Quest of the Great Jewels [Flying Dutchman Games]

[Starkadder]

The owner of the game is registering an account here to talk about the game.

[ixnay]

His account has just been validated!

[phx1jjm]

Hello everyone! Glad I was directed to this forum. I wish I was here years ago to talk about QJ. I will summarize my QJ with you.

I started playing back in 84 when I was in high school when MS ran the game. I played for a bit with RVO ran it until life took my away.
I contacted Bob back in 2001 and ended up buying the rights to the game from him. The unfortunate side of the purchase was that I was unable to run the MAC C code and it did not help that I am a PC guy.  I tried to learn some elementary programming but it just was to hard for me to learn.
I have contracted 4 different programmers over the last 15 years to reprogram it for me, even tried the guy who re coded the game for flying Dutchman but he was not interested. All my efforts failed and ended up costing me almost $5000 with incomplete programs.
I made several attempts with a board game version but the dynamics of the PBM game just did not carry over to a board game and ended up feeling like a completely different game which I did not like.
The passion is still there to get this game working again, I hope maybe this audience will be able to help bring this game back. I am willing to run this game and moderate it for free for everyone. Any ideas???

Jeffrey McKee

[zorph]

hi Jeff,

I am the original designer of QJ and am sorry to hear of your difficulties bringing it back to life. I'd be willing to help convert it to a modern PC to be run as a PBM game. I still have the original C code I gave to RVO. Unfortunately it is in the form of a printout perhaps 100 pages long (maybe it still exists on a 5-1/4" floppy somewhere in the vast archive that comprises my basement). Let me know what I can do to help.

Mike Shefler

[vanollefen]

hi Jeff,

I am the original designer of QJ and am sorry to hear of your difficulties bringing it back to life. I'd be willing to help convert it to a modern PC to be run as a PBM game. I still have the original C code I gave to RVO. Unfortunately it is in the form of a printout perhaps 100 pages long (maybe it still exists on a 5-1/4" floppy somewhere in the vast archive that comprises my basement). Let me know what I can do to help.

Mike Shefler

The Mac code was run in the developer environment on what is now a very old Mac, it was never a stand alone program in the Mac version.  I still have the computer, no idea if it runs and I don't remember how it worked at this point either. 

I'm sure I sent Bob the source code on a mac floppy, with that in hand its more about skill of programmer and time I would think..  but an expensive process as Jeff has discovered.

[phx1jjm]

hi Jeff,

I am the original designer of QJ and am sorry to hear of your difficulties bringing it back to life. I'd be willing to help convert it to a modern PC to be run as a PBM game. I still have the original C code I gave to RVO. Unfortunately it is in the form of a printout perhaps 100 pages long (maybe it still exists on a 5-1/4" floppy somewhere in the vast archive that comprises my basement). Let me know what I can do to help.

Mike Shefler

The Mac code was run in the developer environment on what is now a very old Mac, it was never a stand alone program in the Mac version.  I still have the computer, no idea if it runs and I don't remember how it worked at this point either. 

I'm sure I sent Bob the source code on a mac floppy, with that in hand its more about skill of programmer and time I would think..  but an expensive process as Jeff has discovered.

Great to hear from both of you, wow this brings back memories. RVO: I received the mac code from bob but as you mention it would not run by itself.
MS: I would love to run the game if you can get it working again, granted it will be the original with key entry needs and other tasks but I do not mind. I would only imagine we would have 1 maybe 2 games running at a time. The second it runs and works I may be able to present to a programmer (again) and see if it could be updated. I did contact the programmer RVO hired to convert it to a MAC but he was to busy to do it again.

[phx1jjm]

hi Jeff,

I am the original designer of QJ and am sorry to hear of your difficulties bringing it back to life. I'd be willing to help convert it to a modern PC to be run as a PBM game. I still have the original C code I gave to RVO. Unfortunately it is in the form of a printout perhaps 100 pages long (maybe it still exists on a 5-1/4" floppy somewhere in the vast archive that comprises my basement). Let me know what I can do to help.

Mike Shefler

The Mac code was run in the developer environment on what is now a very old Mac, it was never a stand alone program in the Mac version.  I still have the computer, no idea if it runs and I don't remember how it worked at this point either. 

I'm sure I sent Bob the source code on a mac floppy, with that in hand its more about skill of programmer and time I would think..  but an expensive process as Jeff has discovered.

Great to hear from both of you, wow this brings back memories. RVO: I received the mac code from bob but as you mention it would not run by itself.
MS: I would love to run the game if you can get it working again, granted it will be the original with key entry needs and other tasks but I do not mind. I would only imagine we would have 1 maybe 2 games running at a time. The second it runs and works I may be able to present to a programmer (again) and see if it could be updated. I did contact the programmer RVO hired to convert it to a MAC but he was to busy to do it again.

MS:
Give me a day or two, I will track down my archives to see if I have your original code. I do have the MAC code, not sure if that helps you.

[zorph]

[quote pid='135974' dateline='1462141284']
MS:
Give me a day or two, I will track down my archives to see if I have your original code. I do have the MAC code, not sure if that helps you.
[/quote]

This would be a fun project.  Since I'm semi-retired, I should have time this summer to do it. Actually, I don't think I need the code so much as your permission to do it, since you are the current owner. I'd probably rewrite it to work on a PC either as a standalone program. Did you know that I wrote the original code in FORTRAN on a VAX computer (I had a lot of free time at my job and we had one of the early VAXes in the mid-late 1970's)? Then when PCs started coming out I transferred it to a Northstar (Z-80 CPU, CP/M OS, 64K memory and 2 HD floppies) so I could run it at home, but had to recode in C because of lack of FORTRAN on the PCs of that time. This time I'll probably use Visual Basic as I don't really like C as a programming language.

[phx1jjm]

[quote pid='135974' dateline='1462141284']
MS:
Give me a day or two, I will track down my archives to see if I have your original code. I do have the MAC code, not sure if that helps you.

This would be a fun project.  Since I'm semi-retired, I should have time this summer to do it. Actually, I don't think I need the code so much as your permission to do it, since you are the current owner. I'd probably rewrite it to work on a PC either as a standalone program. Did you know that I wrote the original code in FORTRAN on a VAX computer (I had a lot of free time at my job and we had one of the early VAXes in the mid-late 1970's)? Then when PCs started coming out I transferred it to a Northstar (Z-80 CPU, CP/M OS, 64K memory and 2 HD floppies) so I could run it at home, but had to recode in C because of lack of FORTRAN on the PCs of that time. This time I'll probably use Visual Basic as I don't really like C as a programming language.
[/quote]
Permission granted! This is very exciting. I will get you copies of what I can find, at least it will have your formulas for dragons and others.

[zorph]

Great! I won't be able to start until Mid-June due to other commitments. As far as formulas go, as I said, I have the original code and can figure it out from them.