Edge of Reality: The Longest RON game ever? UPDATED DOWNLOAD

[bspeers]

Edge of Reality

EDIT: (download updated: Feb 1 2009) - Please tell me if this solves your various resolution issues, everybody!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Yes, that's right, Edge of Reality, the Longest Reality-on-the-norm game (both in production and potentially in gameplay) is complete.  Nine years after I started this project, I have fixed most (not all) of the bugs, piled on extra content and made a second, very cool ending.

You already might know how long the game has been in production.  Why should you play it?

Good question.  It may not work perfectly on your new advanced system (may need a few changes to your resolution set-up, for example), and it will occasionally crash (save early and save often).  But it is a unique game, which is why I finally completed it after all these years.

If you've seen the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpQU76sUGdY) or the original, funnier trailer (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=aDOl_reVnH0), you should have an idea that a lot went into this game.  Some of my testers thought the game was nearly over around the end of the first chapter.

Ha I say.  Ha followed by Ha, and potentially Hoo.

There are, in point of fact, four fairly long chapters and 1 that splits into two.

However, the game is more than the sum of its parts.



STORY

Edge of Reality picks up from early threads in the RON universe, just after the death of Davy Jones.  Reality has been hit by disaster after disaster after delicious cake, and our friend Mika is just starting to put it all together.

Our story begins, however, with never popular Scientist, Dr. Ronald Emeritus, historo-physcicist who has collected the chronicles of Reality in a secret book.  However, just as he begins his first glimmers of understanding, something arrives in Reality.  A mysterious, disembodied something.  And it's not happy.

No.  That's not right.

It's happy all right.  For all the wrong reasons.

Beginning with the startling disappearance of Reality characters, Mika must make her way through the sleepy town to unravel a mystery and reach Thakbor the Great before its too late (that rhymed!).  Her journey will take her right to the Edge of Reality: to the outskirts of town, the new city centre, the woods, the beach, the deep ocean, even other dimensions.  What she finds is alternately ridiculous and unsettling.

Because things get weirder as you reach the edge.

Style



Think everything from Yahtzee style insult humour to Captain Mostlyesque psuedo philosophical avante-garde anti-jokes.  Everything from Sierra style puns, to graphically violent Sombreros.  Disembodied heads of celebrities.  Iraq jokes.  The goofy cavalcade of poorly drawn villains and the burning embers of despair, all in one incredibly ugly package.  Once you get past the first chapter, it just gets weirder, and I think, funnier.

There's more to Edge of Reality than that though.  While not exactly the best RON game ever made, it is long, and deep.  You'll find lots to click on, and messages for nearly half the interactions you think of (you are actually rewarded for clicking on everything).  Half the fun I had making this game was going back to screens I'd forgotten and running through the various interactions.  There's a lot of text here, and while a lot of it is either drab or outdated, there's a fair share of bizarre lines and clever zingers.  I enjoy playing it just for that.

But there's more.  Numerous secrets, including a dramatic secret ending, hidden items that you collect to unlock alternate modes of play, and 4 optional mini-games (technically more like 5, if you know where to look).  There's lots of way to "die" in the first half with no real consequences (you immediately come back to life) and then in the second, more challenging half, ways to actually be killed that bring menace back into your adventure.

Multiple characters, optional paths, and many puzzles that can be solved in any order is just part of the draw that kept me plugging away.

Just remember to save your game first.  Much like a crowded slushy turnpike, there are bound to be crashes.  I could not fix every bug, and some just crash the game at random.  All gameplay should work without error messages though.  Feel free to report anything with a clear message like "Line 20011.  Wrong Side of Cube For Flotsam Test."



PLEASE though, read or at least skim the instructions first.  Some important gameplay info and known bugs are included in there as well as a cavalcade of jokes and just strange ideas to get you set up for the game's odd mood.

The game is HERE:

http://www.cardboardlogic.com/Games/Edge/edgeof.zip

It may not be your blue cup of tea.  It may not be your game of the year.  But it is different and distinct, and I think worth playing through for a uniquely twisted take on RON, and for more puzzles than you can shake an anthropomorphic monkey wrench at.

To remind you, check out the trailers above.

Are you ready to reach the Edge?

