Download The Quest

MarkTheMorose 2025-04-16 0 point Commodore 64 version

@BLAH: You're right, this certainly isn't the game by Penguin Software.

It's converted from a BASIC listing for the Commodore PET, printed in Byte magazine. In the downloaded tape image, there are actually two games, one called QUEST 1.0, the other QUEST 3.0. Both are BASIC programs.

In an emulator (VICE) I've loaded both games without running them, and listed them to examine the code. Here are the first few lines of the listing for QUEST 3.0:

1 REM QUEST BY ROGER CHAFFEE
2 REM INSPIRED BY WILL CROWTHER'S ADVENTURE
3 REM FROM BYTE MAGAZINE
4 REM ADAPTED FOR THE PET BY
5 REM DAVID A. HOOK, [address omitted]
6 REM ONTARIO
7 REM NEEDS 16K

A quick bit of searching reveals this is from Byte in July 1979, converted to the PET from a game running on various other early computers. Who converted it later to the C64 is unknown.

QUEST 3.0 is the game that plays if you 'auto-run' the tape image in VICE, but for some reason it displays some text characters wrongly. I recall that from my C64 days that the C64 (and VIC-20) could display text characters as 'reversed', i.e. highlighted, or in different colours by using certain keystrokes, which appear as graphics characters in BASIC listings. I don't know if VICE doesn't support this, hence showing the garbles text, or if the listing is using codes for the PET which don't work on the C64.

QUEST 1.0 is a different version of the same game, but contains no text to identify the author or converter. The structure of the BASIC listing is different to v3.0; all the REM statements are omitted, for one thing. It does display the text correctly, and only requires single keypresses; v3.0 wants you to type in a letter (like N for North) and then press Return.

To run the v1.0 game, the one with text showing properly in VICE, start it this way:

File, Smart Attach, click to select the disk image, then click the filename QUEST 1.0, then 'Attach/Load'. After a couple of seconds, the game is loaded into BASIC, the screen shows 'READY' and you can type RUN to play it, or LIST if you want to see the program listing. You can also load the v3.0 game and examine its listing the same way; you'll see those garbled text characters as part of the code.

@ADMINS - please move this game to another entry; it's a type-in game, not a commercial release, and shouldn't be listed here with the game by Penguin Software.

blah 2024-07-15 0 point

I don't think the c64 download is the penguin soft one. Also, it had slightly garbled text when I ran it

Abacos 2018-03-06 3 points

The game description has a few errors:
1. "The Quest" is a text adventure game
2. It was released in 1983 (not in 1984)
3. "In its time", not "in it's (it is) time".