Adventure (Colossal Cave) Apple II save issues

[Divarin]

HI all. I'm trying to play Adventure (aka Colossal Cave Adventure) on my Apple IIc. I know this also exists on just about everything but I really want to play it on my Apple.

I have found multiple copies of the game (although I can't make use of the .nib files so I'm limited to .dsk versions) and they seem to run correctly but every time I try to save I get "Error" and it dumps out to the machine language monitor.

Most recently I was trying the versions on this FTP site: ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/adventure/

I've been writing the .dsk to the front side of the disk and I have formatted the back side so I can use it for saves.

Does anyone with an Apple II want to give it a try, try to save, and tell me if it works? I want to determine if it's an issue with my Apple or if all of these copies floating around are just broken.

 

[oldpcguy]

Are you wanting us to test that it successfully writes to the back of the disk or just that it save at all? Is the file you're using "adventure.dsk"?

 

[mdh]

I remember that I had save issues until I got an updated version of the application, of course this was a TRS-80…

 

[Divarin]

Are you wanting us to test that it successfully writes to the back of the disk or just that it save at all? Is the file you're using "adventure.dsk"?

Yes I'm wanting someone with an Apple II to try running one of the versions they have (or on that FTP site), try to save, and see if it saves. If you can re-load that save that would be a bonus
"adventure.dsk" is one of the copies I have tried, the most recent one actually.

 

[oldpcguy]

Yes I'm wanting someone with an Apple II to try running one of the versions they have (or on that FTP site), try to save, and see if it saves. If you can re-load that save that would be a bonus
"adventure.dsk" is one of the copies I have tried, the most recent one actually.

I'll give it a try tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

EDIT: I just gave it a try and it seems to have worked fine on my Apple IIc system.

 

[Divarin]

Thanks.

 

[Divarin]

Alright I found that I can save on the main game disk I just can't save on a blank disk. Maybe I just misunderstood how saving works in this game. When it said "insert a game disk" I assumed it meant a blank disk where I want to have my saved games. Since this is how it works with zork and other infocom titles.

It's confusing because after loading it then says "Put adventure disk back in" (or something to that affect) and I'm sitting here wondering "am I supposed to have more than one disk? because it seems like there's just one disk so why is it asking me to swap to the same disk?"

 

[oldpcguy]

If you're having issues with saving perhaps you need to clean the read / write head of the disk drive with some IPA?

 

[oldpcguy]

Alright I found that I can save on the main game disk I just can't save on a blank disk. Maybe I just misunderstood how saving works in this game. When it said "insert a game disk" I assumed it meant a blank disk where I want to have my saved games. Since this is how it works with zork and other infocom titles.

It's confusing because after loading it then says "Put adventure disk back in" (or something to that affect) and I'm sitting here wondering "am I supposed to have more than one disk? because it seems like there's just one disk so why is it asking me to swap to the same disk?"

I saved to a newly initialized floppy disk which I initialized from DOS. No other preparation of the save disk was done.

 

[Divarin]

Hmm. I don't know I don't have any other issues reading or writing from disks.
I guess I can try a different disk or see if I have any other issues saving and loading files onto the back side of my adventure disk.

 

[mdh]

I do recall that the original was copy protected (on TRS-80) and you did have to save on a game disk. There wasn't much room on first disk, so you had to save on second disk.
Again, this is memory from 40 years or more ago...

 

[oldpcguy]

Hmm. I don't know I don't have any other issues reading or writing from disks.
I guess I can try a different disk or see if I have any other issues saving and loading files onto the back side of my adventure disk.

I would recommend saving to a different disk, specifically the front side of a newly initialized disk. Unless the disk is certified for double sided use there's the possibility that any writing, if the game does so, on the front side could interfere with the contents on the back (or vice-versa). Using a separate disk for saving might be a good test to eliminate that possibility.

 

[Divarin]

I would recommend saving to a different disk, specifically the front side of a newly initialized disk. Unless the disk is certified for double sided use there's the possibility that any writing, if the game does so, on the front side could interfere with the contents on the back (or vice-versa). Using a separate disk for saving might be a good test to eliminate that possibility.

Yup, you're right. I formatted a different disk and tried saving to that (front side) and it worked fine.

Out of this batch of disks, which are new old stock, I've been writing to both sides without issue so far. They're ds/dd (and come IBM formatted) I've been using them in PCs, and using both sides both on a C64 and this apple. It wasn't until this game that I had any issues using the back side.

 

[oldpcguy]

Yup, you're right. I formatted a different disk and tried saving to that (front side) and it worked fine.

Out of this batch of disks, which are new old stock, I've been writing to both sides without issue so far. They're ds/dd (and come IBM formatted) I've been using them in PCs, and using both sides both on a C64 and this apple. It wasn't until this game that I had any issues using the back side.

If they're double side disks then they should be certified to use both sides. Perhaps it was just a bad disk, especially since it's new, old stock.