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Gilbot is correct as for the reason your code isn't working. But to answer your two other questions:

1: Shouldn't the output.Close(); be moved one bracket down? In this example the file gets opened, if nothing is written to it, it stays open.
2: Why aren't there brackets after the first if?

1: No, because if (output == null) returns true, the file wasn't opened, and hence need/can not be closed.
2: The brackets aren't necessary because only one function is run after the if statement. It might as well read "if (output == null) Display("Error opening file,");" on a single line. The linebreak is purely a matter of style and will be ignored by the compiler.

Scavenger, you are aware of SteveMcCrea's 3D module/plugin, right? I would think that much more suitable for basing an adventure interface on, integrating well with AGS script/events. It supports true looking up/down, plus you can build quite sophisticated architecture. Oh, and it allows camera scripting too.

What makes dkh's module unique is in my opinion its focus on FPS style gameplay promising built in AI, handling of projectile interactions plus an easy to use level editor.

This is a great piece of work, kaioshin. My only criticism would be that the indentation on the left side of the hat looks strange - sort of swirly shaped. The problem is to some degree also present in the poster that you're using for reference (and is - perhaps - in part an illusion due to the unclear light sources of the drawing). Though the very hard and highlighted bottom crease in your version makes it stand out more.

I think you'd be better off working from a real photo than the poster. Even if the light angle is different from your original reference, it gives a much a clearer impression of how simple the shape of the fedora really is. Keep in mind that the indentations (top crease and sides) aren't actually tailored, just pressed into shape. The hat itself is bowl shaped, the indentations appear where you naturally hold your fingers when you put it on:

There's a couple of articles around detailing the development history of The Dig. This from Adventure Classic Gaming:

The truth was that Moriarty was responsible for quite more than half of the game that was released. He created the entire basic plot, developed the main characters, and directed the overall atmosphere and visual style for the game.

Also Mix'n'Mojo has a long article on the game's development including Moriarty's involvement.

Personally I find Brian Moriarty - and his work on Infocom's Trinity and Wishbringer as much as his later LucasArts gigs - a much more interesting designer than that Ron Gilbert dude. But I'm sure that's just me.

Edit: Also, great news about Jonathan Boakes! He's definitely one of the more succesful indie developers working commercially at the moment. And judging from his blogs I think he would also be a good speaker.

but there doesent seem to be a j2me z-code reader

Well, there at least exists Z2ME and ZeeME. But whether they work with your phone or not, that I don't know.

Seeing as many of the latest improvements were in dialog customization, I think it would be lovely to carry this through by allowing Pamela lip sync for LucasArts style speech also.

Yeah, no need to drag up Mods' Cardinal Sins again. They're Relics of the Past. Though I am curious, did it create a Resonance when she applied The Vacuum to your Caged Dragon?

I'd also recommend using PNG. It doesn't waste drive space (like BMP), doesn't limit the number of colors (like GIF) and supports alpha channel transparency in case you need that.

I used to have a symmetrical 1 Mb connection, but my ISP recently upgraded it to 10 Mb (without even telling me) since that's their new bottom speed. It's way more than I really need - especially upstream - but as long as I'm not paying more for it, I guess it's nice to be able to download a CD-ROM sized file in less than an hour. Ironically, it didn't change the web browsing experience much as most slowdowns seem to be either server-side or due to my antiquated CPU.

The problem is with available resolutions. Most modern systems that are likely to have a widescreen monitor also do not support 320x200 or 640x400. That means that AGS ends up having to run at 320x240/640x480 anyway, which negates any potential benefits that this feature would provide.

I was under the impression that 1280x800 was a pretty common widescreen resolution, but I realize there are many different standards. Shouldn't the Direct3D renderer be able to resize the image to pretty much any viewport size without framerate loss though?

It could be that the demo uses harder compression which makes her voice sound more whiny. But I think it's also a matter of getting used to it when playing the full game. I still don't like the voice casting though, and skipped most of the audio as soon as I had read the text (annoyingly, some lines of dialogue are too long to display, so you have to wait for the line to be said so the text scrolls down).

I'm not really fond of having separate graphics for the two modes, as it doubles file size (also, cropping the sides as you do is a bit problematic as it's usually there the exits are located). Looking at your example, I was more thinking along the lines of keeping the artwork the same size but redesigning the GUI to take up less vertical space for the widescreen version.

I think you're making things overly complicated, Subspark. There's not really any reason to implement this into the editor. A simple SetViewportCrop int parameter with the pixel offset, and of course the option to select either of the two resolutions through the setup (as you currently only can choose them before compiling) would be enough. As there already exists widescreen resolutions (320x200 and 640x400) which just crops any 4:3 (320x240 or 640x480) background you have imported, the functionality IS in there, we just need to be able to access these settings also after compiling.

