Anyone want to beta-test a small game? (The Adventures of Koww the Magician)

[KVonGit]

Hello,

Back in 1999, Alex Warren released Quest 2 and created a website which was not unlike textadventures.co.uk.

The first game anyone ever submitted was The Adventures of Koww the Magician by Brian the Great.

It's a fun, little game. It can be completed in just under 40 moves. It's a good bit of silliness, too.

Anyway, the original Quest 2 version of this gets some negative reviews because the game had no built-in inventory functionality, most of today's common commands (and their abbreviations) do not work, etc. So, I decided to port it to Quest 5.9 not too long ago.

...then, for some reason, I ported it to Squiffy (as a CYOA).

...then, I've always wanted to write a game in ZIL, so I decided to port it to ZIL just after that (using Zilf to compile it).

Finally, to the point, I have now ported it to QuestJS, too, and if anyone would like to test it, I always appreciate feedback. =)

Note that you will notice odd behavior with the things in inventory. In the Quest 2 version, you couldn't examine or drop things you were carrying. You could only use them or give them to someone. So, the author included no descriptions for those objects. He did, however, include a custom (usually mildly humorous) response for any possible built-in command for every object he created. Because of that, I feel awkward adding descriptions of my own, as I can't quite match his style.¹

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The game (on GitHub Pages): https://kvongit.github.io/Koww_QuestJS/

The repo: https://github.com/KVonGit/Koww_QuestJS

Footnotes

1. To see my attempts at those object descriptions, you can play the Quest 5.9 port. I added missing descriptions in that version. The link to that port, along with all the other versions, is on the game's landing page.) ↩

[cellarderecho]

I haven't played the original, but the QuestJS port has the feel of a faithful recreation to me!

I did encounter an error when talking to the Goblin King. I suspect the issue is on this line, looks like one of the if statements may not have converted completely.

[KVonGit]

Thanks!

I've been finding little bugs and oddities (especially with the links library) and fixing them (or at least "patching" them) for the past couple of days. I created issues (including the code I used) for most of them, and created a few discussions concerning some minor stuff.

I pretty much use this game the way other folks use Cloak of Darkness. It's got commonplace stuff in it that CoD doesn't have, and it's still fairly small. Plus, it's got jokes, ha-ha.

Anyway, I figure the best way to contribute to QuestJS at this point is to port something and help fix any bugs that are found along the way. (I'm glad I decided to do it, too, because most of the issues I've found are in the item-links library -- which was contributed by some [EXPLETIVE DELETED] with the username "KVonGit" in the first place, ha-ha.)

Also, most of the people here are better with JS than I am; so everyone please post any suggestions, improvements, fixes, or what have you whenever applicable when I post a "fix."

[ThePix]

I had a play though. Better than cloak of darkness, which is very unclear on how it should work! Some of these issue may be in the original, and you choose to keep it that way, but I will mention anyway.

I clicked on "silo" in "You stand outside of a small farmhouse with a silo beside it." and got taken to the silo - I expected to be able to get a menu to examine it


> Speak to Farmer Zeke
"Hey there, good buddy! Say, bein' a wizard an' all, couldja find it in yer heart to gimme some magic milk? I'm all out!"
- Why am i, a cow, asking the farmer for milk? I am guessing this was an issue with he original? Could you say "Moo" to the farmer, and then have him say something in response? Would also help the cow vibe.


- You have the option to TAKE the chasm, cliff or pond, but not the table...


> Examine table
Hmmm, what's a table doing here? Cool! It has a treasure chest on it!
- And I did not see that before?


-what is the deal with nothing? Can I do anything with it?


- why does opening the chest make the chest and table disappear?


- tiny dickies should be examinable


You are in Goblin Trail.
-> You are on Goblin Trail.


You are in Inside the Goblin Lair.
-> You are Inside the Goblin Lair.


