Date   : Tue, 17 Mar 1987 03:33:25 GMT
From   : ihnp4!invest!wheaton!cculver@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Calvin Culver)
Subject: Re: Hitchhiker's Guide for CP/M-80

In article <1140001@hpclisp.HP.COM> brengle@hpclisp.HP.COM (Tim Brengle)
writes:

>I called Infocom's 800 number.  I was planning
>to order about $300 worth of Kaypro II stuff and was surprised to hear that
>they are completely out of stock.  For ALL CP/M stuff.
>...
>Still, I haven't given up.  I managed to get an order form from a friend (who
>has LOTS of Infocom stuff for his MSDOS machine, **SIGH**)
>                           Tim Brengle

Now I'm concerned.  I called Infocom about 4 weeks back to check on
availability for Kaypro stuff and was told they still had stock on
everything.  I mailed off a check the next day, but have heard or seen
nothing from them yet.

But now for some (I hope) good news.  If I'm correct in my assumptions, you
should be able to run much of the MS-DOS stuff under CP/M.  Here's how:

The .COM file for an Infocom game is a generic file; the only thing that
changes from Zork I to Hitchhiker to Suspended is the .DAT file.  Any .COM
file will run any .DAT file simply by changing the name of the .DAT file to
correspond to the .COM file.  Thus, for example, simply by changing the name
of HITCHHIK.DAT to ZORK1.DAT, placing it on a disk with ZORK1.COM, and
typing ZORK1, you should be playing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Neat,
huh?  I have verified that this does work with the CP/M versions (I have 11 
of the 17 Infocom games for CP/M and I've run them all with ZORK1.COM using
this method). 

Alternatively, you could open up, say, ZORK1.COM with DDT and find where it
says ZORK1.DAT, then change that to HITCHHIK.DAT and it should then run as
is with HITCHHIK.DAT.

Thus, I assume that the same is true for MS-DOS versions and, what's even
better, you should be able to transfer a .DAT file from an MS-DOS version
and run it with any CP/M .COM file.  As I haven't got access to any MS-DOS
Infocom games I haven't been able to verify this, but I can't see any reason
why it shouldn't work.  Could you do me a favor?  Give this a try for me and
see if I'm right.  I'm anxious to know.

                                     --calvin culver--
                                     ...ihnp4!invest!wheaton!cculver
                                     Cculver@wheaton.UUCP