ANN. Classic A2 text Adv. games now available as freeware
Cturley2
From: Charles T. Turley
Email: ctu...@grin.net
Date: 9/18/98
Archives; BEASTIARY.SDK, SC.SDK, SCDATA.A.SDK, SCDATA.B.SDK, SPACE.I.SDK
SPACEII.SDK, TRADER.SDK, TRAVELLER.SDK, WORDGEN.SDK
Status: Freeware
The ShrinkIt archives and text files are now available for download from:
ftp://128.255.21.234//2/apple2/upl98/Sep98/
DSK, (disk images) and text files for all of these are now available
for download from:
ftp://apple.cabi.net//pub/apple_II/incoming/
For those of you who have and use the IIgs Emulator -> Gus, I've tested
the above ShrinkIt archives by drag & drop over the Gus icon on my
PowerMac's and found they all launch/boot and run very well. I have no
idea of how they might function with any other Apple II or IIgs emulators.
Information and Email contact about the formerly commercial Apple II
games and their utility titles that have been reclassified as freeware
by their copyright holder/owner and archived in ShrinkIt disk file
format for public access and download from this Apple II ftp site -
follows.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paul Sanders
Email: tim...@primenet.com
--------------------------
Hi Tom,
I really appreciate your offer to help me out with this project.
I was hoping you'd respond again this second time around. I got your email
last month, but was called over to Europe unexpectedly a few days early and
was unable to respond. When I returned a few days ago I couldn't find your
earlier email post or the printout I'd made of it.
Anyways - if you could send me your snail-mail address again, I will get
the apple distettes in the mail to you. Did you still need/want to contact
the copyright holder to verify his willingness to release the games as
freeware? If so, his email address is: FarF...@aol.com (expect a few days
delay - he is sometimes slow to answer his email, and is often very terse
in his reply when he does respond).
He has agreed to release the following games:
The Volentine Gambit
Space I
Space II
(All three are text-adventures made for his role-playing game - "Traveller.")
In addition, he also sent me three distettes with 'utilities' for the game.
They are a lower priority for me conversion-wise compared to the
text-adventures, but if you could also convert them I'd really appreciate
it as well. They are:
Trader
Beastiary
WorldGen
Along with the diskettes, I'll send along a pre-stamped Priority Mailer for
you to return the disks in. Once I have them back I will add the text-files
of the documentation from the original packages (working on these right
now), zip them, and then upload them to the asimov site and the IF-Archive
(ftp.gmd.de).
Thanks again,
Paul Sanders
------------>
I just sent an email to you, then came across this letter Marc (the
copyright holder) sent at the time he mailed the text-adventures to me. I
thought I'd send you a copy as it briefly explains the copyright situation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Paul,
>
>I've found the following items (I kept finding more, so I had to repack
the >parcel three times). Enclosed are the following:
>
>Space I & II. Edu-Ware. They produced these text adventures by basing it
on >Traveller. They eventually settled our copyright infringment suit by
paying us >$10,000 (it cost us more than that in legal fees) and sending us
what stock >they still had on hand. I think we received maybe 50 copies.
This is one of >them. They also transferred the copyright to GDW as part of
the settlement. >GDW transferred the copyright to me when they closed down.
>
>Star Crystal, Episode 1 - Mertactor: The Volentine Gambit. Barac Limited.
This >is the title you originally asked about and I found in my files. I
definitely >need this one back. As with Space I & II, this title became
mine when GDW >closed down.
>
>Trader. GDW. This is a Traveller space merchant game put out in small
>quantities by GDW in the mid-80's.
>
>WordGen. GDW. Creates words in various Traveller languages.
>
>Beastiary. GDW. Creates animal encounter tables for Traveller.
>
>Marc Miller
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 10:02 AM 8/12/98 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi Paul,
>I just got home and checked the mailbox to find your parcel with the disks.
