I only just now finally got around to trying this game everyone was talking about.
I found it delightful as this is a game I've been looking for for a long time. Years ago, when I first met a Model T portable computer and stumbled upon the intriguing GRPH key characters (stick figures, houses, UFOs, oh my!), I imagined there must already exist some fabulous nethack-like RPG <https://store.steampowered.com/app/837200/NetHack_Legacy/>. Alas, I never did find one... until now. [image: image.png] *Baldur's Gate 3: Model 100* <https://github.com/ajbowen249/mol> (bg31) looks quite impressive and has all the trappings of the kind of RPG I enjoy. In its current state, it is not so much a game as an extended demo for the Dungeon-Delver-Engine <https://github.com/ajbowen249/dungeon-delver-engine> (DDE). DDE provides the mechanics for making a game, like a level editor, and should have good fundamentals for gameplay, like the combat system and magic spells, as it is based on SRD <https://www.dndbeyond.com/resources/1781-systems-reference-document-srd> (Creative Commons licensed "Dungeons & Dragons"). Unfortunately, I'm not sure the author (or anyone else) will ever be able to make a full game with DDE as even the tiny world of bg31 fills the entire 32K of RAM on a Model 100. (By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, the author has a nice little explanation of how they coded bg31 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW9-hpuNDQQ.). I believe it might be theoretically possible to save RAM by storing a game engine in an Option ROM. If I'm not mistaken, those ROMs replace the BASIC ROM in the lower 32K of memory, leaving the upper half available for program use, is that right? That should free up enough space for bigger worlds and also allow bg31 to run on 24K machines (and hopefully, eventually, the Tandy 200). An Option ROM might even make running the program simpler: currently bg31 cannot load like a normal program and must use a workaround <https://github.com/ajbowen249/mol?tab=readme-ov-file#trs-80-model-100> via a TPDD + TS-DOS, a REX#, or a cassette tape. If it could actually work, an EEPROM (or REX .BX file) would certainly not be any worse. —b9 P.S. Does anyone know of any other games that used the Model T character set to make a rogue like game? On Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 12:09 PM Joshua O'Keefe <[email protected]> wrote: > Just a quick follow-up on my threat to make a REX .by file image with this > game already loaded: > > It's here: > <http://public.nachomountain.com/files/m100/> > > Just import the BG31.BY file into your REX, switch to it, and CALL 45568 > The requisite CLEAR has already been taken care of, since the game is > already loaded. > > In the course of whipping this up, I was able to confirm that, yes indeed, > the .CO file of the game can be loaded via TS-DOS's "DOS-ON" mode with a > simple LOADM"0:BG31.CO" > > There are no apparent conflicts with the DOS-ON stub in memory, and the > game runs great! So for those folks without a REX, it's a simple matter to > load the game from disk. > > >
