The Queen's Footsteps

Introduction
Awards
The gameplay
Hall of fame
Acknowledgments
More of that, please!

Introduction

The Queen's Footsteps is a text adventure game running on many vintage platforms. Check its physical release from the Polyplay store. You can freely download it for your favourite 8 and 16 bit computer from the table below. You can also play The Queen's Footsteps inside your browser.

Fig. 1: The amazing box of The Queen's Footsteps, available from Polyplay. Art by Ralph Niese, inspired by Alfons Mucha

Platform LinkVersionNotesL/S
C64C64_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, immagine disco D64X
Plus/4PLUS4_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, immagine disco D64X
PETPET_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, eseguibili .prgX
C128C128_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, immagine disco D64X
VIC-20+32KVIC20_Queens_it.zip0.2Versione in italiano, immagine disco D64. 40 colonne.X
ZX Spectrum (48K and P3)ZX_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, file .tap e dischi per 48k e P3
CP/MCPM_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, tre eseguibili CP/M.X
Cambridge Z88Z88_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, file EPR, APP o BASX
RC2014RC2014_Queens_it.zip0.2Versione in italiano, File ihx per l'utility hexload.
Atari 800 (48K)Atari_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, eseguibili .xex e file .atr con dos.X
Atari STAtariST_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, eseguibili .tos.X
Apple II (48K)AppleII_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, immagine disco .dsk autobootX
Amstrad CPCCPC_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, immagine disco.X
MS-DOSMSDOS_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano, colori ANSI, testata con DOSBoxX
AmigaAMIqueen_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano. Disco compresso Amiga autoboot.X
68k MacintoshMAC68k_queens_footsteps_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano. Immagine disco 800kB compressa. System 6 e superiore.X
MSXMSX_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano. File .cas per MSX 1 (28.8KB free)
Olivetti M20M20_Queens_it.zip0.2 Versione in italiano. Immagine disco PCOS.X
C64C64_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zipped D64 disk imageX
Plus/4PLUS4_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zipped D64 disk imageX
C128C128_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zipped D64 disk imageX
VIC-20+32KVIC20_Queens.zip1.1.1Zipped D64, 40 column (white on black text).X
PETPET_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zipped files for 40/80 column machines (min. 32KB)X
RC2014RC2014_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, ihx files for hexload tool.
Amstrad CPCCPC_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, disk image.X
MSXMSX_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, cassette and ROM images. MSX 1 (28.8KB free)
ZX Spectrum (48K and P3)ZX_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, tap and disk image files.
Commander X16CX16_Queens.zip1.1.1 ZIP file, tested with emulator v.36
MS-DOSMSDOS_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, with and without ANSI, tested with DOSBoxX
68k MacintoshMAC68k_queens_footsteps.zip1.1.1 Macintosh disk image (zipped). Tested with System 7.0.1, MacOS 7.5.3X
CP/MCPM_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, three CP/M executables.X
Olivetti M20M20_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, PCOS executables and a disk imageX
AmigaAMIqueen.zip1.1.1 Compressed self-booting Amiga disk.X
Atari 800 (48K)Atari_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, three .xex executables.X
Atari STAtariST_Queens.zip1.1.1 Zip file, .tos executables.X
Apple II (48K)AppleII_Queens.zip1.1.1 .dsk self-booting disk imageX
Cambridge Z88Z88_Queens.zip1.1.1 BBC BASIC-wrapped machine languageX
Web browserLINK1.1.1 Javascript + Wasm

Table 1: All versions of The Queen's Footsteps, download them and play them without moderation. No evil in-app purchase there! L/S means that the version can load and save the game.


Fig. 2: The Commodore 64 graphic loader. Homage to Alfons Mucha (from "Laurel")

Awards

It seems that The Queen's Footsteps has been appreciated by many vintage computers enthusiasts. It received an overall 93% score and a Crahs Smash award on the Crash 2021 Annual. If someone had said to my 12-year self that one of my games would have been reviewed such favourably on the Crash magazine, I would never have believed it.

TQF also won the "Text Adventure" category of the Planeta Sinclair Awards (Game Of The Year 2020).

The gameplay

Today is August 27th, 1904. Nine months ago, you, Emilia Vittorini, joined the Italian Archeological Expedition in Egypt led by Ernesto Schiaparelli, the director of the Egyptian Museum of Turin. You are now back in Genova, Italy: your steam ferry arrived three days ago with 25 wooden boxes containing Queen Nefertari Meritmut's grave goods, a real treasure! They left Genova by train, heading towards Turin, yesterday evening. While they were in transit, you were invited to a sumptuous reception organised by a wealthy art lover, Eugenio Collovati, count of Raligotto, but it would be hard to say that you appreciated the evening.

But the reception was yesterday: now, you must catch the train to Turin and check that the treasure arrived safely. I will be your eyes and ears. Good luck.

If you are interested in what is historical and what is invented in the game, have a look at this article.

An interactive fiction game is based on commands typed in a relatively natural language. Here are some hints:

look: describe again the location where the player is present
examine object: describe the specified object
north or n or go to north: moves to the north, if possible. Other directions are s, e, w, up, down.
The command bye allows to exit from the game and restart well... it restarts it. You can take objects that you "notice" and you can have a list of carried objects with inventory.

You can finish the game without using the verb use. On this, TQF is similar to many classic text adventure games. If you are stuck somewhere and you notice you absolutely want to use something, try to reformulate your sentence with another verb.

The following abbreviations are available:


The game is divided in four parts. When you complete one of them, you will get a code that allows to immediately jump to the beginning of the next part. Write down that to resume the game in the future. Passwords are important. On some platforms, you can save and load the game (use save and load commands).

Let me know about typos, errors and bugs in the game!

Fig. 3: The Commodore 64 version, with the brand new Art Nouveau 64 font, available on the Commodore Plus/4, too.

Fig. 4: The Amstrad CPC graphic loader

Hall of fame

If you finished The Queen's Footsteps and you would like to be included in the list, just write me an email (you find my address at the bottom of the page, do not use attachments). Send me the final game password if you want to appear in this list.

Fig. 5: The Amiga version, running on an emulated Amiga 500 with Kickstarter 1.3.

Fig. 6: Loading The Queen's Footsteps on the Commodore VIC-20

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank very warmly the following persons, who sent much appreciated feedbacks during the development of the game: Kweepa, André Luna Leão, Roel Nieskens, Spencer OwVicist, Stefan Vogt, Alberto Z. as well as Luca/Fire, who converted the C64 splash image to the Plus/4. George Nakos wrote the necessary interface code to port the game on the Atari ST and converted the splash picture.

More of that, please!

If you liked this program, have a look at the other things I wrote for old computers.


Silk Dust Silk Dust (En, 2020-2021) for C64, Plus4, VIC-20+24KB, MS-DOS...
Two Days to the Race Two Days to the Race (En/It, 2018-2019) for C64, Plus4, VIC-20+24KB, MS-DOS...
La piramide di Innuh The Innuh pyramid (En/It, 2011-2018) for C64, C128, VIC-20, Plus4, ZX Spectrum
Alien Invasion Alien Invasion: a VIC20 game written in 2018 for the VIC-20
Cavern Explorer Cavern Explorer, another modern VIC-20 game (2018)
3D maze for the Commodore 64 3D maze for the Commodore 64 (2017)

Log

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Copyright (C) 2019-2021  Davide Bucci davbucci at tiscali dot it