*******************************************************************************
		(New) Magnetic Scrolls Fact Sheet		
*******************************************************************************

Version:	2003-08-22
written by	Stefan Meier (Stefan.Meier@if-legends.org)
		Please let me know if you find any mistakes or misses!
				
Contents:

	1	About the company
	
	2	The incomplete works of Magnetic Scrolls
	2.1 	The Pawn
	2.2 	The Guild of Thieves
	2.3	Jinxter
	2.4	Corruption
	2.5	Fish!
	2.6	Myth
	2.7	Wonderland
	2.8	Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol. 1
	2.9	Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol. 2
	2.10	Legacy

	3	The technical background
		
	4	How to play the games today
	4.1	The Magnetic Interpreter
	4.2	Emulation
		
	5	Resources
	
	6	Credits
		
	7	Change log
		




1 About the company
*******************************************************************************

  Magnetic Scrolls was	founded in 1984 by Ken Gordon and Anita Sinclair. They 
  started with an office in Eltham/South London and later moved to
  
	1 Chapel Court
	London SE1 1HH
	England
		
  From 1985-1989 their games were published by Firebird (Rainbird), up to 1992
  they were published by Virgin Mastertronic. When the company got defunct in
  1992, Microprose bought up all the rights, but except for releasing the
  game "The Legacy" under the Magnetic Scrolls label, they never made any use
  of it. It is not fully clear who holds the rights on the games today.
  Most likely they reverted back to Ken Gordon after some time passed without
  new releases.
  
  About three years ago Ken Gordon has registered the domain
  http://www.magneticscrolls.com
  but still today it does not carry anything except for the Magnetic Scrolls
  logo.
  
  A special member of the Magnetic Scrolls team was Murdoch, Anita Sinclair's
  bull terrier and in fact the corporate mascot.


  

2 The incomplete works of Magnetic Scrolls
*******************************************************************************
  
  From 1985 to 1991 Magnetic Scrolls released seven games. Thrilling stories,
  a trailblazing parser and wonderful graphics made them an true competitor
  to Infocom and most probably the best and most successful European 
  adventure game company. Like almost all text oriented game developers
  Magnetic Scrolls did not survive the start into the multimedia age.
  
  
2.1  The Pawn
*******************************************************************************
  
  The first game released by Magnetic Scrolls was QL-Pawn, the originate
  version 1.o of the later so popular The Pawn. QL-Pawn came on two
  micro drives that were enclosed within a micro drive wallet that was badged
  by Sinclair Research. A sleeve was also produced for the wallet along with
  an instruction booklet containing a short narrative to introduce the
  adventure. The game was text only, but it already had the powerful
  parser which was one of the basics for the success of Magnetic Scrolls.
  QL-Pawn also was the only Magnetic Scrolls game that was produced for
  the ill fated QL.
  
  All the ports of QL-Pawn, then called "The Pawn" had version numbers
  2.0 or higher.  

  Released:		1985 
  Distributed by: 	Firebird / Rainbird 
  Story: 		Rob Steggles 
  Graphics: 		Geoff Quilley 
  Programming: 		? 
  Packaging:		There are two different packages known, which can
  			roughly be separated into "small banner" and "large
  			banner" cover. The small banner version seem to be the
  			early releases and are rarer than the large banner
  			packages.
  Goodies authoring:	A Tale of Kerovnia by Georgina Sinclair			
  Package contents:	A tale of Kerovnia (there exist at least two versions
			of this novella. The second issue states "Version II"
			on the front page),
                        The Pawn Guide (platform dependent),
                        The Pawn Game play,
                        The Pawn poster,
                        Addendum,
                        Disc,
                        At least the early Atari ST versions contained
                        a "STOP PRESS" indicating a minor bug in the
                        online hint system (all ciphered answers must be
                        terminated with CO)
  Platforms: 		Amiga, Apple2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Atari XL/XE,
  			Commodore 128/ 64, Macintosh, MS-Dos, Schneider CPC,
  			Sinclair QL, Spectrum 128K, Spectrum +3  
  Known versions: 	1.0 (QL-Pawn)
  			2.0, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 
  			
  Addendum:		The beautiful graphics were created with "Neochrome"
  			on Atari ST.

