S.A.S. - THE SAM ADVENTURE SYSTEM A preview - Dave Whitmore On Sunday February the 22nd, I made my trek down to the ALL FORMATS FAIR in Birmingham. On arrival, I quickly made a bee line for the SAM village to find Phil and Dave Ledbury with a crowd around them, Dave was showing off issue two of THE SAMCO NEWSDISK, but before I had a chance to look at what all the fuss was about I was frogmarched into a corner by Phil... Phil handed something to me.... A blue file full of papers... In the blue file were 71 (Seventy one - no less!), pages of documentation, all written by Colin Jordan, explaining the specifications of "S.A.S." and how to use the system. Phil also gave me a disk and on reading the letter that came with the ~book~, I saw that the disk contained some files from the system. Colin had entrusted us to view part of the new MORE >>>> system, and for this we are VERY grateful. So I hid the stuff away in my carrier bag and enjoyed the rest of the fair.. A PREVIEW Right, for starters, the "S.A.S." package won't necessarily, be called S.A.S. - this is just the provisional title, though I have to admit, the name does sound good, doesn't it? Colin said "... if you or your readers have a better title...?" So if you would like to write in with any suggestions.. We will all have to wait a while before the System is available and the package will cost "around" twenty pounds. Colin will most likely be producing and selling the software himself and he has suggested that SAM ADVENTURE CLUB members may be able to get hold of the "S.A.S," at a discount (YES PLEASE!). MORE >>>> The part of the program that we have seen is what is to be known as the "Source Code Editor". On examination of the software, that is a very apt title. The editor, when selected from the menu, is a friendly beast, on pressing the arrow keys left or right, you can choose a number of pull down menu's and on pressing cursor up or down you can move up and down each menu. Pressing return selects the choice made, or you can quit the menu by pressing ESC. The way the system builds the program is by entering lines of Source Code, each command that makes up a line is selected from one of the pull down menus - in other words you don't have to risk making mistakes typing in entries, just select the command you want to enter from a menu, and the editor then asks you to input the parameters required for the entry. Once this is done your command line is entered. MORE >>>> You can move the Source Code up and down the screen and insert new lines between existing ones or delete lines using function keys. There are four Source Banks to choose from (among many other options) and each one has its purpose. Looking at the Source code flowchart (document), I see that they are set out as follows. Source Bank One - This is where the user puts the main initialisation routines. Source Bank Two - Text evaluation routines go here. Source Bank Three - Low priority conditions. Source Bank Four - Location Descriptions and Local Conditions. There are commands to jump from one bank to another and they go like this... MORE >>>> "Quit" jumps to the star of Bank one. "Jump to Input" jumps to the text input. "Jump to End" jumps to the start of Bank three. "Act upon direction" jumps to the start of Bank four. The glossary of Source Commands is very large and it would probably take me a week to try to give you all the details and without the software to look at I'm afraid you would probably be none the wiser if I copied all the text from it. I'll list "SOME GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS", by Colin. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SOURCE CODE:- Four Banks of 2048 Source lines each - may be increased to 3072. Unlimited number of line labels within each bank. MORE >>>> LOCATIONS:- Up to 255, Each with it's own description (up to 256 chars), Up to 10 Exits from each location. FLAGS:- 255 usable Flags. Each flag may hold any value between 0 and 255. In addition 20 System Flags are used by the interpreter. MESSAGES:- Up to 1023, each can have up to 256 chars. In addition there is one special Message (Message 0) which can be constantly re-defined from within the program. MOVABLE OBJECTS:- Up to 255. Each object name up to 30 chars long. Each object may have it's own "weight" and text type - ("An","A","The","Some") to reduce name size. UNMOVABLE OBJECTS:- Up to 255. Each object name up to 32 chars long. MORE >>>> The Adventure creator requires a 512K SAM, although compiled Adventures (if small enough) may be run on a 256K machine. The Compiler will include optional text compression to further reduce compiled program size. - - - - - - - - - - - - - One thing that I find very interesting is a feature included in the system that will allow the 'author' to execute BASIC Commands. Rather like the EXTERN routine in PAW (first and last comparison), but different altogether in another sense. From Colin's notes... - - - - - - - - - - - - - EXECUTE BASIC COMMAND st$ MORE >>>> This very powerful command enables the user to effectively create and call his own BASIC subroutines from within the compiled adventure enviroment! Customised machine code routines may also be executed by using this command to provide a normal BASIC "CALL" or "USR" statement. Of course, any machine code would have to be already present in the memory, but you could use this command to LOAD the code into memory in the first place! An example of this would be along the lines of : Execute BASIC Command : IF PEEK 32768 = 0 THEN LOAD "Mc" CODE - - - - - - - - - - - - - Standard features like RAMLOAD/SAVE,LOAD or SAVE to disk, TEXT & GRAPHICS or TEXT ONLY and SAM options like choice of SCREEN MODE will soon give us much more to play with. As I said, the source editor is only part of the package, so I MORE >>>> can't sit here and write a proper review of it. I've no doubt that many of you will be among Colin's customers, so when the time comes I'd like some volunteers to offer their services for the "Hands on" reviews. The screens that follow have been taken from the source editor and show some of the menus. As