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In search of a legendary game for Osborne

J

JKay

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Joined
Nov 23, 2022
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5
Hi folks, this is my first post as a registered user, but I have been reading the forum for some time now. There is a question which I hope maybe you know the answer, because it just seems to be sort of a mystery. The Osborne portable computer came included with a number of software titles. The follow-up, the Osborne Executive, also had a collection of software titles. It seems that there was a game called "Desolation" in it, which actually seems to have been a side-scrolling shooter.

I wonder, did this actually exist or not? Wikipedia mentions it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Executive but there are no screenshots or disk images anywhere. I like vintage games and I would really like to know this. CP/M games are rare in any case, and a side-scroller must be almost unique.
 
Curious to try this also. I'm guessing Osborne Executive also was only text based (?) so side scrolling in text mode sounds, hmmm... I couldn't find Desolation, but I found this sizzler:

With over 55 full scrolling graphic screens of play, DESOLATION is
the hottest new game for the Osborne 1 and Executive today. . . .

Maneuver your ship through its 7 long levels encountering enemies of
all sorts. Beware of the Phantom Claw — it’s Hot!

DESOLATION is —

• More than 45K of pure assembly language excitement

• User-creatable keyboard controls

• Speed options to run as fast or slow as you want . . .
speed controls for enemies, too!

• Includes adapter allowing play with any popular joystick

• All this and so much MORE!
 
this is the only record of it you can find for what the screens might have looked like
https://twitter.com/x/status/1049614955585134592

it appears to have been a helicopter sprite that you drove through various caves and shot at enemies.
similar to a more modern R-type game.


i tracked it to this archive
it is located inside VIXEN2.IMD

IMD 0.2: 2/08/2005 18:35:58
OSBORNE 4 SYSTEM DISK #2 - VIXEN
- MEDIA MASTER - MBASIC - KEY
- OSBOARD - CP/M UTILTIES - FIX
- DESOLATION - HASTE-DEMO
P/N: 3D490005-02 REV 1.2 03/28/85

this is the read me with the archive

These disk images were created with ImageDisk.
ImageDisk is available from www.dunfield.com :
- Go to my "old computer" website link near the bottom
- Go to "disks/software images" (near the bottom)

These disks are for: Osborn 4 - VIXEN

To view the details of a disk image, please use the IMDAM
utility provided with ImageDisk. You can also simply TYPE
the file to view the image comment.

Dave Dunfield
www.dunfield.com

the game is on that Image.

i think it might be CP/M 3
 
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I compiled cpmtools and was able to see what looks like desolation on disk 2:
cpmls -f osborne4 VIXEN2_IMD.img
0:
$$$.sub
.hex
.prn
11backup.sub
12format.sub
...
deso1.des
desoall.des
desolev.des
diablo.com
...
xdir.com
xsub.com


I've extracted the disks into a zip file and attached it, I can have a play with MAME later to see if it'll run on an OCC1.

Ah, so looking in 61desola.sub:

;START THE GAME "DESOLATION"
VIXNDESO
A:

Definitely looks right!
 

Attachments

  • VIXEN.zip
    402.7 KB · Views: 11
Tried it on a Altair CP/M machine and it loads some information comes up on the screen but it just hangs.

The support files you need are: Disk 2 appears to be CP/M 2.2 with an osborne name in the title.


DESO1.DES DESOALL.DES DESOLEV.DES TOPSIX.DES

in addition to VIXNDESO.COM

I don't know if the Vixen had its own video card?
 
Was doing some reading the reason why the game might be hanging is Osborne put a form of copy protection on the Vixen software it looks for a custom rom to allow programs to run.

its possible the game includes this form of protection and its hanging because it does not see the osborne rom.

somebody with better z80 knowledge then me might be able to insert a jump around the rom check if it exists.
 
Wow, I definitely came to the right place here... thank you! I will be trying it out also, and see how far I come.
 
