<html> <head>  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="Level9.css"> </head> <body><h1>Level 9 Interpreter v5.1</h1>An interpreter for Level 9 games in any format, including Spectrum snapshots.<p>Copyright (c) 1996-2011 Glen Summers and contributors.<br>Contributions from David Kinder, Alan Staniforth, Simon Baldwin, Dieter Baron and Andreas Scherrer.<br><p>Level9 is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See the file COPYING that is included with thisprogram for details.<p><hr><br>During the 1980s a small British company called Level 9, run by two brothers (Mike and Pete Austin), produced a series of textadventure games for a variety of computers. These games received considerable critical acclaim and are probably the best textadventures written for the small cassette based 8 bit computers common in Britain in the 80s.<p>Level 9 wrote their games using a custom designed system known as <nobr>"A-Code"</nobr>, which evolved from games on the 8 bitcomputers such as the Acorn BBC Model B, the Sinclair Spectrum and the Commodore 64 to the (then new) 16 bit machines such asthe Amiga and the Atari ST.<p>From disassembly of Level 9 games there are thought to be four variants ofA-Code, which are detailed below, and all of which are supported by thisinterpreter. Thanks go to Paul David Doherty for analysing the games andproducing the table which follows.<p><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">  <tr>    <td nowrap valign=top width=40><b>v1</b></td>    <td colspan=3>This was used for the earliest games. Spectrum v1 games had black text on a grey background.Games known to be released in this format:    </td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Colossal Adventure</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Adventure Quest</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Dungeon Adventure</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Snowball</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Lords of Time</td>  </tr>  <tr><td height=16></td></tr>  <tr>    <td nowrap valign=top width=40><b>v2</b></td>    <td colspan=3>These releases were made between 1984 and 1985 (and usually say so in the initial copyright message).This version introduced the yellow text on a black background which became standard. Games in this format were:    </td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Adventure Quest</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Dungeon Adventure</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Lords of Time</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Snowball</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Return to Eden</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Erik the Viking</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Emerald Isle</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Red Moon</td>  </tr>  <tr><td height=16></td></tr>  <tr>    <td nowrap valign=top width=40><b>v3</b></td>    <td colspan=3>This format, dated 1986, was used by the largest number of releases. These were:    </td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Worm in Paradise</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>The Price of Magick</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>The Archers</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>The Jewels of Darkness Trilogy (Colossal Adventure, Adventure Quest andDungeon Adventure released as one package)</td><td width=40></td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>The Silicon Dreams Trilogy (Snowball, Return to Eden andWorm in Paradise)</td><td width=80></td>  </tr>  <tr><td height=16></td></tr>  <tr>    <td nowrap valign=top width=40><b>v4</b></td>    <td colspan=3>This was used for the Time and Magick Trilogy (Lords of Time, Red Moon andThe Price of Magick), and all Level 9's new games from 1987 onwards:    </td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Knight Orc</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Gnome Ranger</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Ingrid's Back</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Lancelot</td>  </tr>  <tr>    <td></td><td width=40></td><td>Scapeghost</td>  </tr></table> </body></html>