New retro game: "Tristam Island"

Congratulations.

Really excellent to see the commercial side of things starting up again.

I wonder if you could quantify the game in terms of puzzle count - out of interest.

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Mmh, hard to tell (what’s a puzzle and what’s a sub part of a puzzle?). I have 42 scored actions; not all of them are puzzles, but not all steps in long puzzles are scored either, so overall probably 35 puzzles?

I have 66 locations, and I’m using the maximal number of objects (255), though some react to lots of different inputs :slight_smile:

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Sorry guys, did someone have any luck using it with Trizbort’s automapping?

It might have a hard time in the first part because of the water locations, who all have the same name and share the same code :sweat_smile: But there’s no tricks like that as soon as you get up the island, if that helps!

I looked at the itch.io site. The device information lists Gameboy platforms. Would it work on a 3DS and/or a 3DS xl?

If so, how would it be loaded onto the Gameboy?

Thank you

Hi! I’m not sure what the 3DS is compatible with, so sorry in advance if what I say doesnt work :smiley:

If the 3DS is compatible with GameBoy and GameBoy Advance games, it’s likely through an emulator. The game comes bundleded in a .gb or a .gba file (a rom file, if you will), that emulators usually have no problem running.
I would however recommend using the Nintendo DS version for optimal playability, though, as you can use the stylus to write or type on a virtual keyboard. Furthermore, the interpreter I used in the release is nice, but DSFrotz might be nicer if you want to play IF more long-term, as it manages your collection of z-code files. There’s a package for that on my itch too.
In order to load programs on the NDS, you use a linker (a device that is the size of a cartridge but has a micro sd slot). There are also linkers for GameBoy and GameBoy Color. I’m assuming some exist for 3DS too? I don’t know how you play homebrews on a 3DS. (If you figure it out let me know, i’m curious!)

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I am down to a couple of 3Ds Gameboys. It would require a hack to get them to accept an outside game. I will keep them functional as new at this point. You have too many options for your games. I was mainly curious as I had never looked into modifications for those systems.

I will explore your game with one of the more convenient methods.

Thank you,
v/r

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I forgot to come post here to announce Release 2, which fixes around 60 bugs, including a crash and three infinite sources of points! I also added a fallback in case the pdf invisiclues don’t work.

Oh, and it’s a good occasion to mention that the game just earned a 5-star review from Mathbrush on IFDB :smiley: In general I’ve gotten really good feedback from players. You might have missed the game because of IFComp, but I encourage you to play it - it’s worth it if you like classic and polished parser text adventures! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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I built one of these emulators (a “MiSTer”) - http://www.racketboy.com/retro/mister-fpga-the-future-of-retro-game-emulation-and-preservation and I can confirm it works beautifully. I have been playing using the Atari ST core. Great job, Hugo!

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Just wanted to mention, in case anyone was stuck in the game even with the Invisiclues, that a great walkthrough by MorningStar has been published on CASA! :slight_smile:

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I am currently playing Tristam Island with the Vice emulator in c128 mode, 80 columns, and I am enjoying it very much. :slight_smile:

I thought about posting this question in an Ozmoo thread, but as I am currently interested in playing Tristam Island, and since you perhaps(?) have modified the c128 interpreter(?), I would like to ask if it is possible to run the game at 2 Mhz instead of 1 Mhz when playing in 80 column mode. I don’t know much about the c128, but understand that it can run at 2Mhz in 80 column mode. But the game doesn’t run faster in 80 column mode. Do you know if this is possible? Thanks

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I have not personally modified the C128 interpreter; the best person to answer that question is @fredrik :slight_smile:

Glad you’re enjoying the game!!

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It should already do this, but of course there could be a bug in the interpreter which prevents this from happening. I’ll make sure we test it thoroughly.

Which version of Ozmoo is it using?

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It says Ozmoo 4.35.
(When the emulator is started, I just type GRAPHIC 5 followed by LOAD"STORY",8,1 (not sure if this is important))

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That should be fine. You can also press Esc (typically mapped to F1 in Vice) and then “x” to go to 80 column mode, but it doesn’t matter to Ozmoo what you did to end up in 80 column mode.

I just did a speed test on Ozmoo 4.49 (the current version). Omzoo for C128 plays through Hollywood Hijinx in 40% less time in 80 column mode than in 40 column mode. (And the playtime in 40 column mode is 15% shorter than on the C64). This is using virtual device traps and not true drive emulation.

Ozmoo is undergoing very rapid development at the moment, and there have certainly been serious bugs in some of the recent versions.

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If I’m 15 versions behind, I should probably upgrade. @Denk if you are willing to restart to have that speed benefit I will have an update in a couple of hours!

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As I am currently playing with an emulator, it is not critical, I was mainly curious. So I am interested but no hurry :slight_smile:

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We usually increase the minor version number whenever we make a code change. So a version may differ from the previous version by a single instruction, or by hundreds of instructions. It’s just so we can easier find the cause if a user discovers a problem with the interpreter.

But yes, a lot has happened since 4.35, for sure. And we’re happy to have some users play games using the bleeding-edge version, and hopefully telling us if they spot any problems.

The current version is now 4.50.

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FYI, I have published a review of the full game at IFDB:
https://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=6gtq9ahrolz2ry2&review=57104

I decided to give it five stars as it is very much recommended. Well done! :slight_smile:

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This will maybe be the game I will try during the holidays…

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