  
2.2  The Guild of Thieves
*******************************************************************************
  
  Released: 		1987 
  Distributed by:	Firebird / Rainbird 
  Story: 		Rob Steggles 
  Graphics:		Geoff Quilley, Tristan Humphries
  Title picture:	Duncan McLean 
  Programming:		? 
  Packaging:		One known package (standard blue Rainbird box)
  Goodies authoring:	What Burglar by Michael Bywater 
  Package contents:	Bank of Kerovnia account card,
  			Die,
  			Magazine "What Burglar" (you could order another issue
  			of What Burglar from Magnetic Scrolls),
  			Kerovnia Guild of Thieves Discrete Entry And Removal
  			Operatives contract,
  			Adventure Guide,
  			Disc 
  Platforms:		Amiga, Apple 2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Atari XL/XE,
  			Commodore 64/128, Schneider CPC, Macintosh, MS-Dos,
  			Spectrum +3 
  Known versions: 	1.0, 1. 0, 1.1, 1.3 
  
2.3  Jinxter
*******************************************************************************
  
  Released:		1987 
  Distributor: 		Firebird / Rainbird 
  Story: 		Georgina Sinclair, Michael Bywater 
  Graphics: 		? 
  Programming: 		? 
  Package: 		Michael Bywater 
  Goodies authoring:	Michael Bywater
  Package contents: 	Magazine "The Independent Guardian",
  			Staff Memo,
  			Adventure Guide,
  			Beer mat "Old Moose Bolter",
  			Disk 
  Platforms: 		Amiga, Apple 2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Atari XL/XE,
  			Commodore 64/128, Macintosh, MS-Dos, Schneider CPC,
  			Spectrum +3 
  Known versions: 	1.05, 1.1, 1.22, 1.3 
  
  
2.4  Corruption
*******************************************************************************
  
  Released:		1988 
  Distributor: 		Firebird / Rainbird 
  Story: 		Rob Steggles, Hugh Steers 
  Music: 		John Molloy 
  Graphics: 		Alan Hunnisett, Richard Selby
  Title picture: 	Duncan McLean 
  Programming: 		Hugh Steers
  Packaging:		At least two different packages are known: A standard
  			blue Rainbird box whose extents were smaller than the
  			blue boxes before and a larger white box which was 
  			distributed on the US market.
  Goodies: 		Michael Bywater, Martin Atkinson, Damon Jones,
  			Richard Cubison 
  Package contents: 	Tape "Derek Rogers, March 25th",
  			Casino chip 500,
  			Adventure Guide,
  			Gameplay guide,
  			Hint section,
  			Guide to casino games,
  			Personal organizer pages,
  			Disc 
  Platforms: 		Amiga, Apple 2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Commodore 64,
  			Macintosh, MS-Dos, Schneider CPC, Spectrum +3 
  Known versions: 	1.09., 1.11., 1.12. 
  
  
2.5  Fish!
*******************************************************************************
  
  Released:		1988 
  Distributor: 		Firebird / Rainbird 
  Story: 		John Molloy, Pete Kemp, Phil South, Rob Steggles 
  Graphics: 		Geoff Quilley, Alan Hunnisett, Chris Kent,
  			Richard Selby, Tristan Humphries
  Title picture:	Duncan McLean 
  Music:		John Molloy 
  Programming:		Richard Huddy, Bob Coles 
  Packaging:		At least two different packages are known: A blue
                        Rainbird box which was sized like the Corruption box,
                        but it was printed "landscape" and also a larger box
                        which was distributed on the US market (printed in
                        portrait format)
  Goodies:		John Molloy 
  Package contents:	One week travel card - Hydropolis Underground Omnibus
  			Company,
  			Fish identification chart,
  			How to take care for your fish,
  			"The 7 Deadly Fins - Project" files including hints and
  			gameplay guide,
  			Adventure guide (platform dependent),
  			Disc 
  Platforms:		Amiga, Apple 2, Archimedes, Atari ST, Commodore 64/128,
  			Macintosh, MS-Dos, Spectrum +3 
  Known versions: 	1.00, 1.02, 1.03, 1.07, 1.08, 1.10 
  
