Messages

Question: Are you using the new AGS version 2.6?

Because I was having trouble with View 11 on my new game.  I fiddled with it a bit -changed the View to a number under 10, saved it, tested it, and then changed it back to 11 and it worked...
    I never experienced this problem with the old version, but just this evening the same thing happened with View 12.  The only significance of the number 10 I can find in the whole game is that it is the possible score -I don't suppose your game is out of 100?  I have ABSOLUTELY no idea how the two could possibly be connected, but it's my only idea so far.

Um, are there any feudal Barons in this game, perchance?  Can there be now?

Dang!  Too late!!!
Anyway, if anyone else has querries about AL-QUEST there's a comprehensive (though minimalist) walkthrough available at http://www.freewebs.com/madhatter13/walkthrough.txt .  Yeah, in retrospect I should have added it to the download package but I forgot.

Your link seems to be off again, on again, but I managed to download the game and play it.  I haven't finished it y-e-t....

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What's with the salt shaker strung up on the window?  Is it committing suicide?  And how come the chef doesn't talk?!?  And I tried everything to grab that gastrophile's monicle, but to no avail....  How's about a teensy weensy hint?

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But I guess that means the puzzles are so good they've beaten me   !
Kudos for the graphics and the cool escape plot!

Oh, and I think there's a tiny bug:

Spoiler

Anytime I try to use any inventory on the plank I end up walking automatically to the cafe

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Wow -excellent game.  Top rate graphics.  

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I'm glad idiots like me could still finish the game without figuring out the coolant puzzle!

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8)

Too bad there wasn't a countdown status bar -that would really make the time factor more...intense.  

    Looking forward to many sequels!

YES!  Put him in a different costume, but equally uncomfortable and pathetic.  Make him like a mascot for a B-league team that always loses...in like a giant duck suit or something.  Call it "Quack: Ducking work."
     
P.S. The game was unbelievably cruel in the funniest way possible.  Awesome!

I think the watershed on the whole issue is money.  If you're making money off someone elses idea, I can see them having a right to go after you.  But if you're not making money, I think anything is a go (at least from my perspective).  If intellectual material in the public domain gets popular enough it becomes part of a common culture, and shouldn't be controlled (except possibly for money earning purposes) by anybody.
    As for appropriate sequels -most sequels, in my experience, are let downs, even when they're made by the copyright holders.  I mean, look what Disney is doing to all it's classic movies!  A singing Cheshire Cat....I never thought I'd live to see the day....  So I say that if you are into a concept so much to want to add to it yourself (by making a game, etc.), well who better than you to do it.
                                                           BaRoN

Regarding programming bugs discovered over the past two weeks: I have just completed a revamped version of AL-QUEST that fixes these problems (and a few that weren't discovered....).  The new version is available now at my website (www.freewebs.com/madhatter13) at the very bottom of the main page -however, as this link is well known to be a frustratingly slow download, I will suggest that you wait for me to get it up on the mirror-site (unless you have a lot of time on your hands...).  The mirror-site link should be available sometime Feb 9.
       Feb 10: The mirror-link is now up:  download away!

Regarding suburbia.....

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There is a way out.  There are actually only nine rooms in the maze, but the way they go together is kind of counterintuitive.  What you want to do is keep walking left.  If that doesn't do it for you after 4 rooms than go up or down, and then continue left.  Eventually you'll come out.

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There's nothing you can do to the kid or in suburbia -kind of like just in real life.  The rat cave glitch is unfortunate -really the best thing to do to avoid this is not to die before that part.  I'm working on an updated version that will hopefully fix the problem, but that doesn't really help you.  If you're want some solutions I have a walkthrough that can be downloaded from my website at www.freewebs.com/madhatter13.  If you're just looking for a hint, how about this:

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There isn't any money in the game!  So, to get the matches out of the convenience store I'm afraid you're going to have to do a bit of shop-lifting.  If only there was someway to distract the shopkeeper....

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I have been on this bug awhile -I have a few new ideas what might be going on.  I will try to fix it as soon as I figure it out.
REGARDING DOWNLOAD TIME: My girlfriend's brother has graciously put up a mirror-link for downloading AL-QUEST 1.  The link is at:

http://www.tomauger.com/madhatter/AL-QUEST_1_REVAMPED.zip

You can also get to this through my website.  The download time on my computer is > 1 min.  I am a bit disappointed in freewebs -at first the download was quite fast (considering it was free) but it has gotten progressively slower.  I will be shopping around for a better host.  

Can you tell me if this error occurred after...

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...you died?  For example, did you die and find your way back out of the suburban maze at some point before you went into the cave and experienced the error?

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I refuse to download anything that takes longer than two hours

If this game takes longer to download than 2 hours than your machine is even more pathetic than mine.  
Honestly - I have downloaded the 6MB zip file in 6 minutes.  My friend told me it took 20 min.  If it takes longer than 2 hr. well...firstly, you're right, it's unacceptable, but secondly it's worth it (!).   I will see if I can resolve the problem.
                                                                           BaRoN
P.S. The game is a demo in so far as it is not 'finished', which in my vocabulary means 'completed to a high degree of perfection.'  The game is complete -35 rooms, playable and beatable.  There are, however, certain effects that remain to be added -namely some music and an animated intro.  But the game itself is done.

Announcing the completion of AL-QUEST 1.

DETAILS: This is my first game.  The resolution is 640x400 and it runs on the default GUIs.  It's about a guy called AL and how he lives in a rat infested apartment that he can't afford -as you may have guessed, it is semi-autobiographical.  Game length is around the longer end of the 'mid-length game' mark, or the shorter end of the 'long game' mark.  The graphics are all my own -I realise an art class wouldn't kill me, but it didn't turn out all that bad.  Definite improvement is tangible after the first few rooms.  The spirit of the game is 'cheerfully pessimistic'.  There is no nudity or profanity, but there is a smidge of what might be interpreted as violent behaviour.  The game is not very difficult if you've played this genre often.

This game is available at my website:

www.freewebs.com/madhatter13