Infocom Games for CP/M 2.2

[Colton Parr]

Hey all! I've had an Altair 8800 clone from Mike Douglas for a few years, but started to more seriously explore it recently. One of the things that I enjoy is seeing about pushing the limits a bit with running programs that were never designed or ported to the Altair 8800, but came from around the same era. 

I started with a simple process: the Zork disk that comes from Mike Douglas' website doesn't include a .dat file for Zork3. After finding a repository for every Infocom .dat file (https://eblong.com/infocom/ if you want to dive in yourself; use the Masterpieces or Solid Gold versions for the final retail releases), I was able to easily put it onto the disk using PCGET and it worked as expected.

Then I got another idea - what else could I get to work?

After some experimenting with different .com files for other systems of the era (which didn't work well, if at all), I realized I could take the ZORK1.com Z-Machine interpreter, use PCPUT to get it onto my computer, and set it to look for a different .dat file. I used Visual Studio Code to do this; notebook is seemingly the easiest but I found it doesn't work. An example of what to change is below; you'll find a working copy on the infidelsuspen.dsk:

I've only tried this with Z3 files, but it's worked for making four games work. This might have problems with Z4+ files due to the greater system requirements and, I assume, a different Z-Machine interpreter. 

Anyway, I've included three .dsk files here that will work for any Altair-formatted 8.5 inch floppy or digital equivalent. 

zorkmaster.dsk contains Zork 1, Zork 2, and Zork 3. 

planetstationfall.dsk contains the critically acclaimed Planetfall and its sequel, Stationfall. Of note: Stationfall was released in 1987 - 8+ years after the Altair 8800 ceased production. 

infidelsuspen.dsk contains the game Infidel, a somewhat controversial game in early computing due to it giving an extensive backstory of the main character being an incompetent jerk, swindler, and all around awful person - a far cry from the typical depiction of the "nameless adventurer" of the time. It also includes Suspended, an early strategy game where you control several robots from your stasis chamber which will result in you dying many times as you try to figure the game out. Both were made by Michael Berlyn in 1983. You'll need to find digital versions of the manual and the Infocom "feelies" to enjoy these. 

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy these!