  
2.6  Myth
*******************************************************************************
  
  This game was	only available as a welcome present in the UK adventure club
  Official Secrets and never released to the public. It is rather rare and
  often goes for several hundred dollars on auctions. The game itself is much
  shorter than the normal Magnetic Scrolls' games and i.e has only four
  graphics while the other games have about 30. Official Secrets was founded
  by Tony Rainbird (also founder of the British Telecommunications' label
  Rainbird)
  
  Released:		1989 
  Distributor:		Firebird / Rainbird 
  Story:		Paul Findley 
  Graphics:		Geoff Quilley, Tristan Humpries, Chris Kent 
  Programming:		? 
  Packaging:		The game was shipped in a rather simple card folder,
  			printed in b/w.
  Platforms:		Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64/128,
  			Schneider CPC (Amstrad), PC  
  Package contents:	Installation and Adventure guide,
  			Disc 
  Known versions:	1.0. 
  
  
2.7  Wonderland
*******************************************************************************
  
  This game introduced the "Magnetic Windows" system, featuring an graphical
  user interface and a slightly enhanced interpreter.
  
  Released: 		1990 
  Distributor: 		Virgin Mastertronic 
  Story:		David Bishop 
  Graphics:		Alan Hunnisett, Chris Kent, Geoff Quilley, 
  			and Anna Williams 
  Music:		Michael Powell 
  Programming:		Bob Coles, Paul Findley, Ken Gordon, Richard Huddy,
  			Steve Lacey, Doug Rabson, Anita Sinclair, Hugh Steers,
  			and Mark Taylor 
  Packaging:		They published at least two different packages, again
  			one for the European and one for the US market. Both
  			packages were similiar in design, however the color
  			scheme and the fonts were different
  Platforms:		Amiga, Archimedes, Atari ST, PC 
  Package contents:	66-page user guide,
  			Wonderland poster,
  			Map,
  			Quick reference guide,
  			Voucher for single-sided disk set (Atari ST),
  			Discs 
  Known versions:	1.00, 1.21, 1.27 
  
  
2.8  Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol. 1
*******************************************************************************
  
  This release contains	renewed and partly enhanced versions of "The Guild of
  Thieves", "Corruption" and "Fish!" running in the new Magnetic Windows
  system. 
  
  Released:		1991 
  Distributor:		Virgin Mastertronic 
  Story, Graphics,
  and Programming:	refer to Fish!, Corruption, The Guild of Thieves
  			(2.2),(2.4),(2.5) 
  Packaging:		There is one known package with the same extents as the
  			Wonderland box.			
  Platforms:		Amiga, Archimedes, Atari ST, PC 
  Package contents:	"Getting started",
  			92-page manual,
  			Quick reference guide,
  			Poster map (The Guild of Thieves),
  			Fish identification chart (Fish!),
  			Page from personal organizer and tape "Derek Rogers,
  			March 25th" (Corruption),
  			Discs 
					  
2.8  Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol. 2
*******************************************************************************
  
  There was planed a second "Collection" with the other three classics (The
  Pawn, Jinxter, Myth) running under the new Magnetic Windows system. However
  before this could get released Magnetic Scrolls was bought out by Microprose
  and so it never made it to the public.
  
  It is said that Ken Gordon has a fully completed "Collection Vol. 2" in his
  treasure chest, but this might be just myth.
  

2.9 Legacy
*******************************************************************************
  
  This horror RPG game was released by Microprose in 1993 under the Magnetic
  Scrolls label. Although several ex-Magnetic Scrolls employees worked on it,
  it should be considered "post-Magnetic Scrolls-era". The box contained a
  manual, a Player's Guide and seven 3.5"-disks.


