scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Steven J Owens) (09/17/89)
Hello out there in Netland. Well. After hearing all kinds of wonderful praise for the Mac from various people, and for the wonderful graphics capabilities, I'm looking for a software package for it. Actually, I'm looking for one for a friend, whose roommate just bought a Mac. Okay, here's a chance for all of you Mac aficianados to prove how good Macs are. What I'm looking for is in essence very simple. Basically a sort of "adventure game construction package." In simple terms, once somebody else has spent an hour or three putting together the components, the software should enable my friend to go through two stages: 1] He uses the mouse to build a little map of rooms and hallways and so forth, and places obstacles in the hallways. This is done map style. 2] Then, when he's done, somebody can simply progress through the map, in 3D, and move along these rooms and hallways and so forth. The ability should be there to have fairly sophisticated art - but only in a sort of "picture" format. Animation would be nice, but not essential. The ability to put in things for the player to have to "fight" and/or defeat, and the ability to have objects that the player can carry around, would also be nice. The more the merrier. Anybody heard of something that does this? PD, freeware or shareware would be great. A commercial package with a reasonable price would be good. FTP'able or e-mailed would also be terrific. Any takers? C'mon, here's your chance to show me how terrific the Mac is. From what I've heard the things I want to do aren't all that hard to set up, but I'm no Mac programmer, and neither is my friend. Steven J. Owens | Scratch@Pittvms | Scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu "Well, that's one of the differences between life and fiction, after all. Fiction is supposed to make sense." _Telling_Lies_For_Fun_&_Profit_, Lawrence Block
clye@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Christopher Lye) (09/18/89)
In article <19601@unix.cis.pitt.edu> scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Steven J Owens) writes: > > Okay, here's a chance for all of you Mac aficianados to prove >how good Macs are. What I'm looking for is in essence very simple. >Basically a sort of "adventure game construction package." In simple >terms, once somebody else has spent an hour or three putting together >the components, the software should enable my friend to go through >two stages: > > 1] He uses the mouse to build a little map of rooms and >hallways and so forth, and places obstacles in the hallways. This is >done map style. > > 2] Then, when he's done, somebody can simply progress through >the map, in 3D, and move along these rooms and hallways and so forth. >The ability should be there to have fairly sophisticated art - but only >in a sort of "picture" format. Animation would be nice, but not >essential. The ability to put in things for the player to have to >"fight" and/or defeat, and the ability to have objects that the player >can carry around, would also be nice. The more the merrier. > > Anybody heard of something that does this? PD, freeware or >shareware would be great. A commercial package with a reasonable price >would be good. FTP'able or e-mailed would also be terrific. Any >takers? C'mon, here's your chance to show me how terrific the Mac is. >From what I've heard the things I want to do aren't all that hard to set >up, but I'm no Mac programmer, and neither is my friend. Sorry, but an application that builds adventure games is not what makes a great computer, especially in the case of the mac, Fortunately for you though such a program does exist on the mac although I don't promise that it will do everything you want it to do. The one that immediately springs to mind is WorldBuilder by Silicon Beach software. It was written expressly for making your own graphics adventure games and I've seen very impressive results. It is a piece of commercial software but i am not sure of the price, try calling one of the Mail-order places. Another alternative is HYPERCARD, which is fairly easy to get ahold of although its status is not precisely public domain. I've seen some stunning adventures done in HYPERCARD but I believe there is a problem with saving games. For a great example of a HYPERCARD adventure try finding a copy of DeathMall 3000. There may be other alternatives and you might consider asking some of the local talents on the net. Glenn Andreas who wrote that great PD frp "THELDROW" occasionally reads and posts here. If your friend has the money, World Builder seems like a good investment. Chris Lye
scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Steven J Owens) (09/20/89)
