******************************************************************************* Magnetic Scrolls Fact Sheet ******************************************************************************* Version: 16-10-2015 written by Stefan Meier (stefan dot msm at gmx dot de) Please let me know if you find any mistakes or misses! Contents: 1 About the company 2 The incomplete works of Magnetic Scrolls 2.1 The Pawn 2.2 The Guild of Thieves 2.3 Jinxter 2.4 Corruption 2.5 Fish! 2.6 Myth 2.7 Wonderland 2.8 Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol. 1 2.9 Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol. 2 2.10 The Legacy 2.11 Overview of known release versions 2.12 How to "detect" an Inter-Mediates release 2.13 Game manuals 3 The technical background 4 How to play the games today 4.1 The Magnetic Interpreter 4.2 Emulation 5 Resources 6 Credits 7 Change log 1 About the company ******************************************************************************* Magnetic Scrolls was founded in 1983 by Ken Gordon and Anita Sinclair. They started with an office in Eltham/South London and later moved to 1 Chapel Court London SE1 1HH England From 1985-1989 their games were published by Rainbird, a label of British Telecomsoft. When Telecomsoft was bought by Microprose (UK) in early 1989, Magnetic Scrolls did not participate in the merger and took the distribution of the classic games in their own hands. They bought the remaining stock and distributed the games themselves through Inter-Mediates Ltd. until the stock was sold. During that time they found Virgin Games as the distributor for the upcoming Wonderland. When the company got defunct in 1992, Microprose bought up all the rights, but except for releasing the game "The Legacy" under the Magnetic Scrolls label, they never made any use of it. The rights on the games are held by Magnetic Scrolls Ltd. They reverted back to Anita Sinclair and Ken Gordon after some time without the games being published. Several years ago Ken Gordon has registered the domain http://www.magneticscrolls.com but still today it does not carry anything except for the Magnetic Scrolls logo. A special member of the Magnetic Scrolls team was Murdoch, Anita Sinclair's bull terrier and in fact the corporate mascot. In 1988 Infocom had actually planned to release the sequel to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. When it became clear, that the inhouse development might fail due to the lack of ressources, one option discussed among the heads of Infocom was to hand over the development to Magnetic Scrolls. Eventually Infocom agreed on an internal solution, but because of the closure in early 1989 the game was never finished. 2 The incomplete works of Magnetic Scrolls ******************************************************************************* From 1985 to 1991 Magnetic Scrolls released seven games. Thrilling stories, a trailblazing parser and wonderful graphics made them a true competitor to Infocom and most probably the best and most successful European adventure game company. Like almost all text oriented game developers Magnetic Scrolls did not survive the start into the multimedia age. The following list mainly describes the original Rainbird releases of the games. The later Inter-Mediates releases were shipped in the well-known Rainbird boxes, but normally they had a small label on them showing Inter- Mediates as the distributor. The included disks did not carry the Rainbird logo anymore and were just made as a white label with the Magnetic Scrolls logo, a copyright notice and the name of the game. Some (all?) Inter-Mediate packages also contained a short note rendering clear, that Rainbird was no longer the distributor and thus defective disks had to be sent back to Inter-Mediates. Since Magnetic Scrolls had only limited supplies and game props left, these packages sometimes contained reproduced materials (like game manuals with a black cover instead of the well-known blue ones). The Apple2 and Macintosh versions were only released in North America and thus only available as imports throughout Europe. 