209 lines
9 KiB
Markdown
209 lines
9 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: page
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title: "Adventures in Math (1983)"
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permalink: /apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/
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machines:
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- type: pcx86
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id: ibm5150
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config: /devices/pcx86/machine/5150/cga/64kb/machine.xml
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autoMount:
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A:
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path: /disks/pcx86/dos/ibm/1.00/PCDOS100.json
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B:
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path: /apps/pcx86/1983/adventmath/ADVENTMATH100.json
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autoType: 8-10-81\rb:\ra:basica castle\r
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---
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Adventures in Math (1983)
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-------------------------
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{% include machine.html id="ibm5150" %}
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The files for this game were obtained from the [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Adventures_in_Math_1983).
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The contents of their ZIP archive contained:
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 18688 Dec 24 1996 Adventur.bas
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 0 Dec 24 1996 Adventures in Math (1983).ba1
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 54277 Dec 24 1996 Basica.exe
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 11904 Dec 24 1996 Castle.bas
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 6400 Dec 24 1996 Exit.bas
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 4992 Dec 24 1996 Help.bas
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 1418 Dec 24 1996 Maze1
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 2179 Dec 24 1996 Maze2
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 3892 Dec 24 1996 Maze3
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 10496 Dec 24 1996 Monocode.000
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 15 Dec 24 1996 Run.bat
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 13 Dec 24 1996 Sn
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-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 Jeff staff 369 Dec 24 1996 Topten
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It was unfortunate that the archive did not contain a complete dump of the original "Adventures in Math"
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diskette, and that all the files in the archive were dated "Dec 24 1996", calling into question the authenticity
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of the files.
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After digging around a bit more on the Internet Archive, I discovered that
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[A Large Collection of DOS Collections](https://archive.org/details/large_dos_collection_2013_08) contained:
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- DOS Collection v0.7/DVD1/Adventures In Math (1983)(Ibm).zip
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- main torrent/1983/Adventures in Math (1983)(IBM) [Educational].zip
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In the first ZIP file:
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 18688 Dec 24 1996 adventur.bas
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 16 Dec 24 1996 autoexec.bat
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 54277 Dec 24 1996 basica.exe
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 11904 Dec 24 1996 castle.bas
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 4964 Dec 24 1996 command.com
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 6400 Dec 24 1996 exit.bas
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 4992 Dec 24 1996 help.bas
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 1418 Dec 24 1996 maze1
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 2179 Dec 24 1996 maze2
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 3892 Dec 24 1996 maze3
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 10496 Dec 24 1996 monocode.000
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 13 Dec 24 1996 sn
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 369 Dec 24 1996 topten
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And in the second ZIP file:
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 18688 Aug 11 1983 Adventur.bas
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 54277 Sep 17 1999 Basica.exe
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 11904 Aug 11 1983 Castle.bas
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 6400 Aug 11 1983 Exit.bas
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 4992 Aug 11 1983 Help.bas
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 1418 Aug 11 1983 Maze1
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 2179 Aug 11 1983 Maze2
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 3892 Aug 11 1983 Maze3
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 10496 Dec 19 1985 Monocode.000
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 15 Jan 4 2003 Run.bat
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 13 Aug 11 1983 Sn
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 369 Sep 17 1999 Topten
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-rw-r--r--@ 1 Jeff staff 170 Jan 22 2011 file_id.diz
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I decided to start with the contents of the second ZIP file, since the timestamps of most of the files
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appeared to be legitimate.
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One strange file common to *all* the archives was **MONOCODE.000**. Dumping that file revealed:
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00000c60 20 4d 4f 4e 4f 50 4f 4c 59 20 69 73 20 61 20 72 | MONOPOLY is a r|
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00000c70 65 67 69 73 74 65 72 65 64 20 74 72 61 64 65 6d |egistered tradem|
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00000c80 61 72 6b 20 6f 66 20 50 61 72 6b 65 72 20 42 72 |ark of Parker Br|
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00000c90 6f 74 68 65 72 73 2c 20 49 6e 63 2e e8 f7 7d e8 |others, Inc...}.|
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00000ca0 a1 64 e8 d4 79 e8 d6 7d 3c 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |.d..y..}< |
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00000cb0 20 20 20 20 20 20 4d 53 2d 44 4f 53 20 61 64 61 | MS-DOS ada|
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00000cc0 70 74 61 74 69 6f 6e 20 28 43 29 20 31 39 38 35 |ptation (C) 1985|
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00000cd0 20 44 6f 6e 20 50 68 69 6c 6c 69 70 20 47 69 62 | Don Phillip Gib|
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00000ce0 73 6f 6e 20 5b e8 96 7d 03 35 2e 31 b8 5d 00 50 |son [..}.5.1.].P|
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So at some point, unrelated "MONOPOLY" files were mingled with this game. I deleted **MONOCODE.000**.
