|
Play Law of the West
A great game from th' Good Ol' Days
Law of the West" was a great ol' game
back in th' days before 3D cards an' even Windows. My gal Big Nose
Kate had it on her ol' Apple IIsomethin' an' we got a great
kick out of it. Basically you played th' sheriff of a tough lil'
town in th' Old West an' yer objective was ta survive ta sunset.
Makin' this difficult was a large cast of colorful characters,
some up ta no good, some tryin' ta help ya. You go through a series
of one-on-one encounters in th' streets of th' town an' yer
responses to their greetings began a conversation. Dependin' on
how th' conversation went they might help ya, walk away or try an'
shoot ya in which case you had to quickly draw your gun an' return
fire.
Well that ol' Apple is gone but th' game is back thanks ta emulation.
Nowadays PC's are so fast that they kin run software programs called
"emulators" that basically make them function like one of these old
machines. Then if ya have th' right software images of th' required
ol' ROMs or floppy disks ya kin run th' old software right on yer
PC!
So what I got here for ya is a Commodore 64 emulator an' th' disk
images of th' ol' C64 version of "Law of the West" which is
all ya need ta get it runnin' on yer PC. It's a great lil'
game, with at least as much attitude as Outlaws an' a charmin'
Old West soundtrack. Here's how ta get it workin':
-
Download the
Frodo v4.1 C64 Emulator (862k).
-
Frodo comes with a nice setup program, so after extracting
th' zip file go ahead an' install it.
-
Download the
Law of the West disk images (145k).
-
Unzip th' disk images ("Law1.d64" and "Law2.d64")
into the directory in which you installed Frodo.
-
Run "FrodoPC.exe." This will launch the Frodo emulator.
A window pops up with what looks like an old blue Commodore
64 screen in it.
-
You have to configure Frodo's preferences to run Law of the
West correctly. Select "Preferences..." from the "Tools"
menu. The Preferences window appears.
-
Under "Devices" click the "Browse..." button next
to the "8" field.
-
A file requester appears. Find the disk image
that you installed, "Law1.d64." Select it and
hit "Open" to close the file requester. This
will take you back to the Preferences window
and the path to the disk image should now appear
in the "8" field. You have just told the emulator
where the "disk" is.
-
Under "Options," make sure the "Limit Speed," "Joystick
1," "CIA IRQ Hack," "Swap Joysticks" and "1541
Emulation" boxes are unchecked, and that all the other
Options ARE checked. Hit "OK" to close the Preferences
window.
-
Back in the main Frodo window, select "Save" from the
"File" menu to save the settings you just made.
-
You should now be able to type and see text appear
behind the blinking cursor in the emulator's window.
If no text appears, play around with the "Joystick"
Options in the Preferences window. I found that
when "Joystick 1" was checked I couldn't type but
this may differ on your system.
-
Notice the percentage number in the lower left of the
window: this is the speed at which the emulator is
running relative to a real Commodore 64. You want this
number to stay just a little above 100%. If it falls
below 100 the program will slow down and the sound will
falter, but if it is too high above 100 the game will
run too fast. The easiest way to change the speed is
to resize the Frodo window by dragging the frame:
make it larger to slow Frodo down and smaller to speed
it up. Raising or lowering your Windows
screen color settings will also affect the speed.
-
Now you have to run the program by typing commands
in the emulator window. This gets a little tricky because
the C64's keyboard doesn't correspond exactly to the standard
PC keyboard. Hit the following keys in this exact order
and combinations:
{L}, {O}, {A}, {D}, {SPACE}, {SHIFT}+{2},
{]}, {SHIFT}+{2}, {,}, {8}, {,}, {1}
This should result on the screen in
LOAD "*",8,1
-
Hit {ENTER}. The screen should display something like
SEARCHING FOR *
LOADING FROM 0801 (2049) TO 09E8
READY.
-
Now type "run" without the quotes and hit {ENTER}.
-
The game should run and bring you to the Law of the West
title screen. Hit {ENTER} to start the game.
-
From here you go through the game encountering many odd
characters who will either help, hinder or ignore you depending
on your responses to them. Use the arrow keys on the numeric
keypad (8,4,6,2) to scroll through
your four possible replies and the "zero" on the numeric
keypad to say the selected line. If thing are looking bad
you'll have to draw your gun by holding the up key (8 on the
keypad). Once drawn the arrow keys on the keypad aim the crosshair
and the keypad "zero" key fires.
-
Once you progress past a certain point it will ask you to
"turn the disk over." To do this open the preferences window
and change the file listed in the line next to "8" from
"Law1.d64" to "Law2.d64" and hit "OK" followed by the
keypad "zero" key to continue. Once you start the game over
you'll have to change it back to "Law1" again when prompted.
Thats it! Have fun an' keep in mind that different characters respond
better or worse to different tones of conversation. Each conversation
alters the encounters to follow. The most important person is the
Doctor. If you get along with him (don't call him a drunk, don't
hit on his girlfriend) he will save you if you happen to get shot.
Strangely enough you always get shot in the arm but it's fatal if he
doesn't give you a little pick-me-up, which he won't do if he's angry
with you.
Play through at least a couple times to explore the many different
conversations and confrontations that result from your responses to
the various characters. Can you foil the bank heist and stage robbery?
Your final score depends on how effective you were at foiling crime
and aiding those in need, not jus' on how many people you gun down.
In fact, gunning everyone down in cold blood is the best way to get
a really low score. Can be fun though. ;D
|
|
