"Typing and Archiving 'Cavern Quest'"
By Adam Trionfo
April 24, 2003

This was document was originally posted to the Bally Alley discussion group.
Message #: 1313

Typing and Archiving 'Cavern Quest'

Though I've had an Astrocade since 1994, I've never typed in a full program. I 
thought that I'd change that today. I typed in "Cavern Quest" By Bruce Jaeger 
which was in the July 1983 issue of Creative Computing magazine. I expected it 
to take a few hours (with that little keypad!), but it didn't take that long at 
all. Here's a rundown of how long it took:

1)  Started typing "Cavern Quest" at 9:55AM
2)  At 10:21 I'm on line 21; I backup what's done so far.
3)  :PRINT and :LIST at 10:22 - Verifies okay
4)  At 10:29 begin line 21
5)  :PRINT and :LIST at 10:54 - Verifies okay
6)  At 10:57 begin line 38
7)  Finished typing program 11:20
8)  :PRINT and :LIST at 11:23 - Verifies okay
9)  RUN for first time at 11:24
10) Fixed error in line 1 - Typed "/" "but it's supposed to
    be the divide sign on the Astrocade
11) RUN for second time at 11:27 - program takes about one
    minute to create maze.
12) Beat game at 12:35 - Needed to make a map

It took me about an hour and twenty minutes to type-in the program; not bad 
considering I took my time making backups and making (and drinking) tea. It 
took me an hour and ten minutes to beat the game. I'd call that a fair time 
exchange. The game could be beat much faster if you don't make a map and just 
run in random directions-- but what would be the fun in that?

The program has been archived as cavern_quest.zip and can be found here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ballyalley/files/Tapes%20-%20Programs/Games/

Read Cavern Quest (1983)(Bruce Jaeger)(General Info).txt in the zip file. It 
includes quite a bit of information about the game and it suggests that you 
make a map...