[bspeers]

Thanks to Alpha2t and Jon for their testing help BTW, your advice was taken on a few problems, and your names are now in the game and the instructions!

[Gilbert]

Finally! I think I have something to try out in the coming new year.

[Frodo]

Looks really interesting.   

Downloading now.

[sergiocornaga]

Good game so far, though I haven't seen much that I hadn't seen before yet. I'll probably comment more at a later time.

I'm unable to run setup.bat (I wonder why?) and I was wondering why you didn't include a default setup file , as the game looks utterly atrocious in 320x200. In fact, I seem to remember there was no setup file in the original demo, but I could be wrong as it's been a long time.

Anyway, if anyone else is having trouble in this area, this is the acsetup.cfg file I stole from another, more newer Windows friendly game. Keep in mind save files are incompatible across different resolutions. Apologies if I messed up somewhere, somehow...

Code: Put into notepad, save as acsetup.cfg in Edge of Reality folder

[misc]
screenres=1
cachemax=20480
windowed=0
refresh=0
forceletterbox=1
[sound]
digiid=-1
midiid=-1
digiindx=0
midiindx=0
digiwinindx=0
digiwin=1096302880
midiwinindx=0
midiwin=-1

[Creed Malay]

Man, I *never* thought I'd get to play thios thing!
Awesome, downloading now.

[bspeers]

I did include a setup.bat, but it doesn't seem to work.

I would love to include a general setup file for future downloads, but I don't know how to do that.

Sergio, how do I do that?  If you tell me, I will update the .zip ASAP.

[Frodo]

Hmm, the game won't run in 320X200, and the Setup file doesn't work.

Sergio, I can't get your setup thingy to work either.

[Gilbert]

Actually, whenever you have a setup problem, try this first.

[bspeers]

Gilbot, tried that, it gives me this error:

"ST02 Could not load game file AC2Game.dat"

"You must create and save a game first in the Room Editor before you can use this engine"

I ran the shortcut from the directory in which edgeof.exe is stored and only changed what the online instructions reccomend.

I have to say, the game has worked okay on any system I've checked it on, but sometimes it does run in that ugly 320 X 200 resolution.

What I would love is a batch that I can just set to the best possible set-up, since it would work for pretty much 90% of my players.

[ALPHATT]

Congrats on releasing. I'm sad I couldn't help that much with beta but I'll keep looking for bugs in this release to make up for it. I just didn't had time ='(

[Frodo]

Actually, whenever you have a setup problem, try this first.

Thanks.  That seems to have worked.  

Good game so far.  

[Dave Gilbert]

Holy crap.  I never thought this would ever get released!  I beta tested this years ago in... 2003?  Yikes.  Anyway, I loved it then.  I'm sure I'll love it even more now.  Congrats on finishing, bspeers!

[Dualnames]

That was the one of the first ron games and ended up the last to be released.

[dunnoson]

ok.  I just played this game and its nowhere near what your screenshots are like.  the graphics are ok, but the character graphic is poor.  It looks like it came from the old king's quest game.

Im sorry for being harsh, but im just telling you.  I really did not like this game.  sorry.

[bspeers]

That's actually a screen resolution issue, as discussed above.  It looks a lot better in 640 x 480 - exactly like the screenshots.

However, I never claimed the game had great graphics.  In fact, I call them horrible in many instances.  Sorry you didn't enjoy it though.  It is a 9 year project, so there are bound to be some bugs like that.

The game is more about extensive content than graphical appearances, I even like it in the lower resolution for the weird retro-look, myself, but if you want what you see in the screenshots, you'll probably have to do what Gilbot reccomends.

Good luck in things!

[Dave Gilbert]

By the way, you might want to announce this on the RON Forum

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Congratulations on finishing this at last.  It must feel pretty good to follow through on a project this old!

Well done!

[sergiocornaga]

Sergio, I can't get your setup thingy to work either.

Ack! My fault, I knew I'd make some silly mistake. The first line got cut off as a result of it messing up the BBcode or something. It should work now, but the other solution posted is probably better.

Also, I'm stuck:

Spoiler

How do I get [to] the glint in the maze?

[close]

[m0ds]

Good job, well done on completing it! This is definitely on my "to play" list!