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Messages - Laukku

#1
I made a text parser module (based on an earlier one by Magintz) a few years back: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=9435.msg462815#msg462815 Unfortunately no one seems to have made a game with it. :sad:
#2
The idea of time passing (relatively) independently is really good IMO, but yeah, the story and characters are pretty flat, even more so by today's standards. I do think that the gameplay outweighs the cons, though. I love the nonlinearity, and I wish more adventure games leaned in that direction. For comparison, I recently played Murder on the Orient Express, which was an annoying chain of compulsory tasks. This article came to mind multiple times while playing it. Although some puzzles could be solved in any order, everything had to absolutely be done or the game would not progress. Colonel's Bequest at least allowed a great deal of freedom, even allowing you to miss crucial stuff (which only leads to a bad ending and/or less points).

Adventure games are often too linear, with only one way to solve puzzles (and order to solve them in), no branching storylines, and so on. Where's the experimentation? The genre has been too stuck in a decades-old formula. Heck, even the original King's Quest had great replay value due to the many ways to solve puzzles in.
#3
Quote from: Victor6 on Sat 24/03/2012 02:04:49
1. Enforce Ironman. - The game is automatically saved when you quit, and you only have one save slot. Players can potentially save-scum and ALT-F4 around this.

All roguelikes (a subgenre of computer RPGs) have a system almost like this. More specifically, you only have one save slot per started game, and the game quits upon saving. The savegame file is then deleted after loading it. This makes it impossible (unless you cheat by copying savefiles) to go back and retry something, and saving is only used if you want to stop playing for a while. This also makes dying permanent. Roguebasin has an article on this.

#4
 :)  Hi! This might be a bit late, but I did one a couple of years ago, based on a simpler one by magintz. It was made with AGS 2.72, but is compatible at least up to  3.0.2 SP1 - haven't tested with the latest version yet. EDIT: Tested it, seems to work fine.

Quote from: Laukku on Sun 10/08/2008 16:49:43
Text Parser enhanced

Basically an improved version of Texr Parser v2.0. Because no one had made a better one and Text Parser v2.0 was clumsy (having to put txtParser=""; after every single command? Seriously??), I decided to improve it by myself. Here are some improvements since Text Parser v2.0:

-parser GUI pops up and pauses the game automatically when the player starts typing
-NoMatch() function for generic "that doesn't work" responses
-a text-based inventory (read-only)
-inventory item closeup GUI for look commands (if you don't want it, you can easily remove it)
-"it" feature: You can type "look apple", then "take it" and the parser still understands it. Does not currently work for commands like "throw it at the bird", though.
-simplified scripts and fixed some bugs
-and many small things I've forgotten.

It even surpasses Trilby's Notes. It's made in 2.72, but it should work in AGS 3.0.2 SP1, too.

EDIT: I've improved it even more. It now includes a default "Really restart?" GUI, an easy-to-use ShowInvCloseup function, and bug fixes. Hopefully I figured out the correct reason for the sprite 0 bug. Post a message if you find bugs.
Get it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jcy1nkmffx3
Enjoy. :)
#5
General Discussion / Re: Let the games begin!
Wed 15/12/2010 09:47:37
HATETRIS

The Tetris that hates you.

It's incredibly difficult, my personal record is 9 lines. World record is an amazing 30.
#6
General Discussion / Re: Leslie Nielsen RIP
Wed 01/12/2010 06:31:44
 :(

In some twisted coincidence, Airplane just came on TV a couple of days ago here in Finland. That was before I learned of his death (maybe even before his death?)
#7
I made recently some experiments with the DOS engine. As a result, I managed to play some Windows-only AGS games in DOSBox. (It only works for games made with AGS 2.62 and earlier, though.) Not very useful, but there are some neat differences when playing in DOS mode. And it's a nice way of getting a better retro experience. :=

A video of Trilby's Notes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFL1Q8aeSk


Copypasted from my video description:

-Find out which version of AGS the game was made with and get it here: http://americangirlscouts.org/agswiki/AGS_Version_history
-Copypaste ACDOS.EXE to the game directory
-If you don't have CWSDPMI.EXE already, google for it and put it too in the game directory.
-Launch DOSBox and run the game with "ACDOS [game executable]" (or rename the game exe to AC2GAME.DAT and just run ACDOS.EXE).
-If you want to setup the game, type "ACDOS --SETUP". (That's TWO lines before the "setup", if you didn't notice.)

Some interesting things:
-Firstly, all the music is in AdLib! Whoah! AGS must have its own MIDI player that converts MIDI to AdLib. The soundtrack feels more eerie this way, doesn't it?
-The game lags noticeably. Apparently it can't play too many sound effects at once.
-Skipping cutscenes makes the game hang for a while.
-Configuring the game is completely different: It's an ASCII screen, like in many old DOS games.
#8
The original unfinished version of The Thief and the Cobbler

A surreal, unusual animated film... and an extreme example of how a film can ruined by ignorant producers. >:( The versions that hit the theatres are absolute crap compared to the original. As the film didn't fit their narrow definition of "animated film", the director was fired (he had been working on it independently for over 20 years, ouch!) and the film was changed to a bad Disney musical rip-off. The original version is only available as bootleg copies as it has never been released, so the best way to see it is either YouTube or torrent. Search either for the workprint or the fanmade Recobbled Cut, which tries to restore the film to higher quality. Even Roy E. Disney tried to do a restoration at one point.

The film features the most amazing 2D animation you will ever see in your life :o - although it may look like it, no CGI was used. It also has Vincent Price in it.

