KQI: weird, weird, weird

[Jelle]

They sure did some weird things in King's Quest I...
I mean v88 = 0; and than v10=v88; why did they do that???

King's Quest I:

Code: [Select]

if ((said("fastest") ||
    controller(menu_fastestspeed))) {
  v88 = 0;
  v10 = v88;
}
if ((said("fast") ||
    controller(menu_fastspeed))) {
  v88 = 1;
  v10 = v88;
}
if ((said("normal") ||
    controller(menu_normalspeed))) {
  v88 = 2;
  v10 = v88;
}
if ((said("slow") ||
    controller(menu_slowspeed))) {
  v88 = 4;
  v10 = v88;
}


Seems like they noticed that in KQII. Still I don't get it.

King's Quest ][:

Code: [Select]

if ((said("fastest") ||
    controller(menu_fastestspeed))) {
  v10 = 0;
}
if ((said("fast") ||
    controller(menu_fastspeed))) {
  v10 = 1;
}
if ((said("normal") ||
    controller(menu_normalspeed))) {
  v10 = 2;
}
if ((said("slow") ||
    controller(menu_slowspeed))) {
  v10 = 4;
}


[robingravel]

They sure did some weird things in King's Quest I...
I mean v88 = 0; and than v10=v88; why did they do that???

King's Quest I:

Code: [Select]

if ((said("fastest") ||
    controller(menu_fastestspeed))) {
  v88 = 0;
  v10 = v88;
}
if ((said("fast") ||
    controller(menu_fastspeed))) {
  v88 = 1;
  v10 = v88;
}
if ((said("normal") ||
    controller(menu_normalspeed))) {
  v88 = 2;
  v10 = v88;
}
if ((said("slow") ||
    controller(menu_slowspeed))) {
  v88 = 4;
  v10 = v88;
}


Seems like they noticed that in KQII. Still I don't get it.

King's Quest ][:

Code: [Select]

if ((said("fastest") ||
    controller(menu_fastestspeed))) {
  v10 = 0;
}
if ((said("fast") ||
    controller(menu_fastspeed))) {
  v10 = 1;
}
if ((said("normal") ||
    controller(menu_normalspeed))) {
  v10 = 2;
}
if ((said("slow") ||
    controller(menu_slowspeed))) {
  v10 = 4;
}


Everything's right in the codes.

v10 is used to set up the speed of the game.

v10 = 0 is set to the fastest the game
v10 = 4 is set to slow the game

You can set v10 to 14 but the game is so slow it may
make the game unplayable.

Don't forget King's Quest 1 is the very first agi game Sierra has made like me with Naturette 1.

Please don't bother with the olders games you'll may
find. it's normal to make mistakes when working an interpreter or a first game.

Robin Gravel

[Jelle]

Everything's right in the codes.

v10 is used to set up the speed of the game.

v10 = 0 is set to the fastest the game
v10 = 4 is set to slow the game

You can set v10 to 14 but the game is so slow it may
make the game unplayable.

Yes, I know all that. But why first put a number into v88 and than in the next line put v88 into v10. Why not immediately put a number into v10 (like in KQ2 and others). Every programmer would know that, even if it's the first game...

[HWM]

The first version of King's Quest (not the one you're currently talking about) was made in AGI0... So this version (in AGI2) had to be converted to work with AGI2... So maybe it happend in this process?

Another option is, that they preferred to not directly set the *system*variables... Or maybe it just had to be done that way in AGI0...

BTW: My copy of KQ only has 3 speed options, slow, normal & fast... (fast being the usual 'fastest' setting)... So the whole game is quite unusual in many ways...

[Nick Sonneveld]

Well if I was a programmer and I knew I had to tweak numbers later on, I'd make it so I would have to change the least amount of numbers.

What if you had to set 5 variables to the same number?

v88 = 5;
v10 = v88;
v30 = v88;
v40 = v88;
v60 = v88;

If I decide that I actually wanted 6.. I only have to change one line.  It would be even easier and more obvious with #define's but perhaps they didn't have them.

do you know v88 wasn't used somewhere else in the game?  (perhaps it stood for the original speed.. so if they had to speed up the game for a section, they could move it back)

- Nick

[Jelle]

BTW: My copy of KQ only has 3 speed options, slow, normal & fast... (fast being the usual 'fastest' setting)... So the whole game is quite unusual in many ways...

I forgot, I changed that myself, because normal was too slow, and the "original fast" was too fast!

do you know v88 wasn't used somewhere else in the game?  (perhaps it stood for the original speed.. so if they had to speed up the game for a section, they could move it back)

You're right I guess... As usual  

[Nick Sonneveld]

You're right I guess... As usual  

look closer.. I've said my share of dumb things, don't you worry.

- Nick

PS.. not that I'm suggesting what you said was dumb.. just that I'm not always right.

[Jelle]

do you know v88 wasn't used somewhere else in the game?  (perhaps it stood for the original speed.. so if they had to speed up the game for a section, they could move it back)

I checked it. v88 is used only in logic 0 and always with v10, like this:
v88 = blabla;
v10 = v88;

I don't get it...

[Nick Sonneveld]

1) they removed the logic later..  or it was for debugging purposes
2) poor compiler.  It probably put the variables in a temporary before assigning.  That's the best I can suggest.

- Nick

[Jelle]

I found this piece of code in logic.000 in KQI...

Code: [Select]

Label2:
  *v45 = 0;
  v45++;
  if (v45 < 45) {
    goto(Label2);
  }
  set.string(prompt_char,">");
  set.cursor.char("_");
}
What does the * in *v45 do? Is it some kind of pointer?

[Chris Cromer]

Hmmm I am quite curious as well, I havn't seen that before.

[Joel]

Yes, it is sort of a pointer. It's listed in the AGI Studio Help File. Look up lindirectn in the logic help section.

[Joey]

what is AGI0?

[HWM]

what is AGI0?

It's the first version of the AGI interpreter, only game that used it is King's Quest 1... Prolly not the King's Quest 1 you know, but it's pretty much the same (visually) actually, apart from the fact it was a booter (and came in three seperate versions; IBM, PCjr and TANDY)... After that came AGI1, which didn't differ that much from AGI0, one change however was that it worked on all pc-compatibles (atleast, I guess)... Then came AGI2/AGI3, the interpreters most people know... BTW: AGI0 & AGI1 are so called booters, meaning they use their own file system and could only be played when booting from the disk (hence the name)...

But that whole AGI0 story I said in that previous posting was pretty far-fetched... I couldn't make up a more sensible reason, I guess...

[Joey]

oh ok. thanks HMW.