Finding this game was like opening a secret door.
I first spotted it on The Big List of TRS-80 Software where it’s listed as “Adventure # 10- Marooned (124480)”.
Opening it up makes it look like an ordinary Scott Adams game, in fact, the last one I played, with the option to select an adventure all the way up to Ghost Town (#9).
If you take the leap and type in “10”, it still has a normal Scott Adams instruction screen …
… but then leads to something entirely different.
Kim Watt was prolific programmer and legend among the TRS-80 community for his utility software. This was clearly written between Scott Adams Adventure #9 (1980) and #10 (1981) although because this was an “unofficial” game, I don’t know if I can get more exact than that. Mr. Watt did start making significant money from his utility software starting at the end of 1980, so I’m going to guess this was a lark between mid-1980 and the end of 1980.
Unfortunately, the game also seems to be incomplete. I have below a complete transcript as far as I’ve gotten. It doesn’t look unreasonable, but that’s only because I have included just the commands that worked.
I’m in the passenger section of an airplane
Obvious exits: North, South.
I can also see: Empty seats
>GO NORTH
I’m in a cockpit
Obvious exits: South
I can also see: Control panel
>LOOK PANEL
I see
guages everywhere.
[Typo is in the game.]>READ GUAGE
Plane is rapidly descending.
Steering mechanism is broken.>S
>S
I’m in the tail section of an airplane
Obvious exits: North.
I can also see: Broken rudder cable – Tool box – Knapsack
>WEAR KNAPSACK
OK
[Note: This is a parachute. You cannot TAKE KNAPSACK.]>OPEN BOX
OK>LOOK BOX
There’s something there!
[Finds Wire cutters – Screwdriver – Wrench]>GET CUTTERS
OK
[This is the only item out of the toolbox you can get]>PULL CABLE
I found something!
[Hidden knob appears.]>TURN KNOB
OK
Whooosh!
A secret door opens.>OPEN DOOR
I can’t do that yet.
There’s an island you can get to according to the source code, but I haven’t been able to make it any farther past this point, and it’s so broken there’s a strong chance it’s impossible.
Alas, that means this is more of a historical curiosity than a game. Pyramid of Doom came out of a fan deconstructing the Scott Adams file format; it’s interesting to see someone even attempt roughly the same thing with the notion of making the next numbered game in the series.
Renga in Blue 
Interesting! I hadn’t seen this before. I wonder if it was the inspiration for Plane Crash?:
https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=12068#p153024
I tried playing this adventure and managed to progress a bit further, but I’m afraid it’s really buggy when it comes to item handling. I played online, but I’ll try to tinker with the emulator in case it’s due to using an unsuitable model or operating system.
The thing is, some items don’t behave as they should. Many of them should be pickable, but they don’t (proof is that if you examine the open secret door, you find a treasure, *TOP SECRET PLANS*, but it doesn’t allow you to pick it up, like the other tools or the parachute itself, which only reacts to WEAR), but what really breaks the game is the parachute.
It turns out that in the initial room you can use LOOK AROUND to find a ring on the ceiling, the typical one to hook the parachute cord, and on the other hand you have to assume that the plane has a door there, that if you open with OPEN DOOR it sucks you outside, but to save yourself you must be wearing the parachute and have connected its cord to the ring (first with CONNECT CORD, and then with TO RING). The problem with this is that in order to connect it you can’t be wearing it, and if you take it off, although WEAR PARACHUTE seems to work afterwards (it says OK), it doesn’t give you the “which I’m wearing” thing in your inventory, so you die irremediably when you open the door (you also can’t take the parachute to the ring without wearing it, because GET doesn’t work with it either, like with so many other items.
The truth is, I find it strange that there is such a serious bug with the items, so tomorrow I will try to tinker with the emulator and let you know if I find anything.
Well, the bad news is that the game actually has bugs, and it’s not the emulator’s fault.
The good news is that I’ve already been able to fix almost all of them by modifying its database, and I hope to send you a playable copy tomorrow.
The main problem is that items can’t be picked up and dropped unless the specific action is added to the database, and I’m having to do it myself, but I’m only doing it for the items where it’s really necessary (this certainly eliminates some red herrings, but on the other hand, it adds a puzzle-like feel with some useful items that must be used without picking them up).
Also, in some database actions, the author set conditions to 0 before passing a parameter, and the opcodes took 0 as a parameter. Those were easy to fix.
There was also a problem with a repeated verb where the numbered action looked for the second copy, and never found it because it stopped after finding the first match, but with a different numbering.
Finally, the last treasure in the game is referenced in the actions by number, but it’s not defined in the database, so I either give it a generic name or invent something like that treasure.
do you know what the difference between the D1 and D2 files are? it looks like D2 is the later one just based on file size but I don’t know what changed
Also, can you call it a MYSTERY TREASURE (TRE)?
Both versions of the database are exactly the same game, but in one, all spaces before and after integers have been removed to compact it.
I’ve already sent you the fixed copy of the game. The only real addition on my part is the name of the last treasure, which I named as you requested. The rest of the modifications just made the adventure work as the author intended, according to the game’s database.
Clearly, the adventure wasn’t entirely polished, but it can be won; I’ve checked.
When you do, you’ll probably be the first person in the world to win it, not counting the author and me, who, knowing the code, doesn’t count.
And I almost forgot, the actual adventure numbers of the databases are 1 and 2, so when you entered a 10, I think it only read the 1 and you played that version. I’ve modified number 2, so to play the corrected version, you must enter a 2.
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