HAMmurabi (Amiga)

HAMmurabi V1.02

What can I Say??

I was developing Crysis for the AmigaGameJam 2024, but it wasn't suitable, so now I've taken a break from developing Trans-Pennine and Crysis in order to work on something which might be?

Aims:

1. To make the 1978 BASIC game Hamurabi work on the Amiga.

2. To make some extra features and add some Kingly conundrums.

Requirements

• Any PAL Amiga with Kickstart 3.0+  (does NOT work with KS2 roms).
• 0.5 MB Chip and 0.87MB Fast memory
• Any CPU.
• 3 MB free disk space (stand alone), or 55MB (with intro).
• Optional: A way to copy the files onto a real Amiga hard drive.
• (Optional: H/V Centering on), (Filter:Auto-scaling).

Features:

• 10 HAM6 images at 320 x 512 interlaced - The backgrounds.
• 1 HAM 6 video, at 320 x 216 (widescreen) - The intro.
• 3 Eight-Channel (and quite long) music modules.
• Optional original 1978 Randomiser for increased difficulty.
• Two game options: 1978 mode (Green Screen), or 2024 mode (HAM).
• Text to Speech - (1978 version only)
• Image slideshow

Install and Loading

The game comes in two varieties.  The FULL PACKAGE.hdf includes a HAM6 video introduction, with digital WAV audio. The STAND ALONE version is much smaller at just 3MB, and does not contain the video introduction.   The HDFs should auto boot and play the game from there.

To install this on your hard drive (if such a thing still exists now in the real world??), simply download the ZIP, and copy the files to your HDD. If you have all of the files already in C, Devs, and Libs, you can delete them from the installed directory.  Otherwise, the package will automatically copy the fonts and the 3 most important Libs to your hard drive, on running the game for the first time. 

The package will also auto detect if you have the Intro Movie Video installed or not, and will play it if the video is there. You can delete the intro video to save some space, and the game will still work as normal.

Intro Movie - just unpack the archive to your Amiga HDD, to the path where you installed the game.  i.e. the  main install directory. The pack includes the video and the movie viewer, plus a script and an icon to view it.

Instructions

You play as the chief of an ancient tribe in Sumeria (modern day Iraq) from your base at Babylon. You must choose each year whether you wish to buy or sell land, how much grain to save to feed the people until the next harvest, and also how much land to plant with new grain for the next harvest. If you get it right, you'll be judged after 10 years based on your progress. Players must end the game with more land than their citizens need for basic survival, or they will be judged harshly!

Controls

Use a Mouse to play the game, or the keyboard!

Return = Enter Amount (press once) / OK (press twice) / YES
Space Bar = NO
Cursor Left or Y = YES
Cursor Right or N = NO
F10 = Restart
ESC = Quit to Menu

A Zero has been placed in each input box. Press Return twice to enter a Zero input.

Classic Mode (1978)

This mode will begin the game similar to a PDP-8 mainframe on a green screen. Classic mode can be played with or without the randomiser.

New HAM Mode (2024)

This mode will play the game with a much smaller font, over the top of a random backdrop. The updated mode also features the Kingly Duties, which are only available to play in this updated mode.

Kingly Duties - Random Stranger

Each month, a random stranger will wander in to town. You have the option to welcome the stranger or not. If you choose to ignore the stranger, nothing will happen. But if you welcome them, they may give you something good, bad or indifferent. It's a random gamble.

Kingly Duties - Nobility Tasks

Here you are given an issue to sort out. If you choose to ignore the problem, you get nothing. But if you accept the challenge, you will get something very good, very bad, or indifferent. It's a random gamble.

Randomiser

The randoming code was included with the 1978 version, but removed in later 1980s magazine prints, so it's up to you if you want to play the 1970's or 1980s version.

This code adds things like freak harvests (good or bad) and deaths and births based on the figured you entered. If you turn the randomiser off, the game will provide more predictable results, with much smaller variations. By default, the randomiser is on, and both modes can use the randomiser or not. Switching this on has no effect on the random landscapes, and the Kingly Duties.

Music

There are three 8 track MODS included with the game. They are both quite long, so it will take a while to play them. They reminded me of ancient times.

Credits

Coding = (lifeschool)
Testing = (Ransom1122)

Extra Opportunities (2024 version)

After taking care of the fields, any other business for that year will appear on the screen as a choice question, yes or no. If you choose no, the opportunity will pass, and you will essentially get nothing. You will face two leadership tasks, the first is a 'Stranger'. The other is a hardship, or what I like to call the 'Nobility' task.

Strangers

Anything and anybody could appear in your area, 3000 years B.C (5,000 years ago), in what was then ancient Mesopotamia. The fertile crescent of what is today Iraq. You have the opportunity to welcome the Stranger, or to not do so. There are 10 different wanderers who could appear, and a ten sided dice rolls to decide the wanderer.

• YES - Select this to roll a 3-sided dice. The first outcome is good, the 2nd one is basically very little (usually positive), and the third outcome can be bad for you and your people. So there is a weighted chance the outcome will be at least positive.
• NO! - The opportunity passes, leaving nothing.