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i was trying to install MAME and get the osborne emulator going but for some reason i can't.
I can't seem to find the correct disk images that the emulator uses so all i can do is load the system with no disk and then i can't do anything with it.

on my Altair i can get the top piece of the screen to load that shows the score and Fuel Level information. i can see the Osborne used a special font i don't have on my terminal.
the vertical lines come up as a foreign language letter. that is as far as i get as the system either locks up or goes into a loop that i have not looked into with a op code monitor.

its either looking for a serial device i don't have installed or there is ROM check protection on the program. i should try to load some of the other programs on those disk images to see what happens.
my Altair is running at 2Mhz and the Vixen would have been a 4Mhz machine so even if i get the game running it would be Super slow.

but that game is 100% there on those disk images and appears to be intact enough to load.
 
I can start up the Osborne Vixen and Executive emulation in MAME, but I cant load the disk image you linked to above. The Executive gives me "incompatible disk format". The Vixen emulator seems to accept the disk, but after insertion MAME locks up and shuts down... no luck there for me.
 
furball1985 said:
i was trying to install MAME and get the osborne emulator going but for some reason i can't.
I can't seem to find the correct disk images that the emulator uses so all i can do is load the system with no disk and then i can't do anything with it.

on my Altair i can get the top piece of the screen to load that shows the score and Fuel Level information. i can see the Osborne used a special font i don't have on my terminal.
the vertical lines come up as a foreign language letter. that is as far as i get as the system either locks up or goes into a loop that i have not looked into with a op code monitor.

its either looking for a serial device i don't have installed or there is ROM check protection on the program. i should try to load some of the other programs on those disk images to see what happens.
my Altair is running at 2Mhz and the Vixen would have been a 4Mhz machine so even if i get the game running it would be Super slow.

but that game is 100% there on those disk images and appears to be intact enough to load.
Click to expand...
Make sure you have the OCC1 roms in the roms folder, but other than that I run it through a command line:

mame osborne1 -uimodekey CAPSLOCK -floppydisk1 .\software\OSB01_CPM_System.TD0

This skips the requirement to have checksummed and correctly named "games" for the system.

Use capslock to toggle UI mode (keyboard interacts with the osborne vs controls the emulator.) and Tab to open the emulator menu. Note that keys will be seen by the emulator menu and the Osborne until you pause it (P).

I still haven't tried it yet, fwiw
 
thanks NRoach44 that worked fine in being able to load the TD0 files.

as far as the desolation game: we need to convert the IMD files to TD0 files. or is there a way to transfer files through MAME from the windows machine to the Osborne emulator?
i have my altair cp/m disk with desolation on it. how do you make TD0 files?
 
I was just able to get it to work, this is the cmd line I used:
mame -uimodekey SCRLOCK vixen -flop1 VIXEN2.IMD
Cool to finally see "Desolation"! ESC appeared to shoot, 1 to drop bombs, arrow keys
 
ok i figured it out i got the VIXEN going with the game running :)

YUP works! thanks

agentb​


owSRNrl.jpg


You can remap the control inside the game. cursor keys work.
on my altair the top of the screen loads before the graphics then it just hangs.
its using a font set i didn't have on the Altair terminal and i think it is checking for the Vixen roms.

Cntl Q quits to menu then you can abandon game to quit

default controls are ESC to shoot, press 1 for bombs and cursor keys for up down left right control.
 
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Thanks to furball1984, agentb and everybody here I am now able to post ... this!

Screenshot_20221126_093419.png
 
This is an in-game screen running on MAME with the custom artwork of the Osborne Vixen as decoration. Really great, seems to run without problems.
I used the disk image with agentb's mame options:
mame -uimodekey SCRLOCK vixen -flop1 VIXEN2.IMD
You can also use the MAME file selector. You can boot from VIXEN2.IMD, but MAME crashed when I tried to insert the image read-write. Readonly worked - but now it seems I wont be able to save my highscore :)
Anyway, it is pretty obvious which game inspired Desolation, I think. A true classic.
 
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