How did you find AGS?

Started by Phemar, Mon 14/06/2004 14:59:24

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Da_Elf

i was thinking back to old games and did a search and came actoss AGDI's vga version, got onto their forum then through there found my way here to AGS figuring "hey, if i could program back in the c64 days i should be fine"

evenwolf

Oh god.

I remember trying otu one other program and then seeing this screenshot of a sportscar next to a street.  And I tried a demo.  And i downloaded a graphics program, and tried to design rooms.

Jesus, I dunno.   When I joined the forums it did me well to meet eric and helm and las naranjas and butcher and gilbert and sylpher..... all while on eric's chat room sketch thingy.
"I drink a thousand shipwrecks.'"

Akatosh

In germany, there is a games-related magazine called 'GameStar'. They once had a 'Freeware' special - they had about 1/3 of a page long articles about truly great Freeware games and a CD with them on. So I looked around on it a little and stumbled upon an adventure game called 'Seven Days a Skeptic'. I thought 'why not' and played it through. Afterwards, I checked the credits to see whether the author had made any sequel or prequel. And there it was... Hm... 'Adventure Gaming Studio'?

Also on the CD were 'Apprentice I' and 'Apprentice II'. And in both credits - this AGS thing again! So I checked and immediatly got excited - I programmed before, in C++, and so I could immediatly start off scripting.

Mr. Mozzarella

About two years ago I rediscovered my childhood passion for adventure games in general and KQ in particular ... more or less for fun I searched for a 9th King's Quest  - and found the Phoenix Entertainment website. I think it was there that I discovered a link to AGDI ... I played the remakes of KQ1 and 2 and read in a read me file or in the credits about Adventure game studio - a freeware adventure game editor. That made me curious and I checked it out  :D
Night of Fire - Thread

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Everyones future, red button is mine

Stupot

I've had a passing interest in adventure games for a few years now, so its inevitable that I would discover this site sooner or later... I think the first time I came here was looking at the "Free Games Galore" list on gameboomers.com and noticing that a large chunk of those games were linked to this site...
I've popped my head in once in a while for the last 2 or 3 years but it's onloy in the last couple of weeks that I've decided to use the software and the forums and get involved a bit,

Jon

I found AGS while reading 'PC Gamer UK', and on one of it's disks it had 5DAS (which got me hooked) and I eventually found adventuregamestudio.co.uk  :)

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires

I did not find AGS. AGS found me. My love of adventure games hath maded me a beacon, A BEACON I SAY, which called out to the most powerful and versatile deity in the pantheon of game makers.

Then I got onto the forums and found they were all beacons. Therefore, the all-powerful BLUECUP deity is a whore.
Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Kneel. Now.

Never throw chicken at a Leprechaun.

Unknown_Terror

I found AGS by typing into Google "Adventure Game Creator" it's about 7th Down the list for this Search, All the other ones were crap compared to AGS

"To Live a Perfectly Normal Life, You Must Accept The Fact That Life Will Never Be Normal"

nulluser

#168
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Fleshstalker

This is a long story...

When reviews of the Xbox version of Psychonauts appeared, my interest for the game grew. Though the  previews before the release made me think it would be an average Platformer. Nevertheless, I kept my eye on it, but thought this game would never triumph my all time favorite Platformer, Mario 64.

As more reviews for Psychonauts popped up with excellent scores, my interest grew even bigger. Then I got my hands with the Official Xbox Magazine demo and was surprised with the gameplay and characters. That there settled it, I HAD to buy the game when I had the money. Well... I never did have enough money to buy it and soon enough my Xbox broke. My fault too since I fist pounded where the DVD drive was because of constant freezes. I should  have just opened it and clean the lens.

So at that time Xbox 360 was close at hand, so I decided to save up money for it. I figured why buy an Xbox when I can get an Xbox 360 which would more than likely be backwards compatiblie with Psychonauts. So I got a Xbox 360 (still have it) and had been patiently waiting for Psychonaut to be backwards compatiblie.

