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Updated "Adventures in Math" README

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Jeff Parsons 2017-06-15 00:44:26 -07:00 • committed by Jeff Parsons
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apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/README.md
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@ -36,12 +36,12 @@ The contents of their ZIP archive contained:
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 13 Dec 24 1996 Sn
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 369 Dec 24 1996 Topten
It's unfortunate that the archive did not contain a complete dump of the original "Adventures in Math" diskette.
It's especially disturbing that all the files in the archive are dated "Dec 24 1996", calling into question which,
if any, of these files are authentic.
It was unfortunate that the archive did not contain a complete dump of the original "Adventures in Math"
diskette, and that all the files in the archive were dated "Dec 24 1996", calling into question the authenticity
of the files.
After digging around a bit more on the Internet Archive, I discovered that
[A Large Collection of DOS Collections](https://archive.org/details/large_dos_collection_2013_08) contains:
[A Large Collection of DOS Collections](https://archive.org/details/large_dos_collection_2013_08) contained:
- DOS Collection v0.7/DVD1/Adventures In Math (1983)(Ibm).zip
- main torrent/1983/Adventures in Math (1983)(IBM) [Educational].zip
@ -78,10 +78,10 @@ And in the second ZIP file:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 369 Sep 17 1999 Topten
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 170 Jan 22 2011 file_id.diz
I decided to start with the contents of the second ZIP file, since the timestamps of the most of the files
I decided to start with the contents of the second ZIP file, since the timestamps of most of the files
appeared to be legitimate.
One strange file common to *all* these archives is **MONOCODE.000**. Dumping that file revealed:
One strange file common to *all* the archives was **MONOCODE.000**. Dumping that file revealed:
00000c60 20 4d 4f 4e 4f 50 4f 4c 59 20 69 73 20 61 20 72 | MONOPOLY is a r|
00000c70 65 67 69 73 74 65 72 65 64 20 74 72 61 64 65 6d |egistered tradem|
@ -93,15 +93,14 @@ One strange file common to *all* these archives is **MONOCODE.000**. Dumping th
00000cd0 20 44 6f 6e 20 50 68 69 6c 6c 69 70 20 47 69 62 | Don Phillip Gib|
00000ce0 73 6f 6e 20 5b e8 96 7d 03 35 2e 31 b8 5d 00 50 |son [..}.5.1.].P|
So at some point, unrelated ("MONOPOLY") files were mingled with this game. I deleted the file.
So at some point, unrelated "MONOPOLY" files were mingled with this game. I deleted **MONOCODE.000**.
Another unexpected file is **BASICA.EXE** (54277 bytes) from 1999. It seems unlikely that IBM would have distributed
Another unexpected file was **BASICA.EXE** (54277 bytes) from 1999. It seems unlikely that IBM would have distributed
*any* BASIC binary with this game, because DOS was a prerequisite, and at the time, all versions of DOS included BASIC.
IBM's PC-DOS shipped with **BASICA.COM**, and OEM versions of DOS shipped with either **GWBASIC.EXE** or **BASIC.EXE**.
IBM's PC-DOS shipped with **BASICA.COM** and OEM versions of DOS shipped with either **GWBASIC.EXE** or **BASIC.EXE**.
The closest matching binary I'd seen up to this point was **BASICA.EXE** from [COMPAQ DOS 1.12](/disks/pcx86/dos/compaq/1.12/)
(54304 bytes). And sure enough, examining the strings contained inside this **BASICA.EXE** revealed that it was a close
relative:
(54304 bytes). And sure enough, dumping the strings inside this **BASICA.EXE** revealed that it was a close relative:
The COMPAQ Personal Computer BASIC
Version 1.13
@ -109,11 +108,8 @@ relative:
It's safe to say that IBM would not have distributed a COMPAQ binary; if IBM had distributed any BASIC binary at all,
it would have been their own **BASICA.COM**. Of course, the problem with IBM's **BASICA.COM** is that it also requires
an IBM PC with ROM BASIC installed, which is why some people would have preferred the COMPAQ version: it has no ROM
dependencies.