3  The Technical Background
*******************************************************************************

  *	Major parts of the games were implemented with a tool called FRED. Mainly
  	Fred was a data entry tool which was used to store the descriptions of
  	objects, rooms and NPCs and describe the properties of each object (e.g.
  	weight, movable, burnable, container,...). Each object had a 14 byte
  	descriptor block. For The Pawn Fred 23 was used, the later games were
  	done with Fred 23junior, which were both developed by Hugh Steers. In
  	several games magazines (e.g. the german Happy Computer) FRED was
  	incorrectly denoted as a "language".
  	
  *	Eventually this game code was compiled into an intermediate code called
	ELTHAM (Extra Low Tech Highly Ambiguous Methodology or alternativly
	Extra Low Tech Highly Ambiguous Metacode). 

  *	The ELTHAM code implemented a subset of the 68000 machine code. It was
	executed "natively" on ST, Amiga, QL, Macintosh and emulated on the
	other systems. The virtual machine used up to 64k. On 8 bit machines
	they used virtual memory mechanisms. On the C64 non-active pages were
	held on the floppy disc. Only "read-only" pages were swapped.

  *	In contrast to the Infocom games the stack is part of the 64k. 

  *	Except for The Pawn, the game text is stored externally. It is encoded
	with Huffmann algorithm. 

  *	The pictures of the 16bit ports are RLE encoded. 

  *	Except for The Pawn the game dictionary is stored externally. With The
	Pawn it is stored plainly within the 64k segment. 

  *	Due to the emulation the game itself is not aware of the environment it
	is using. The communication between emulation and real system is done
	through LINE_A commands. 

  *	The I/O model is quite simple. It just supports streams for input and
	output and routines for drawing the images. The output is much more
	limited than for example the Infocom output. 

  *	With Wonderland and the Collection the communication between emulation
	and real system was heavily enhanced. The 64K limit disappeared. This
	was used to add new features to the games, e.g. the FIND <object>
	command in Fish!

  *	The disc protection for the Atari ST (which could only be copied with
	the legendary ACopy 1.2p) was realized through a BBC Micro. The ST and
	the BBC used different floppy controllers. The copy protection took
	advantage of some special features of the BBC controller to write
	sector numbers > 0xF0. Those sectors could be read with the ST floppy
	controller, but you could not format a disc, because these sector
	numbers were treated as "magic". Though a BBC Micro should not have any
	problems with making copies of the discs.   



4  How to play the games today
*******************************************************************************

  The games are long out of print and not available through "standard"
  channels anymore.
  
  One alternative are the numerous online auctions like ebay or yahoo.
  Magnetic Scrolls' games come up there occasionally. However, sometimes
  the prices that are payed there are beyond rational, so you might prefer
  to check "Classic game specialists" first. There are two well-known
  sellers (see 5.[4]) with reasonable prices.
  
4.1  The Magnetic Interpreter
*******************************************************************************
  
  In 1997 Niclas Karlsson has published the first release of his Magnetic
  interpreter. This original release supported all the "classic" games 
  including support for the wonderful graphics from the Atari ST. Later
  this version was extended with support for the title screens and the 
  title music. In December 2000 the second major release Magnetic 2.0 was
  made available to the public (written by Niclas Karlsson, David Kinder,
  Stefan Meier, and Paul David Doherty), now with support for the Magnetic
  Windows games including the animated graphics. The latest version of
  Magnetic is 2.2, which was released in March 2003. It adds support for the
  online hints of the Magnetic Windows games.
  
  Magnetic has been ported to a variety of platforms. You can find the Magnetic
  ports at the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial (5.[1]), the development project page
  at Sourceforge (5.[7]) and the IF Archive (5.[8]). The interpreter requires
  the game data and the image data in a proprietary format. Magnetic comes with
  several tools helping you in extracting the data from your original discs.
  Alternatively, you can download pre built files from the Memorial pages
  (Please keep in mind that downloading any of the game files is technically
  speaking illegal if you do not own the appropriate originals of the games).

