I just stumbled on this video you youtube of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LLvysYJxWk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LLvysYJxWk) Tau Ceti III, a quick search but I find only the original Tau Ceti (CPC and PCW) and its sequel Academy.
Someone knows something about this ?
Another video from the same youtube channel : [size=78%]https://youtu.be/yb7GaEaYNuQ (https://youtu.be/yb7GaEaYNuQ)[/size]
Good evening, at PCWwiki we have Tau Ceti III, we are looking for Tau Ceti II known as Academy, regards
Is there a link to a DSK file or can you please post it here. The PcWwiki is hard to read and I couldn't find a DSK there.
"Tau Ceti III" is the name of the planet, not the game itself. It's the original game.
We are improving the PCWWiki little by little, and it is a big and slow project. I leave you the Tau Ceti III. Cheers
Thanks :)
First game is called just "Tau Ceti", and its story is happening on planet called Tau Ceti III. The sequel, Academy (Tau Ceti 2) has its story on several places. As far as I know, there is no Tau Ceti 3.
Quote from: zzarko on 16:59, 08 June 20
First game is called just "Tau Ceti", and its story is happening on planet called Tau Ceti III. The sequel, Academy (Tau Ceti 2) has its story on several places. As far as I know, there is no Tau Ceti 3.
Hello "zzarko", I think you are wrong. The game is called TAU CETI III, and there is the TAU CETI II known as the Academy. His name appears in the image below. Cheers
The original ZX game is called Tau Ceti:
https://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0005153
Also the C64 version:
https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Tau_Ceti
and CPC version:
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2180
Wikipedia article also calls it like that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Ceti_(video_game)
Maybe they changed the title for PCW version, but I doubt that...
Hello again, Zzarko. Your name has not changed. The first game in the Tau Ceti series is called that, it never came out for the Amstrad PCW range. The following yes, like Tau Ceti II and Tau Ceti III. Cheers
If you look at the gameplay of ZX, C64 and CPC versions, you'll notice that it's the same as PCW version you call Tau Ceti III. There is no mention on the internet that CRL made Tau Ceti 3 for any system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRL_Group), let alone a PCW exclusive game (which would be very small market compared to markets of more popular machines). I mean no disrespect (I appreciate the work you do on the preservation of PCW software), but I have found no evidence of a game Tau Ceti 3 ever existing, only Tau Ceti and its sequel, Academy.
Also, Tau Ceti and Academy are listed as released on PCW.
I do not trust wikipedia, since many bugs are coming, including many games for other platforms that are also for the PCW series and do not appear. The flaw is that Tau Ceti III comes as Tau Ceti. Find out in the PCW Plus and 8000 Plus magazines of the time. It will leave doubts. Cheers
I repeat, the "Tau Ceti III" displayed on the screen is not the name of the game, it's your ship display telling you the planet you are on. Third planet around the star Tau Ceti.
Every version of the game including the CPC version has this, if you look at their screenshots: https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2180
It's even written in the instructions and on the tape cover! http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/File:Tau_Ceti_Tape_Cover.jpeg
Here are the games in 8000 Plus magazine:
https://archive.org/details/8000-plus-magazine-05/page/n41/mode/2up (https://archive.org/details/8000-plus-magazine-05/page/n41/mode/2up)
https://archive.org/details/8000-plus-magazine-20/page/n51/mode/2up (https://archive.org/details/8000-plus-magazine-20/page/n51/mode/2up)
No idea about the name, whether it's I or III or MCMLXXXV, but I just love that interface... Mode 2 ftw!
Also it would be very unusual that the so called "TAU CETI III" came out the same year as TAU CETI (1986) itself and one year before ACADEMY (1987)
It is as already been said, the name of the planet your on ...
Ok, this is quite interesting.
The game appear to be Tau Ceti, and it's from 1986, no discussion here.
But, on the video, the game is started by typing TAUIII.COM, and on the lower corner you can clearly see TAU CETI III (C) 1986 - CRL GROUP PLC.
Most probably the game got renamed on the PCW, but it's clearly named TAU CETI III.
Minor misunderstanding on the conversion perhaps?
Really like the hi-res PCW graphics though.
CPC version I remember playing from an AA covertape. Never remembered the colour change for the bottom of the screen to get 6 colours in MODE 1. Looks good though.
I've never been into this sort of game (realtime etc, I prefer games that do nothing while I'm thinking about what's going on) a lot of this discussion is over my head, but I do actually have a copy of Tau Ceti, and I have tried to get it working. It sort of IS, not that I can make too much sense of it. Both on the real PCW, and on the emulator.
I could do with some instructions, and a LOT more background. I've got to a bit of flying along, but where am I going, and what do I do about it? I just seem to get shot down!
However, reading some bits about it, I get the impression that the original game, TC-I, was somewhat expanded for the present version, and therefore the 'game' bit we're dealing with here is TC-I, but the overall package may be TC-III, as there's the 'optional extras' which may not change the 'game' as such, but add more info re the map, the other cities, some sort of database (?) and some other things that can be looked up. That might be more interesting for me to explore, rather than getting shot down all the time??
But, how do I get at those bits, and is it practical to do things with those bits without doing much flying/dying?
Oh, if I try to get the game working on my PCW with JonB's uIDE system loaded, it seems to crash with some garbage on the screen. Not certain yet if this is Jon's system, or the later system version. Game works fine using the old 1.4 system, which of course cannot use the uIDE anyway!
Geoff
There's a feature in Sinclair User that may help: https://archive.org/details/sinclair-user-magazine-048/page/n101/mode/2up
Thanks for the link to the Sinclair User article. Looks usefull. I've got the 3 page article printed out now, and I'll try to read it, the black on black isn't very helpful for my eyes, but I'll persevere. The Sinclair version looks near enough, most of the commands seem the same.
I'll need to see how it goes!
Geoff
Quote from: GeoffB17 on 14:27, 12 June 20
Thanks for the link to the Sinclair User article. Looks usefull. I've got the 3 page article printed out now, and I'll try to read it, the black on black isn't very helpful for my eyes, but I'll persevere.
It's OCR'ed, you can actually get the text content.
Oh dear, Geoff!
I expect it is loading pages from the floppy, or trying to. I was thinking of trying it myself...
Jon,
Don't worry, I keep a 1.4 boot disk handy for just such eventualities, so it's no big deal, as long as I keep it in mind.
Geoff