Downland

hardware: Joystick,

display: raster

The DRM of this game attempts to overwrite itself, which fails without issue if the writes are sent to unwritable an ROM cartridge. But if the game is running from RAM, it corrupts itself overwrites. This DRM is why it doesn't on a Coco 2. It also writes bad data into an area of memory that it is not supposed to (for some mystery purpose). This area of memory happens to be used by the GIME chip in the latter released CoCo 3 hardware. This mystery write normally prevents the game from running on the CoCo 3. There are three methods to run this game on a Coco 2 or 3. One method is to acquire an illegal cracked copy (not recommended here a UVL, but not unapproved by the game's author). A more complicated but non-solder hardware hack method is available. Put tape on the left side pins of the cartridge (these cross the jumpers pins that tell the Coco to boot and run the cartridge automatically, hot plugging a bootloader cart will reset the Coco). Turn the CoCo 3 on. Then [size=+3]CAREFULLY[/size] insert the cartridge [size=+3]STRAIGHT[/size] into the Coco (inserting it off kilter may destroy the Coco). And finally, enter EXEC &HE010. Method three involves downloading a patched version that the author provided to the public 2002-05-23.

The author originally had a 9K version of the game with no DRM, more colors, and full Coco 2 & 3 compatibility. He provided 8K versions of both to Tandy but the better version was never published.

Shortly before the game was finished, the author realized that none of the data in his game used a value larger than 15-bits worth (0-32767). So the 16th bit could be used to identify whether the data belonged to player 1 (0) or player 2 (1), so the game got a two player mode.

zerothis # 2017-04-17 17:55:15

version of
Downland (Dragon32)