Provocator spotted:

Discuss the project, or ask a general question
JonAbbott
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Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by JonAbbott »

giggler wrote: Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:04 am I noticed an advert for it in one of the old mags, dial code had changed so i call up the same number with new dial code and the guy who wrote the game answered.
I've tried contacting Chris Lloyd several years ago as its possible the game was self-published, which would allow us to release if he gave approval. Sadly, I've not received a response.
wmd
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Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2021 1:02 am

Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by wmd »

Judging by the quality of the packaging, I'd say there's a very strong chance it was self published. Considering how infrequently it appears on ebay, I'm also going to hazard a guess that units sold run into the hundreds rather than the thousands.

Going back to the issues with my A3020, for all the testing I mentioned in my previous posts, there was no battery in the CMOS battery holder. I put one in and turned the machine on, and it booted to a Supervisor prompt and the floppy drive made continual noises like it was trying to access a floppy, but there was no floppy in the drive. The important bit is that the display was properly synced, so this machine definitely works with my TV (a 9 year old Panasonic plasma). However, subsequent reboots have gone back to the machine acting as it did before. I tried configuring monitortype 0 and sync 1 again (followed by CTRL + BREAK) but still no dice.
giggler
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Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by giggler »

Power up with R held down?
wmd
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Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by wmd »

Tried with R then tried with DEL, still no change.
giggler
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Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by giggler »

Don't forget to take that new battery out before storing, people seem to be replacing them with battery packs siting off PCB. It's just that's the sort of thing I'd do, replace battery and leave it there for another 8years and then, gone!!
JonAbbott
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Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by JonAbbott »

wmd wrote: Wed Feb 10, 2021 6:04 pm Tried with R then tried with DEL, still no change.
Have you got your machine to the point we can grab an image of the floppy yet?

Do you also have a scanner? Could you scan all the packaging and floppy at 600DPI for me?
wmd
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Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2021 1:02 am

Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by wmd »

Situation with the A3020 is the same, still not working. I'll see if I can find time to do the scans this weekend.
wmd
Posts: 111
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2021 1:02 am

Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by wmd »

Here are the scans for the inlay and instructions. The paper the instructions are printed on is not perfectly oblong, and the text has not been printed onto it at the correct angle. I've included all the area that was visible on each side, so you can process however you want.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!An8bgBzIkhd-nnxh-XK ... n?e=6W37zc
JonAbbott
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Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by JonAbbott »

wmd wrote: Tue Jun 15, 2021 5:55 pm Here are the scans for the inlay and instructions.
Thanks, I've downloaded them and will take a look later.
JonAbbott
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Re: Provocator spotted:

Post by JonAbbott »

Here's the instructions PDF. As the source was such poor quality and used a stock font, I recreated it from scratch. It's not 100% accurate, but good enough considering. I didn't embed the font for copyright reasons, but it's a stock Adobe font so hopefully won't be substituted.

Could you possibly upload a 300 DPI scan of the floppy as well please.

EDIT: I've denoised the box insert as best I can. As it's just a screenshot, I've adjusted the contrast etc to match the default MODE 13 palette and manually removed as much obvious noise as I can. Without seeing the game itself, its hard to tell what is starfield and what is noise, so I'll do another pass on it once I see the actual game.
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