pcjs/apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/README.md

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Markdown

---
layout: page
title: "Adventures in Math (1983)"
permalink: /apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/
machines:
- type: pcx86
id: ibm5150
config: /devices/pcx86/machine/5150/cga/256kb/machine.xml
autoMount:
B:
path: /apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/ADVENTMATH100.json
---
Adventures in Math (1983)
-------------------------
{% include machine.html id="ibm5150" %}
This game is available from the [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Adventures_in_Math_1983).
The contents of their ZIP archive contains:
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 18688 Dec 24 1996 Adventur.bas
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 0 Dec 24 1996 Adventures in Math (1983).ba1
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 54277 Dec 24 1996 Basica.exe
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 11904 Dec 24 1996 Castle.bas
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 6400 Dec 24 1996 Exit.bas
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 4992 Dec 24 1996 Help.bas
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 1418 Dec 24 1996 Maze1
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 2179 Dec 24 1996 Maze2
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 3892 Dec 24 1996 Maze3
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 10496 Dec 24 1996 Monocode.000
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 15 Dec 24 1996 Run.bat
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 13 Dec 24 1996 Sn
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 369 Dec 24 1996 Topten
What's a little disturbing about the above archive is that all the files are dated "Dec 24 1996".
However, if you dig around a bit more on the Internet Archive, you discover that
[A Large Collection of DOS Collections](https://archive.org/details/large_dos_collection_2013_08) contains:
- DOS Collection v0.7/DVD1/Adventures In Math (1983)(Ibm).zip
- main torrent/1983/Adventures in Math (1983)(IBM) [Educational].zip
In the first ZIP file:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 18688 Dec 24 1996 adventur.bas
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 16 Dec 24 1996 autoexec.bat
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 54277 Dec 24 1996 basica.exe
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 11904 Dec 24 1996 castle.bas
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 4964 Dec 24 1996 command.com
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 6400 Dec 24 1996 exit.bas
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 4992 Dec 24 1996 help.bas
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 1418 Dec 24 1996 maze1
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 2179 Dec 24 1996 maze2
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 3892 Dec 24 1996 maze3
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 10496 Dec 24 1996 monocode.000
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 13 Dec 24 1996 sn
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 369 Dec 24 1996 topten
And in the second ZIP file:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 18688 Aug 11 1983 Adventur.bas
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 54277 Sep 17 1999 Basica.exe
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 11904 Aug 11 1983 Castle.bas
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 6400 Aug 11 1983 Exit.bas
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 4992 Aug 11 1983 Help.bas
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 1418 Aug 11 1983 Maze1
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 2179 Aug 11 1983 Maze2
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 3892 Aug 11 1983 Maze3
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 10496 Dec 19 1985 Monocode.000
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 15 Jan 4 2003 Run.bat
-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 13 Aug 11 1983 Sn
-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.
One strange file common to *all* these archives is **MONOCODE.000**. Dumping that file reveals:
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|
00000c80 61 72 6b 20 6f 66 20 50 61 72 6b 65 72 20 42 72 |ark of Parker Br|
00000c90 6f 74 68 65 72 73 2c 20 49 6e 63 2e e8 f7 7d e8 |others, Inc...}.|
00000ca0 a1 64 e8 d4 79 e8 d6 7d 3c 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |.d..y..}< |
00000cb0 20 20 20 20 20 20 4d 53 2d 44 4f 53 20 61 64 61 | MS-DOS ada|
00000cc0 70 74 61 74 69 6f 6e 20 28 43 29 20 31 39 38 35 |ptation (C) 1985|
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.
Another unexpected file is **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**.
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 is a close relative:
The COMPAQ Personal Computer BASIC
Version 1.13
(C) Copyright COMPAQ Computer Corp. 1983
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 someone copied the COMPAQ version of BASIC (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.
Finally, there was **FILE_ID.DIZ**:
Adventures in Math (1983)(IBM) [Educational].zip
Name:Adventures in Math
Version:1.0
Language/Country:English
Flags:
Year:1983
Publisher:IBM
Genre(s):Educational
and **RUN.BAT**:
basica castle
and **TOPTEN**:
The Ultimate One,83519,LARGE,07-15-81
MathsWhiz,78613,LARGE,01-01-80
[z],70946,LARGE,07-13-81
[z],56728,LARGE,04-24-80
[z],56727,LARGE,07-25-81
[z], 56277,LARGE,07-28-81
[z],56157,LARGE,07-24-81
[z],55677,LARGE,07-24-81
[z],55197,LARGE,07-23-81
[z],54792,LARGE,07-23-81
^Z,07-28-81
[z],56157,LARGE,07-24-81
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 created a disk image from the
directory containing just those files:
diskdump --dir=archive --format=json --output=ADVENTMATH100.json --manifest