Saving a game of zork?

[sabea002]

When I try to save a game of Zork running on CP/M 2.2b it will run me through the save prompts, but I will get a "Failed." message. Is it possible to save a game on the clone or do I have to take some extra steps?

Thanks!

[AltairClone]

Probably not enough space left on the floppy. A game save requires at least 14K. Also, be sure to type in a save file name even though it says "zork.sav" is the default.

Mike

[JNZ]

That's crazy, I had the exact same question last night. Also, if the default zork.dsk is too full, is there a way to specify another drive in Zork, or do you have to use the admin menu to simulate swapping a floppy disk?

This is slightly unrelated, but the reason I chose Zork is because I figure it's stable, and hard to crash the machine with it. I had had my Altair running CP/M with a remote serial terminal, and even with DDT I was able to put the machine in a state where ^C did nothing. Since I wasn't home for the weekend, I couldn't use it at all. How do you guys deal with that?

[Tor]

Good question, JNZ.
That's something I would l like to hear ideas about as well. I wish to operate my Altair Clone from the other side of the world where I spend half my time. So far I have been thinking about rigging up something to remotely power cycle it. I don't think I can realistically control the front panel switches though..

[AltairClone]

Also, if the default zork.dsk is too full, is there a way to specify another drive in Zork, or do you have to use the admin menu to simulate swapping a floppy disk?

Zork is broken down into three completely independent loads: zork1.com (and .dat), zork2.com (and .dat), and zork3.com (and .dat). You can independently copy these to drives B: and/or C:

Switch to drive B: or C: in CP/M to make the new drive the default, then run zork. E.g.:

A>B:
B>ZORK2

Mike

[gmh]

is there a way to specify another drive in Zork

You can specify a drive when you use SAVE or RESTORE.

I have ZORK.DSK mounted in the B: drive and save to A:.

See below;

Code: Select all

B>ZORK1
ZORK I: The Great Underground Empire
...
>SAVE
Load SAVE disk then enter file name.
(default file name is ZORK1.SAV).
Type <ENTER> to continue  > A:ZORK1.SAV
Load Game Disk if it was removed.
Type <ENTER> to continue >

[sabea002]

Probably not enough space left on the floppy. A game save requires at least 14K. Also, be sure to type in a save file name even though it says "zork.sav" is the default.

Mike

That fixed it! I had a feeling that it would be a simple solution. I just erased the files for zork 2 and 3 (using the ERA command) to make room on the disk for saves.