2.1 The Pawn ******************************************************************************* The first game released by Magnetic Scrolls was QL-Pawn, the original version 1.0 of the later so popular The Pawn. QL-Pawn came on two micro drives that were enclosed within a micro drive wallet that was badged by Sinclair Research (size: 9.6 cm x 12 cm - 3.3/4" x 5.11/16"). A sleeve was also produced for the wallet along with an instruction booklet containing a short narrative to introduce the adventure. The game was text only, but it already had the powerful parser which was one of the basics for the success of Magnetic Scrolls. QL-Pawn also was the only Magnetic Scrolls game that was produced for the ill fated QL. All the ports of QL-Pawn, then called "The Pawn" had version numbers 2.0 or higher. Released: 1985 Distributed by: Firebird / Rainbird Story: Rob Steggles Graphics: Geoff Quilley Programming: ? Packaging: There are two different packages known, which can roughly be separated into "small banner" and "large banner" cover. The small banner version seem to be the early releases and are rarer than the large banner packages. Size: 15.2 cm x 21.4 cm - 6" x 8.5" Goodies authoring: A Tale of Kerovnia by Georgina Sinclair Package contents: A tale of Kerovnia (there exist at least two versions of this novella. The second issue states "Version II" on the front page), The Pawn Guide (platform dependent), The Pawn Game play, The Pawn poster, Addendum, Disc, At least the early Atari ST versions contained a "STOP PRESS" indicating a minor bug in the online hint system (all ciphered answers must be terminated with CO) Platforms: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Atari XL/XE, Commodore 128/ 64, IBM-PC, Macintosh, Sinclair QL, Spectrum 128K, Spectrum +3 Known versions: 1.0 (QL-Pawn) 2.0 (Atari ST) 2.2 (Amiga) 2.3 (Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW,Archimedes, Atari XL, C64, Macintosh, IBM PC, Spectrum 128k) 2.4 (Spectrum +3) Unknown versions: none Addendum: The beautiful graphics were created with "Neochrome" on Atari ST. 2.2 The Guild of Thieves ******************************************************************************* Released: 1987 Distributed by: Firebird / Rainbird Story: Rob Steggles Graphics: Geoff Quilley, Tristan Humphries Title picture: Duncan McLean Programming: ? Packaging: One known package (standard blue Rainbird box) Size: 15.2 cm x 21.4 cm - 6" x 8.5" Goodies authoring: What Burglar by Michael Bywater Package contents: Bank of Kerovnia account card, Die, Magazine "What Burglar" (you could order another issue of What Burglar from Magnetic Scrolls), Kerovnia Guild of Thieves Discrete Entry And Removal Operatives contract, Adventure Guide, Disc(s)/Tape(s) Platforms: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple 2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Atari XL/XE, Commodore 64/128, IBM PC, Macintosh, Spectrum +3 Known versions: 1.0 (Atari XL, C64, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple 2) 1. 0 (Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh) 1.1 (IBM PC) 1.3 (Archimedes, Spectrum +3 and Collection Vol. 1) Unknown version: none 2.3 Jinxter ******************************************************************************* Released: 1987 Distributor: Firebird / Rainbird Story: Georgina Sinclair, Michael Bywater Graphics: ? Programming: ? Package: One known package (standard blue Rainbird box) Size: 15.2 cm x 21.4 cm - 6" x 8.5" designed by Michael Bywater Goodies authoring: Michael Bywater Package contents: Magazine "The Independent Guardian", Staff Memo, Adventure Guide, Beer mat "Old Moose Bolter", Disk(s)/Tape(s) Platforms: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple 2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Atari XL/XE, Commodore 64/128, IBM PC, Macintosh, Spectrum +3 Known versions: 1.01 (Amiga) 1.05 (Amiga, Apple 2, Atari ST, C64, IBM PC, Spectrum +3, Amstrad PCW) 1.1 (IBM PC) 1.2 (Amiga) 1.22 (Atari XL, Macintosh, Amstrad CPC) 1.3 (Archimedes) Unknown version: none Addendum: There exist at least three variants of the "Old Moose Bolter". During development, the game was named "Green Magic". 2.4 Corruption ******************************************************************************* Released: 1988 Distributor: Firebird / Rainbird Story: Rob Steggles, Hugh Steers Music: John Molloy Graphics: Alan Hunnisett, Richard Selby Title picture: Duncan McLean Programming: Hugh Steers Packaging: At least two different packages are known: A standard blue Rainbird box whose extents were smaller than the blue boxes before and a larger white box which was distributed on the US market. Sizes: European Box: 15.2 cm x 18.3 cm - 6" x 7.25" U.S. Box: 17.8 cm x 23.9 cm - 7" x 9" Goodies: Michael Bywater, Martin Atkinson, Damon Jones, Richard Cubison Package contents: Tape "Derek Rogers, March 25th", Casino chip 500, Adventure Guide, Gameplay guide, Hint section, Guide to casino games, Personal organizer pages, Disc(s)/Tape(s) Platforms: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple 2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Macintosh, IBM PC, Spectrum +3 Known versions: 1.09. (Atari ST) 1.11. (Amiga, Apple 2, C64, Macintosh, MS DOS, Amstrad CPC, Spectrum +3) 1.12. (Archimedes and Collection Vol. 1) Unknown version: Amstrad PCW Addendum: Normally the game releases came with two different guides: One for the technical aspects like game loading and one gameplay guide. The Archimedes release only had one guide covering both topics. During development, the game was named "Upon Westminster Bridge". 