> Speak to Goblin King
"Hoo hoo hoo! Goblinz! We spit on yu if yu make us angree!"
- Is that Koww talking or the goblin king? Does not make sense either way


The jar of spit cannot be examined or anything


A cliff face blocks your way here. It's steep -- you can't climb. If you want to continue, you'll have to search the face.
- Is search a direction? Perhaps cliff face should be an object here?

but back to your west.
-> but back to the west.

You are in Phoenix Peak.
-> You are on Phoenix Peak.

[KVonGit]

Hey, thank ya'!

Yeah, most of that is just the way original works, but I've been fixing little things like this when I notice them.

I clicked on "silo" ... expected a menu

This one was my doing. Quest 2 had no hyperlinks, only the side panes were clickable. The Farmhouse and the Silo are non-directional exits. So, there is no description for them, nor is there a funny response if you try to take them. So, I just made their links exit links. This does seem illogical, though, since any other links in the description like that would have a menu. I think I'll add an extra line "You can go to Zeke's Farmhouse or Zeke's Silo." with the exit links, and remove the links from the description itself. (I added descriptions of the dummy objects, I just need to use {nm:} rather than {exit:}.)

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Speak to Farmer Zeke

Most NPCs' responses are written this way. There is usually no The king replies, "hoo hoo hoo! ..."

I considered adding text to make it clear that the NPC was speaking, but decided it was just me that found this off-putting. Now that I know I'm not the only one, I'll fix all this in the next update. =)

Also:

Could you say "Moo" to the farmer

Ha-ha, I actually changed things this way in one version. I also added MOO as a synonym for TALK/SPEAK in that version. I forgot about that, and shall add that stuff back.

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You have the option to TAKE the chasm, cliff or pond, but not the table...

I'm glad you pointed this one out. That is accidental. The table has a custom TAKE response. I bet it's just that the table isn't TAKEABLE and I didn't add the verb manually.

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The table, the chest, and nothing

This part of the game... It's... wonky.

In the Quest 2 original, there is only a table in this room. I don't know why he didn't create a treasure chest, but my guess is it was because Quest 2 wasn't set up to handle containers.

That room has a custom command: OPEN TREASURE CHEST

The table's description is the same as the port. Its take command responds with something like "Zeke bolted it to the floor."

When you enter OPEN TREASURE CHEST:

• text prints: Ooo! There's nothing inside! Told ya you should have gone away.
• table disappears (and seemingly the chest too, although it never existed in the first place)
• nothing is added to your inventory

My best guess is that he did it this way because there was no container functionality in Quest 2 (or surfaces, for that matter).

...so "what's a table doing here?" must imply there is usually not one... and then opening the chest "nothing inside" is a joke in that not only you have nothing added to your inventory, but also everything in the room disappears? Nothing inside?

I dunno... Every time I port this, I leave the table and the chest in the room at first, deciding logic should dictate things. Then I end up just making them disappear, deciding it must be a joke.

-what is the deal with nothing? Can I do anything with it?

When you talk to the Goblin guard, he responds something like "Goblinz so grate! Me trade you summ thing for nuthing."

...and then I don't think anything in the game even hints at what you need to with something after that trade. Nor do I think the game lets you know how to use the next object you get when you do figure out what to do with something.

Basically, everything in that chain of events (and objects) is murky at best:

SPOILERS

• open the chest
  • chest and table it is on both disappear, with no mention of it happening
  • you receive nothing
  • give nothing to goblin guard (NOTE: Speaking to the guard provides a hint to try this.)
    • you receivesomething
    • use something on pond (or I also added PUT SOMETHING IN POND) (NOTE: There is no hint I know of that would make you attempt this.)
      • you receive a duck turd
      • give duck turd to goblin king (NOTE: There is no hint I know of that would make you attempt this.)
        • you receive a grappling hook
        • use grappling hook on mountains (in Phoenix Mountain Pass) (NOTE: Trying this is intuitive.)
          • you receive purple paint
          • use purple paint in silo (NOTE: There is no hint I know of that would make you attempt this.)
            • secret scene unlocked

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🤔 Now I'm wondering if he didn't add everything Silo-Related after the fact, thinking the game was too small and needed more to do, perhaps even a secret scene. That would explain a lot.