  The following table provides you with a short overview of the features supported
  by the various ports. All versions support the classic games. If a field is
  marked "-" the feature is not supported. If support is introduced in a 
  specific version, that version number is indicated. Generally, it is 
  recommended to use the latest available version for your desired platform.
  
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | Platform  | MW Games | Title Screens | Title Music | Animations | Hints |
  +===========|==========|===============|=============|============|=======+
  | Acorn     |    -     |       -       |      -      |     -      |   -   |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | Amiga     |   2.0    |      2.0      |     2.0     |     -      |   -   |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | BeOS      |    -     |       -       |      -      |     -      |   -   |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | DOS       |   2.0    |     1.0r2+    |     2.0     |     -      |   -   |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | DOS/32    |   2.0    |      2.0      |     2.0     |    2.0     |   -   |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | Epoc      |   2.0    |      2.0      |      -      |     -      |   -   |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | Java      |   2.0a   |     1.10+     |     1.2+    |     -      |   -   |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | Linux/glk |   2.1+   |      2.1+     |      -      |     -      |  2.1+ |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | Linux/GTK |   2.1+   |      2.1+     |     2.1+    |    2.1+    |  2.1+ |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | Windows32 |  2.0r5+  |     1.0r3+    |    1.0r4+   |    2.0r5+  | 2.1r6+|
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  | XWindows  |    -     |       -       |      -      |     -      |   -   |
  +-----------+----------+---------------+-------------+------------+-------+
  
4.2  Emulation
*******************************************************************************
  
  If you have an option to transfer your original floppy disc to a newer
  machine like a PC, you can probably run the game under one of the 
  many emulators. The games are more or less supported on many of them.
  Some ports of the Magnetic Scrolls games used advanced programming
  techniques on the various platforms, e.g. the title screens on the Atari ST
  were displayed in a non-standard graphics mode (requiring an emulator which
  supports these modes like Pacifist) or the extensive use of the floppy
  disc processor on the C64 (requiring an advanced floppy emulation, e.g. in
  Frodo).
  
  Enumerating the various emulators is beyond the scope of this document,
  but a good emulation starting point is at 5.[6].
  
  
5  Resources
*******************************************************************************

  
  There are some sites with tons of information on Magnetic Scrolls:
  
  The Magnetic Scrolls Memorial [1]
  * http://www.if-legends.org/~msmemorial/
  
  The Magnetic Scrolls Gallery, now maintained by David Sinclair [2]
  * http://www.webpan.com/dsinclair/ms/mscrolls.html
  (might be abandoned, everything except for the front page seems to be gone)
  
  The Magnetic Scrolls Chronicles, maintained by Peter Verdi [3]
  * http://www.games.privateweb.at/magneticscrolls/
  
  
  Buying classic adventure games
  
  Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe, maintained by C.E. Foreman [4]
  * http://www.if-legends.org/~yois/
  
  
  Emulation
  
  Zophar [6]
  * http://www.zophar.net
  
  
  Magnetic Development
  
  Magnetic Project Page [7]
  * http://sourceforge.net/projects/magnetic/

  Interactive Fiction Archive [8]
  * http://www.ifarchive.org
 
  
6  Credits
*******************************************************************************

  Many people from all over the place provided me with information about
  Magnetic Scrolls. A big *Thank you* to all of them. Some special thanks
  for exhaustive help and sharing their memories go to (in random order):
  Paul David Doherty, Stefan Jokisch, Niclas Karlson, Rob Steggles,
  John Molloy, David Kinder, Michael Bywater, Anita Sinclair, Roddy Pratt 

  
7  Change log
*******************************************************************************
  2003-08-22	Added some notes about FRED (provided by Rob Steggles)
  		Removed link to Software and More (only selling on ebay now)
  2003-03-27	Magnetic 2.2 update, fixed some typos
  2002-07-11	First release