My 2019 Text Adventure Year...

As 2019 draws to a close, I decided to try and go back through the year and list the various silly little text adventure projects and conversions that I've worked on over the past twelve months. There's been quite a few!

New Text Adventures...

Deer Creek, a full length "educational" game designed for newcomers to the genre and/or primary-aged students. Initially created with Chris Ainsley's web-based Adventuron system and later ported to the ZX Spectrum, running under the PAW by Gilsoft. There are now also Amstrad CP/M, MSX, and Commodore 64 versions available.

The Revenge of Moriarty. A new mini-adventure, from a 1989 design that I'd never previously managed to make work as a game. Available as a PAWed prototype for Spectrum and Amstrad CP/M, as well as the "official release", a DAAD version for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. A third-party produced Plus/4 version is also available.

A Troll's Revenge, a mini-adventure produced as part of CaveJam 2019. Created in Adventuron and also available as a PAWed game for ZX Spectrum and also Amstrad CP/M.

The Lost Planet, part one of a game originally designed in 1990 but never programmed. Available as a PAWed game for ZX Spectrum.

Still in development... Project Dream Walker. Approximately 50% complete.

New text adventures for 2019

New Text Adventure Ports...

Ports of the two-part Spectrum text adventure, The Search for the Nether Regions using DAAD to run on Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga, PC DOS and MSX. A third-party tweaked version for Plus/4 was also made available.

A port of the three-part 1991 Spectrum 48K game Microfair Madness to Commodore 64, using the DAAD system, as well as three other associated games... Personal Computing Whirled!, The Great Caravan Caper, and The Quest for the Holy Snail.

The Quest for the Holy Snail, was also produced as a DAAD Edition for Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. The Great Caravan Caper was also available as a standalone game for Spectrum and Amstrad CP/M. A standalone PAWed version of the mini-game The Hoppit was created for ZX Spectrum, using the tweaked Adventuron port.

An Amstrad CP/M+ port of part one of the Spectrum 128K game Deception of the Mind's Eye, as well as DAAD-powered versions for Atari ST, Amiga, and PC DOS.

The final port for the year (of an old title, at least) was a conversion of the 1992 Spectrum 48K game, The Life of a Lone Electron. Now available for Commodore 64 (as well as a new Spectrum version), this DAAD-powered edition includes lots of bug-fixes and quality of life tweaks.

Lots and lots of ports of existing games to other 8-bit and 16-bit formats

Other Collaborations...

ISS Emergency! An adaptation of John Whatson's Python-powered text adventure. Produced for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CP/M using the PAW and converted to the Commodore 64 using DAAD. A third-party tweaked version for Plus/4 was also made available.

Recovered Games...

Thanks to John Wilson, the following early 1990s Adventure Workshop conversions of games for Amstrad CP/M, were recovered... Microfair Madness, The Quest for the Holy Snail, The Life of a Lone Electron, and Personal Computing Whirled! Downloads are available on the relevant game pages.

Other Projects & Events...

New additions to the 8bitAG site include a Tom Frost profile and an interview with Pelagon Software's Gary Power.

I helped out in polishing the English translation of the excellent Spanish text adventure The House on the Other Side of the Storm.

I accidentally helped discover a missing BBC game, Level 9's Knight Orc!

Some of my text adventure work was featured in the Zzap64 Annual 2019. RIP Stuart Williams.

I continued with my text adventure research for sites such as CASA and Spectrum Computing, adding new entries, correcting existing ones and trying to track down additional information, especially of British homebrew text adventures from the 1980s and 90s.

Thanks to...

Scott Denyer, my 1990s collaborator (and programmer) of many of the original games

Chris Ainsley, for his superb Adventuron system and his syntax-highlighters for DAAD, inPAWs, and PAW

Stefan Vogt, for his ANTUR transcompiler, his work with DAAD, and help with technical issues.

The main 8BitAG games page is at 8bitAG.com/games.