisement for the C64: Zeus, Seawolfe and Pyramid. http://gb64.com/search.php?a=5&f=1&id=282&d=18&h=0 (Zeus is also listed for the VIC-20 in the ad)

Anyway, if I hear anything more about the 4(?) in the advert that you don't have docs or tapes for, I'll post here again.

Thx!
-Robinson

bokvamme · Post by **bokvamme** » Mon May 30, 2011 12:11 pm

I've got 11 Mogul releases for vic-20.
There were probably more.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Mon May 30, 2011 10:36 pm

Kongo Kong is probably a rerelease of Victory Software's game, but I'll need a TAP/inlay scan to check heh. I have Seawolfe but that appears to be missing from your list. The other is the Great Adventure Pack, which will have a few games on I imagine; which ones I don't know... I think that's a new addition to your collection since I first forwarded a list of what I needed still for GB20...

hornpipe2 · Post by **hornpipe2** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:52 am

Good news, everyone! I found a copy of Dungeons of Death VIC in a datasette I picked up off a freecycler. It's in pretty good shape. I'll get a TAP dump online for you all within the next day or two.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:53 pm

Nice work there. And welcome

Please scan any box/inlay that the game came in as well.

hornpipe2 · Post by **hornpipe2** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:15 pm

All the goodies, here:
http://nwserver.webhop.org/_greg/d_of_d

The only thing I actually own is the tape itself - no documents, no manuals, etc. So here is a description of what's in that folder:
Dungeons_of_Death-tcreport.txt -> TapClean 0.26 report of Dungeons_of_Death.tap
Dungeons_of_Death.tap -> Cleaned .tap of Dungeons of Death.
Dungeons_of_Death_5sec_pause.tap -> As .tap above, except all inter-file pauses adjusted to 5 seconds as a sort of standardization.
Dungeons_of_Death_Tape.png -> Scan of the tape itself. Only one side had a label.
aardvark.jpg -> Aardvark advertisement that I found on the web, this one is about the CoCo version of D of D.
aardvark_83_cover_2.jpg -> More recent catalog scan (also from the web), this one showing a large version of the Dungeons of Death art
aardvark_83_p2.jpg -> from the same 1983 catalog, this one has a blurb about Dungeons of Death being on the VIC.

So... why two version of the tap? Initially, I dumped both sides of the tape, and though they contained the same files in the same order... the pauses in between were different. Since there's no really good digital way to measure the pause lengths and standardize them, I settled on simply adjusting them to 5 seconds (as that's the trailing pause TapClean adds on .tap files anyway) and posted that edited version as well. It just feels a bit "cleaner" to me : )

This game runs on xvic after enabling an 8k expansion. I was able to create a character, then advance to the next section and start in on the maze. But I am probably missing something (the manual lol) as I got in a fight with some zombies and couldn't figure out how to tell it to fight though I didn't have a weapon.

EDIT: Also if someone with access to vic20tapes.org could add this to the database it would be much appreciated. I'd say, treat the regular .tap as a raw and the 5second tap as a clean. Post the rest in a ZIP as extras.

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:50 pm

Wow, that's an obtuse game to get into. You have to copy down a 27 character code after the first part and type it into the second part. Per adventurer.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:06 pm

Yeah, that's an interesting choice. Still, you could frig it if you worked out the code. And I already found two bugs in the game just from one playthrough; I tried to open a door after listening to it and the game just immediately dropped me out to a READY prompt!

robinsonmason · Post by **robinsonmason** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 7:18 pm

GREAT!

I just lost a bid yesterday or so on the full manual of the game - it sold for 60+ bucks: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :MEBIDX:IT

Quest was up, too - but both were only for the CoCo. I hope whoever won them is the type of person to share with the community since it's been very hard to find good scans of Aardvark manuals...

It's fantastic that you got the VIC-20 version, though! I'll check it out. Just from reading the comments the game intro sounds very much like the method to play Search for Magdarr for the C64 (also by Aardvark). They had a long code to type in for each character as well.

Suspicion on talking to guys at GTW64.com is that Dungeons of Death was a precursor to the Magdarr games...! (see: http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=17977&d=45 )

-R

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 7:52 pm

I was just about to say... until I read you were bidding on a Coco version... how on earth would I have missed this on eBay if it was for the Vic20?

And more's the pity you missed out, would have been nice to see the instructions...

robinsonmason · Post by **robinsonmason** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:19 pm

Mystery solved!(?) Dungeons of Death for the VIC-20, based on my limited gameplay, is an early 2D version of Dungeons of Magdarr (later Search for Magdarr).

The (unfortunately difficult to read) scans for the Magdarr game can be found HERE: http://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=magdarr There are many similarities, but I'm not sure how far they go. Ultimately it would be best to obtain a copy of the original DoD manual for any platform.

Some differences include the Magdarr game having different disk programs for player creation and the game itself. A remnant of the "Dungeons of Death" can be seen in Dungeons of Magdarr's program files called "PLAYER" and (suspiciously!) "DEATH."

If you want to try to play the game straight off with one character, choose only one member for your party and proceed with this character code:

CERCIA@@C@EF@@
AJC@@@@AMDG@@

I also experienced an error when trying to enter the first door I encountered, BTW.

Thanks again to Hornpipe2 for this! Very cool to see this old game revived from the depths of the past... Hoping for more Aardvark VIC-20 finds!

-R

robinsonmason · Post by **robinsonmason** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:48 am

Mayhem wrote:I was just about to say... until I read you were bidding on a Coco version... how on earth would I have missed this on eBay if it was for the Vic20?

And more's the pity you missed out, would have been nice to see the instructions...

Indeed, Mayhem. I am used to settling for instructions sold with media for other platforms since I tend to hunt rare RPGs for the C64 and VIC-20.

Best case the manual contains instructions for multiple platforms, sometimes I miss out on a command card, though.