Posted By
Luca
on 2023-11-03
05:33:14
 |  Re: Flight Path 737
Some hidden text at $3FF2 reports:
(c) march 85
This could be the real release date, or the release date of a later batch with turbo loader. Do you have an older tape version, maybe with NO turbo tag on the cover?
EDIT: wait a moment! The version we have of this game has the first 3 bytes of the @ character zeroed due to a bad save from the older version, and the sentence that we've seen referring to March 1985. But! But the Italian commercial crack by Armati is actually a 1:1 duplicate of the real first release, with the same turbo loader, but in a 16K only version which prevents to load the game on Plus/4! This older version doesn't have the famous sentence, shows correct bytes for the @ character at $1000-$1002, and starts with $0FC0 due being completely different in the compiled code! Even the titlescreen is different!
 
Now, we *MIGHT* consider the Armati version as the real very first batch of the game, being a deliberate tape copy of it, but the best would be to have a safe dump of THAT tape.
EDIT2: the version included in the compilation Power Pack (Anco) reprises the compiled code running at $0FC0 as seen in the first release, but with a turbo loader which results to be Plus/4 compatible and with the screen turned on, and with the correct bytes for the @ character at $1000-$1002. It has a longer hidden text at $3FF0 reporting:
ts (c) march 85
where "TS" could indicate Tequila Sunrise, the Belgian label which has been used by Anirog to distribute its latter productions and re-releases.
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