2.5 Fish! ******************************************************************************* Released: 1988 Distributor: Firebird / Rainbird Story: John Molloy, Pete Kemp, Phil South, Rob Steggles Graphics: Geoff Quilley, Alan Hunnisett, Chris Kent, Richard Selby, Tristan Humphries Title picture: Duncan McLean Music: John Molloy Programming: Richard Huddy, Bob Coles Packaging: At least two different packages are known: A blue Rainbird box which was sized like the Corruption box, but it was printed "landscape" and also a larger box which was distributed on the US market (printed in portrait format). The US package calls the game just "Fish" (without the exclamation mark) European Box: 17.9 cm x 15.1 cm - 7.1/16" x 5.15/16" U.S. Box: 17.8 cm x 23.9 cm - 7" x 9" Goodies: John Molloy Package contents: One week travel card - Hydropolis Underground Omnibus Company, Fish identification chart, "How to take care for your fish", "The 7 Deadly Fins - Project" files including hints and Gameplay guide, Adventure guide (platform dependent), Disc(s)/Tape(s) Platforms: Amiga, Amstrad PCW, Apple 2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Commodore 64/128, Macintosh, IBM PC, Spectrum +3 Known versions: 1.00 (Atari ST) 1.02 (IBM PC) 1.03 (Amiga, Spectrum +3) 1.07 (C-64) 1.08 (Archimedes) 1.10 (Collection Vol. 1) Unknown version: Amstrad PCW, Apple 2, Macintosh 2.6 Myth ******************************************************************************* This game was only available as a welcome present in the UK adventure club Official Secrets and never released to the public. It is rather rare and often goes for several hundred dollars on auctions. The game itself is much shorter than the other Magnetic Scrolls' games and contains only four graphics while the other games have about 30. Official Secrets was founded by Tony Rainbird (also founder of the British Telecommunications' label Rainbird). Released: 1989 Distributor: Firebird / Rainbird Story: Paul Findley Graphics: Geoff Quilley, Tristan Humpries, Chris Kent Programming: ? Packaging: The game was shipped in a rather simple card folder, printed in b/w. Size: 14.4 cm x 14.4 cm - 5.5/8" x 5.5/8" Platforms: Amiga, Amstrad PCW, Atari ST, Commodore 64/128, IBM PC, Spectrum+3 Package contents: Installation and Adventure guide, Disc/Tape Known versions: 1.0. (Amiga, Atari ST, C64, IBM PC) Unknown version: Amstrad PCW, Spectrum+3 2.7 Wonderland ******************************************************************************* This game introduced the "Magnetic Windows" system, featuring an graphical user interface and a slightly enhanced interpreter. Released: 1990 Distributor: Virgin Mastertronic Story: David Bishop Graphics: Alan Hunnisett, Chris Kent, Geoff Quilley, and Anna Williams Music: Michael Powell Programming: Bob Coles, Paul Findley, Ken Gordon, Richard Huddy, Steve Lacey, Doug Rabson, Anita Sinclair, Hugh Steers, and Mark Taylor Packaging: They published at least two different packages, again one for the European and one for the US market. Both packages were similiar in design, however the color scheme and the fonts were different. The US box came in two flavours of identical size: A slipcase box and and a two-piece-box European Box: 18.3 cm x 23 cm - 7.25" x 9" U.S. Box: 17.8 cm x 23 cm - 7" x 9" Platforms: Amiga, Archimedes, Atari ST, IBM PC Package contents: 66-page user guide, Wonderland poster, Map, Quick reference guide, Voucher for single-sided disk set (Atari ST), Discs Known versions: 1.21 (IBM PC) 1.27 (Amiga, Archimedes, Atari ST) Addendum: Wonderland was later also released on CD-Rom for IBM PC. The game version is identical to the disk version. 