I have not yet seen the effect of entering source commands, I have not entered any source lines for the screens (as I don't want to look back later and find I've made a fool of myself when I get to use it proper!). Many thanks go to Colin for letting us have these details. It looks very promising and it will definitely be one of my priority purchases in 1992. Are you taking advance orders Colin? STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS : STOP PRESS Even more info.... MORE >>>> From Colin Jordan: Dear Phil, Just a quick note to say thanks for your recent letter, and to keep you up-to-date on my progress on the SAM ADVENTURE SYSTEM. I've certainly made a great deal of progress since I last wrote. I've more or less completed the editor now, and in the space of one week I've got the compiler 90% done! Wery soon, I'll be able to start on the interpreter section which will actually let you play the adventure you've just created! Release date looks like two ot three months (hopefully!) I've changed the specifications a bit: S.A.S. requires a 512k SAM with at least one disk drive and ROM 3.0. It seems to work OK with ROMS 2.0 and 2.1, but I'll have to do a lot more testing to make sure. MORE >>>> A second disk drive will be recognised (if fitted), as will the 1 meg. memory interface, which will actually allow the user to have more memory for Source code, creating even bigger adventures! I hope to release S.A.S. as a disk with A4-sized hardbound manual, similar to Samco's technical manual. I will do my best to make the manual as easy to read and use as possible. Perhaps you'd like to do a small guide to playing/writing adventures which could be included? The disk will include one or two demo adventures written in S.A.S. (complete with documented source) and a "starter file" containing a basic logic skeleton and vocabulary of common adventure words, etc. which users can develop their own games from. I've added a few commands to the S.A.S. language which can be used to describe current exits (could be used with an "EXITS" verb) and list movable objects present - These can be used separately from the normal "DESCRIBE" command. MORE >>>> Extra "String functions" include SPC (n) - gives n number of spaces, and STR$ (n) - converts the numeric expression n into a string, similar to STR$ in BASIC. The compiler has an optional feature which compresses all text by approximately 40% - 50%. This makes much more memory- economical adventures, but can increase compilation time dramatically! Compiled adventures may be run on 256k SAMS (if small enough.) The compiler indicates if this is possible. It also indicates how much memory remains free for graphics. SOURCE (LOGIC) CODE = UP TO 4 BANKS, EACH CONTAINING UP TO 4096 SOURCE LINES. NO LIMIT ON NUMBER OF LINE LABELS. UP TO 255 NESTED STRUCTURES POSSIBLE. EACH BANK HAS A DIFFERENT PURPOSE. VOCABULARY = 32k AVAILABLE. EACH WORD UP TO 15 CHARACTERS IN LENGTH. UP TO 255 SYNONYMS FOR EACH WORD. MORE >>>> MESSAGES = UP TO 1024 MESSAGES. EACH MAY HAVE UP TO 256 CHARACTERS. IN ADDITION, A SPECIAL MESSAGE (MESSAGE 0) MAY BE CONSTANTLY RE-DEFINED FROM WITHIN THE ADVENTURE. LOCATIONS = UP TO 255. EACH LOCATION MAY HAVE UP TO 10 DIFFERENT EXITS. EACH LOCATION CAN HAVE A DESCRIPTION UP TO 256 CHARACTERS LONG. ADVENTURES MAY BE RUN IN EITHER 32 (MODE 4), 64 OR 85 (MODE 3) CHARACTERS PER LINE MODE. Finally, I'd like to ask your advice on graphics. I'm thinking of releasing S.A.S. initially as a text-only creator for about `20 to `25, with an extra piece of software appearing about two months later for about `5 - `7, which will allow users to "bolt-on" graphics to compiled adventures. Graphics can either be the usual draw-line and fill type, or FLASH screens which can be compressed. Of course, the former will use much less memory. MORE >>>> Do you think it is a good idea to release S.A.S. in this way (I know that some people prefer text-only adventures), or do you think that I should delay the release of S.A.S. by an extra two or three months until the graphics section is completed, and release the whole lot in one go for about `30? Perhaps you could gauge the opinion of your readers on this matter and let me know? I look forward to hearing your comments on this, and to seeing the S.A.S. preview in issue three. Best Wishes, from Colin Jordan, To Colin, From Phil, Many thanks for your letter, and the material you've already sent for our 'inspection'. You certainly seem to have been hard at work on S.A.S., and it's good to hear how well it's coming along. I'm sure both Dave and myself will give a lot of thought to the points you've raised, and send any ideas we may have to you. MORE >>>> Also, if any readers would also like to write to you, via the club, I'll pass the letters on promptly, and possibly publish anything of general interest, if appropriate. Concerning your query about what form to publish S.A.S. in, I'd like to see the text-only version out first, if the graphics supplement can then be added successfully at a later date. The text version could have an order form for the supplement, which may give you an idea of possible demand. I tend to prefer text- only adventures, unless graphics are very good. The idea of PAWN-type adventures, with occasional full-screen Mode 4 pictures would appeal to me greatly! Could an adventure be featured on one disk, and a second disk be used purely for graphics, loading pictures as needed? This may increase total memory size for an adventure. A couple of thoughts that may be worthy of consideration: Could you make allowance for use of the Samco mouse for any draw-string graphics? and could you perhaps consider the possibility of allowing the utility to incorporate SOUND MACHINE MORE >>>> files, as they seem to be popping up everywhere now, and a few musical touches to an adventure may work well. Well, that's my ha'pennyworth, I think! I hope other readers will let us know their thoughts and ideas, so we can pass them on to you. Good luck with S.A.S., and please let us know if we can be of any help at any time. - Phil. Screenshots follow..... *** --- ***