In article <10464@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> clye@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Christopher Lye) writes: >> Okay, here's a chance for all of you Mac aficianados to prove >>how good Macs are. What I'm looking for is in essence very simple. >>Basically a sort of "adventure game construction package." >>... >Sorry, but an application that builds adventure games is not what makes >a great computer, especially in the case of the mac, Fortunately for you >though such a program does exist on the mac although I don't promise >that it will do everything you want it to do. I never said that the application makes the computer great, only that here's a chance to show me how good the computer is. The fact is that I've heard fantastic things about the Mac, and even seen them, but the software packages that do these things are almost always nowhere to be found. >The one that immediately springs to mind is WorldBuilder by Silicon >Beach software. It was written expressly for making your own graphics >adventure games and I've seen very impressive results. It is a piece of >commercial software but i am not sure of the price, try calling one of >the Mail-order places. I'll start checking into it ASAP. Sounds good. >Another alternative is HYPERCARD, which is fairly easy to get ahold of >although its status is not precisely public domain. I've seen some >stunning adventures done in HYPERCARD but I believe there is a problem >with saving games. For a great example of a HYPERCARD adventure try >finding a copy of DeathMall 3000. Actually I saw a copy of Hypercard on the table with the Mac last time I was over there. I have no idea how Hypercard operates though - what steps would I go through in making such an adventure game with Hypercard? >There may be other alternatives and you might consider asking some of >the local talents on the net. Glenn Andreas who wrote that great PD frp >"THELDROW" occasionally reads and posts here. Sounds good. Are you out there Glenn? Does anybody have his net address? How about an FTP for Deathmall or THELDROW? I have several Mac FTP sites, I guess I should just start looking... Steven J. Owens | Scratch@Pittvms | Scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu "As far as the ethics of all of this may have been concerned, I'm not sure there's any good sense in imposing questions of ethics upon a profession which has muddled along for centuries without any." _Telling_Lies_For_Fun_&_Profit_, Lawrence Block
d88-jwa@nada.kth.se (Jon W{tte) (09/21/89)
In article <19641@unix.cis.pitt.edu> scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Steven J Owens) writes: > Actually I saw a copy of Hypercard on the table with the Mac >last time I was over there. I have no idea how Hypercard operates >though - what steps would I go through in making such an adventure >game with Hypercard? Mostly game design, and drawing... The rest is trivial (Making New Buttons and linking them to other cards, and maybe a little HyperTalk to get it nifty -- but HyperTalk is EASY and obkect oriented (although slow) and there's always the online help stack...) Happy Hacking ! I'm interested in the finished stack (okay, beta then ?) h+ -- Ambition a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Steven J Owens) (09/26/89)
In article <1722@draken.nada.kth.se> d88-jwa@nada.kth.se (Jon W{tte) writes: >>though - what steps would I go through in making such an adventure >>game with Hypercard? > >Mostly game design, and drawing... The rest is trivial (Making New >Buttons and linking them to other cards, and maybe a little >HyperTalk to get it nifty -- but HyperTalk is EASY and obkect oriented >(although slow) and there's always the online help stack...) Okay, I'm six or seven chapters into the manual, and I've gone through the online help stack. A few questions - the graphics in Hypercard, can they do a short animated sequence (something as simple as zooming down a 3-D hallway) and/or sound? Would I be best off using a separate little stack of frames for this, to create a short "film"? How about that idea, using separate stacks to create little animated "short takes" that are linked into the main game stack? Game design at this point is moot - I know what I want to do, the question is if I can get Hypercard to do it. Also, I want to set this thing up, by the time I'm finished, so a friend can easily make custom "dungeons" or whatever you want to call them. Nothing fantastic, just straight-forward hack&slash. How about the game mechanix aspect? I want to have more than a decision tree, I want some areas where there is random possibility. Does Hypertalk handle that? >Happy Hacking ! I'm interested in the finished stack (okay, beta then ?) If I ever get it I'll send it along.... Anybody got a copy of these PD/Shareware adventures I've heard mentioned? How about any advice or such? Steven J. Owens | Scratch@Pittvms | Scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu Disclaimer: I don't really mean any of this, I just need something to fill in the spaces between the subliminal messages generated by vt100 cursor codes...