Help with Starcrystal Episode I - Mertactor: The Volentine Gambit

[sithknight]

Hey all,

Long time lurker here. I am desperate for your help - especially some of the older players and/or those who are into classic computer gaming.

I am going back and having fun with classic games, and came across this little text game. I managed to find the original manual (in Text form) and a newer manual from when the game was made public domain in 1989 (?).

Problem is, every copy I have tried to run is apparently broken. I am using the emulator AppleWin 1.17.

I start the game well enough, but upon typing the comands "READ ALPHA READOUT" I get the following error code:

C5D3- A=00 X=CE Y=00 P=B4 s=EB

Couple of questions:
1. Is this error code based on something I am doing wrong with the emulator (yes, the caps lock is on)
2. Does ANYONE have a clean copy that actually works?

Help me, Old Grognards, you're my only hope!

 

[magnusfalkirk]

Hey all,

Long time lurker here. I am desperate for your help - especially some of the older players and/or those who are into classic computer gaming.

I am going back and having fun with classic games, and came across this little text game. I managed to find the original manual (in Text form) and a newer manual from when the game was made public domain in 1989 (?).

Problem is, every copy I have tried to run is apparently broken. I am using the emulator AppleWin 1.17.

I start the game well enough, but upon typing the comands "READ ALPHA READOUT" I get the following error code:

C5D3- A=00 X=CE Y=00 P=B4 s=EB

Couple of questions:
1. Is this error code based on something I am doing wrong with the emulator (yes, the caps lock is on)
2. Does ANYONE have a clean copy that actually works?

Help me, Old Grognards, you're my only hope!

Instead of typing Read Alpha Readout type Look at Alpha Readout. Not sure why it crashes when you type Read but I wouldn't use that any more if i were you.

Magnus

 

[sithknight]

Cool!

Sorry for delay in response - thanks for tip!

I'll report back on what I find...

 

[DopeGhoti]

C5D3- A=00 X=CE Y=00 P=B4 s=EB

Couple of questions:
1. Is this error code based on something I am doing wrong with the emulator (yes, the caps lock is on)

Ah, memories.

The message you had, followed by ah '*' prompt rather than the usual ']' (or, if you were using Integer BASIC, '>') indicates that you're in the system monitor, which speaks 6502 Assembly. C5D3 indicates what memory address caused the crash, and the A, X, Y, P, and S codes are, IIRC, the values of the system registers. Not quite as useful on its face as, say, '?RETURN WITHOUT GOSUB ON 2530', but still helpful if you speak machine language.

Short answer, nothing is wrong with the emulator; it sounds like a bug in the game's code.