View Full Version : Downland (TRS-80)
Dire 51
02-29-2004, 12:38 AM
Has anyone else played Downland? To this day I credit it as being one of the two games that helped bridge the gap for me between the era of Atari and the era of Nintendo (the other was Pitfall II). I tried so hard to get to the end of it, if there was one, but I never made it.
So does anyone else remember it?
http://www.geocities.com/opcfg3/downland.html
YoshiM
03-01-2004, 09:32 AM
Oh, yeah. I remember that game. Quite well. It pissed me off but it was still fun. Not sure if it was the game itself (I think it didn't have very good collision detection with vines and such), my cheesy joysticks (had the analog style that had no spring center) or if I just sucked at it. You had to be REALLY careful moving about in that game. Probably what kept me playing was because it was so hard.
Edit: forgot to add that I think there is an "end" but the game starts over again only harder. I *think* I pulled that off ONCE.
Dire 51
03-01-2004, 02:39 PM
Typical. I got really far in it one day, but something happened that prevented me from getting to the end.
I just found the ROM for Downland, and I tried downloading and using an emulator, but I have no idea how to get the thing running. Makes me wish my TRS-80 hadn't died and I had a copy of the game...
YoshiM
03-01-2004, 03:02 PM
Typical. I got really far in it one day, but something happened that prevented me from getting to the end.
I just found the ROM for Downland, and I tried downloading and using an emulator, but I have no idea how to get the thing running. Makes me wish my TRS-80 hadn't died and I had a copy of the game...
Don't use a CoCo 3 emulator, if memory serves Downland does not work with the CoCo 3.
With MESS I think you can just load the cartridge under Devices and then do a soft reset. Again make sure you use a CoCo 1 or 2 ROM.
In Jeff Vavasour's emulator, you just open up the Snapshot menu and select the cartridge you want to use.
David Keil's emu (available here (http://discover-net.net/~dmkeil/coco/)) actually has a screen that looks like a Tandy multi-pak adapter and each cartridge can be put into a particular "slot". Just insert the ROM, move the selector switch to that slot and I think you then reset the CoCo.
Hope that helps!
Dire 51
03-02-2004, 01:22 AM
This is frustrating. I downloaded David Keil's emu, which works just fine, but the damn thing won't recognize the Downland BIN file, no matter what I do. I even followed the intructions for loading BIN files and it's not working. *sigh* Any suggestions?
YoshiM
03-02-2004, 03:31 PM
No problem!
When you fire up the emulator press Shift-F7 to load snapshots. Press F1 to switch to Binary mode. Type in the name of the BIN file and press enter. The screen should flash and you should still see the CoCo's power up screen (with the lines "Extended Color Basic", etc.). At OK type in "exec" (without the quotes). The screen should change and Downland will appear.
Before playing make sure you set your modes in the menu for color, sound, joystick, etc. I think the Keil emu defaults to a monochrome mode.
Dire 51
03-02-2004, 04:51 PM
:D
To quote Dr. Emmett Brown, "It works! Ha ha ha... IT WORKS!!!" I just played Downland for the first time in at least 15 years... it's odd playing it with a mouse, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Thanks Yoshi!
Oh, yeah. I remember that game. Quite well. It pissed me off but it was still fun. Not sure if it was the game itself (I think it didn't have very good collision detection with vines and such), my cheesy joysticks (had the analog style that had no spring center) or if I just sucked at it. You had to be REALLY careful moving about in that game. Probably what kept me playing was because it was so hard.
Same here. Good to know there's only 10 caves though. Maybe I do have a chance!
The Unknown Gamer
03-24-2004, 11:33 AM
I have a COCO 2 with joysticks, programming books and the works for sale...any takers...
YoshiM
03-24-2004, 02:42 PM
I have a COCO 2 with joysticks, programming books and the works for sale...any takers...
What are the works, as in the hookups?
fancyface921
02-04-2005, 07:43 PM
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee tell me how to get the game downland on my pc..................i would be interested in that or even purchasing it somehow............................pleaseeeeeeeeee e and thank you @_@