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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : CMM2: More creaky old text adventures (SAAINT)
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thwill Guru  Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
Hey folks, I am pleased to announce the release of SAAINT, the Scott Adams Adventure Interpreter for the Colour Maximite 2. This is based upon the "Pirate Adventure" interpreter included on "The Welcome Tape" and its creation was instigated by Bill/@Turbo46 who did the early running with extending the interpreter. I then came in and did some rework, dragged my feet and then eventually added some bells, whistles and unnecessary lily gilding  With the kind permission of Scott Adams this release is distributed with the 12 original Scott Adams Classic Adventures. You can also find a dozen or so more adventures by following the links from the SAAINT git repository. Please note that Bill and I did not test all the adventures to completion (or even a significant fraction of them) and I would be eager to hear if you encounter any issues - though be warned, most of the spelling mistakes are Scott Adams originals. Get it here: https://github.com/thwill1000/cmm2-saaint-public/archive/refs/tags/release-2.0.0.zip Read more about it here: https://github.com/thwill1000/cmm2-saaint-public   Happy adventuring, Tom Edited 2021-06-09 08:58 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| bar1010 Senior Member  Joined: 10/08/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 197 |
Thanks for uploading this set of 12 Scott Adams text adventures. This is a GREAT addition to our collection of Color Maximite 2 programs. |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6804 |
Brilliant!!!! What a lovely bit of history. I first played some of these on my Tandy Model 1. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
Hi Tom, Have you considered making the *seed Meta-Command the default so that for normal operation the 'random' behaviour is consistent and repeatable? For anyone interested I will explain: Most BASICs include a pseudo random number generator which will generate the same sequence of 'random' numbers each time a program is run. The Scott Adams adventure system includes automatic actions that are executed under certain conditions. Many of these use a probability factor of 0-100 so that (say) chigger bites may become infected next move or the next or so on. Normally these 'random' occurrences are repeatable if exactly the same moves are made each time the adventure is played, thus making a walkthrough possible. The CMM2 apparently has a true random number generator so that these 'random' occurrences will not be repeatable. Tom has provided a *seed directive so that the interpreter provides it's own pseudo random number generator and this is automatically started when a walkthrough is replayed. So to record a walkthrough or for normal gameplay and to get repeatable results you need to invoke the *seed directive before beginning. I just think that gameplay would be better using the interpreter's random numbers by default. I hope I've got that correct. Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
Hey Bill, I could certainly do that if it would be useful, or even make it user configurable. Note that some of what you say regarding SAAINT is not entirely accurate for the final released version: - SAAINT never uses the standard CMM2 RND() function it always uses a pseudo-random number generator (the same one documented in the CMM2 User Manual, p51, which I believe is fairly "standard" and also used by the GNU compiler collection.) - By default the value of the TIMER is used to seed this random-number generator. - The player can manually re-seed the generator with the meta-command *SEED <integer>. - The generator is automatically re-seeded with the number 7 when you start to record/replay a script/walkthrough. Thus if you are recording a walkthrough you do not have to manually invoke *SEED, infact I'm not sure there is any particularly good reason to manually invoke *SEED anymore. Knowing this do you still want me to make a change ? Best wishes, Tom Edited 2021-07-17 08:34 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
Hi Tom, You're correct, I didn't know that the CMM2 RND() was not used nor that the timer was used to seed the random number generator. I've long given up trying to understand the majority of the program. The *SEED <integer> command is not described in the README file (the integer part). *STATE <integer> is but what is the integer for? Was that meant for *SEED? Also what program should be used to read README.MD? it looks a bit strange in Notepad unless the ''' is intentional. Having said that I would still like the option to have the *SEED command user configurable as default. Sometimes it's better to write down the steps rather than record them. I would nearly always forget to invoke it first. Cheers Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
 Yes, that was a typo, the <integer> argument was for *SEED not *STATE. I have fixed that on GitHub. It's Markdown and intended for presentation by GitHub itself, i.e. https://github.com/thwill1000/cmm2-saaint-public/blob/main/README.md As a format I acknowledge it is not ideal for reading natively on the CMM2, but it's not completely awful either and it saves me from maintaining two versions of the README. OK, I will see if I can oblige. Best wishes, Tom Edited 2021-07-17 09:16 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
Aha! so you are human.  Thanks Cheers Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
