Topics

Lately I have been wondering what would be a great language to use to create programs and applications that are lightweight, portable and provide high functionality. I found several links here http://gpwiki.org/index.php/Libraries#Graphics

C++ is the language to use apparently. Its highly portable and fast!

There is so much that one can use to port applications, particularly game engines, using these tools. KBasic.com is an example of this. Its a Basic program language which also allows you to import and program exactly like VB6 and VB.net and port to linux, mac and Windows.

But from the site above, one can technically use these libraries and create a fully ported application. I hope you guys, even CJ or anyone trying develop in C++ for multiple OS's should give it a look at. These below I feel are the best to use:

AI- ABKIT
Audio- BASS, SDL, SDL_Mixer, IRRKlang
Compression - gzip
GUI - QT, WXWidgets
General Graphics - ClanLib, Allegro, Irrlicht, SDL
Input devices - OIS
Pathfinding A*- MicroPanther
Font - Freetype, GLFT_Font
XML - C++ XML Parser

And for all you game development boys, check out: http://www.twilightsembrace.com/personal/gamelibs.php

For 3D:
Irrlicht - Very Very fast, great features, integrateable easily into your projects, lots of support for file formats, free, available for mac, linux, windows.
OGRE 3d
Crystal Space
OpenGlut

Video:
Theora
Dirac - for high resolution support.

Scripting languages:
Angelscript - Highest portability
LUA


And there are tons of other tools. I just wanted to share these sites with you guys...

Also, if you guys want to be able to test all applications you create but dont have a lot of many to buy a pc, a mac and a linux-box, try the following links:
http://www.topologilinux.com/index.php?menu=1   --- Running Linux within Windows (No emulator)
Or try these links of you have a pc with SSE2 or SSE3 instruction set (You can run Mac, Linux and Windows):
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Installation_Guides/Kalyway_DualBoot_10.5.2
http://adamlerman.blogspot.com/2008/04/tri-boot-ubuntu-macos-windows-guide.html
http://buddhistnerd.blogspot.com/2006/06/namaste-friends.html
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Installation_Guides
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=77069
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=98086

If you develop for Pocket PC: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EEC33AE3-C129-4C25-ABAA-18E8E842178F&displaylang=en
Or for the Amiga:
http://www.winuae.net/

I hope this helps your development needs. Enjoy!

I am posting this here because it is an adventure game question and is also a cool link for you to see and I wanted to make sure that you saw it. I hope thats ok. So here's the deal. I am going to continue making Springfield Woes. But I need to add some originality to the game.

If you go here: http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html
You will find an avatar creator. You can create your own character here. If you create a character file for AGS 3.0 and upload it, I will use you in my game. Its as simple as that. Whatever extra animations you create with your character, will also be used. Here's the catch, for now, only the first 20 submissions will be accepted.


So create away! Here's mine:

http://energon-plant.com/me.html

I have several images at 250x187 resolution in pixels and I wanted to convert it to 800x640. Is there any free utility that can do that and leave the quality to look great??? Everytime I resize an image it looks like crap...

As M0ds pointed out in another thread, http://www.glumol.com is actually back! And is REAL!!!!!

And it seems to be able to do all the things it said it could do in the past! Multiple OS support, import SCUMM scenes, templates, etc....

What the heck! Where did that come from??

EDIT: PRODUCTION HAS STARTED ON THIS. PLEASE SEE THE 11TH REPLY IN THIS THREAD TO KNOW WHERE WE ARE AT AND HOW TO PARTICIPATE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.


Would anyone use it at all? The reason I am asking is because I have been toying around with VB6.0 and DirectX graphics. I barely ever bothered before, but recently, I have.

I started out using third party libraries such as revolution3d, nemox 3d, irender3d, xsuite, etc... I was doing ok. Then I started out working directly from vb with DX8.1 and realized I am not doing so bad with this.

Lately I have been working on trying to come up with something for a game for AGS. So I set up 3d rooms in VB and import models into it, place lighting and fix coloring etc... Then I position the camera and I take a snapshot. I have been doing OK. But it seems that I can make a 3d room editor easily.

I can also make a character walk with some basic physics. I can do Object Selecting and some other stuff. It looks fairly well. And I have a script engine I Can create.


So basically, I compiled this into a library and figured I can easily create a 3d engine. In partlicular a point and click 3d engine.

My question would be, would anyone make use of it? Well, here are the down sides to it:

*I would charge $15 for it. But upgrading will be free for life. Recently with gas prices and bad economy, I need some income. And I think $15 for a 3d game engine is not so bad...
*Limited to importing md2 and md3 actor files. With time though I may be able to import others.
*Limited to importing .x .dxf .md2 .md3 .3ds models for objects.
*Scripting language will be VBS language.
*Rooms will be created in real time with Texture and color applying. OR you can import a BSP file.
*The engine will be available for Windows only. Unless I learn how to do what I do in VB with Real Basic. Then that changes.
*I Will be doing this by myself, so engine progress will not be constant.
*I might use DX 8.1 as a graphics library, unless I use a 3rd party library like Revolution3d which uses DX 9. If I use DX8.1, not sure if it will work on Vista.

So my question is, would anyone actually buy this for $15? What if it were free then, would you still use it? Let me know. Your opinions will either let me do it or not.

http://www.zak2.org/zak2/cms/front_content.php?idart=33&idcat=1&changelang=2

EDIT:

The game has finally been released:
Its done. Goto the German site on zak2.org and click on the link to the forum thats displayed in the news section. The game is 2gigs so mine is still downloading. I am not even sure if english is included in the game... Hopefully it is.

