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["Something Stupid"]

Welcome to the the latest round of the Fortnightly Writing Competition!

At last, a new theme for a new competition. And here it is:

"Something Stupid"

Something said or something done? By whom? It really is up to you.

ENTRY RULES:
- Write a story of around 500-600 words. *
- Entries must be in before July 15th
- Post your entries (or link to your entry) in this thread
- Voting will take place on the 16th-17th of June
- The winner sets the subject for the next competition and starts the next competition

VOTING RULES:
- All voters have a maximum of two votes of equal value. One vote for one entry.
- One meber one vote. Two votes when there's two entries? Nah.
- Voting ends at 23:59EST on Thursday the 17th of July. Any votes made after that point don't count.

Trophies:
- Wait and see! But don't get too excited.

(*) The word count is just a guide, and not a target. Don't worry too much about falling short or going over: let your story finish as naturally as you can. Quality not quantity etc

[DOWNLOAD HERE (931KB)]

DOWNLOAD HERE (931KB)

Version History:
V 0.1 - Current (And first) Version

For the game that has everything, why not include a Battle Ships game?

Point, Click, BOOM! Click for a larger version

The full download contains:
* A demonstration game (as featured in the above screenshot)
* An html manual with pictures
* Two modules for inclusion in your game.

(Two, because one is a separate 'home' for some individual variables. You can freely edit this without needing to edit the module o functions. Both are open for examination.)

At the moment, the modules and documentation enclosed detail the bare minimum for how to construct such a game.

Issues that need to be addressed:
* Improve the AI.
* ‘Standardise' the module according to the script module guidelines.
* DynamicSprites are not deleted before the game is finished.
* Bundled demo game isn't open source. An open version will follow soon.
* Header information for the modules needs a layout that isn't obviously stolen from inspired by one of SSH's modules.

Additional Improvements possible:
* Different sized ships
* Different rules
* Different ships (Graphics-wise) for each side
* Maybe, sometime, you'll be able to have oddly-shaped ships. (Think about the “Battle Cruiser” game from Space Quest V.)

Have fun with this, and let me know any problems or suggestions.

DOWNLOAD (931KB)

Individual Downloads:
Download Manual only
Download Modules only
Download Demo only

It appears that Changing the cursor graphic to a DynamicSprite causes a problem.

I first started with this:

Code: ags

mouse.ChangeModeGraphic(eModePointer, oMysub.Graphic);

Now, this does work. But since the graphic I'm using needs cropping, I cropped it using the DynamicSprite's Crop function and passed the resulting graphic as the one to use as the mouse pointer. The game compiled fine, but when I ran the function in question, the game quit with the following error:

---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00427E88 ; program pointer is +5, ACI version 2.72.918, gtags (0,0)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and ... etc
---------------------
OKÃ,  Ã, 
---------------------

I played around with cropping the sprite more or less, until I discovered that even this wouldn't work at all (despite basically being the same as the above code)

Code: ags

DynamicSprite *my_sub_sprite = DynamicSprite.CreateFromExistingSprite(oMysub.Graphic);
Mouse.ChangeModeGraphic(eModePointer, my_sub_sprite.Graphic);

I tried it out with RC2a and still the same trouble. Hope this helps.

What is Secret Quest Remake? Why it's this game just released this moment. Details are HERE.

Please remember that while all hints are free, helpfulness of this thread is not guaranteed. You home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on any loan secured against it to ask for hints.

Depending on how this goes, I may append good questions to the top of the thread. Have fun.

[Secret Quest - Remake.]

Original GiP Thread:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22351.0

Secret Quest - Remake.
Based on the Original game for the Atari 2600 console by Axlon MCMLXXXIX


Click the screenshots for the bigger versions

"SAVE THE HUMAN RACE!

"First there was one alien space station, then there were three. Now there are eight. If left unchecked, laser gates, dragons, and other evil creatures will wipe out the human race.

"To destroy each station, you'll have to confront the aliens in face- to-face combat and discover the secret destruct code. Once you have the code, use it to activate the station's self-destruction mechanism. Then the race begins. Can you get to the teleport-room before the station explodes into the vacuum of space?

"Are you ready? Remember, you'll need precision battle skills, a keen sense of direction, speed, and pure guts to save the human race."

Secret Quest Manual - 1989.

With 900 rooms crammed into one room file, 30 characters and over 2000 lines in the Global Script, experience real-time combat - or real-time fleeing if you think that'll be better - as you navigate 3-D labyrinths to destroy the eight alien stations in this AGS remake of the 1989 Atari 2600 console game.