I don't think removing all that crap (silo, table, chest, nothing, something, duck turd, grappling hook, purple paint, secret scene) would negatively effect the game at all, either... 🤔

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tiny baby duckies

If they're not there, I probably just forgot to assign their loc. I'll see what I did (or failed to do) there, ha-ha. I might have completely forgotten to copy them into the code. Poor little baby duckies! =)

They aren't an object in the original, but I created a scenery object for them in the ports.

In fact, I ported this to Inform 7 yesterday and added a few extra scenery objects that were mentioned in descriptions here and there, which I need to add to this port, too.

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Room articles

Good catch! I didn't even notice the extra in in those.

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Is that Koww talking or the goblin king? Does not make sense either way.

It's the goblin king, but I have apparently messed up an {ifIs:...} text processor command or two (or three!) in that script (hoo hoo hoo!)

There are at least two bits of text missing here and there. 😇

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The jar of spit cannot be examined or anything

What? I messed that up then. You should be able to examine it, smell it, and/or attempt to drink it (yuck).

Another good catch.

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A cliff face blocks your way here. It's steep -- you can't climb. If you want to continue, you'll have to search the face.
Is search a direction? Perhaps cliff face should be an object here?

I think I made "search" a command link in that bit. Well... I fixed exit links created using "{exit:}" so they are disabled properly, and I use "{exit:}" to create command links when I want them to automatically get disabled.

I also see (just now) that the cliff object is in the wrong room. It's that way in the original, but this is the 4th or 5th time I've ported this and never noticed that. 🤦‍♂️ Doh!😁

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but back to your west...

Well... this game is taking place on the NORTH POLE, therefore every direction is actually south. So, it has to be phrased like your west, else things don't make any sense.

I am totally kidding. That should say the west. 🤣

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Thanks for all the feedback! I'm about to fix most of this shortly.

[ThePix]

I am also wondering where you found this game in the first place. Did you play it when Quest 2 was around? I have never seen a Quest 2 game or Quest 2 itself.

[KVonGit]

I am also wondering where you found this game in the first place.

Oh, I had lots of fun with all this, so this will be long-winded. (Also, I didn't discover Quest until 2017, so this includes some stuff I only read about in old posts.) 😇

Alex posted about it in an old blog post: https://blog.textadventures.co.uk/2013/11/26/15-years-of-quest-part-2-1999-2000/

Quest 2.0 is the first version for which at least one actual game was made – and it’s still on textadventures.co.uk, and it still works today, whether you download it or use the web-based player – The Adventures of Koww the Magician.

There are a total of 28 games on textadventures.co.uk which were written for Quest 2.x – see if you can find them… (the column to the right of the game listing will tell you the version of Quest used to build the game).

The “libraries” feature got some early use, with Alan Bampton creating a “Standard” library to add some features, including containers – which Quest was still years away from supporting natively. This library was included with Quest itself as of v2.11. (10 years later, when redesigning Quest for v5.0, libraries became the way to add all functionality to Quest – without its Core library, Quest 5 does very little at all).

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Here's a list of all those Quest 2 games (with links): textadventures/quest#1296

Koww was the only one I found playable, really.

The Love Song game has potential, but it's buggy and bad in its current form. It was also the first Quest game ever submitted to IF Comp. Scroll on down to 48th place: https://ifcomp.org/comp/2001

Anyway, the original version of Koww did not use Al Bampton's standard library addition. (Al was like the 1999 counterpart of you (Pixie) -- providing lots of helpful libraries and tricks in the old forum; he called his stuff qtips 🤣.)

Quest 2 had very few built-in commands you could use, especially with the things in inventory.

Without standard.lib added:

• Things you can do with objects in the room:
  • look at
  • take
• Things you can do with characters in the room:
  • look at
  • speak to
• Things you can do with items held:
  • use (single)
  • use on
  • give to

...and that was it. You couldn't examine items in inventory (it responded as if the item wasn't even there), and there wasn't even a DROP command.

