*A wild ANACHRONISM appeared!*

[Nine Toes]

Hello.

I used to frequent this forum back in the day; like, 20 years ago. Game dev, like most of my other interests and hobbies, fell to the wayside when I got married, had children, and started working my life away.

My son is an adult now and in his last month of high school. The war ended up never happening, so he never got to lead humanity in the resistance against the machines... (joke. you had to be there.)

So now that I'm going to soon have plenty of free time on my hands, I'm trying to reconnect with things I used to get into. I've still got a handful of unfinished games and ideas that I want to finish stashed away somewhere. I'm wondering if they'll even work on current AGS builds?

Was hoping someone would be kind enough to give me the low-down on everything that has happened with AGS in the last two decades? A link of some sort will do, if it exists. I've popped in here and there over the years, but I haven't kept up with goings-on at all. Another thing is that unfortunately I haven't kept up with technology as much as I would have liked either.

It appears that AGS is now open source? Is that right? lol If so, I remember that being a big April Fool's joke once upon a time.

I was also kind of hoping to find out if anybody from back then is still around? I see AGA, Darth Mandarb, and Gilbot are still here. Looking at the member list, it looks like quite a few people I used to see around have been on in the last couple years at least.

...and it just occurred to me, some of those people may very well have passed away by now...

[Danvzare]

Was hoping someone would be kind enough to give me the low-down on everything that has happened with AGS in the last two decades?

Let's see...

• A collective series of games called "Reality On The Norm" was made (but is now mostly forgotten).
• Yahtzee got grumpy with the community and left, then became a successful Youtuber.
• The "Make your game" joke button was removed.
• Chris Jones decided he had better things to do in his life than support a game engine, so made it open source.
• Crimson Wizard decided he didn't have better things to do in his life than support a game engine, and has been working on it ever since.
• A member called Icey came onto the forum with really bad spelling and big dreams to make a massive JRPG, so everyone made fun of him, thus spawning Oceanspirit Dennis.
• Icey actually became competent, but then left to pursue other things
• The Ben Jorden and the Blackwell games were finished.
• Wadjet Eye Games was formed, and exclusively makes and publishes adventure games made with AGS.
• We finally got our act together with the AGS Awards.

And... I think that's all of the important parts.

...and it just occurred to me, some of those people may very well have passed away by now...

Yep. 
I don't know who was around back then (I certainly wasn't), but I assume you know about Larry Vales.    Well, the creator of that game series passed away a few years ago. 

[Nine Toes]

Heyo. Nice to meet you, @Danvzare.

• I remember RON. Never played any of the games. Or Ben Jordan. Maybe I should finally.
• Yahtzee... I remember him. He was never really around here much, if I remember correctly. Come to think of it, I don't remember what he was so famous for either... I might have played one of his games. Guess I'll have to check out his YouTube channel.
• lol I remember the "Make Your Game" button. I hadn't noticed it was gone. Does AGS still have the Christmas Day easter egg at least?
• As for CJ: I suppose, anyone could have guessed that he wouldn't want to maintain AGS until he was old and grey. For a couple years, I even wondered to myself if AGS was still around or if it had fizzled out into oblivion, considering the availability of other game engines like Unity. But I'm glad to see that he made it open source instead of abandoning it and letting it die. The work he put into AGS and the community it fostered would have been a terrible waste.
• I never got to meet Icey, but I remember Jodo Kast, Phil Roberts, and a handful of other people that you just couldn't take seriously. (I may or may not have been one of those people myself, but I'm happy to say I'm not the same person I was back then anymore. Or at least I hope.)
• Wadjet Eye Games... That rings a bell. I don't remember which member here was affiliated with that though. That's pretty cool that they're keeping adventure games alive. I saw an ad on Instagram the other day for a game company that produces old school, point-and-click adventure games "because they want to". I don't remember if it was the same company, but I think that's what made me come back here.

A couple years ago, I randomly came across an interview with a gal named Dragonrose who was a member of this forum. I guess she's some kind of game company director now?

I don't use Facebook anymore, but I was friends with a few people from here. I kept in touch with a guy named Ultimo who rage quit the forums back in the day, and then retaliated by launching a DDOS attack on it. He's doing good. He's married with children now. lol

I think I also remember reading about... Phil Reed, was his name? The creator of Larry Vales? I think I remember seeing him around here too.

I'm getting older and I should just accept that death is an eventual part of life for everyone, but... That was kind of a grim notion that just came to me as I was typing my last comment. I'm a little sentimental about this place, and the people I knew from here, even if I wasn't "friends" with them.

Anyway, I tried reading up on AGS's development over the years in the manual, but it looks like it's not working?... Or is that just me?

[Danvzare]

Nice to meet you too. 

Yahtzee... I remember him. He was never really around here much, if I remember correctly. Come to think of it, I don't remember what he was so famous for either... I might have played one of his games. Guess I'll have to check out his YouTube channel.

The games he's famous for, is 5 Days a Stranger and its sequels. I've not played them either.
I think he was also the one who made the first episode of Reality On The Norm, although I could be wrong about that.

lol I remember the "Make Your Game" button. I hadn't noticed it was gone. Does AGS still have the Christmas Day easter egg at least?

I have no idea. I've never loaded up AGS at Christmas. 

Wadjet Eye Games... That rings a bell. I don't remember which member here was affiliated with that though.

I'm pretty sure it's Dave Gilbert. But don't quote me on that. I'm terrible at remembering names.
Also, there's quite a lot of commercially released games made with AGS now. We get a few every year from all sorts of people. 

Anyway, I tried reading up on AGS's development over the years in the manual, but it looks like it's not working?... Or is that just me?

Huh, you're right. The manual isn't working. One of us should probably report that.
None the less, you should be able to read the manual that comes with the editor.

Also I'm surprised no one else has responded here yet.
Maybe they just thought my explanation was good enough. 
Speaking of which, I forgot to add that support for AGS games was also added to ScummVM not so long ago.