Magnetic Scrolls adventure interpreter for the SInclair QL and derivates. After nearly 40 years, The Pawn is back to where it all began.
The Pawn on a Q68 in High-Colour mode 32
Disclaimer: This software package does not contain any Magnetic Scrolls IPR. To use it properly, you will, however, need to download the original game files ripped from the original Magnetic Scrolls games. These are hosted by the Magnetic Scrolls Memorials site, which claims the following:
"Important note: The rights on the games are held by Magnetic Scrolls Ltd, which belongs to Anita Sinclair and Ken Gordon. Their games, sadly enough, have been unavailable for years, so there are very few options left to play the games in a legitimate way. The reason for making the interpreter files and the game related materials available here is to prevent the loss of the games. Anita and Ken - very nice people indeed - both know the Memorial pages and didn't object to the contents, so I assume that the page is in their spirit and the availabilty of the materials on these pages is tolerated. Of course this is not a legal entitlement and obviously the materials can only be used for personal, strictly non-commercial purposes."
Eager to play? Download the "magnetic_zip" file and unpack on a QDOS platform. Don't try on a PC or Mac, or you will loose important header information. Fetch the game files as listed under "Prerequisites". Run the games with
EX win1_magnetic_magnetic_exe;"-c -t -f pawn_mag pawn_gfx"
The software you'll find in this repository is based on work by Niclas Karlsson, who decoded the format of the Magnetic Scrolls games and implemented a game interpreter for those games. The MS games are actually written in a sub-set of 68000 assembly, which is executed (emulated!) by this software.
The software that comes with this package is an interpreter for ".mag" game files, optionally coming with picture files (".gfx"). The interpreter will run the games (all seven of them) as they were back in 1985, displaying the original graphics in locations that have them. The hint system and music support that were in some of the later MS games is not supported. Furthermore, the graphic animations in later games (for example the cut scene when falling down the rabbit hole in "Wonderland") is not supported. The animations will be shown as static pictures. I hope and assume this doesn't take too much away from the original experience. Considering the original "Pawn" for the QL had no graphics at all, that shouldn't be too much of a loss...
The software plays all 7 MS games
- The Pawn
- Jinxter
- Fish
- Wonderland
- The Guild of Thieves
- Corruption
- Myth with all the graphics files.
Currently, you need a Q68, QXL, QPC or QL with suitable memory extension and disk capacity to run the games (no microdrives, sorry - The games are just too big).
You will need this software unpacked on the QL media - use "unzip" on the QL itself, the software will unpack to a directory "magnetic" per default. You'll find a file "magnetic_exe" in that directory, which is the game interpreter.
You will, in addition, need all the game and graphic files for the MS games you want to play. Due to copyright reasons, these files are not included in the package, but openly downloadable from
"https://msmemorial.if-legends.org/magnetic.php"
with the above disclaimer. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page. You can disregard the "collection" files - you are interested in the top 7)
Download the single game zipfiles, unzip them (as they contain no executables, you can do this on the PC). For each game, you should have a ".MAG" and a ".GFX" file - The former is the game itself, the latter the graphics file. Place all these files in the same directory on your QL image as the software. You can disregard other files in the downloaded archives - The QL version doesn't use them.
The software takes the game you want to play and its associated graphics file as command line arguments - So if you want to play "FISH", for example, use the following command line (above directories assumed):
EX win1_magq68_magnetic_exe;"win1_magq68_fish_mag win1_magq68_fish_gfx"
Note the games respect and obey default directories, so you can set the data default to the place that stores the game files.
Note also that the games support the "last line recall" function of the QL (ALT+ENTER), and the cursor key recall.
The game properly multi-tasks (except when in interlaced mode on a BBQL) and works nicely with the expended environment (PE). Memory permitting, you can even run some games in parallel, the job name is amended with the loaded game. Beyond PE, there's no provisions to save screen contents when switching to another job and thus no refresh. Note the game will always switch to full-screen, regardless of what resolution you use.
The game detects on what type of machine it runs and makes some humble attempts to adapt.
Original support is currently experimental. Your mileage may vary. Note, you need at least a Trump card to run the game at all, for optimal experience, a GoldCard or SGC plus SMSQ/E is recommended. Expect the games to run really slow on non-accelerated platforms.