There also weren't really any synonyms for commands. So, look at was all you could do; no x or even examine. There was also no inventory command. So, the game gets reviews like this:

First off, neither 'x' nor 'examine' are usable verbs. The game is extremely short, and extremely simple. The player can't look at or examine items that he is carrying. [...]

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You had to add items that would be held by the player to a list called possitems, and there was a list called startitems for things held when play begins. You didn't even have to actually create these objects (and the Koww author did not); so, there are no descriptions for those objects in the original version.

The standard library created by Al Bampton would add all the common text adventure functionality, but most of the Quest 2 games did not include said library. (It doesn't look like the Quest community really got going until Quest 3.)

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Did you play it when Quest 2 was around? I have never seen a Quest 2 game or Quest 2 itself.

I hadn't seen anything involving anything before Quest 5, either, until last year. When Alex came back, he created a 'textadventures' Discord server, and he posted the older versions of Quest there when he found them in his archives.

q219full.zip

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q219r.zip

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Quest 2 runs fine on Windows 10 and 11 (and it was easy to install it using Wine on Arch Linux, too). On Windows, you have to change the settings to run it in legacy mode to keep it from cutting off the bottom of the window (and the text input field), but that's the only caveat.

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Well, I immediately preferred Quest 2 over Quest 5.

The player UI is not HTML ¹ (of course), and it feels so much better. (🤔 It actually feels just like QuestJS -- smoother, no delay.)

It has a GUI editor, too, but I honestly never used that at all. After reading posts from the old old old Quest forum, which Alex recently posted as an archive, I learned that everyone used TextPad Plus -- with a custom syntax file for ASL, which Alex submitted back in the day. The act of writing a game in ASL in a text editor is actually fun, much like writing in ZIL (Zork Implementation Language) to compile with Zilf (insert joke here 😁), or writing in JS to run using QuestJS.

Anyway, blah blah blah... After following the Quest 2 tutorial (provided by Al Bampton), l realized every object in Koww has a "look" and "take" attribute, even though you can't take a single thing during play, and every NPC has a "look" and a "speak" speak attribute. So, within the confines of what Brian the Great had to work with, he covered all the possible bases.

He even created a few room commands, making it so you could climb a cliff and a mountain, open a non-existent treasure chest, and even fly to win the game.

Also, I'm pretty sure the author never created a game before or after this one, and he made this game for brand new text adventure software which was created by a guy who never really played text adventures. And here we are today, in a Quest "6" forum all these years later.

Yadda yadda yadda... if you go the game's page on the TextAdventures site and click Download file, it will download this .asl file in a ZIP archive:

Click to view the text of KOWW1.ASL

' Quest ASL Template

' All sections must exist in the game, though the text sections may be empty
' if desired.

define game <The Adventures of Koww the Magician>
    asl-version <200>
	game version <1.0>
	game author <Brian the Great>
	game copyright <© 1999...>
	game info <Koww is a magical cow trying to figure out whether the grass is greener on the other side of the chasm.>
    start <Koww's Chasm>
    possitems <fly scroll, wing feather, jade statuette, milk, pitchfork, goblin spit, something, nothing, duck turd, grappling hook, purple paint>
    startitems <milk>
	collectables <>
error <itemunwanted;#quest.error.charactername# couldn't care less about your damn item.>
end define

