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Doh - thanks so much. All is well and I can stop running around screaming now. Thanks!

First of all, apologies if this is in the wrong section.

I'm having a bit of a crisis. My laptop's power cut out as I was in the process of saving my game and now the editor will not read the data file.

The compiled file still runs fine by itself, but of course I can't edit it. However, I'm guessing all the data I need is still there, so if there is some way of getting at it that I don't know about and creating another .dat file, the someone please let me know!

Does anyone have any suggestions? I don't back up my games as often as I should, and this setback will cost me about a month's work. Help!

Sorry for the late reply guys, and thanks for the code, it works perfectly.

I do have another request if anyone can help me out - I'd like to have a hotspot turn alternately on and off in 4 second intervals - it's an idea I have for a real time collision based puzzle -  I was just wondering if it's possible to do this in the 'background', ie, non blocking. Any ideas?

Hi, I'm looking to incorporate something similar to the last segment of MI2 in my game, with a character randomly entering the same room as the player character (like LeChuck with the Voodoo Doll).
I haven't a clue how to go about doing this. It would be done over a series of rooms, which makes it even more of a headache for me.

If anyone has any suggestions at all, they would be greatly appreciated. I'm in the dark on this one.

Hi everyone, just a quick note and a cry for help really...Originally, when I began this project, it was a bit of fun I was doing casually in my spare time. Now however, I've decided it would be nice if I could make it as good as I possibly can. So with that in mind, I've been re-doing some of the more clunky aspects of the game - certain animations and backgrounds for example have been updated and in some cases completely replaced.

HOWEVER...I'm NOT a professional by any stretch of the imagination and there are still a lot of things I can't get my head - or mouse - around. One of these is the TARDIS spinning in space. If ANYONE can work some wonders with this, I'd be very grateful and you'd recieve a full credit. Remember it has to look good in 300X200 resolution! The effect I'm after is the one you'll all be familiar with from the show - the TARDIS spinning as if hanging from a string at its light. There is a TARDIS animation in the game, but I'm really not happy with it so any help would be appreciated. PM me if interested!

Here's the image of the landed TARDIS for reference. It would be nice if the TARDIS in flight matched this one as well as possible.



Edit - the TARDIS door should be shut, sorry about that...

Well, you have to use it with the chain that moves, obviously...

Feel free to add the new screenies! And yes, you'll be my first port of call when the game is ready for public use. It won't be for a while yet though, I reckon.

I don't want to give a date, as I feel that my rushing towards the deadline of the last demo was a contributing factor in it having quite a few bugs.

Congrats on the marriage BTW!

...And lo! 'twas done.

Loads of images and artwork plus both AGAST and Dark BASIC demos to download. On top of all that, a Dalek 3D screensaver. See how much I love you all?

Crow's Dr WHO Adventure Game Page

Wow. That's great. A lot more like what a modern, commercial looking Who game would look like. Not really the sort of thing I'm aiming for with mine  obviously...*cough*IonlyknowhowtouseDpaint!*cough*

In a way I'm glad you never finished it though, becuase from the looks of it no one would have even looked at my effort!

That'll be me, then!

Wow! I came across this project whilst reading Mr Butchers' Series 4 speculative plot synopsis list on Outpost Gallifrey. and I'm just blown away. You've done it, Mr Butcher. You've made the game I always wanted to make but never found the time to do it.

As Mr Nagel says, I released a demo - literally two rooms - made in AGAST many moons ago (and feel free to distribute as you wish Mr Nagel)  before discovering Dark Basic and starting over in 3D. I made a couple of models (Police Box, TARDIS control room, Dalek Tom Baker and a Cyberman) and it just sort of sat there not being made for a very long time before I conceded the fact that I'd bitten off so much I couldn't even fit it in my mouth, never mind chew it.

All that remains of my feeble effort now is a render of the console room on my Deviant Art gallery.

All the best with your game, DuckButcher. I absolutely love it.

Scarecrow

PS - if you're not going to seperate each episode into an individual game then can you please - for the love of god - include a save/load option!!!?

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Scarecrow. I'm heading over to look at your artwork now!

And there IS a Save/Load feature! Press F5. I'm not sure I put this in the 'Readme' to be honest, so sorry about that!

The downloadable game as it stands is still a 'Work in progress' and has a few bugs, these will be all ironed out by the final release date...whenever that is...but glad you liked it!

Here are two new screens,  8th July....

These pics show the Kuiper Space Station, a key location for the second and third parts of the game. The player will, for the most part, be able to travel to and from this location, the crashed ore carrier and a third location I'm keeping under wraps for now.



I've tried to make the station a bustling hub of activity - billboards flash, ships pass outside the windows and people wander around and talk amongst themselves. One problem I found with earlier backgrounds is how static they can sometimes look, so I've tried to put a bit of animation into every one of the station's backgrounds.



Star Trek fans may spot a couple of references in these screens - the Gorn is a placeholder from one of my (unreleased) other games and will be replaced with a proper character eventually, though I'm tempted to keep the Reliant as it looks so good drifting across the screen!

Time Snare
The Mandalox Procedure
The Final Weapon
Four Corners
The Benefactor's Plan
Chasing Armageddon

Like these a lot, thanks for the suggestions! Good Who-ish titles. I've been sort of categorising them!

