Pension Productions ("New" Zenobi text adventures for CPC/PCW via CP/M)

[Strident]

Text adventure legend John Wilson, who used to run the biggest publisher of ZX Spectrum homegrown games in the 1980s and 1990s, has been spending his retirement converting Speccy text adventures to run on the Amstrad CPC & PCW via CP/M.


His latest project is converting his Quilled adventures, via CP/M PAWs...
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/02/miracles-we-can-do-impossible-just.html
Just the one up there at the moment (but more to come soon).


He's also produced CP/M versions of his Twine & Adventuron games...
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/02/bcd5-and-bcd6-amstradcpm-versions.html
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/02/stand-alone-versions.html
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/01/amstrad-versions.html

As well as a whole host of semi-official and pretty unofficial conversions of virtually the entire Zenobi PAWed back catalogue...
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2018/12/still-even-more-amstrad-conversions.html
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2018/12/yet-more-amstrad-conversions.html
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2018/11/amstrad-cpm-conversions.html


The conversions are pretty rough and ready in some cases, but John is largely doing this for his own amusement and the challenge.


In most cases the files that John has put up are the raw .COM files, which can be dropped onto a virtual Amstrad CP/M disk in an emulator such as WinApe.

[Strident]

'The Balrog and the Cat'
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/02/slightly-on-roll.html

[Strident]

An Everyday Tale of a Seeker of Gold...
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/02/back-to-beginning.html

[Strident]

Bulbo and the Lizard King...
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/03/the-lizard-king-change-his-allegiance.html

[Strident]

Fuddo and Slam...
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/03/two-pals-on-adventure.html

[GeoffB17]

Never seen any of these before, so VERY interesting.

Just downloaded a couple, and got them onto my PCW.   Tried to play one.   Can't even get past the first 'problem', but I need to try harder, I guess.   And never mind the foot-scraper?

See how they go, and download some others.

Thanks.

Geoff

[Strident]

Just downloaded a couple, and got them onto my PCW.   Tried to play one.   Can't even get past the first 'problem', but I need to try harder, I guess.   And never mind the foot-scraper?

John's own games, especially his recent ones which are more difficult, can be quite challenging if you're coming to them fresh without a knowledge of the particular quirks & puzzles that were popular in the late 80s & 90s, but there are a lot of more accessible games in the Zenobi back-catalogue... Jack Lockerby was always one of my favourite authors. A lot of his games got contemporary CP/M conversions, but so many of those Adventure Workshop/The Guild ports have been lost.


If you get stuck then... http://solutionarchive.com/ is the best site to visit... and an absolutely invaluable database for classic text adventures in general.


I've been working on ports of my own Spectrum games at http://8bitag.com/games/ and there may even be some native CPC versions of Speccy titles on the way in the future.

[Strident]

From Out of A Dark Night Sky...
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/03/from-out-of-nowhere.html


(a rare, serious adventure from John Wilson)

[Strident]

The original 'Behind Closed Doors' makes it onto the Amstrad...
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/03/get-me-outta-here.html

[Strident]

Behind Closed Doors 2
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/03/bloody-ants-i-hate-em.html


Behind Closed Doors 3
http://www.zenobi.co.uk/2019/03/cats-puddles-and-rattigators.html