' ************KOWW'S CHASM************
define room <Koww's Chasm>
	command <read #v1#> if is <#v1#;sign> then exec <look at sign> else msg <What the hell is a #v1#?>
	command <use #v1#> if is <#v1#;fly scroll> then do <finishproc>
	look <You are outside in a pasture of pure, pure green.  Green as far as the eye can see.  But you, Koww the Magician, are not satisfied.  The grass may be even greener on the other side of the |bchasm|xb... you must know!  Also in the area is a very undramatic |bsign|xb.>
	define object <sign>
		prefix <a>
		look <It reads: "|iGot milk?  Come to Farmer Zeke's mag-NIFicent silo!|xi">
		take msg <You yank the sign out of the ground and try to fit it in your Koww-pack.  But it just doesn't fit.  Frustrated, you put it back.>
	end define
	define object <chasm>
		prefix <the>
		look <That's the chasm you simply MUST cross!  Surely the only way to cross it is to FLY!> 
		take msg <Don't worry, the men in the white coats will soon be here to deal with you.>
	end define
	command <fly> {
		msg <That's not a spell you know.  But perhaps if you could find a scroll -- like the ones owned by the Great Phoenix -- you could do so.>}
	east <Zeke's Farm>
end define
define procedure <finishproc>
	if got <fly scroll> then do <endproc> else msg <Maybe you'll find it someday, but you don't have it today.  You stupid cow.>
end define
define procedure <endproc>
	msg <You fly up and over the chasm!>
	playerwin
end define
'***********ZEKE'S FARM**********
define room <Zeke's Farm>
	command <eat #v1#> if is <#v1#;haystack> then exec <take haystack> else msg <That doesn't look appetizing.  You chew your cud instead.>
	command <drink #v1#> if is <#v1#;pond> then exec <take pond> else msg <What, drink THAT?!?!?  You loony.>
	look <You stand outside of a small |bfarmhouse|xb with a |bsilo|xb beside it.  There are a |bhaystack|xb and a |bpond|xb here.>
	define object <haystack>
		prefix <the>
		look <About what you'd expect from a haystack.  It's made of... HAY!  You munch on it for a while.>
		take msg <You take a bite of the haystack.  Yummy... tastes just like chicken!>
		use <pitchfork> do <openstatuecaveproc>
	end define
	define object <pond>
		prefix <the>
		look <A nice, placid pond full of little tiny duckies.  Ooo, how cute!  If you were carnivorous, they'd make you hungry.>
		take msg <You sip the water from the pond.  Just what you need to wash down a bit of grazing.>
		use <something> do <getduckturd>
	end define
	west <Koww's Chasm>
	south <Goblin Trail>
	east <Phoenix Mountain Pass>
	north <Land of the NecroYaks>
	place <Zeke's Farmhouse>
	place <Zeke's Silo>
end define
	
define procedure <openstatuecaveproc>
	msg <You stab the pitchfork into the haystack.  Lo and behold, the haystack falls down into a hole in the ground!  Inside the hole is a jade statuette, which you take.>
	lose <pitchfork>
	give <jade statuette>
end define
'end define

define procedure <getduckturd>
	msg <You throw the something into the lake.  The ducks swarm around it in curiosity.  You take the opportunity to grab a duck turd without being noticed!>
	lose <something>
	give <duck turd>
end define
'************ZEKE'S FARMHOUSE**********
define room <Zeke's Farmhouse>
	command <take #v1#> if is <#v1#;treasure chest> then msg <It's too big.  You could open it instead...> else exec <take #v1#;normal>
	command <open #v1#> if is <#v1#;treasure chest> then do <getnothing> else exec <open #v1#;normal>
	look <You're inside Farmer Zeke's rather cramped home.  No one's here at the moment.  Perhaps you should go away.>
	out <Zeke's Farm>
	define object <table>
		prefix <the>
		look <Hmmm, what's a table doing here?  Cool!  It has a |btreasure chest|xb on it!>
		take msg <Farmer Zeke took the wise precaution of bolting his table to the floor.>
	end define
end define

define procedure <getnothing>
	msg <Ooooo!  There's nothing inside!  Told ya you should have gone away.>
	give <nothing>
	hideobject <table@Zeke's Farmhouse>
end define
'*************ZEKE'S SILO**************
define room <Zeke's Silo>
	out <Zeke's Farm>
	command <kill #v1#> if is <#v1#;Zeke> then msg <You may be an evil sorcerer, but at least you're an ETHICAL evil sorcerer.  No killing allowed!  Especially not of idiots.  They don't know they're idiots.>
	command <splash milk on #v1#> if is <#v1#;Zeke> then do <dumblose> else msg <Why would you do that?  Awful waste of milk.>
	command <use #v1#> if is <#v1#;purple paint> then do <purpleuse> else exec <use #v1#;normal>
	look <Gee, this place smells just like rotting feed.  Standing in the silo, grinning like the idiot that he is, is Farmer |bZeke|xb.>	
	define character <Zeke>
		gender <he>
		look <He's wearing a straw hat and at least one of his teeth is rotting away, but he seems pleased as punch that you've arrived.>
		speak <Hey there, good buddy!  Say, bein' a wizard an' all, couldja find it in yer heart to gimme some magic milk?  I'm all out!>
		give <milk> do <pitchproc>
	end define
	