2.8 Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol. 1 ******************************************************************************* This release contains renewed and partly enhanced versions of "The Guild of Thieves", "Corruption" and "Fish!" running in the new Magnetic Windows system. Released: 1991 Distributor: Virgin Mastertronic Story, Graphics, and Programming: refer to Fish!, Corruption, The Guild of Thieves (2.2),(2.4),(2.5) Packaging: Two known boxes of the same size as the Wonderland box, one for the European market, one for the U.S. market. The colouring ist very similar, however the box extents are slightly different. European Box: 18 cm x 23 cm - 7.1/16" x 9" U.S. Box: 20.4 cm x 23 cm - 8" x 9" Platforms: Amiga, Archimedes, Atari ST, IBM PC Package contents: "Getting started", 92-page manual, Quick reference guide, Poster map (The Guild of Thieves), Fish identification chart (Fish!), Page from personal organizer and tape "Derek Rogers, March 25th" (Corruption), Discs Addendum: The Collection was later also released on CD-Rom for IBM PC. The game version is identical to the disk version. 2.9 Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol. 2 ******************************************************************************* A second "Collection" with the other three classics (The Pawn, Jinxter, Myth) running under the new Magnetic Windows system was in the making. The imple- mentation was mainly done by Paul Findley while the management was done by Ken Gordon. Since the development of The Legacy had already started and Ken worked at Microprose in Tetbury while Paul was working in London, the management was not all that easy. So the second collection never got completely finished although it was well underway. 2.10 The Legacy ******************************************************************************* This horror RPG game was the last game of Magnetic Scrolls released by Microprose in 1993. Several ex-Magnetic Scrolls employees worked on it with Ken Gordon being the lead programmer. The box contained a manual, a Player's Guide and seven 3.5"-disks. It was released in slightly different boxes for the European and the the US market. The game interface was based upon the Magnetic Windows system. Released: 1993 Distributed by: Microprose Packaging: Two known boxes of the same size, one for the European market, one for the U.S. market. The colouring is slightly different and the fonts differ Package contents: Manual, Hard disc installation guide, Discs Platforms: IBM PC Known versions: 1.154 (IBM PC) Addendum: An Amiga version was in the making, but never released. In the U.S. the game was also available as a special collector's edition from Radioshack. There is a small speaker inside the box that makes a creaking noise when the box is opened. 2.11 Overview of known release versions ******************************************************************************* +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Platform | Pawn | GoT | Jinx | Corr | Fish | Myth | Wond | Coll | +=============|======|======|======|======|======|======|======|======+ | Amiga | 2.2 | 1. 0 | 1.01 | 1.11.| 1.03 | 1.0 | 1.27 | * | | | | | 1.05 | | | | | | | | | | 1.2 | | | | | | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Amstrad CPC | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.22 | 1.11.| ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Amstrad PCW | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.05 | ?? | ?? | ?? | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Apple 2 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.05 | 1.11.| ?? | ---- | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Archimedes | 2.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.12.| 1.08 | ---- | 1.27 | * | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Atari ST | 2.0 | 1. 0 | 1.05 | 1.09.| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.27 | * | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Atari XL | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.22 | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | C-64 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.05 | 1.11.| 1.07 | 1.0 | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | IBM PC | 2.3 | 1.1 | 1.05 | 1.11.| 1.02 | 1.0 | 1.21 | * | | | | | 1.1 | | | | | | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Macintosh | 2.3 | 1. 0 | 1.22 | 1.11.| ?? | ---- | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Sinclair QL | 1.0 | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Spectrum ZX | 2.3 | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ | Spectrum +3 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 1.05 | 1.11.