*50% MORE rooms that the original!
*Zelda-style combat!
*Fight to avoid dying of asphyxiation!
*Custom save feature!
*Entirely keyboard-driven!
*Witty manual!
*Unnecessary use of the exclamation mark!
All this and more for less than one megabyte!

Look at what all these famous people are saying about this game:

Secret Quest: it's great!

My life is immeasurably better [since I played this game]

I have calculated the inverse square of this game's fun coefficient to 80 decimal places and determined that this game is very interesting.

Get off mah front lawn!

There is no spoon.

I don't give a damn about your stupid game; gimme your wallet or I'll knife you.

Download today! No money down and no monthly repayments! Less than 1MB!

Stuck? Going round in circles? Not managed to find the sword yet? Don't know what the Xtra does? Head on over to the Official Hint Thread for this game.
All hints charged at $0.00 per hint. Helpfulness is not guaranteed. Requesting hints in threads other than the specified thread may lead to you being made fun of. You home may be reposessed if you do not keep up repayments on any loan associated with hints received. No refunds.

But wait! There's More!
Secret Quest Map Maker (Work in Progress)[/i]

I should say "Background courtesy of DemoQuest III" But that would imply I asked for permission to use it. The next version of the map maker won't have that bg.

You can grab for yourself a nice program that will allow you to create your very own four-level maze and play it through!

Share maps with your friends! (Assuming they'd like this sort of thing)

NOTE: The map maker isn't completely finished yet. A GiP thread may be started at some point to work on it. In the meantime, any map you generate should work, but the interface may be a little troublesome. Download now, and get an MS Word manual for the map maker absolutely FREEEEEEE! (No money required)

I'm intending to get the height and width of a sprite and store these in a couple of variables like so:

Code: ags

int sprite_width = GetGameParameter(GP_SPRITEWIDTH, mush_sprite, 0, 0);
int sprite_height = GetGameParameter(GP_SPRITEHEIGHT, 4, 0, 0);

However, the compiler doesn't like this and says "Expected integer expression after '=' ".

What am I doing wrong?

For some reason, there are quite a lot of AGS games out there that will display the Version number when you hold down CTRL-V. It appears that the only ones that are safe are those as old as Larry Vales. (Or older) I had thought that this would only work if you had enabled debug mode... (I believe its called by Debug(1,0))

But in addition, in a couple of games I've played (Best example is Trials of Odysseus Kent) if you call the Version info while the player-character is walking into view during the intro, the version info is displayed, and then the game crashes after the info is banished. You can only escape by pressing Alt-X. (There's also a very brief window to do this in Cirque de Zale, just before Alexander says 'Time to ruin me a circus') This appears to be because it is interrupting a Blocking walk command.

At the moment, there's a function for GUI Buttons to animate them using a certain loop of a given view. But, unlike for Characters and Objects, there isn't currently a .Animating() property to check if a button is animating or not. Is it do-able?

[SECRET QUEST REMAKE IS NOW FINISHED.]

SECRET QUEST REMAKE IS NOW FINISHED.
Please visit the Announcement thread in the Completed Announcement board for more.

Secret Quest - Remake
Based on the original game for the Atari console.

The Game:
Secret Quest Manual - 1989
"First there was one alien space station, then there were three. Now there are eight. If left unchecked, laser gates, dragons, and other evil creatures will wipe out the human race.
To destroy each station, you'll have to confront the aliens in face-to-face combat and discover the secret destruct code. Once you have the code, use it to activate the station's self-destruction mechanism. Then the race begins. Can you get to the teleport room before the station explodes into the vacuum of space?
Are you ready? Remember, you'll need precision battle skills, a keen sense of direction, speed, and pure guts to save the human race."

Screenshots:
http://www.geocities.com/colxfile/Pics/scr7.jpg
Projectile weapon fails to reach the foe.
You'll need to stand a bit closer than that, Jimmy.
http://www.geocities.com/colxfile/Pics/scr8.jpg
Actually, it's not a good idea to stand there.
http://www.geocities.com/colxfile/Pics/scr9.jpg
The status screen. Here betraying the fact that the
eighth station has a pink/purple motif.
http://www.geocities.com/colxfile/Pics/scr10.jpg
Behold! The dragon.
It doesn't do much besides shoot fireballs.
Progress As of Today
'Tis finished.

Anything Else:
It's FINISHED!!!
Set up to run at 640x400 at 256 colours. Looks quite nice windowed.

Download
Don't download from here. Download from the Completed Game Announcement Thread.

I've been playing with a-v-o's keyboard control script as found here. The player character walks under the direction of the keyboard, but I've hit a small problem. The player character doesn't appear to be animated when he walks around the area.