end define

define procedure <pitchproc>
	lose <milk>
	give <pitchfork>
	say <Well, thanks a lot, good buddy!  Well, tell ya what, why don't I give ya this here pitchfork ta comp'n'sate ya fer yer milk.>
end define

define procedure <dumblose>
	say <Well, gee," says Farmer Zeke, "I shore do like ya a lot, but I guess there's a limit!">
	msg <So saying, Zeke stabs you with his pitchfork.>
	playerlose
end define
define procedure <purpleuse>
	if got <purple paint> then do <purplecow> else msg <You don't know where that is!>
end define
define procedure <purplecow>
	lose <purple paint>
	msg <You spread the purple paint on yourself.  Suddenly Farmer Zeke bursts into song!>
	say <|iI never saw a purple cow, and I never hope to see one; but I can tell you anyhow, I'd rather see than be one!|xi>
	msg <Wonderful!  You have just activated the scenario's secret feature!  That's it.  Return to your home.  There's nothing more to do here.>
end define
'*************GOBLIN TRAIL***************
define room <Goblin Trail>
	north <Zeke's Farm>
	south <Goblin Lair>
	look <The stench of goblins permeates this place.  Goblins are small, annoying creatures who like to fight anyone who looks weak.  Fortunately, you don't look weak.>
	define object <road>
		prefix <the>
		look <It's made of dirt.  Concrete hasn't been invented yet.>
		take msg <But you're already taking the road!  You're taking it either north or south!  Har har har!  Hey, I saw a car transform the other day!  Yeah, it turned into a driveway!>
	end define
end define
'*************GOBLIN LAIR****************
define room <Goblin Lair>
	north <Goblin Trail>
	place <Inside the Goblin Lair>
	look <About twenty goblins patrol the front of a massive cave complex.  They eye you for a moment, then decide not to attack.  You return the favor and don't kill them.>
	define character <goblin guard>
		prefix <the>
		gender <it>
		look <It's very ugly, like most of its kind.  Don't get too close; you could faint from the smell.>
		speak <Yu wan go cave?  No try no funny bizniss -- I can tell.>
		give <nothing> do <secretone>
	end define
end define
define procedure <secretone>
	say <Ooooo!  Nuthing!  Jus wut I all ways want'd!  Inn ex chaynge, I giv yu summ thing!>
	lose <nothing>
	give <something>
end define
'**************INSIDE THE GOBLIN LAIR*************
define room <Inside the Goblin Lair>
	out <Goblin Lair>
	look <You are escorted to the Goblin King's throne room, a large chamber ornamented with |bstatues|xb of nude female goblins.  You try hard to avoid puking.>
	define object <statues>
		prefix <the>
		look <Apparently, the goblin idea of beauty is the same as the bovine idea of putridity.  You'd prefer not to look at these statues.>
		take msg <That would be difficult, considering the statues are about seven feet tall, are made of stone, weigh about a ton, and are guarded by some mean-looking goblins.>
	end define
	define character <Goblin King>
		prefix <the>
		gender <he>
		look <An officious-looking, double-chinned goblin monarch sits royally atop a throne of deer hide.>
		speak <Hoo hoo hoo!  Goblinz so grate, our spit is assid!  We spit on yu if yu make us angree!  If yu hav tiny statyoo of jade, we giv yu nice thing!>
		give <jade statuette> do <giftofking>
		give <duck turd> do <othergift>
	end define
end define