| 1.03 | ?? | ---- | ---- | +-------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ * The Magnetic Scrolls Collection contains the following versions of the three classic games: Guild of Thieves: 1.3 Corruption: 1.12. Fish!: 1.10 2.12 How to "detect" an Inter-Mediates release ******************************************************************************* The Inter-Mediates boxes that Magnetic Scrolls sold after the Telecomsoft buyout differ in several aspects from the original Rainbird releases. Since the Inter-Mediates boxes do not necessarily show all these characteristics, they can not be more than indicators: * The box has a sticker on the backside reading Magnetic Scrolls c/o Inter-Mediates Ltd 2 South Block The Maltings Sawbridgeworth Herts. CM21 9PG * The game disk has a white label carrying the Magnetic Scrolls logo, the name of the game, the target platform and a copyright notice which is (normally?) dated to 1989, also for the earlier released games. * The game boxes are often relabeled. The orginal sticker with the target platform is pasted over with a new white sticker. * A note explaining the change in distribution and a demand not to return defective disks to Rainbird, but Inter-Mediates instead. * The game manuals are sometimes reproductions. These reprinted manuals have a black coloured cover instead of the original blue. * Game feelies, especially the hard-to-reproduce ones, might be missing, e.g. the die of The Guild of Thieves or the beer mat of Jinxter. 2.12 Game manuals ******************************************************************************* Magnetic Scrolls/Rainbird shipped the games with a manual called "Adventure Guide" that contained the platform-specific instructions to run and play the games. These guides were independed from the actual game and shipped unchanged or only slightly changed with all the classic games. The one exception is The Pawn which partially seems to have had its own batch of manuals. In contrast to the later manuals these were not called "Adventure Guide" but just "The Pawn ... guide". Somewhere noted on these manuals is a small id number. These numbers correspond to the follwing manuals (list is incomplete): The Pawn technical guides: -------------------------- No ID Atari ST E1012 Amiga E1013 Macintosh E1014 Commodore 64 E1015 Amstrad CPC E1016 Atari XL/XE E1017 Amstrad PCW Adventure guides: ----------------- K612 Spectrum 128k K630 Atari ST K6309 Atari ST (German version) K630 Amiga K6319 Amiga (German version) K632 Macintosh K633 Commodore 64 K633F Commodore 64 (French version) K633G Commodore 64 (German version) K634 Amstrad 6128 K634G Amstrad 6128 (German version) K635 Atari 800XL/Atari 130XE K635G Atari 800XL/Atari 130XE (German version) K636 Amstrad PCW K637 IBM PC K639 Apple 2 K640 Spectrum 128k/+3 K10720 Archimedes (Corruption "Key guide") K10311 Amiga K11120 Archimedes 3 The Technical Background ******************************************************************************* * Major parts of the games were implemented with a tool called FRED. Mainly Fred was a data entry tool which was used to store the descriptions of objects, rooms and NPCs and describe the properties of each object (e.g. weight, movable, burnable, container,...). Each object had a 14 byte descriptor block. For The Pawn Fred 23 was used, the later games were done with Fred 23junior, which were both developed by Hugh Steers. In several games magazines (e.g. the german Happy Computer) FRED was incorrectly denoted as a "language". * Eventually this game code was compiled into an intermediate code called ELTHAM (Extra Low Tech Highly Ambiguous Methodology or alternativly Extra Low Tech Highly Ambiguous Metacode). * The ELTHAM code implemented a subset of the 68000 machine code. It was executed "natively" on ST, Amiga, QL, Macintosh and emulated on the other systems. The virtual machine used up to 64k. On 8 bit machines they used virtual memory mechanisms. On the C64 non-active pages were held on the floppy disc. Only "read-only" pages were swapped. * In contrast to the Infocom games the stack is part of the 64k. * Except for The Pawn, the game text is stored externally. It is encoded with Huffmann algorithm. * The pictures of the 16bit ports are RLE encoded. * Except for The Pawn the game dictionary is stored externally. With The Pawn it is stored plainly within the 64k segment. * Due to the emulation the game itself is not aware of the environment it is using. The communication between emulation and real system is done through LINE_A commands. * The I/O model is quite simple. It just supports streams for input and output and routines for drawing the images. The output is much more limited than for example the Infocom output. However the simple I/O model has huge adventages when porting the games to new operating systems. * With Wonderland and the Collection the communication between emulation and real system was heavily enhanced. The 64K limit disappeared. This was used to add new features to the games, e.g. the FIND (object) command in Fish! * The disc protection for the Atari ST (which could only be copied with ACopy 1.2p) was realized through a BBC Micro. The ST and the BBC used different floppy controllers. The copy protection relied on some special features of the BBC controller to write sector numbers > 0xF0. Those sectors could be read with the ST floppy controller, but normally it was impossible to write the format, because these sector numbers were treated as "magic". Though a BBC Micro should not have any problems with making copies of the discs. 