EDIT: TRAILER
#9
Quote from: GarageGothic on Tue 11/05/2010 19:54:13

Edit: Wtf happened to mixnmojo.com? Where's all the content - do you need to register to access it now? Anyhow, some info related to the canceled games and their comics can be found here: http://www.indyjones.net/cancelled/

They went through an update recently (as an April fools joke, it went down for a while and they pretended it was hacked,then the new site came "back from the dead"). Extras and stuff are still missing, but they will be back soon, too.
#10
I'm not sure, but is ProgZmax talking about parsers in conversations? He mentions things like "what you can talk about at any given time" and "where each character is unique and doesn't make generic repetitive responses to things they don't know/are unable to learn and react later on to things you have said in a meaningful way".
#11
Though it's not point-and-click, my favourite UI is the parser (as long as it's reasonably well implemented). The reason for this is that it allows more precise commands, often resulting in more interesting puzzles and better immersion. Some things which work well with a parser interface may not work as well in P&C. In the original King's Quest 1, for example, you simply have to type "DIVE" to dive while swimming in a lake, but in the AGS remake you must click yourself with the hand icon (IIRC), which seems rather awkward to me. Also, there is the possible effect of the character doing something unexpected with point&click - in Duty and Beyond, I randomly clicked on a table and voila! :o the character moved it to reveal a trapdoor.

On the other hand, it has its problems, too. Programming the parser to interpret all user input properly takes time, and typing simple stuff like "take hammer" gets repetitive. I'm able to live with a small amount of "guess-the-word", but too much of it is too much for me.
#12
Hints & Tips / Re: Ben Jordan 2 Deluxe
Sun 28/03/2010 11:59:37
All right, I'm near the Salton Sea... where do I find
Spoiler
the second "nice thing" for the date? Already gave the chocolade.
[close]

EDIT: NEVERMIND.
#13
Quote from: Ryan Timothy on Tue 12/01/2010 05:05:39
So if you really think about it, none of the scrolling rooms in AGS have accurate perspective due to technical limitations of it being a 2D background.  Once it becomes a scrolling room, you pretty much have to 'fake' the perspective.  It's sad, I know. :(

Edit:
Actually there is a cool forum where these guys were trying to figure this out, I bumped into this after posting the above message.  Here is how you 'fake' panning of the camera (which would be the camera sitting in one spot rotating around and around):

Read more here.

That's not "faking", it is how proper perspective acually works. Straight lines will look curved as they go past you. We of course mostly don't notice that, because we tend to focus on just a part of our field of vision.
#14
Quote from: AGS panel reviewthe game lacks substance when you remove all the dialogue, which lowers its rating.

I don't understand this. Isn't this the same thing as saying "This game is actually not very good, but if you ignore its flaws, it's a  very good one!"?  ??? Why ignore part of a game in a review?

:-\ Maybe the reviewer meant something more like "This game lacks actual substance, though the nice dialogue helps somewhat".
#15
Site & Forum Reports / Re: New AGS Website
Sat 09/01/2010 22:37:03
Hmm, what is this?  ???

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/Newsite/Games.aspx/Detail/332/Tall_man_from_Trilbys_Notes

Could not find it on the current website.

EDIT: The recent posts in "From the Forums" show threads that are off-limits.
#16
Site & Forum Reports / Re: New AGS Website
Sat 09/01/2010 22:13:46
Quote from: Pumaman on Sat 09/01/2010 17:14:14
* Award Winners, Picks Of The Month and Tabular List options now work

It was quite ironic how those linked to a page containing the text "Coming Soon", and then there was a "coming soon" link in the side bar.  ::)

The new layout feels somewhat unstructured, especially in the Games area. What about adding some sort of frame around the column?
Here is a very crude mockup:
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/framemockup.PNG

The links at the top also need attention IMO, they took some time for me to notice. Making them more button-like might work. I'm bad at describing my idea for them in words, but hopefully the image will get the message across.  :)
#17
For all the people who failed to run discworld in DOSBox (should work for all cd-rom games):  :=

After starting DOSBox, first mount a folder as a virtual drive (such as "mount c C:\GAMES", this will make the directory C:\GAMES a virtual C hard drive in DOSBox)
then mount the CD-ROM drive, preferably as D. For example, if the Discworld CD is located in your H drive, type "mount D H:\ -t cdrom".
Then go to the mounted D drive by typing "D:".
There should be an installer on the cdrom, called something like INSTALLER.EXE, so type its name. The installer should then copy the necessary files to your hard drive, and make the game ready for playing.

There should not be any problems, unless Windows requires administrator rights for some reason.

EDIT: LUniqueDan has said basically the same thing.
#19
Quote from: Domithan on Mon 06/04/2009 20:59:33
This game uses the "Enhanced" Text parser with all sorts of interactions available in every room.

Someone's using my template!  :D I can't wait to see it in action. I'll definitely play this.
#20
Maybe it's just me, but Guybrush's silly hair looks more natural in the acual game.  :-\ Might be the shading.

I don't like the new cover art. The thing I really liked about the original was how adventurous it felt. The new one has too bright and happy colours and cartoony style that significantly hurt the meaning of the composition.

Anyone noticed how they changed the Monkey Island logo?

EDIT:
Quote from: Huw Dawson on Tue 02/06/2009 14:02:42
My sole complaint is that LeChuck looks silly...

That's what I thought of his CMI design back then...

EDIT 2: They destroyed that "decent looking pirate" character. He was supposed to be smiling and friendly.
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