define procedure <giftofking>
	lose <jade statuette>
	give <goblin spit>
	say <Ooooo!  You find goblinn lost statyoo!  We giv yu wun jar of spit!>
end define
define procedure <othergift>
	lose <duck turd>
	give <grappling hook>
	say <Ooooo!  GIMME GIMME GIMME!  Duck turd favorite goblin food!  We giv yu grapple hook!>
end define
'***************LAND OF THE NECROYAKS**************
define room <Land of the NecroYaks>
	south <Zeke's Farm>
	north <Ambush Point>
	command <read #v1#> if is <#v1#;sign> then exec <look at sign> else msg <What the hell is a #v1#?>
	look <The greenness of the farmland dissolves into gray bleakness as you pass into the land of the NecroYaks.  Yaks are the sworn enemies of cows -- you'd better stay on your toes!>
	define object <sign>
		prefix <a>
		look <It reads: "Unless you own a vial of acid that you can give to the NecroYaks for their sinister experiments, do not proceed on pain of Death!">
		take msg <Oh, THAT'S original.>
	end define
end define
'***************AMBUSH POINT***************
define room <Ambush Point>
	command <climb #v1#> if is <#v1#;cliff> then msg <After a difficult climb, you reach the top.  You're very pleased with yourself.  Unfortunately, the ledge crumbles beneath you and you plummet back to the ground.>
	alias <Deep in NecroYak Territory>
	command <search> if got <goblin spit> then do <yakslove> else do <yakskill>
	command <search cliff> if got <goblin spit> then do <yakslove> else do <yakskill>
	command <search face> if got <goblin spit> then do <yakslove> else do <yakskill>
	command <search cliff face> if got <goblin spit> then do <yakslove> else do <yakskill>
	south <Land of the NecroYaks>
	look <A cliff face blocks your way here.  It's steep -- you can't climb.  If you want to continue, you'll have to |bsearch|xb the face.>
  define object <cliff>
		prefix <the>
		look <It's a cliff; you could climb it, but it might be a difficult climb.>
		take msg <If you want to climb the cliff, say so!>
	end define
end define
define procedure <yakskill>
	msg <The NecroYaks recognize you as a cow, then jump out and kill you.>
	playerlose
end define
define procedure <yakslove>
	msg <The NecroYaks jump out and search you for acid.  They find your goblin spit, take it, and run off.  But one of them drops a phoenix feather, and you scoop it up unnoticed.  By the way, there's no way to go farther this way unless you're a yak.>
	lose <goblin spit>
	give <wing feather>
end define
'***************PHOENIX MOUNTAIN PASS***************
define room <Phoenix Mountain Pass>
	command <climb #v1#> if got <grappling hook> then do <climbthem> else msg <Those particular mountains are too steep.>
	west <Zeke's Farm>
	east <Phoenix Peak>
	look <The towering mountains surround you on all sides but back to your west.  Passage farther east is remotely possible, should you be brave or foolhardy enough to try it.>
	define object <mountains>
		prefix <the>
		look <They tower up almost as high as the Great Auk Mountains far, far to the north.>
		take msg <After several hours of effort, you manage to chip a piece off of the mountain you're standing on.  But you accidentally let go and it plummets into the valley below.>
		use <grappling hook> if got <grappling hook> then do <climbthem> else msg <Those particular mountains are too steep.>
	end define
end define
define procedure <climbthem>
	lose <grappling hook>
	give <purple paint>
	msg <On top of the mountain, you find a bunch of purple paint, which you take.  After descending again, you ditch your grappling hook.>
end define
'***************PHOENIX PEAK****************
define room <Phoenix Peak>
	command <Yes> if got <wing feather> then do <phoenixproc> else do <phoenixkill>
	command <No> say <Then leave me immediately, as I do not appreciate company.>
	west <Phoenix Mountain Pass>
	look <After hard hours of climbing, you finally reach the summit of Phoenix Peak.  Here, in all its glory, sits the |bResplendent Magnificent Phoenix|xb.>  
	define character <Resplendent Magnificent Phoenix>
		gender <he>
		prefix <the>
		look <The Resplendent Magnificent Phoenix's visage is so brilliant that it hurts to look at it.>
		speak <The Resplendent Magnificent Phoenix demands to know |iwhy|xi such a weakling as you has come here!  If you do not have my wing feather with you, I'm afraid I must ask you to leave |iimmediately!|xi  Now, do you have my wing feather or not -- |bYes|xb or |bNo|xb?>
		give <wing feather> say <I asked you a question!!!  Please answer |bYes|xb or |bNo|xb or so help me, I will not let you leave here alive!>
	end define		
end define
define procedure <phoenixproc>
say <Thank you; you have found my wing feather.  In the wrong hands, that could have been very dangerous.  I will give you this "fly" scroll to compensate you for your hard work.  |bUse|xb the scroll to fly, but it will only work once.>
give <fly scroll>
lose <wing feather>
end define
define procedure <phoenixkill>
say <Then give it to me quickly!  What..... You don't have my wing feather at all, do you?  You shammer.  I was going to dismiss you without hurting you, but I'm afraid now I'll have to kill you.>
msg <The Resplendent Magnificent Phoenix bats you with one claw.  You roll back down the mountainside, finally coming to a complete stop looking very much like a well-done steak.>
playerlose
end define
'*************END OF ROOM DESCRIPTIONS***********
define text <intro>
Find out if the grass is really greener on the other side of the chasm.
end define

