After coding a few games as a solo project, in August 2024, I contacted Mr. Bonaventura Di Bello and asked for permission to translate his 35-year-old games to English and bring them up to date for a modern audience. BDB was thrilled to think that people were still interested in his old games and gave me permission to proceed.
I soon enlisted the help of Garry Francis, and The BDB Project was born. It's a very ambitious project that may take years to complete.
The aim of the project is not only to translate the games to English, but bring them up-to-date for a modern audience. This means removing most of the sudden death, guess-the-verb, tight inventory limits, mazes, unwinnable situations and moon logic that was prevalent in the games of the 1980s, and introducing a friendlier parser with multi-word input, extended vocabulary, richer descriptions and more responses. In some cases, there are enhancements to the puzzles and/or extra puzzles.
The games are being written in Inform 6 using the PunyInform library and will be published here on an irregular basis as time permits. Follow us to get notified of new releases.
Bonaventura, Garry, and I hope you enjoy this blast from the past.
Venture into the wild west to rescue your kidnapped wife and daughter from bandits. This is the first entry in the "Kenneth Johnson Trilogy".
Don your marshal's tin star and pursue outlaws through the wild west of Arizona. This is the second game in the "Kenneth Johnson's Trilogy".
Leave your tin star at home and catch outlaws that have crossed the border into Mexico. This is the final game in the "Kenneth Johnson's trilogy".
