The Pawn is back. And it's not alone!

[tofro]

Just to tease the Q68 users a bit:

Download package is here

Tobias

[Andrew]

The Q68 Pawn with Amiga graphics
Seems that you want to convince us all to get a Q68
Is it possible to fit a Q68 in a original QL case?

[Tesla]

Great job Tofro.
Although adventures are not my favorite games, I can't wait to see the final work.

Thank you so much

[vanpeebles]

wow

[Derek_Stewart]

The Q68 Pawn with Amiga graphics
Seems that you want to convince us all to get a Q68
Is it possible to fit a Q68 in a original QL case?

Hi, Andrew,

The Q68 board is 100mm x 80mm, so would easily git into a QL case.

Since the Q68 uses a PS/2 keyboard, an interface for the QL keyboard would be required.

A better idea would be to design a new case, but no one to date has produced a design solution.

I have parts to fit a Q68 into an Laptop case, with a TFT to VGA interface. Just have not had time to complete this project.

[tofro]

Some more teasing, maybe?

Nearly done. Will be available for the Q68, soon after for QPC and (probably) Q40 and QXL.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Are you using ACT to programme the game?

[tofro]

Hi,

Are you using ACT to programme the game?

Nope. C68.

[tofro]

"The Pawn" for the QL was actually the first game that Magnetic Scrolls produced - it was marketed by Sinclair. When it was released for the QL (in 1985), that marked the beginning of a story of a company producing a series of high-quality adventures with superb graphics (the QL version, however, never had any graphics). Magnetic Scrolls games were famous for their high-quality parser (at least on par with the reference Infocom) and some very nice twists of humour.

All in all, Magnetic Scrolls produced 7 superb Adventure games from 1985 to 1990, but sadly, The Pawn was the only game of that range of small Masterpieces that ever made it to the QL, even if it was the first platform they supported.

The superb parser understands complex sentences like the famous

use the trowel to plant the pot plant into the plant pot

that even humans need to read twice.

When you take a technical deep dive into the games, some interesting facts pop up: The parser was all the same for all supported platforms (C64, Amiga, PC, Atari ST, basically all of the 80s home computers, even the ZX Spectrum). How did they do that? The answer is simple and, especially for QL users, astonishing: All Magnetic Scrolls games contain the very same piece of 68000 code - the game engine they built on the QL. Even the C64 or ZX Spectrum version wasn't stripped down in any way, but ran 68k QL code. Erm, what? Yes. They simply ran a minimalistic 68000 emulator supprting a sub-set of 68k instructions on all these platforms (even the C64...), and the games are written im Motorola 68000 assembly. User interface, save, load, whatever needs to connect to the host OS is implemented using Line-A traps (might sound familiar to some of our emulator developers).

The Pawn for the Q68 will run the same engine, so emulates a QL on a Q68. I'm currently testing and will release the engine that is able to run the original game core during the next few days. Eventually, there might be versions for QPC and Q40/60. Maybe (or maybe not) also a version for expanded QLs, although that might have to do without grahics.

[vanpeebles]

Can you do corruption and guild of thieves????