Kentilla
Game Kentilla currently has this brief SPOT comment: "fatal bugs in Mastertronic re-issue (original OK)". IMHO it should have instead a proper description of the problem provided as a "known errors" section, as follows:
The Mastertronic re-release has two bugs that prevent you from completing the game. The first problem is that when you come across the silver dagger in the desk and try to take it, you're told that you can't see the silver dagger. The other problem is that when you ask Eva to kill the Darg-Vool, she refuses to do it for you, despite the fact that this is the only way past that particular problem. A patch was provided by Chris Jones in Your Sinclair issue 22, page 84.
The original release of the game is OK and doesn't have these bugs.
Post edited by Einar Saukas on
Creator of ZXDB, BIFROST/NIRVANA, ZX7/RCS, etc. I don't frequent this forum anymore, please look for me elsewhere.
Comments
on c64 some budget companies had a habit of freezing games and just putting their loaders on.. which isn't the best way as you get crud left in the memory that is generated AFTER execution..
I have no idea, but this is exactly the complain published in Your Sinclair #22 page 84 about this game:
"Don't ask me why people tinker with perfectly playable programs when they decide to re-release a game"
From the correspondence about the game prior to the release of the bugged Mastertronic version, it is evident that people were able to play the game beyond the bugged points, so there must have been an original un-bugged Micromega release in 1984. At some time after that the program must have been altered and the bugs inadvertently introduced, either prior to the Derek Brewster Collection release in 1985 or the Mastertronic release in 1986, and it was this version which was used by Mastertronic.
I'll check the DBC version when I can work out how to get the Opus Discovery disk image loaded. In the meantime I've played through the available bugged version, but I forgot to put in the YS patch until I got to the location of the first bug, and although it got past that it introduced a different error in its stead. I'll have to try it again and enter the patch right at the start of the game to confirm that it's OK.
459 LET x=USR 60027: GO TO 455
should be:
459 LET no=z: LET x=USR 60027: GO TO 455
and the line:
1170 IF n=31 AND op=60 THEN RETURN
should be:
1171 IF n=31 AND op=60 THEN RETURN
and here's the proof:
I haven't been able to check the version of Kentilla on The Derek Brewster Collection as none of the emulators I've got support the Opus Discovery disk format.
By the way, is the "known errors" list available to check somewhere, so that people can avoid reporting programs which are already on the list but where the Infoseek entry hasn't yet got the new info?
PS.
I found a utility called ZXDump by Marcelo Lopez which I used to convert the Opus Discovery disk image to TAP files (very useful!). The version of Kentilla on there is different from the one which I played through yesterday. I'll check it out later to see if it plays all the way through.
Good work!
In this case there's no need to provide a "bugfixed" version of this game since the original release works fine (although it's nice that you managed to provide a bugfix for Your Sinclair's bugfix).
I think it will be enough to add the "known errors" section I suggested in #1 and also correct the release year in "Kentilla.tap.zip" (it should be 1986 instead of 1984), since this will be enough to indicate that the TAP file is the bugged Mastertronic version instead of the original working version.
Infoseek doesn't suport searching for "known errors" yet, but I'm keeping updated lists in thread Games featuring... relevant bugs.
In particular, the entries that already have "known errors" descriptions at WoS are listed in #7, #8, and #29. The entries still pending are listed in #6, #34, and #35.
I'm currently in the process of organizing the bugfixed versions. Afterwards I will provide an updated list.
Thank you!