Time Snare and Four Corners sound very Cartmel/McCoy, The Final Weapon and The Benefactor's Plan sound very 60s / Hartnell, Chasing Armageddon sounds like a Virgin NA title, The Mandalox Procedure sounds sort of like Bidmead (although I guess it would have to be just 'Mandalox' to qualify for that!)...

Wow, got a bit supergeek witht the references there...

Thanks a lot, am seriously considering one or two of these!

Oh, you cheeky so and so!

I was going to do a Pat Troughton flashback sequence, in B/W, with Jamie and everything in my own Doctor Who game. Though it'd be a nice surprise and something people wouldn't be expecting...may still go ahead and do it, but looking forward to playing your effort...I could always make it a Hartnell flashback with some comedy fluffing of lines, I guess!

Love your recreation of the 'Tomb' set by the way...classy!

One reccommendation - don't get bogged down in the continuity of the show. It works better if you try to tell your own story.

Sad to see my monopoly on Doctor Who AGS games has been ended, but good luck and I look forward to playing!

Hi, just a quick note to let people know how I'm getting on...

First of all, a massive thank you to everyone who played and enjoyed the game. The sort of compliments I've been getting make the whole thing worthwhile. Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it, and I hope I can live up to your expectations for the full game.

I'm also happy that people have been very honest in telling me where I've gone wrong too. Thanks to all who've been sending me bug reports - this will all contribute to the game being better in the 'final cut'.

ALTHOUGH, because the game has one or two bugs as it stands, I've had one or two people reporting bugs that aren't there simply because they can't solve a particular puzzle. So let me clarify. NONE OF THE BUGS STOP A PUZZLE FROM BEING COMPLETED! The most serious one involves you being able to get back into the hallway after the Dalek has been released (this should be impossible). None of them prevent the game from being completed.

I realise the Rapidshare version of the game is corrupt, and would re-upload the bug-free demo if I hadn't lost the original file! I will do a re-compile at some point, but the game is 'mid surgery' at the moment as I'm constructing part three.

I'll be keeping the progress quiter than I have in the past, but will trickle out a new screenshot soon.

Release date? I don't like to guess. But It'll get done.

Thanks again everyone!

Edit: Oh, one last thing...I need a subtitle for the game. You know, like "Curse Of The" whatever, "Terror Of The" something ot other, a proper Doctor Who-ey title like that. Can't settle on one I like.

Any ideas, people?

I found a bug, it's just when I try to leave the TARDIS.
I get an error message? 

Wonderful, more bugs. I should open a flea circus.

Where and when does this occur?

And Markbilly, it's mainly a bug fix but there is a new crawling animataion for the Doctor as well as an alternate way for the player to gather information relevant to the glyph puzzle.

New revision of demo now uploaded - revised link in original post, but here it is again:

http://files.filefront.com/Doctor_Who_Demo_2zip/;7230342;/fileinfo.html

Hopefully it's now relatively bug-free.

I got the tardis key back, but it won't let me back in the tardis!  It still says I don't have the key!  When I use the key on the tardis, it just says "won't do any good"... when I try to open the tardis, it says I don't have the key!  What am I missing..

That's a bug. The demo has since been revised and this is (hopefully) no longer an issue.

Another bug...

In the room with the lasers in part 2. Sarah is told to stay by the door, however after leaving and entering again she is just following me around as normal in the room.

Cheers for that, I'll have it sorted in the next revision of the demo - which I should be uploading in a day or two.

Do you also know you can keep on asking Sarah about how to get past the gun once you've got past it?

I do now!

Right, I've just done a quick re-compile. I'll have a thorough look at the demo after the bank Holiday, but in the meantime I've fixed:

The player now shouldn't be able to get into the main hall after a certain point, The hotspot spelling mistake has been  corrected, the Technical manual glitch should now be sorted, the flag issue on the outside of the chateau is done too...

I've also put in a couple of "excuses" why the Doctor won't use the Sonic on one or two doors...not to mention a bit of blurb on the readme which includes saving instructions etc...

Thigs I haven't addressed - floating GUI in TARDIS library. Not sure how to solve this one and as it's not particularly impeding to gameplay I'm going to leave it for now.

Attic crash - I have no idea how this is happenning. I managed to get it to happen once after trying about fifty times, so it does seem quite rare. Unfortunately until I know why it's happening there is no way I can stop it. I'll continue to look into it.

The opening post has been revised to include the new link.

I'm sure this sort of revision will be an ongoing process, so let me know if you find any more bugs guys!

Are you supposed to be able to go downstairs when the dalek is about? One minute the Doctor says not to go down there, and now the dalek is gone. :S

Is this a bug?

Yes! The player shouldn't be able to get back into the hall after a certain point in the game.  I'm in the process of adressing this and other issues brought to my attention through this thread. In a day or two I'll upload another version of the demo, with these issues sorted.

And Michael TSM, much as I appreciate your bringing these things to my attention, could you inform me of anything else via PM please? I know I said "let me know if you find any bugs" but splashing screenshots of my mistakes across the thread wasn't really what I had in mind!