Zenix and Crystal City

Download Crystal City and Zenix
(See instructions below)

In the late 80's, I wrote two video games.  The first was called Zenix and was released in 1989.  The second was called The Crystal City, and was released in 1990.

Zenix	The Crystal City

Emulating Zenix and Crystal City

1) Download the latest emulator executable from Mess.org.

2) Extract it to your hard drive, keeping the directory structure

3) Under the bios folder, create a sub-folder called coco3

4) Unzip ZenixAndCrystalCity.zip file to the bios\coco3 folder.

5) Double click messgui.exe

6) If you want to use a joystick, plug one in, and set it up in the windows control panel.  In the emulator, Single click Color Computer 3 (NTSC), then click File...Properties, then click the Controllers tab, then check the Enable joystick input check box.

7) In the list of computer systems, double click Color Computer 3 (NTSC)

8) Go through the screens, until you see the green screen with a Coco style cursor.

9) If you want to use a joystick, select Options...Joysticks...Joystick1.  Click Right Button 1, and press the joystick button that you want to use to shoot with.

10) Click Options...Configuration...  Select Video type: RGB.

Running Zenix

1) Click Devices...Floppy #0...Mount.  Navigate to the bios\coco3 folder, and select Zenix.dsk.

2) On the green Coco screen, type loadm"zenix, and press enter.  NOTE: To make a quote ("), press the shifted 2 key.

3) After Zenix loads, you can press the joystick "shoot" key, to start playing at level 1, or you can press the number keys as follows: 1) Start at level four, 2) Start at level eight, 3) Start at level twelve, 4) Start at level sixteen.

4) To stop playing, click Options...Hard Reset

Running Crystal City

PLEASE NOTE: The boss ships at the end of the levels are partially invisible.  This is an error in the emulator, and does not happen on the actual CoCo 3 hardware.  If your computer is not fast enough the game can run at half speed.  If this happens, try shrinking the emulator window.

1) Click Devices...Floppy #0...Mount.  Navigate to the bios\coco3 folder, and select Crystal.dsk.

2) On the green Coco screen, type loadm"crystal, and press enter.  NOTE: To make a quote ("), press the shifted 2 key.

3) When it it says, "INSERT "LEVELS" DISK", click Devices...Floppy #0...Mount.  Navigate to the bios\coco3 folder, and select Levels.dsk.  Then press enter.

4) After the Crystal City loads, you can press the joystick "shoot" key, to start playing at level 1, or you can press the number keys as follows: 1) Start at level one, 2) Start at level two, 3) Start at level three.

4) To stop playing, click Options...Hard Reset