Months passed by and I kinda forgot about Psychonauts. Then the latest patch came out and lo and behold! PSYCHONAUTS!

I uploaded the patch and went to find the game. I went to most of my local stores to hunt for the game and after several searches I found the last copy at Best Buy for $30. I quickly nabbed the game and went home to enjoy it. Several days of playing made me completely fall in love with the game. The cast of characters, art direction, gameplay, level design, story and music blended so well together that Mario 64 was dethroned from my all time favorite Platformer game ever!

What an awesome game. This was like 2 months ago by the way. I loved (still do of course) it so much, I did some research on the game and who created it. I knew before hand of a developer called Tim Schafer, but didn't search info on him till my love for Psychonauts.

I read about him online and what people would consider his best game ever created... GRIM FANDANGO.

I thought, if I loved Psychonauts and many claimed Grim Fandango to be his best, why not give it a shot. I went to Ebay to see the bids. Not many listed as its about 10 years old. Though I didn't see any sealed US copies. I'm very picky with games. I will usually never buy  game unless its factory sealed. I figured evenutally someday a sealed version would pop up on Ebay.

A few days passed and I was talking to my brother on MSN messanger. Somehow I mentioned Grim Fandango to him while he was on Ebay and he sent me a link to a sealed US copy. Sad thing was that I didn't have Pay Pal, but the seller accepted money orders.

The next day, I create an Ebay account and placed a bid. I HAD to play this game to see what all the fuss was about. Then my brother logged in his MSN (He's from Arkansa and I'm from Texas by the way) and I told him I made an account and bid on that particular Grim Fandango he linked me about. He then offered to bid for me since he had Pay Pal. He would get it and then ship it too me while I'd send him a money order to pay him back. It'd be much quicker this way.

So 2 days later the auction was comming to an end. I told my brother to place the maxium bid of about $31 dollars at the last few seconds. I was nervous and excited as the time came close at hand. My borther had won it! HA! I now had it! My brother won it for me for $28.88. That same day a few minutes later, I took the bus to my local grocery store to get a money order and mail it to my brother.

So as I waited for my bother to get it and then he in turn mail it to me, I figured I'd do some more research in the Adventure genre, to become more familiar with it, since the last Adventure game I had played was Myst for Sega Saturn. I then remembered of an old Adventure game called Maniac Mansion, that a lot of people seemed to mention every now and then through out my life.

I decided I'd try to find a downloadable PC version of it (ARR MATEY! heh... If you know what I mean). This should hold me over till I get my hands on Grim Fandango as well as familiarize myself with this genre. I then performed a search which led me to a link. I got the Deluxe verion and played it. Had fun, but still being new to this genre, some of the puzzles were hard. I got a bit fustrated and looked at a guide towards the end of the game. Thats when I had even more fun becuase I knew where to go next.

During the time, I went to a gaming forum and learned that it wasn't an illegal game download, it was free. I thought that was pretty cool. Eventually I beat the game. I wanted to play another of the same genre, so I went back to the link and went to the Adventure freeware games link option. There was quite a few. One in particularly caught my eye.

A Tale of Two Betrayals had nice art, so I downloaded it and played it. Shame that it was a very short game. I believe this was the first of the point and click Adventure games I had beat without the use of a guide. I ended up beating it and looked at a guide afterwards. Thats when I learned I got the bad ending. Heh.

After that, I downloaded 5 Days A Stranger. That game had me hooked! It took me a little over 5 hours to beat. Every bit of it was captivating. I loved it and went to Yahtzee's home page and found that 5 Days A Stranger was part of a series. I immediately downloaded the remaing three of the series. While looking at his site, I stumbled into a link that lead me to Adventure Game Studio's web page.

I thought "WOW" this site has a lot more free games dedicated to Adventure games than the other site I found Maniac Mansion Deluxe on. For three days, I was downloading the games with scores of 80% and higher (also a few below 80%). Having a modem takes a while to get them downloads, but it was worth it!