Nobility Tasks

There are many things which can happen to your people and your lands. Ten 'tasks' are randomised with the 10-sided dice, and you get to choose to help Yes or No. If you choose no, then you won't be involved with that task.

• YES - Select this to roll the 3-sided dice again, to get your outcome in the same way as before.  One outcome is good, one is a weak result, and the other is bad.
• NO! - The task passes by, leaving nothing.

Blind Mode?

There was an effort to make the game playable by the blind. All text can be spoken in the 1978 version, and the numbers are spoken after entry. It was a good idea, but there is no way for software to speak as player type inside an input box. The blind can also press F10 to restart the game. 

Assets Used

Intro: The Entire History of Sumerian Civilization (Ancient Mesopotamia History Documentary) - by Wise History - Documentaries.

Ancient (.mp3) - by OneTent:
https://pixabay.com/users/onetent-15616180/

Game:
Code - Hamurabi - Original code by Creative Computing (1978)
https://github.com/philspil66/Hamurabi/tree/main
Images. e.g.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/471752129719842958/

Music:
Patterns of Triumph, Destruction, Doom - by Thaumaturge
https://amp.dascene.net/detail.php?detail=modules&view=7376

Loading the Code into CanDo 3

* First download the FULL package, which contains to Source
* Copy the Source code from the Source folder to the main game directory.
* Run the game, or Assign HAM: to the main directory.
* Quit the game.
* Load up CanDo, and load up the source code.
* After the intro, the CanDo box should appear. Click Design mode.

Bugs list

• text not disappearing on bad buy command
• You cant escape speech mode until all speech is spoken
• Sometimes the Return key to OK your inputs breaks, if you open the WinUAE menu.
• Screenshot says: Crowd approaching, but one stranger walks away?
• OK buttons on 2024 game are bright green. :(
• No pointer change on Docs screen. Doc Font??

Update Log

28 June 2024 - V0.1A-V0.2E - Copied the BASIC code into CanDo and got it running. (see image 1 to the right, it says the wrong version number)

30 June 2024 - V0.3-V0.4A - Added HAM backgrounds and a random Stranger.

1 July 2024 - V0.4A-V0.4F - Added a random Kingly Powers task. Bug fixing.

5 July 2024 - V0.5-V0.5F - Added a menu, with music and toggle buttons.

7 July 2024 - V0.5G - Made a Docs button and a Quit button. Fixed button texts.

16 July 2024 - V0.6-V0.6A - Fixed some layout bugs. Added image slideshow.

27 July 2024 - V0.6D - Fixed input boxes + auto deleted them, in 1978 Version.

20 Aug 2024 - V0.7-V0.7E - Misaligned OK in 1978 mode. Keyboard keys.

21 Aug 2024 - V0.7F-V0.7H - OK button now colour 14. Fixed ghosted OK.

22 Aug 2024 - V0.8-V0.8E - Fixed boxes overlap on menu. Added white labels to menu boxes. Auto start the music. Quit button working.

23 Aug 2024 - V0.8E-O.8H - Menu button on 2024 ver. 1978 OK buttons fix.

24 Aug 2024 - V0.9-V0.9E - Extra music. Title and doc bleed fixed. Doc update.

25 Aug - V0.9F-0.9H2 - Spaced text out more (2024). Speech (1978).

26 Aug - V0.9I - More bug fixes, fixed speech errors.

27 Aug - V0.9J3 - Moved Menu button to right edge. Auto-detect intro.

27 Aug 2024 - V1.00 - Created an icon and made the game packages.

28 Aug 2024 - V1.01 - Fixed pointer on docs page, and made Doc text font easier to read. Fixed the OK button turning bright green, and breaking on pressing Cursor Left. Removed OK buttons when clicking the Menu button. Changed 'Stranger' to missed 'Opportunity'.

28 Aug 2024 - V1.02 - Fixed Y key bug. Added F10 to restart.

Consumer Log.

; Consumer Log - 08/27/24

16:32:27 1.39M Chip, 7.16M Fast
16:32:30 0M Chip, 0M Fast
AUTO LOG STARTED

16:33:21 0.49M Chip, 0.74M Fast
16:33:23 0.49M Chip, 0.74M Fast
16:33:25 0.49M Chip, 0.87M Fast
16:33:26 0.37M Chip, 0.87M Fast
16:33:28 0.37M Chip, 0.87M Fast
16:33:30 0.37M Chip, 0.87M Fast

16:33:44 0.17M Chip, 0.83M Fast
16:33:46 0.04M Chip, 0.14M Fast
16:33:47 0.17M Chip, 0.17M Fast
16:33:49 0.17M Chip, 0.17M Fast
16:33:51 0.17M Chip, 0.17M Fast
16:33:53 0.17M Chip, 0.17M Fast
16:33:55 0.17M Chip, 0.17M Fast
16:33:56 0.17M Chip, 0.17M Fast
16:33:58 0.04M Chip, 0.16M Fast
AUTO LOG STOPPED