4 How to play the games today ******************************************************************************* The games are long out of print and not available through "standard" channels anymore. One alternative are the numerous online auctions like ebay or yahoo. Magnetic Scrolls' games come up there occasionally. However, sometimes the prices that are payed there are beyond rational, so you might prefer to check "Classic game specialists" first. There is a well-known seller (see 5.[3]) with reasonable pricing. 4.1 The Magnetic Interpreter ******************************************************************************* In 1997 Niclas Karlsson has published the first release of his Magnetic interpreter. This original release supported all the "classic" games including support for the wonderful graphics from the Atari ST. Later this version was extended with support for the title screens and the title music. In December 2000 the second major release Magnetic 2.0 was made available to the public (written by Niclas Karlsson, David Kinder, Stefan Meier, and Paul David Doherty), now with support for the Magnetic Windows games including the animated graphics. In March 2003 Magnetic 2.2 was released which came with support for the online hints of the Magnetic Windows games. The latest version of Magnetic is 2.3, which was released in September 2008. It adds support for the ingame music scores of Wonderland that were originally included with the Amiga, Atari ST, and PC versions. Magnetic has been ported to a variety of platforms. You can find the Magnetic ports at the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial (5.[1]), the development project page at Sourceforge (5.[5]) and the IF Archive (5.[6]). The interpreter requires the game data and the image data in a proprietary format. Magnetic comes with several tools helping you in extracting the data from your original discs. Alternatively, you can download pre built files from the Memorial pages (Please keep in mind that downloading any of the game files is technically speaking illegal if you do not own the appropriate originals of the games). The following table provides you with a short overview of the features supported by the various ports. All versions support the classic games. If a field is marked "-" the feature is not supported. If support is introduced in a specific version, that version number is indicated. Generally, it is recommended to use the latest available version for your desired platform. If a particular option is set in braces, it might be functional according to the documentation of the port, but it is unconfirmed. +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | Platform | MW Games | Title Pics | Music | Wonder Msc.| Animations | Hints | +===========|==========|============|=======|============+============|=======+ | Acorn | 2.2 | 2.2 | - | - | 2.2 | 2.2 | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | Amiga | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | - | 2.2 | 2.2 | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | BeOS | - | - | - | - | - | - | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | DOS | 2.0 | 1.0r2+ | 2.0 | - | - | 2.2 | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | DOS/32 | 2.0 | 2.0 | - | - | - | 2.2 | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | Epoc | 2.0 | 2.0 | - | - | - | - | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | GEM | 0.8 | (0.8) | - | - | (0.8) | (0.8) | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | HTML+JS(#)| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | Java | 2.0 | 1.10+ | 1.2+ | 2.3 | 2.0 | 2.0 | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | Linux/glk | 2.1+ | 2.1+ | - | - | - | 2.1+ | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | Linux/GTK | 2.1+ | 2.1+ | 2.1+ | - | 2.1+ | 2.1+ | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | MacOS X | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.2 | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | PalmOS (*)| 2.2 | 2.2 | - | - | 2.2 | 2.2 | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | Windows32 | 2.0r5+ | 1.0r3+ | 1.0r4+| 2.3r14 | 2.0r5+ | 2.1r6+| +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ | XWindows | - | - | - | - | - | - | +-----------+----------+------------+-------+------------+------------+-------+ (*) Magnetic interpreter is part of Kronos package. (#) Interpreter features are partially implemented using web standards and thus are not using the normal interpreter data files, e.g. for graphics. 