I now had downloaded 36 of these games after three days. The next day I finally recieved Grim Fandango! Now I am focusing on beating Grim Fandango. Once I beat it, I have 36 others to keep me busy for a long time! Its kind of nice being new to this genre and having found this site because right now I have a lot of gaming ahead of me to catch up. Its like I found a treasure!  ;D

All this would have never happened if it weren't for Psychonauts. I will never forget how this game opened a new world of gaming to me. Also, I thank the community for these games, without them we'd have no such site. :)


ManicMatt

Blimey, that was a long story! For those who can't be arsed to read all that:

Psychonauts = Tim Schaefer = Grim Fandango = Free adventure games = AGS

I'm not convinced Ebay was the cheapest way to get Grim Fandango though. Although you did get a sealed copy at least. Was it the budget version though?

Finally, you wouldn't have been physically able to reach the laser in your xbox console without using a crowbar, so no regrets there. (Except for the bashing part)

Captain Lexington

#171
My adventure game adventure begins with Christmas, lo those many years ago. The (seemingly) obscure game 'Escape from Monkey Island' was for me. I started it the next day, and played it a good deal. However, when I left for my mom's house it was all but forgotten.

Two years later, my geekiness brought me and my mom to TrekFest XXI, down in Riverside, Iowa. A nice road trip, and even though neither of us are 'trekkies', per se, it was still a ot of fun. I bought the Interplay game 'Star Trek: Judgment Rites' (an excellent game) for ten bucks, still in special edition box. When I finished playing through it the fourth time (finally not getting kicked out of Star Fleet and moved to a planet for 'mental evaluation' at the end) I decided I'd have easily payed ten bucks for just the game.

I then remembered how terribly awesome EMI was, and played that all the way through.

I then told dad that these games brought back the faintest of memories of him playing King's Quest III To Heir is Human. I then pressured him into buying the big King's Quest Megaset, only to arrive at the conclusion that LucasArts made better (albeit harder to come by [why don't they re-release Monkey Island? WHY?]) games. I then went online to find out about getting some good old fashioned Monkey Island awesomeness. This took me to the world of amateur gaming, and I got pretty excited about it. The next Christmas, my dad got me Game Maker v1.6, and I expressed my chagrin at being able to do absolutely nothing I wanted to do. So I went online searching for something made expressly for adventure games.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Fleshstalker

#172
Quote from: ManicMatt on Sat 10/03/2007 21:29:28
Blimey, that was a long story! For those who can't be arsed to read all that:

Psychonauts = Tim Schaefer = Grim Fandango = Free adventure games = AGS

I'm not convinced Ebay was the cheapest way to get Grim Fandango though. Although you did get a sealed copy at least. Was it the budget version though?

Finally, you wouldn't have been physically able to reach the laser in your xbox console without using a crowbar, so no regrets there. (Except for the bashing part)

Yes that was a long story. I'm not much to type a lot, but this site and my new passion for Adventure games made me type that up.  ;D

As for what it cost me, I believe the reason it was a bit of money was because its the US version which is harder to find than the UK version. Then the fact it was factory sealed.

Now I'm not totally aware how many version of Grim Fandango there were, but the one I got only came with a jeweled CD case. There is no huge box and the wierd thing about the back of the booklet is that it has a copyrighted date of "1997". Also theres nothing on the cover stating its a re-release or budget, it only a picture of the well known Grim Fandango logo with Manny, Mece and Domingo and the other guy.

Which is strange since it was released in 1998. Kinda wierd, but I'm not the only person whose booklet says that, theres someone else at another gaming forum that wrote a review also stating its from 1997, which leads me to believe he or she also has the exact thing written in the back of the booklet.

So I take it there was the big box version and just the jewel CD case version. Are there any more versions? Which came first? I'm thinking my copy must be a second print since back then PC games came in a big box, or I'm I mistaken?