Anyway, I've deleted **BASICA.EXE**. The proper thing to do -- and what any purchaser of this game would have to do --
is boot a machine with an appropriate version of DOS and use the BASIC binary included with DOS to run this game.
an IBM PC with ROM BASIC installed, which is why some people would have preferred the COMPAQ binary: it had no ROM
dependencies. Anyway, I deleted **BASICA.EXE**.
Finally, there was **FILE_ID.DIZ**:
@ -147,13 +143,13 @@ and **TOPTEN**:
Z[z],55677,LARGE,07-24-81
[z],55197,LARGE,07-23-81
All those files have been deleted as well, leaving 8 files dated "Aug 11 1983". Next, I used the PCjs
[DiskDump](/modules/diskdump/) utility to create a disk image from a directory ("archive/disk") containing just
All those files were deleted as well, leaving 8 files dated "Aug 11 1983". Next, I used the PCjs
[DiskDump](/modules/diskdump/) utility to create a disk image from a directory ("archive/disk") containing
those files:
diskdump --dir=archive/disk --format=json --output=ADVENTMATH100.json --manifest
The resulting 160Kb disk image contains:
Here's a directory listing of the resulting 160Kb disk image:
Volume in drive A is PCJS ORG
Directory of A:\
@ -168,10 +164,10 @@ The resulting 160Kb disk image contains:
SN 13 8-11-83 12:00p
8 File(s) 108544 bytes free
And this disk has now been added to the PCjs [IBM PC Disk Library](/disks/pcx86/) as "Adventures in Math (1983)".
This disk has now been added to the PCjs [IBM PC Disk Library](/disks/pcx86/) as "Adventures in Math (1983)".
I originally selected an [IBM PC (Model 5150, 64Kb) with Color Display](/devices/pcx86/machine/5150/cga/64kb/),
which boots PC-DOS 2.00 by default. However, in the course of starting the game, it would crash:
To run the game, I originally selected an [IBM PC (Model 5150, 64Kb) with Color Display](/devices/pcx86/machine/5150/cga/64kb/),
which boots PC-DOS 2.00 by default. However, in the course of starting the game, it crashed:
![ADVENTMATH-CRASH](ADVENTMATH-CRASH.png)
@ -183,9 +179,28 @@ It appeared to run fine with 256Kb of RAM, but these were IBM's "System Requirem
> One diskette drive
so I reconfigured the machine to boot PC-DOS 1.00, which required less RAM than PC-DOS 2.00, and that appeared to be
sufficient. Note that the game was released in October 1983, well after the March 1983 release of PC-DOS 2.00, so
either it wasn't tested with PC-DOS 2.00 on a 64Kb machine, or the error is a PCjs anomaly.
so I reconfigured the machine to boot PC-DOS 1.00, which requires less RAM than PC-DOS 2.00, and that worked.
Note that the game was released in October 1983, well after the March 1983 release of PC-DOS 2.00, so it should
have been tested with PC-DOS 2.00 on a 64Kb machine, but perhaps it wasn't.
The machine on this page is configured with the following "autoType" sequence:
autoType: 8-10-81\\rb:\\ra:basica castle\\r
which translates to:
8-10-81 [enter an arbitrary date]
b: [switch to drive B:]
a:basica castle [run BASICA on drive A: and load CASTLE.BAS on drive B:]
This is the preferred way of "demo'ing" software with PCjs: loading unmodified disk images using the minimum
"system requirements" and automatically performing the same series of commands that the original owner of that
hardware and software would have performed.
An alternative approach, adopted by the Internet Archive, involves creating customized disk images and machine
configurations for each application. This offers some simplicity, because the software has been modified to work
in a common configuration, but it becomes difficult if not impossible to isolate the original software distribution
or run it in other machine configurations.
References
----------