Hi Bill, Assuming I haven't messed something up you can find SAAINT version 2.0.2 in the usual place: https://github.com/thwill1000/cmm2-saaint-public/releases/latest. ChangeLog --------- Version 2.0.2 - 17-Jul-2021: - Added "seed" key to "saaint.ini". If the value is > 0 then the random number generator will be seeded with this value when an adventure is started or restored. Otherwise the random number generator is seeded from the TIMER. If you add this: seed = 42 to the "src/saaint.ini" file (which is created the first time SAAINT is run) then the value 42 will be used to re-seed the PRNG each time an adventure is started or restored. I have left the default behaviour of seeding the PRNG from the TIMER the same as it was in the previous version since the lack of predictability is the original expected behaviour for all these adventures. Hope this works for you, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
Thanks Tom, 42, the number made famous by another Adams. Sorry for bothering you with this since I seem to be the only one interested and considering I can't find the time to finish my own related project. A couple more questions if I may: After recording or playing a script, is the random number generator re-seeded from the timer or .INI file? Can one make their own .WLK file? Is it the same format as a .SCR file and will an un-encrypted .WLK file run. Sorry that's more than a couple. Cheers Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6804 |
Will it run on a PicoMite (yet), Tom? Do we need to find a I2C alphanumeric keyboard first? ;) Edited 2021-07-18 18:54 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
Way ahead of you. Just porting Yellow River Kingdom as a warm up and also to help shake-out any bugs / differences in MMBasic from CMM2. Though I have a suspicion when I move to porting SAAINT itself there will be some issues with the file-system commands as IIRC Peter did some fiddling to make the use of relative paths with various commands more friends on the CMM2 and I don't know if that has made the transition to the Pico. Also the walkthrough encryption code won't work unless the Pico gets sufficient CSUB support so that CSUBs can be used as alternatives to DATA statements. I have already got my mini I2C keyboard: https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewTopic.php?TID=13915 I am also keeping half an eye on the main Pico/LCD thread so I have some idea what to do about the display - I will be asking questions .Maybe within a month of two I will have a hand-held dedicated SAAINT console that nobody needs or wants  .Best wishes, Tom Edited 2021-07-18 19:09 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9131 |
There is support in the Pico to use fonts in this way - see the b0 post |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
Thanks Peter, will look at that when I port. Best wishes, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
I never find you a bother Bill. It shouldn't be getting re-seeded AFTER either of these events. The PRNG is re-seeded: 1. When you "Start a new game" - from the seed value from the .ini file 2. When you "Restore a saved game" - from the seed value from the .ini file 3. When you start to *RECORD a script - using the seed value 7 4. When you start to *REPLAY a script - using the seed value 7 In the case of 1 or 2 if the .ini file does not exist, or the value in the .ini file is not an integer > 1 then the TIMER is used as the seed value. If this doesn't meet with your observations then please let me know and provide instructions to reproduce the problem. The format is the same as the .scr file, but is encrypted using https://github.com/thwill1000/cmm2-sptools/blob/master/src/spcrypt/spcrypt.bas. If you can wait a couple of days I will update SAAINT to support unencrypted walkthroughs too. Best wishes, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
Thanks, that's what I expected. Thanks again, that will allow one to make their own .WLK file although I suppose a script file will achieve the same result. Cheers Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
Yep, using a script file isn't much different except for their expected location in the filesystem and the meta-command used to invoke *REPLAY instead of *WALKTHROUGH. The reason that "walkthroughs" exist in SAAINT was to facilitate testing, and the reason they are encrypted is so that their presence in the distribution doesn't spoil the enjoyment of SAAINT's many devoted users . Plus it was interesting to implement the MD5 and XXTEA algorithms and, God help me, it was even ultimately useful in the day job.Anyway it won't be a big deal to add support for unencrypted walkthroughs so I will do it. Best wishes, Tom Edited 2021-07-18 22:10 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
Hi Bill, Assuming I haven't messed something up you can find SAAINT version 2.0.3 in the usual place: https://github.com/thwill1000/cmm2-saaint-public/releases/latest ChangeLog --------- Version 2.0.3 - 20-Jul-2021: - Added support for unencrypted walkthough (.wlk) files. These are in the same format as ordinary script files but should be put in the directory containing the corresponding "<adventure>.dat" and be named "<adventure>.wlk". - Changed location of "saaint.ini" file from "<saaint-root>/src" to "<saaint-root>". If the .ini file is not present in "<saaint-root>" but is present in "<saaint-root>/src" then it will be moved. - Changed location of temporary files from "<saaint-root>/src" to "<saaint-root>/tmp". Hopefully this will meet your needs. Best wishes, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4253 |
nice piece of work Tom, works flawless. Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4047 |
Thanks  .That seems unlikely .Best wishes, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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