Modern ZX-Retro Gaming | THE PAWN - ZX Spectrum Next @MZX-RG | Uploaded September 2024 | Updated October 2024, 19 hours ago.
Set in the mythical world of Kerovnia, this amusing and complex tale is subtle enough to appeal to the beginner and hardened adventurer alike. A revolutionary text-handling system allows input of complicated sentences and complete interaction with characters (including some very intelligent animals!). The Pawn represents all its characters and objects as if they existed in a real world, storing complex information about their attributes and properties linked to their particular position or context in the game.
Your objectives are manyfold: The simplest is to escape from Kerovnia, but you will find others as you wander about the land and communicate with the characters you meet. The Pawn combines a rich text adventure, with stunning colour graphics [not in the Spectrum version], and a language parser that will set the standards for years to come.
This is a conversion of the text adventure game The Pawn for Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Next. The Pawn was first released by Magnetic Scrolls for Sinclair QL in 1985.
The Atari ST and Commodore Amiga versions released the following year were
groundbreaking in providing premium graphics in combination with an advanced
parser. A text-only version of the game was released for Spectrum 128 and later
Spectrum +3. For the first time you can now enjoy The Pawn and its beautiful
graphics on your Spectrum Next. If you need help finding your way around or want
to read more about the game, please visit Magnetic Scrolls Memorial.
The game is created using the Spectrum Next porting of the Magnetic Scrolls interpreter Magnetic and the remastered version of the game by Strand Games containing bug fixes and playability improvements. The graphics is from the original Commodore Amiga version of the game. The
Amiga version used the same graphics as the Atari ST version, which had 16-colour images from a palette of 512 colours. These images have been converted to Spectrum Next's layer 2 graphics format using the Next BMP tools. Some of the images have been slightly reduced in height to fit the Spectrum Next screen resolution.
The game screen is divided into three sections. The status bar at the top shows
the current location to its left and the score and number of turns to its right.
The middle section shows the graphics for the current location and the bottom
section is the text area which accepts user input at its prompt. When there are
too many lines of text to display on the screen at once, the message "MORE"
will appear at the bottom left of the screen. Pressing any key will continue the
scrolling of the text. The last entered line of input can be edited by pressing
the EDIT key. The graphics can be scrolled up and down using the up and down
arrow keys to make more or less room for the text. If a PS/2 mouse is connected
to the Spectrum Next, it can also be used to scroll the graphics up and down by
dragging it with the mouse or using the mouse wheel.
The text colour can be changed by cycling downwards or upwards through a palette
of 32 colours by pressing TRUE VIDEO and INV VIDEO, respectively. The default
text colour is light grey. The game mode can be toggled between remastered and classic mode by pressing BREAK. By default, the game starts in remastered mode. In classic mode, the bug fixes and playability improvements provided by the remastered version of the game are ignored.
ZX Spectrum Next version was made by Strand Games.
Download here: gitlab.com/strandgames/brahman/-/tree/master/zxnext_magnetic/games/pawn
Huge playlist archive with ZX Spectrum Next software: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOanVBhqd3sDNyPQ49hgs2jGSjqDIpWg
Set in the mythical world of Kerovnia, this amusing and complex tale is subtle enough to appeal to the beginner and hardened adventurer alike. A revolutionary text-handling system allows input of complicated sentences and complete interaction with characters (including some very intelligent animals!). The Pawn represents all its characters and objects as if they existed in a real world, storing complex information about their attributes and properties linked to their particular position or context in the game.
Your objectives are manyfold: The simplest is to escape from Kerovnia, but you will find others as you wander about the land and communicate with the characters you meet. The Pawn combines a rich text adventure, with stunning colour graphics [not in the Spectrum version], and a language parser that will set the standards for years to come.
This is a conversion of the text adventure game The Pawn for Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Next. The Pawn was first released by Magnetic Scrolls for Sinclair QL in 1985.
The Atari ST and Commodore Amiga versions released the following year were
groundbreaking in providing premium graphics in combination with an advanced
parser. A text-only version of the game was released for Spectrum 128 and later
Spectrum +3. For the first time you can now enjoy The Pawn and its beautiful
graphics on your Spectrum Next. If you need help finding your way around or want
to read more about the game, please visit Magnetic Scrolls Memorial.
The game is created using the Spectrum Next porting of the Magnetic Scrolls interpreter Magnetic and the remastered version of the game by Strand Games containing bug fixes and playability improvements. The graphics is from the original Commodore Amiga version of the game. The
Amiga version used the same graphics as the Atari ST version, which had 16-colour images from a palette of 512 colours. These images have been converted to Spectrum Next's layer 2 graphics format using the Next BMP tools. Some of the images have been slightly reduced in height to fit the Spectrum Next screen resolution.
The game screen is divided into three sections. The status bar at the top shows
the current location to its left and the score and number of turns to its right.
The middle section shows the graphics for the current location and the bottom
section is the text area which accepts user input at its prompt. When there are
too many lines of text to display on the screen at once, the message "MORE"
will appear at the bottom left of the screen. Pressing any key will continue the
scrolling of the text. The last entered line of input can be edited by pressing
the EDIT key. The graphics can be scrolled up and down using the up and down
arrow keys to make more or less room for the text. If a PS/2 mouse is connected
to the Spectrum Next, it can also be used to scroll the graphics up and down by
dragging it with the mouse or using the mouse wheel.
The text colour can be changed by cycling downwards or upwards through a palette
of 32 colours by pressing TRUE VIDEO and INV VIDEO, respectively. The default
text colour is light grey. The game mode can be toggled between remastered and classic mode by pressing BREAK. By default, the game starts in remastered mode. In classic mode, the bug fixes and playability improvements provided by the remastered version of the game are ignored.
ZX Spectrum Next version was made by Strand Games.
Download here: gitlab.com/strandgames/brahman/-/tree/master/zxnext_magnetic/games/pawn
Huge playlist archive with ZX Spectrum Next software: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOanVBhqd3sDNyPQ49hgs2jGSjqDIpWg