>I had a side-track personal matter that requires my efforts for the next
day >or two. I'll get on the disk conversions, uploads of the shrinkit
archives
>and so on ASAP and then send them all back to you in the return envelope.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
I've finished keying in the documentation for Space I & II - I will try
sending them this evening as email to you. When you upload the shrinkit
files please also include them (along with the text-file containing release
info. that the copyright holder has asked me to include in the releases - I
should have it ready to send in the next few days). I am about 1/4 done
keying in the info for Volentine Gambit, and should also have it sent to
you in the next few days as well.
When you send back the original disks and conversions, could you also
please send back copies of the shrinkit files? I've already had several
people on the TML (Traveller Mailing List) request them (rather than
conversions) from me.
Anyways - thanks again for all your efforts.
Cordially,
Paul Sanders
tim...@primenet.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRAVELLER is a registered trademark of FarFuture
Enterprises. (c) 1998 All Rights Reserved.
Marc Miller (FarF...@aol.com) has graciously agreed to
release the following three text adventures as freeware.
They are:
Starcrystal, Episode I - Mertactor: The Volentine Gambit
Space I
Space II
Originally released in the mid-80's for the Apple
computer, they are currently being re-released in both
their original format (as shrinkit files), and as disk
images which can then be played with the use of an
emulator upon most current computer platforms.
These three text adventures were written for TRAVELLER -
a science fiction role-playing game that was first
published in 1977. Over twenty years later TRAVELLER is
alive and well, and is currently entering its fifth
edition. Look for it at a hobby or comic shop near you.
If you'd like to write your own text adventures for
TRAVELLER, the authoring software is freely available,
and easily downloaded from the Interactive Fiction
Archive at: ftp.gmd.de/if-archive
Many thanks to Charles Turley for his assistance in the
conversion and release of these games as freeware.
Enjoy,
Paul Sanders
8/18/98
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
-EOF-
Rubywand
>
> From: Charles T. Turley
> Email: ctu...@grin.net
> Date: 9/18/98
>
> Archives; BEASTIARY.SDK, SC.SDK, SCDATA.A.SDK, SCDATA.B.SDK, SPACE.I.SDK
> SPACEII.SDK, TRADER.SDK, TRAVELLER.SDK, WORDGEN.SDK
>
> Status: Freeware
>
> The ShrinkIt archives and text files are now available for download from:
>
> ftp://128.255.21.234//2/apple2/upl98/Sep98/
>
> DSK, (disk images) and text files for all of these are now available
> for download from:
>
> ftp://apple.cabi.net//pub/apple_II/incoming/
>
> For those of you who have and use the IIgs Emulator -> Gus, I've tested
> the above ShrinkIt archives by drag & drop over the Gus icon on my
> PowerMac's and found they all launch/boot and run very well. I have no
> idea of how they might function with any other Apple II or IIgs emulators.
>
....
Cool! They seem to work 'as advertised'. I downloaded everything,
NULL-modemmed it to the GS, and used ShrinkIt to unshrink a couple of
the .sdk files (Space II and Trader) to 5.25" diskette. They started up
without a hitch and looked fine on our II+.
Thanks for your work on getting these products reclassified and
making them available as .dsk _and_ .sdk files.
Rubywand
Willie Yeo
> He has agreed to release the following games:
>
> The Volentine Gambit
> Space I
> Space II
> (All three are text-adventures made for his role-playing game -
> "Traveller.")
Apple II Treasure Chest Project has previously contacted the copyright owner
and has received confirmation of the reclassification of the above titles into
'Freeware' status.
Thanks to Paul Sanders for his efforts in bringing about the reclassification
of the titles, and Charles Turley for his efforts to making the software
avaliable for distribution.
Additions will be added onto the Apple II Treasure Chest Project website
sometime later this week. I am hoping for a makeover of the site, with
additions of suggestions for improving the site.
Willie Yeo
CEO - Apple II Treasure Chest Project
http://www.tals.dis.qut.edu.au/staff/willie/treasurechest