4.2 Emulation ******************************************************************************* If you have an option to transfer your original floppy disc to a newer machine like a PC, you can probably run the game under one of the many emulators. The games are more or less supported on many of them. Some ports of the Magnetic Scrolls games used advanced programming techniques on the various platforms, e.g. the title screens on the Atari ST were displayed in a non-standard graphics mode (requiring an emulator which supports these modes like Pacifist) or the extensive use of the floppy disc processor on the C64 (requiring an advanced floppy emulation, e.g. in Frodo). Enumerating the various emulators is beyond the scope of this document, but a good emulation starting point is at 5.[4]. Besides there are some guides available for running Magnetic Scrolls games on selected emulator at 5.[1]. 5 Resources ******************************************************************************* There are some Magnetic Scrolls related web sites: The Magnetic Scrolls Memorial [1] * http://msmemorial.if-legends.org/ Magnetic Scrolls Chronicles [2] * http://www.mschronicles.com Buying classic adventure games Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe, maintained by C.E. Foreman [3] * http://yois.if-legends.org/ Emulation Zophar [4] * http://www.zophar.net Magnetic Development Magnetic Project Page [5] * http://sourceforge.net/projects/magnetic/ (this site is outdated, refer to [1] or [6] for Magnetic sources) Interactive Fiction Archive [6] * http://www.ifarchive.org 6 Credits ******************************************************************************* Many people from all over the place provided me with information about Magnetic Scrolls. A big *Thank you* to all of them. Some special thanks for exhaustive help and sharing their memories go to (in random order): Paul David Doherty, Stefan Jokisch, Niclas Karlson, Rob Steggles, John Molloy, David Kinder, Michael Bywater, Anita Sinclair, Roddy Pratt, Richard Hewison, Peter Verdi, Matthias Bücher, Ken Gordon 7 Change log ******************************************************************************* 2015-10-16 Added Amiga Jinxter 1.2 to versions table Fixed some formatting errors 2015-10-08 Added several adventure guides and technical guides Removed wrong entry about Kerovnia map 2015-08-15 PCW game version of Pawn, GoT, Jinxter Added Magnetic Scripts Minor additions and corrections 2014-01-20 Game manual id for Atari XL (engl.) Added Jinxter 1.2 Amiga version 2013-10-22 Minor updates to Magnetic section Game manual IDs 2010-11-13 Minor addtitions to The Legacy and Corruption 2010-04-15 Minor corrections (Thanks Maddes!) 2010-03-27 Minor corrections 2009-05-07 Expanded Legacy chapter Note about legal rights 2009-02-02 Fixed founding year and Collection v2 info The Legacy part rewritten 2008-11-01 Fixed a lot of spelling and formatting errors (Thanks to Matthias Bücher!) 2008-10-26 Added two-piece-box of Wonderland 2008-10-13 Added Spectrum+3 version of Myth Minor corrections 2008-09-08 Updated Magnetic part to release 2.3 Minor corrections 2008-07-19 Added Amstrad PCW releases Minor corrections 2008-07-11 Details about Inter-Mediates boxes 2008-04-28 Inter-Mediates Kerovnia map Minor corrections 2008-04-22 Version of Wonderland for Archimedes added 2008-04-21 Fixed YOIS link "Restaurant" story MS Chronicles Website Removed MS Gallery link CDRom-Versions Fixed paragraph numbering Release overview Renamed MS-DOS to IBM PC Jinxter 1.01 version Collection US box Box sizes 2008-04-05 Renamed "Legacy" to "The Legacy" Added note on variants of "Old Moose Bolter" Fish note 2008-04-03 Inter-Mediates notes Release note for Apple2 and Mac versions Renamed Schneider CPC to Amstrad CPC Update JMagnetic notes Archimedes Corruption note Minor corrections 2007-07-15 Minor corrections 2007-06-16 Updated Magnetic section Specific game versions added Minor corrections New contact address 2003-12-30 Updated Magnetic section, links 2003-08-22 Added some notes about FRED (provided by Rob Steggles) Removed link to Software and More (only selling on ebay now) 2003-03-27 Magnetic 2.2 update, fixed some typos 2002-07-11 First release