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Another unexpected file was **BASICA.EXE** (54277 bytes) from 1999. It seems unlikely that IBM would have distributed
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*any* BASIC binary with this game, because DOS was a prerequisite, and at the time, all versions of DOS included BASIC.
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IBM's PC-DOS shipped with **BASICA.COM** and OEM versions of DOS shipped with either **GWBASIC.EXE** or **BASIC.EXE**.
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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/)
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(54304 bytes). And sure enough, dumping the strings inside this **BASICA.EXE** revealed that it was a close relative:
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The COMPAQ Personal Computer BASIC
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Version 1.13
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(C) Copyright COMPAQ Computer Corp. 1983
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It's safe to say that IBM would not have distributed a COMPAQ binary; if IBM had distributed any BASIC binary at all,
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it would have been their own **BASICA.COM**. Of course, the problem with IBM's **BASICA.COM** is that it also requires
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an IBM PC with ROM BASIC installed, which is why some people would have preferred the COMPAQ binary: it had no ROM
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dependencies. Anyway, I deleted **BASICA.EXE**.
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Finally, there was **FILE_ID.DIZ**:
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Adventures in Math (1983)(IBM) [Educational].zip
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Name:Adventures in Math
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Version:1.0
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Language/Country:English
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Flags:
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Year:1983
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Publisher:IBM
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Genre(s):Educational
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and **RUN.BAT**:
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basica castle
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and **TOPTEN**:
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The Ultimate One,83519,LARGE,07-15-81
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MathsWhiz,78613,LARGE,01-01-80
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[z],70946,LARGE,07-13-81
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[z],56728,LARGE,04-24-80
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[z],56727,LARGE,07-25-81
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[z], 56277,LARGE,07-28-81
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[z],56157,LARGE,07-24-81
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[z],55677,LARGE,07-24-81
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[z],55197,LARGE,07-23-81
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[z],54792,LARGE,07-23-81
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^Z,07-28-81
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[z],56157,LARGE,07-24-81
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Z[z],55677,LARGE,07-24-81
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[z],55197,LARGE,07-23-81
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All those files were deleted as well, leaving 8 files dated "Aug 11 1983". Next, I used the PCjs
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[DiskDump](/modules/diskdump/) utility to create a disk image from a directory ("archive/advemath.100") containing
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those files:
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diskdump --dir=archive/advemath.100 --format=json --output=ADVENTMATH100.json --manifest
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Here's a directory listing of the resulting 160Kb disk image:
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Volume in drive A is ADVEMATH100
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Directory of A:\
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ADVENTUR BAS 18688 08-11-83 12:00p
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CASTLE BAS 11904 08-11-83 12:00p
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EXIT BAS 6400 08-11-83 12:00p
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HELP BAS 4992 08-11-83 12:00p
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MAZE1 1418 08-11-83 12:00p
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MAZE2 2179 08-11-83 12:00p
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MAZE3 3892 08-11-83 12:00p
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SN 13 08-11-83 12:00p
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8 file(s) 49486 bytes
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108544 bytes free
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This disk has now been added to the PCjs [IBM PC Disk Library](/disks/pcx86/) as "Adventures in Math (1983)".
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To run the game, I originally selected an [IBM PC (Model 5150, 64Kb) with Color Display](/devices/pcx86/machine/5150/cga/64kb/),
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which boots PC-DOS 2.00 by default. However, in the course of starting the game, it crashed:
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It appeared to run fine with 256Kb of RAM, but these were IBM's "System Requirements" for the game:
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> IBM Color Display, or a television
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> 64Kb of memory for PC and PC XT, 128KB for PCjr
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> One diskette drive
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so I reconfigured the machine to boot PC-DOS 1.00, which requires less RAM than PC-DOS 2.00, and that worked.
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Note that the game was released in October 1983, well after the March 1983 release of PC-DOS 2.00, so it should
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have been tested with PC-DOS 2.00 on a 64Kb machine, but perhaps it wasn't.
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The machine on this page is configured with the following "autoType" sequence:
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autoType: 8-10-81\rb:\ra:basica castle\r
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which translates to:
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8-10-81 [enter an arbitrary date]
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b: [switch to drive B:]
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a:basica castle [run BASICA on drive A: and load CASTLE.BAS on drive B:]
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This is one of the preferred methods of demonstrating software in PCjs: loading unmodified disk images into machines
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that match the software's system requirements as closely as possible, powering the machine, and then automatically
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executing a series of commands that an owner of that hardware and software combination would have likely executed.
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The other preferred method is to use a machine state file, which restores the machine to a state where the software is
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already running. This is the fastest approach, and it is useful when the software has an involved installation
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process, but it takes more effort to set up. The [VisiCalc (1981)](/apps/pcx86/1981/visicalc/) demo operates this way,
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but it does so purely for convenience (and because it predates the "autoType" feature).
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References
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----------
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[MobyGames](http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/adventures-in-math)
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