The games should work to various extents on all recent QL platforms except uQLX. I have tested on QXL, Q40, QPC, Q68, Trump Card QL, GC and SGC QL. Anything "better" than a BBQL is expected to have High Color support and thus will only run in HC (So, no Aurora, apologies. In case sufficient people nag me for an Aurora version, I might consider). uQLX doesn't really have support for MODE 8, so, no dice. QDOS Classic wasn't tested, neither on the Amiga nor other platforms. More exotic beasts like Thors or Futura weren't tested. If you want a version for those, please send me one.....
In case you want (or need) to override the defaults, the following command line switches are supported:
-e Enlarges the graphics x 2. Useful on platforms that have a screen resolution of at least 512x384. Ignored if the machine is a BBQL.
-t TV Mode on a BBQL. Don't try this on other machines. If this is selected, the game will not use the leftmost 32 pixels of the screen to make the picture fit to your TV
-c use a condensed font (9x5) to fit more text to the screen. Definitely recommended if you try running this on a BBQL in MODE 8.
-i Use interlaced graphics mode 8 - This allows some BBQLs to display the graphics in 32 colours. This is still somewhat experimental and definitely doesn't work on Minerva. See tech note below. If this mode irritates you LCD screen (somewhat likely), try a real CRT. It usually works better there. If it irritates yourself (very likely, it does flicker), try dithering - It's close.
-f on original QLs, dither the original Amiga pictures instead of simply displaying them in the closest QL colours. Takes a bit of speed, but produces much nicer pictures.
-q assume we're running on a QL. Useful if you want to run the game on a "better" platform in MODE 8 (why would anyone want to do that?)
If you don't want graphics, simply leave off the _gfx file from the command line - This might indeed make the game run on some 640k QLs.
To use the command line switches, place them on the command line (where else?) before any file names, separated by spaces, so for running The Pawn in dithered colours on an SGC QL, display in TV mode, I use the following:
DATA_USE win1_magnetic : EX win1_magnetic_magnetic_exe;"-c -t -f pawn_mag pawn_gfx"
This is how Floyd-Steinberg-dithered Graphics look on an original QL in MODE 8
Some of the games can be run on an original QL with a Tetroid Trump Card with no further software loaded (maybe even from floppy, I didn't try what fits and what doesn't). Some of the games simply need too much memory to work there. Due to the restricted memory of other expansions, don't expect magnetic to work on anything less, my apologies.
If you have a GC or SGC, you can try running the game with the "-i" switch to display 32 colors. Don't expect this to work with a Minerva ROM, it doesn't (Reasons below). It might work with MG or JS ROMs, I haven't tried (No "old-ROM-QL" around the house any more and no time to fit one). In case you're adventureous, you probably should. Interlaced mode works fine on my SGC and GC-equipped QLs running SMSQ/E, though.
On a Trump Card, expect the games to run really slow. Expect a start-up time of nearly a minute. SGC is fine, though ;)
Interlaced Mode will wait for a keypress (Space or Enter) while displaying a picture in MODE 8i - There's no visible hint to that. Once you press one of these keys, interlaced mode is cancelled and you directly see the difference between modes 8 and 8i...
Note interlaced mode needs further 64k of free mem above MODE 8 to buffer the system variables and the second screen contents - that might make a difference when memory is tight.
When you quit from the game on a BBQL, you might be left with a garbled screen. I haven't yet found out how to overcome this (I think PE is annoyed that someone else messes with the screen...) Don't worry, simply type "MODE 4" and you should be back to normal.
I have tried to get interlaced mode to work on all my QLs - No way. Fitting Dithvide with an interactive game requires to be able to detect keypresses from supervisor mode while interrupts are disabled - This simply doesn't seem to work with Minerva (it seems to re-enter the scheduler and allow a task switch from the MT.IPCOM call - which crashes the QL). MODE 8i works flawlessly on SMSQ/E, though. Original Dithvide simply displays a picture for a given number of frames - that is much simpler.
Don't expect Interlaced Mode to work on an Emulator - I would be surprised if any QL emulator would simulate the QL hardware so closely.