I'm repeating myself, I know - this is probably the fourth time this discussion has been brought up - but I would really prefer a mode where the full screen area could be used in either resolution by cropping the screen area and repositioning the GUIs. With for instance the LucasArts GUI that takes up 1/3 of the screen, there's really no need to add additional non-active bars.

This kind of cropping is already possible by changing the resolution from for example 640*480 to 640*400 before compiling, and manually locking the viewport to wherever you want the y-cropping to start. But first of all this requires two .exe files, one for widescreen and one for 3:4 aspect ratio.  And secondly, the change of resolution makes the GUI coordinates behave inconsistently. It would be awesome if the cropping could be handled by the runtime to avoid these problems.

Oh, and since CJ asked me to repost this in the wishlist thread:

Is there any chance that savegame names could be stored as a String (or even just a 255 char string) rather than the currently very limited number of characters? I like to use it for storing additional information such as time of save, room ID and the current day in the game, which doesn't leave much space for whatever the player types.

Personally I found A Vampyre Story quite dull. The jokes didn't make me laugh, gameplay was painfully tedious, and while the idea and setting was interesting, nothing really original or surprising came out of that regurgitation of horror movie cliches and on-the-nose references.  I mean, how hilarious is it that the two policemen are called Bud and Lou?

The idea of adding concepts to the inventory is pretty obvious but nevertheless a welcome addition. However, they totally overuse it, to the extent that items that would make perfect sense to pick up must be retrieved later. And why the hell do we have to see the character retrieving the item? Sure, as ProgZ said you can skip the animations - but you still have to wait for the room to load, which we didn't even need to see - we know that the item is there, why not just have the characters fly offscreen and return with the item?

Another thing that really bothers me is the idea that progress doesn't give new possibilities as much as it just adds more obstacles. For crying out loud, the first half of the game is pretty much an extended "escape my house" puzzle. And every time you think you've succeeded, something gets in the way and adds yet another stage to the same bloody puzzle. This seems to be the trend also in other game genres, for instance shooters like F.E.A.R or the original Half-Life for that matter. Whenever you seem to the brink of escape, something explodes, your helicopter gets shot down, the elevator doors close a second before you get there, and you're sent on yet another expedition through the research complex or whatnot.
There's never any real sense of achievement, you don't feel like you're progressing as much as being redirected. And exactly for this reason, what ultimately convinced me not to buy any of the sequels to A Vampyre Story, was the ending:

Spoiler

Yay, I'm thinking as the carriage with grave dirt speeds down the cemetery hill, we're finally getting away from this bloody place.  I know that this is a series and there won't be any neat conclusion to the plot this time around. But at least I'm heading for the harbor where the ship that will take me to Paris is docked. I start imagining walking the streets of Paris in the sequel, maybe meeting some parodies of Anne Rice's foppish vampires while charming my way into the Paris opera circles. That could be pretty fun. Then, another cutscene, a plot twist, and suddenly - Coming Soon: Further Adventures in Draxylvania. Apparently they can't do a horror parody without also revisiting the Frankenstein/mad scientist stereotype, so no leaving Draxylvania until that's been milked for whatever jokes Mel Brooks didn't already use in Young Frankenstein. Sigh.

[close]

Sam & Max: Night of the Raving Dead was SO much better than this.

Right click save as..it works.

Actually, no it doesn't. The saved file - although named awalkinthepark.zip - is only a Yahoo error page with the message "Sorry, the page you requested was not found." 

Reminds me quite a bit of Alkis' Other Worlds, which is surely a good thing. The characters seem to fit in fine (can't tell for sure without seeing them move around), but perhaps the first background is a bit too blurry.

Speaking of savegames, is there any chance that the name could be stored as a String (or even just a 255 char string) rather than the currently very limited number of characters? I like to use it for storing additional information such as time of save, room ID and the current day in the game, which doesn't leave much space for whatever the player types.

You may be able to use your router's internal DNS routing table (such as dnsmasq) instead of the hosts file. Though this could possibly be circumvented by setting Windows to directly access a specified DNS server rather than contacting it through the router. There may be countermeasures for this, but it depends on your router software.

I think it's a great idea. I could easily see it working as a story/character interaction heavy game like those Japanese dating sims (without the hentai stuff). More traditional adventure puzzles might not fit in very well, so I definitely think the "interactive story" format is the way to go.
A simulation approach where who you decide to disclose your sexuality to, and how you do it, changes their attitude to you (and hence your options) would make things nicely non-linear and allow plenty of replay value. It's also a way to add depth to your NPCs - the reactions of your friend, family member, co-worker or teacher may surprise you. Perhaps that macho gym teacher turns out to be more sympathetic that you would ever have thought.

Good luck with the project! I look forward to see what comes out of it.

Beautiful portraits, Dave. Big brother has really surpassed himself on this one. They remind me very much of GK1, only without that exaggerated purple lighting. I really look forward to seeing them animated.