Oh, almost forgot, the Xbox is pretty easy to open. I had the tools to open it. I actually did and it was actually the lens that had a coat of dirt on it, but the top part of the drive was caved in a bit with my Hulk-like fist smash. I ended up caving it back out by opening the drive's top case, but after a few weeks, it broke. The damage was already taking a toll on it.

ManicMatt

Hmm weird, the guy who taught me how to repair PS2's said he couldn't get to the drive. Are the UK and US versions built the same I wonder.

Is there a barcode on the back of the box for Grim? If it's sealed I imagine you're okay. Just checking... You can get a jewel box inside a big box, see. My Leisure Suit Larry 6 is like that.

Oh, and on the back of PS2 game Okami, it says copyright 2006 on it. Yet it came out about a month ago. Either it's when they printed it, or when it was released in other countries. (it being a Japanese game)




Fleshstalker

Its really easy to open the dvd drive. Once you open the case of the Xbox, there are 2 screws holding the drive. Before that there is another screw to hold the HD drive. You remove that screw and proceed with the other 2.

The you have to pop the dvd drive out. Then theres 2 smaller screws on the side of the dvd drive and simply remove them and you are now inside the lens. Perhaps the US & UK version is different.

As for my Grim Fandango copy, yes it has a bar code on the back of it. Does the box version only have a bar code on the back of the big box? Well heres the Ebay link of the game my brother had won for me:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=001&sspagename=STRK%3AMEDW%3AIT&viewitem=&item=110093751852&rd=1&rd=1

Thats is also a bit weird of your Okami game. Heh.

wolf 164

I found it from a LucasArts board... someone was talking about a Grim Fandango 2 fanmade game... So i decided to check it out.

Babar

#176
I don't understand all this "I have a 97 CD!". Didn't it come out in 97? I think I have the same thing you do, Fleshstalker, only I actually bought it from the LucasArts website (I think I must have been one of the last to do so, because they don't seem to be selling it anymore). It's also just a jewelled CD case (I miss those big boxes with those gifts/bonuses I used to get from LucasArts), and it also says copyright 1997.

As for the topic of this thread, I'm not sure, but I think I've replied to it before. Anyhow, I first got interested in making adventure games in.....1998? 1999? I googled, and found the adventuregamestudio.co.uk site. Downloaded AGS, made a few pictures, puzzles and interactions, then got stumped at the Palette bit. I was more into playing the games, and I remember anticipating every new part of a series called "The Book of Spells"(I think). I slowly forgot about AGS, only to return 4-5 years later, to find out that it had a windows version! And 16bit colour! Yay!
The ultimate Professional Amateur

Now, with his very own game: Alien Time Zone

Fleshstalker

Quote from: Babar on Tue 13/03/2007 16:50:58
I don't understand all this "I have a 97 CD!". Didn't it come out in 97? I think I have the same thing you do, Fleshstalker, only I actually bought it from the LucasArts website (I think I must have been one of the last to do so, because they don't seem to be selling it anymore). It's also just a jewelled CD case (I miss those big boxes with those gifts/bonuses I used to get from LucasArts), and it also says copyright 1997.

Because its weird. It was released in September 30, 1998. Probably the mucked up when printing the booklet of the jeweled case version. Thats the only reasonable answer.

ManicMatt

#178
They probably just print that way in advance? Or actually, you know, had it copyrighted in 1997.  :P

Ghost

I can second that, Matt and Flesh. I have the original version that was released in Germany 98; it also is dated 97. I think that makes sense; box artwork is often done while the game is in golden beta stage, and that explains the "earlier" copyright date.
Calling Grim Schaefer's best stretches it a bit; the setting is of course almost unique, but I'd actually rate Psychonauts, of wich I played the PC version, a tad bit better. I dig the "dive into peoples psyches" more than the film noir setting, and the controls in Grim were, er, grim.

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