Hello! I’m new here, and I was inspired by the game Anchorhead. I thought it would be nice to have a version of this classic for vintage computers, so I tried to port it to the Amiga and Atari ST. It seems to work, but a bit more testing would help. Is there anyone who’d like to try it? I also have a question: the game is free, but do I need authorization from the author, Mike Gentry? Thanks for the help.
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The deluxe version of Anchorhead with art is sold commercially on Steam.
That said, I’m not sure the user-base for Atari and Amiga computers is so huge that you’re going to cut into their revenue since it’s only offered for PC/Mac.
It sounds like you’re basically creating an interpreter for this classic game on legacy computers. If you’re doing it for your own benefit and education non-commercially as a project and not selling it, you’re probably fine.
I’m surprised there’s not already some kind of rudimentary historical Zcode/Gblorb general interpreter for these systems. You might be more in the clear (and provide more functional utility) if your interpreter could play multiple IF works on these platforms, including Anchorhead.
I personally would still reach out to Mike Gentry to ensure you’re above board if you’re creating a standalone player/wrapper for Anchorhead specifically. I’m guessing that’s what the Steam version is.
[!note] For Amiga
For.gblorb(Glulx): There is a native Amiga port of Glulxe (the reference Glulx interpreter) compiled by David Kinder, which can be downloaded directly from the IF Archive (glulxe-061-amiga.lha).
[!note] For Atari ST
For.gblorb(Glulx): No. There is no functional native Glulx/.gblorbinterpreter for the Atari ST. Because Glulx was designed as a heavy 32-bit VM to overcome the Z-machine’s limitations, a stock 8MHz 16-bit Atari ST simply does not have the RAM or raw CPU performance required to interpret modern Glulx bytecode. [1]
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I am doing it just for fun, I am not a coder and the project is heavily AI-assisted. I am not going to sell it.
The port uses Frotz and it seems to work just fine. I’ve already tested the save/restore feature which could have been problematic, and the only issue was on the ST because the game is too big for the 720k floppy (ok for the 880kb of the Amiga), but it was solved with a compression of the interpreter resulting in a slighlty slower loading time.
Yes (it’s wrapped in Lectrote), but the Steam version is also an updated version of the game with some changes, plus illustrations. It’s not just a wrapper around the original (and still free) 1998 version of the game.
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The original version of Anchorhead is released as bytecode for a virtual machine called the Z-machine. The best way to play it on a retro machine is probably to write a Z-machine interpreter for that platform, because then the code can be reused for any other Z-machine game. That way you also don’t have any issues with copyright. Is this the approach you’ve taken?
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FWIW, and for people coming across this thread later, the original z8 version of Anchorhead seems to work with Werther Pirani’s version of ZIP on the Amiga and with Hugo Labrande’s JZIP port on the Atari ST, respectively.
(I only tried a few commands on the emulators Steem and WinUAE, since I don’t own the physical machines. There’s also Amiga Frotz, which I had some difficulties with, probably due to an incompatible Kickstart version.)
Here are some screenshots:
Having said that, a new interpreter or customised Frotz port surely can’t hurt.
If you don’t find any testers, you could try playing the game via AmigaZIP and JZIP and via your project and comparing the outputs (and, of course, you could always refer back to “known good” outputs from Frotz on a current system).
Also, while you’re definitely at the right place here (welcome, by the way!) for everything concerning text adventures and interpreter implementations, including classic retro machines, I think it could additionally be worthwhile to contact people in dedicated Amiga and Atari fora, who are likely to have the actual hardware to test it.
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Amiga Frotz needs at least Kickstart and Workbench 2.0, it looks from the screenshot like you’re running 1.x there. Amiga Frotz playing Anchorhead:
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Thanks for the clarification! I was indeed running 1.3. Nice to see that Frotz works, I regard it usually as the reference interpreter wherever it is available.
Yes! I remember trying the new version and I was so ready to use my umbrella right at the beginning but that changed!
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