Legend-the GAME!


Fri, 17 Mar 95 22:57:26 -0500

Although I understand some of the frustration, I'm disappointed that so much
of the discussion of Dave Baggett's "Legend" concerns only whether it runs
stably or how fast it is.
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The DOS memory management problem is very annoying, to be sure, and it's
plagued me as well in my efforts to stabilize the Inform/386 port. TADS,
in using a memory extender which IMHO is much less stable, suffers from the
same thing, to a greater degree, and there is no easy answer.

I'll repeat and extend some things Dave pointed out:

-Run it in a DOS box under Windoze; the Windoze memory manager takes over
and does better than some other memory managers.
-Don't run under Netroom 2 unless in a DOS box from Windows (I've not yet
installed Netroom 3; that might be better).
-If all else fails, some memory extenders do better if EMS is enabled,
although this will cost you 64k of upper memory for the page frame. If you
are using EMM386, try the 'ram' option instead of the 'noems' option. This
has worked for me in a couple of goofus situations (including using a similar
option with Netroom 2 in some cases).

I believe djgpp would be a more stable, but not perfect, answer for TADS.
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I don't understand the complaints about speed. I've been playing Legend on
my laptop, a 486/33, which on battery power I set to 50peed, so it's
something like a hypothetical 486/16. Is Legend slow compared to some
other stuff? Yes, of course it is. But how much does it matter? In short,
are we trying to swallow the game whole, or savor all the delicious prose
and rich environment? If the purpose of IF is merely to finish the game
as quickly as possible, I'm ready to give up on it. But of course, I don't
believe that is the desired approach. Legend on my machine as described runs
"fast enough" to be playable and to allow me to spend time getting immersed
in the environment.
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So, then, what does everyone think about Legend the GAME as opposed to Legend
the Item for Technical Carping?

Bob Newell
bnewell@delphi.com
gobblernet classic games bbs 701 222 0429