Adventures:  AI UK:  LDP (Line-Drawn Pictures)

These line-drawn gfx were only used in the "Mysterious Adventures" series by Brian Howarth. These actually predate AI UK but just for convenience I've grouped everything under that heading... they were later distributed by AI UK / Adventuresoft, in any case.

The games were originally written starting in 1981 for the TRS-80 as text-only games and published by Molimerx, based in Bexhill (Sussex). The first three games were hand-coded in Z80 machine language but then this became too time-consuming. That's why Howarth decided to write his own Z80-based driver for the Scott Adams game database format. He ported the first 3 games to this format and wrote all the following games in it.

This Z80 driver on the TRS-80 was the basis for all later releases, including the Scott Adams ports published by Adventure International UK. But first Howarth did a port of the driver to the BBC Micro (another Z80-based home computer), and since Molimerx didn't want to publish the BBC versions, Howarth did it himself under the Digital Fantasia moniker. Other ports followed, all of them text-only and fitting into 16k: Atari, ORIC, VIC-20, Dragon.

The first versions with graphics were then presumably published in 1983 for the Spectrum. Later they were ported to the Commodore 64 (and maybe other computers). At that time the distributor for the Digital Fantasia games was Channel 8 Software. After Channel 8 went bankrupt in Q2/1985, AI UK took over distribution.

NEW (15 Oct 2004):

Utilities for extracting gfx data reside on the Tools page.

Game Overview

MA# Game  Released  Interpreter Author GFX by Notes
01 The Golden Baton 1983 Brian Howarth   Brian Howarth   Jon Blacow    
02 The Time Machine Q4/1983 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow  
03 Arrow of Death 1 1983 ... Q2/84 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow Sequel to "Golden Baton"
04 Arrow of Death 2 1983 ... Q2/84 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow Sequel to "Golden Baton"
05 Escape from Pulsar 7 Q3/1984 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow  
06 Circus Q1/1984 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow  
07 Feasibility Experiment 1983/84 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow  
08 Wizard of Akyrz 1983/84 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow Sequel to "Golden Baton"
09 Perseus and Andromeda Q2/1984 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow  
10 Ten Little Indians Q1/1984 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow  
11 Waxworks Q2/1984 Brian Howarth Brian Howarth Jon Blacow  
12 Mid Winter - Brian Howarth Brian Howarth - not released with gfx
13 After the Fire - Brian Howarth Brian Howarth - not released with gfx
14 Beyond the Infinite - Brian Howarth Brian Howarth - not released with gfx
? Lone Survivor - Brian Howarth Brian Howarth - not released with gfx

The release dates cited here are not accurate. They are only guesswork based on early reviews.

Gfx Overview

MA# Game Rooms Graphics offset GFX Diffs
Speccy<->C-64		 Notes
Speccy SNA Speccy TZX C-64 PRG
01 The Golden Baton 31 5ba7 578b (5777) 38f1 (38f3) no Speccy: includes rudimentary pic 32
02 The Time Machine 44 57b8 5388 (5385) 3872 no
03 Arrow of Death 1 52 5902 54eb 38e2 no Speccy: includes very rudimentary pic 53
WoS-TZX is corrupt (pic 50 broken, 51-52 missing)
WoS-TAP is okay
04 Arrow of Death 2 65 5ea5 ebbc 3cac no Speccy: includes very rudimentary pic 66
WoS-TZX: Arrow2 appended to Arrow1
WoS-TZX is corrupt (pic 50-65 missing)
WoS-TAP is okay
05 Escape from Pulsar 7 45 615f 5d4a 3bf4 yes
06 Circus 36 57e1 53b1 3914 (37b0) yes Speccy: includes very rudimentary pic 37
07 Feasibility Experiment 59 5933 5503 3876 no Speccy: includes very rudimentary pic 60
WoS-TZX is corrupt (pic 48-59 missing)
WoS-Z80 is okay
08 Wizard of Akyrz 40 5f77 5b47 3bce no
09 Perseus and Andromeda 40 5eb9 5a89 3d91 no Speccy: includes rudimentary pic 41
10 Ten Little Indians 63 59c2 5592 3a46 no Speccy: includes rudimentary pic 64
11 Waxworks 41 5e18 59e8 (5a02) 3f31 yes Speccy: includes rudimentary pic 42

Reference versions are:

Alternate Speccy versions:

Alternate C-64 versions:

Other versions to be considered:

Differences Speccy/C64: Game 05 (Escape from Pulsar 7)

pic # Speccy C-64 Notes
pic 04 same as pic 03 same as pic 02 C-64 is correct, since pic 02 and 04 are Crewman's Cabin
pic 44 same as pic 34 same as pic 45 Speccy is correct (pic 45 is the RIP pic), but it doesn't matter since room 44 isn't used in the game

Differences Speccy/C64: Game 06 (Circus)

pic # Speccy C-64 Notes
pic 10 Game 6 Image 10 Spectrum Game 6 Image 10 C-64 Speccy looks better (cp. missing fill)
pic 12 Game 6 Image 12 Spectrum Game 6 Image 12 C-64
pic 15 Game 6 Image 15 Spectrum Game 6 Image 15 C-64 Speccy looks better
pic 17 Game 6 Image 17 Spectrum Game 6 Image 17 C-64 C-64 looks better
pic 24 Game 6 Image 24 Spectrum Game 6 Image 24 C-64 Speccy looks better
pic 29 Game 6 Image 29 Spectrum Game 6 Image 29 C-64
pic 31 Game 6 Image 31 Spectrum Game 6 Image 31 C-64 Speccy looks better

Differences Speccy/C64: Game 11 (Waxworks)

pic # Speccy C-64 Notes
pic 05 all same as pic 10 all same as pic 04 Speccy is correct, since pic 04 is Dark Passage, pic 05-10 is Hall of Mirrors
pic 06
pic 07
pic 08
pic 09

Corruptions: Game 03 (Arrow of Death 1)

Old C-64 version (in early MYSTADV release) had pic 20 corrupt.
pic # C-64 & Speccy C-64 (old)
pic 20 Game 3 Image 20 C-64 good Game 3 Image 20 C-64 bad

Corruptions: Game 07 (Feasibility Experiment)

Old C-64 version (in early MYSTADV release) had two corrupt pics.
pic # C-64 & Speccy C-64 (old)
pic 07 Game 7 Image 7 C-64 good Game 7 Image 7 C-64 bad
pic 25 Game 7 Image 25 C-64 good Game 7 Image 25 C-64 bad

Corruptions: Game 09 (Perseus and Andromeda)

The old corrupted SNA version has one DRAW different in pic 38. This SNA is no longer on WoS but still in the if-archive, I think.
pic # C-64 & Speccy TZX/TAP Speccy (old SNA)
pic 38 Game 9 Image 38 Spectrum good Game 9 Image 38 Spectrum bad
Version: 3.0 (4-Nov-2004)
Paul David Doherty
pdd@if-legends.org