phoenix/info/Phoenix-games.txt

Subject: Announcing: Fyleet, Crobe, Sangraal
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 00:30:11 +0100
From: Graham Nelson <graham@gnelson.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction,rec.games.int-fiction

Announcement: Three lost games restored: Fyleet, Crobe, Sangraal
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The central computer of Cambridge University, England, an IBM mainframe
usually called "Phoenix" after its operating system, was one of those
to receive "Advent" (a.k.a. "Colossal Cave") and "Zork" (a.k.a. "Dungeon")
in the late 1970s.  Two graduate students, Jon Thackray and David Seal,
began a game called "Acheton" in 1978-9: with the aid of Jonathan
Partington it expanded for another two years.  Possibly the first game
written outside America, by 1981 it seems likely that it was also the
largest in the world (it has 403 locations).  "Acheton" was written
with a game assembler contemporary with Infocom's proprietory "ZIL":
unlike ZIL, Seal and Thackray's game assembler was available for public
use, the public in question being all users of Phoenix c. 1980-95.
"Acheton" and a number of other titles migrated to commercial releases:
some by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro, the local Cambridge-built
microcomputer; some later by Topologika for a wide range of systems,
so that these games are often called "the Topologika games".  However,
not all the Phoenix games had a Topologika release, nor vice versa.

Under the long shadow of "Acheton", the Phoenix games tend to be
large cave exploration games with treasures in the traditional style,
with well over 100 rooms each ("Sangraal" has 170 and "Fyleet" is
not far behind).  As was normal in games of the period, they have
a two-word parser, but it is a good one, supporting "take all" and
"drop all".

The three restored here make a loose trilogy of cave games by
Jonathan R. Partington, now Professor of Mathematical Analysis at
Leeds University.  (Jonathan has been unfailingly generous with his
time but we would ask players to get in touch with us rather than
emailing him directly: see below.)  These games can be played in any
order and do not refer to each other, but belong together in style
and atmosphere, which is why we began with them.

Rather than re-implementing the design in a modern system, we used
a translator (a Perl script called "Phoenix") to compile these games
directly from their original source code into Z-machine assembly
language, which (supplemented with a small routine library) was then
compiled by Inform into story files.  They do not include the Inform
library, and so don't have the Inform world model or parser --
instead they have the original, two-word parser and include their
own implementations of standard actions.  If our restorations work
properly, all responses and messages are identical to the originals
(with only tiny exceptions, e.g., the arrangements for saving and
restoring games are more modern and not specific to Phoenix).

The translator is still new.  We have tested these three games, and
think they're at least mostly correct, but wouldn't be too surprised
to receive the odd bug report.  Please send all feedback to
Adam Atkinson (ghira@mistral.co.uk).

"Fyleet" (1985):
   You are in the ruins of the ancient fortress of Fyleet.
   Around you lies a thick pine forest, which appears to have been
   cleared a bit to your west; there are also paths to the east
   and north, while to the south some steps lead down into the ground.
   > down
   You proceed down the steps, which twist and turn as they
   descend several hundred feet into the ground. Eventually
   you come out into a small room.
   You are in a small square room. Light streams in from an archway to
   the south. There are steps leading up to the north, and a closed door
   to the east.
   There is a bullseye lantern here, which is off.
   There is a piano-accordion here.
   There is an empty bottle here.

"Crobe" (1986): Beneath the cliffs of the seaport of Crobe are caves
   presided over by the cordial, if not directly helpful, Warden of
   Crobe, and home also to Karg, king of a band of trolls.  But it's
   far from easy even to find your way in.

"The Quest for the Sangraal" (1987): A cheering crowd urges you to
   go out to certain death on a quest for the Sangraal (the Holy
   Grail), as have many knights before you.  A game making much
   greater use of landscape, memorable for its wry puzzles on
   goodness versus sin.

These three games are available as Fyleet.z5, Crobe.z5 and Sangraal.z5
at "ftp.gmd.de/incoming/if-archive/", and -- like all Z-code story
files -- can be played using Frotz, MaxZip and many other interpreters.

We intend next to release "Nidus", "Xenophobia", "BrandX" (later
better known as "Philosopher's Quest") and "Parc", four rather
different games by four different authors.

      22 August 1999
      Graham Nelson (writing translator program)
      Adam Atkinson (testing and restoring source code)
      Gunther Schmidl (seeking and clearing rights to source code)

--
Graham Nelson | graham@gnelson.demon.co.uk | Oxford, United Kingdom