My walking views for my character comprise two frames for each of the four directions. (Eg Frame A and Frame B for the U/D/L and R views) When the player is standing and doing nothing, frame A appears. When the player walks around, only frame B is displayed, rather than A then B then A then B etc...

I have some ideas why this could be happening:
* Perhaps the animation is taking place so fast that I don't see it?
** Or perhaps because the script for the movement is in the repeatedly_execute() block, does this mean that the animation is started, but immediately stopped and started again when the script is run each time?
*** Something elseÃ, 

I don't think that * is the problem, as I've slowed the game speed down, sped it up and done the same with the animation speed, all to no avail. This leaves options 2 and 3...

Does anyone have any ideas? Or a good workaround? Or both? Please?Ã, 

Got a nice intro for my game coming along... During it, a GUI pops up and has its background animated to do a flashback of sorts. But I recently made it skippable using the

Code: ags

StartCutscene(eSkipESCOnly);
...
EndCutscene();

tags. It froze when I tried to skip it.

To find the problem I broke the cut-scene into two and kept moving the 'break' further back through the scripted cut-scene until it wouldn't freeze when I skipped it.
It seems that the cutscene didn't like one line in the code where I popped up a GUI. The game froze (It appears) just before the GUI would pop-up. By ending the first half of the scene before it, and starting the second half immediatey after the GUI box comes up, I've got no freeze when it is skipped. It didn't have a problem when I turned off the GUI shortly after.

Is this a bug? Or are the GUIs not supposed to be used in this way?

[not]

I have a scrolling room and I can put the mouse at a part of the screen so that when my character walks towards it, the screen follows him, and stops when my mouse cursor is over a hotspot at the edge of the screen. The cursor changes its view fine (In my game it flashes) and a pop-up bar names the hotspot as is expected.
But this particular hotspot also has a function behind it, to be run when 'Mouse moves over hotspot'. This function is not run when the cursor happns to land on it when the room has scrolled to it. It works fine when you move the cursor youself, but in the case above, it does not.

Hope this helps.

Before I was tinkering on a game I was writing with AGS 2.62. However, with AGS 2.7 being provisionally released, I upgraded to it. Having copied over the game files into the folder with the new version (The upshot being "I backed it up before it went wrong") I open the game file in AGS 2.7. I recompiled everthing as I had done in the past when upgrading and after I fiddled with the new stuff I ('Test Game') ran my game in the works.

At first it SEEMED to compile fine. But then, I got an error message:
"Internal error 102 replacing icon - the ACWIN.EXE file was not compatible with this version of the editor. Your game file will have the default icon."

I didn't know why this was (It worked fine with AGS 2.62), but persisted anyway. Then this one popped up.
"This game requires a newer version of AGS (2.70). It cannot be run."

I was perplexed. Finally, I received this message:
"Invalid file format. The file may be corrupt, or from a different
version of AGS.
This engine can only run games made with AGS v2.5 or later."
And then I got worried. :o
Obviously, the conversion process (resaving the old game and recompiling in presumably the 2.7 format) should not make my game corrupt, or in need of a newer AGS thingumybob.

Incidentally, the second 2 errors also occur if I save my game, leave the AGS editor and then manually run my game.

Or is there something I'm likely to have done that I shouldn't have?
Any ideas?

Hi,

Before my room fades in I have the following code

Code: ags

Ã,  // script for room: Player enters screen (before fadein)
int which;
which=0;
SetBackgroundFrame(0);Ã,  
if (GetGlobalInt(6)==1) {
Ã,  EnableRegion(1);
Ã,  SetBackgroundFrame(1);
Ã,  while (which<8) {
Ã,  Ã,  EnableHotspot(which);
Ã,  Ã,  which++;
Ã,  }
}
else {
Ã,  DisableRegion(1);
Ã,  while (which<8) {
Ã,  Ã,  DisableHotspot(which);
Ã,  Ã,  which++;
Ã,  }Ã,  
}
}

So: The plan is that if something has happened (Which would change GlobalInt 6 to 1), the background frame is something, and loads of hotspots are enabled. If not, then they are disabled and the background set to something else. And the programmer in me spots the chance to use a loop to save writing out 8 lines of code for each case. Simple.
But when the room is loaded, the game comes to an abrupt standstill before it fades in and I have the following message:

An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this
is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 2.62.772)

(Room 7 script line 42)
Error: DisableHotspot: invalid hotspot specified

I'm guessing this is because I can't use the variable "which" in enabling / disabling the hotspots meaning I would need 8 lines for my hotspots in each outcome. Is this the case?