"Cavern Quest"
By Bruce Jaeger
Creative Computing (July 1983): 122-123.


This is the complete article from "Creative Computing," minus the information 
regarding the Vic-20 version of "Cavern Quest" that was also printed in the 
magazine.


The Bally Arcade (or Astrocade) is probably the most undersung of the home 
computer systems, and undeservedly so. The color graphics and sound 
capabilities were, and in many cases still are, years ahead of the competition, 
both in the cartridge games and with Bally Basic. The most serious limitations 
have been the small, calculator-style keyboard and the mere 1800 bytes of RAM.  
Was I crazy then, to attempt to write an adventure game for the Bally? Perhaps. 
But I tried, and I think you will enjoy the result.  I knew that no magic was 
strong enough to fit any kind of traditional Adventure game into those 1800 
bytes. In addition, a novice at the Bally keypad could take days to type in 
"Take the Amulet," so I elected to use joystick 1 for input.  The scenario of 
the game is straight-forward. Jesse James, the Robin Hood or Attila the Hun of 
Missouri (depending on your point of view), has hidden a treasure deep in a 
cave, and you want to go in, find it, and bring it out. That's it. No magic 
birds, sword-wielding ogres or dissembling oracles. Not only would that have 
been quite a task in 1800 bytes, but it turns out that a simple, realistic 
exploration of a three-dimensional cave is difficult enough, thank you.  The 
cavern passages do not form a traditional maze, as there is often more than one 
path to the treasure, and any path is liable to loop back on itself-sometimes 
in an inexplicable way. Make a map.

The Program

The first third of the program generates the passages of the cave, using the 
random number generator, so unlike most adventure games, the cave is different 
each time. Also at this time the various artifacts of the James boys are strewn 
about, and the treasure hidden. It takes about half a minute or so for the 
computer to do its work.  The rest of the program is the playing section. The 
player enters the cave, and is told whether passages lead north, south, east, 
west, up or down. Pushing the joystick forward is the equivalent of saying Go 
North, and the other compass directions correspond.  As you will never get both 
an Up and a Down choice at the same point, a simple pull of the trigger (or 
firing button) suffices to indicate climb or descent. Then it is simply a 
matter of wandering through the cave, keeping track of where you are, finding 
the treasure, and making your way out again.  To make the cavern as large as 
possible none of the fine Bally sound effects or graphics other than color 
changes have been used. Because of the restricted memory, it is also important 
not to type in any spaces between commands, except as noted in lines 54 and 55.

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Plug audio cable into Astrobasic cartridge and headphone jack of computer 
speakers, then load program from Astrobasic with

:INPUT ; RUN

The screen will turn pink and in a moment numbers will start counting backward 
from 300 (it is creating the maze).  When it is done the game will begin.