During the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, I decided to tackle the task of scanning old paperwork and digitizing it on my PC. As I sifted through boxes of documents, I stumbled upon a treasure trove of computer printouts dating back to the early 1980s. These were from my days of learning to program on the Commodore VIC 20 and Commodore 64.
Back then, I was passionate about creating Text Adventures, and my friend Gavin and I teamed up to write a couple of them. The first adventure, “Shipwrecked,” was completed and published. However, the second one, “Space Station Lyra,” only made it to the BETA stage without any playtesting.
Fast-forward to 2024, and I revisited those scanned documents. As I sorted through them, I discovered the printouts, game maps, and other crucial materials related to “Space Station Lyra.” Digging into my old disk images (created about 15 years ago), I even found work-in-progress saves for the game, including a graphic title screen and a custom space-age font.
Using these scattered files and scans, I managed to reconstruct significant portions of the long-lost, never-published game. It’s now about 80% complete, and with some free time, I might be able to finish what we started 39 years ago. The disk image, title screen, font file, and adventure database are all neatly organised in a new D64 image file, awaiting the next steps toward completion.