define text <win>
Congratulations, you have found out that you were better off where you started anyway.  The grass here is brown and crackly.  Too bad!  And... OH NO!  Now you're trapped here, alone with the NecroYaks!  Stay tuned for "The Adventures of Koww the Magician II -- Escape from the NecroYaks!"
end define

define text <lose>
Idiot.  You die.  HA HA HA HA HA!
end define

---

Back to modern times...

Quest 5 can load that game directly from the ZIP, or you could extract the .asl and run it directly.

Quest 1 - 4 also included something called QCompiler -- if you paid for Quest Pro. QCompiler encoded the ASL file, outputting a CAS file which no one could read to cheat (or copy). Quest 5 will run those CAS files, too. ²

Quest 5 uses LegacyGame to do this. In the VS project, that main file is LegacyGame.vb, and you and I were right to never even look at that file, ha-ha.

Anyway, Quest 5 plays the legacy games fine, but it uses the same player UI it uses for recent games. So the things in inventory have the Examine, Use, and Drop buttons in the pane. That makes people try to run those commands, when only Use might actually do something. Examine and Drop will both respond: "What's that?"

So, I decided to port the game to Quest 5.

• the game needed an update for modern players.
• we needed to test out changes to the editor and the player in Quest 5.9.
• I just have fun learning stuff, and I got to learn about old and new Quest stuff during the porting process.

koww-q5port.zip

---

During the port, I created a Squiffy game to act sort of like InvisiClues. ³ During that process, I decided to also port the game to Squiffy as a CYOA (omitting only the "take" bits, although I did have one version where right-clicking printed the take response, ha-ha).

https://github.com/KVonGit/zil-stuff/blob/main/projects/koww/sq/KOWW.squiffy

---

From there, I realized this was a good little game to use to learn to write games in ZIL, and I did the Zilf port.

https://github.com/KVonGit/zil-stuff/tree/main/projects/koww

---

...and I never really put out an actual QuestJS game, and I needed to work on a few bugs with the links anyway, so... here we are.

Source code: https://github.com/KVonGit/Koww_QuestJS

Play on GitHub Pages (includes links to play every other version): https://kvongit.github.io/Koww_QuestJS/

---

And that's what I did on my summer vacation. (Har-dee-har-har)

I still need to find what makes {nm:frob} create a link, to have it pass the alias and the option to use sentenceCase.

Footnotes

1. The Quest player did not use HTML until 5.3. ↩

2. I wonder if JS can use TextEncoding or something similar, to encrypt/decrypt games, if anyone were to wish to do so; or I dunno, using base64 would be good enough, I would think. ↩

3. If you enter HINTS in the QuestJS port, the link that prints in response opens this Squiffy game. ↩