Now before I get flamed or locked... I am well aware of the following threads:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=33302.0
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=18492.0
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=17818.0
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=18486.20
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32935.0
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32940.0
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=14344.0

But I want to talk about a few things here. First off, having a cleaner code for AGS interpreter, maximizing portability and Windows Mobile pdas/phones. Actually, this is really going to be directly for Windows Mobile PDA's I just didn't want to continue this in another thread and make it look disorganized. So I threw a few topics together, looked up the prior forum posts and linked them in here for references. So, I apologize for bringing up this topic once again...

I have read all the forum posts as best I could on this, but I am pretty sure Palm and Iphone ports are out of the question, and I dont really care about those anyway because I do not usually use those handhelds. Windows Mobile is my preffered choice of handhelds.

To be honest with you, I live and breath off of my ipaq hw6515. It had built in GPS, Bluetooth, infrared... Its a touch screen and just has so many more features than a palm. I even have a 2 sd slots, one for my wifi card, the other for my 2 gigs memory card. It has highspeed internet access and is a Quadband unlocked GSM world phone. I take it every where with me. And since it has a built in camera, I use at work as well.

These things are the wave of the future. More and more phones and PDA's are being built with Windows Mobile. I mean I use it to play my video's (you can get an hour and a half of video on this thing in just 128mb's!!!) I use it for my music, I listen to internet radio and watch online TV. I use my office suite on there. And with emulators and such, I play my games on there. I have over 10,000 nintendo games I can play! (Check out http://freewarepocketpc.net and http://www.freewareppc.com for all the free stuff for these things).

The reason I bring this up is because of how popular these things are. I feel a port of AGS to windows mobile would be better than a port to linux... And in not too long from now, it may be something in demand for AGS, more so than it has already. Besides that, since the iphone is a macOS, it should run AGSMAC and there are Linux phones that support the linux verion of AGS as well. The major port that is required is the WindowsMobile port.

There are a few things to take into consideration regarding porting AGS into PocketPC/Windows Mobile world. For one thing, the OS to port to should be as early as Windows Mobile 2002 or WM2003 at the very latest. Porting to one of those OS versions would increase the number of users AGSMobile would be available to.

If you use those operating systems, you would have to compile AGS to be ARM compliant. As of wm2002, ARM is required to run it. So this would not bring up the question of whether or not AGS should be compiled for ARM, Xscale, SH3 or MIPS. It should just be ARM.

Something else to bring up on this subject is the resolution and graphics. There are no Pocket PC's that can run 32bit graphics. The best setting would be 16bit, which I do not think will be a problem if AGS automatically converted AGS mobile games graphics to 16bit from 24/32 bit. The resolution is normally 320x240, 320x320, 240x240 and some other VGA/QVGA resolutions.

Now as far as libraries and things you use for AGS, Allegro is something that definetly will not work for windows mobile. I searched the net high and low for a port of Allegro to WM200? There exists nothing.

I really do like Allegro, but honestly, I am starting to feel that its outdated nowadays. Also, it seems to also slow down and limit the ports of AGS to Mac and Linux. I think thats a big problem. I mean, to download it for linux we have to download Allegro and install it and stuff... Thats a hassle.

I feel that more can be done with SDL than Allegro. Plus SDL is portable to many platforms. More so than Allegro. And it does have all the features that Allegro has and possibly more.

I also think the WXwidgets are also portable to Windows Mobile. As far as DirectX goes... There is something called GAPI which was first introduced by Microsoft and improved by another group of developers. So porting DirectX code to Windows Mobile would not be all that difficult I would think.

I think really, a way to go about this is to compile AGSMobile to ARM. Change the graphics library to SDL. By doing this, for every new version of AGS compiled, it would allow the MAC and Linux versions to be ported just as easily because there wouldn't be much to change in the source. Plus, this opens the door for many other ports easily if ever needed.

Then the only things that would change when coding would be going back and forth from DirectX to GAPI.

Now to compile this application on Windows Mobile, you will need a few software packages. For one thing, Visual C++ .net would compile to mobile device. Visual c++ embedded (Which is free) would also do that. I want to include some links  just to help us (specifically Chris) out on this:

Pocket PC Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocketpc
GAPI: http://www.wincesoft.de/html/gapi_for_hpc_s.html
Visual c++ Embedded: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1DACDB3D-50D1-41B2-A107-FA75AE960856&displaylang=en
SCUMMVM which uses SDL and has a port to Mobile phones: http://www.scummvm.org
A very small article on SDL: http://mobilephonedevelopment.com/archives/503
Windows CE/Mobile ports of SDL: http://arisme.free.fr/ports/SDL.php
Main SDL Website: http://www.libsdl.org/
A PocketPC Emulator from Microsoft so you can test developed applications: http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-standalone-device-emulator-v1-0.html
Graphics library links: http://www.thefreecountry.com/sourcecode/graphics.shtml
Pocket Allegro discussion: http://www.allegro.cc/forums/thread/552755

I know that this may not be feasible for you Chris at this time. But in case you were ever going to consider it and just wanted to know if it were possible, here is all the items I can gather. I hope this provides some insight.

What else do you all think is necessary to clean up the AGS code, make it easier to port to MAC and various versions of Linux and to port it to Windows Mobile?

Hey CJ. Sorry to bug you on this. But everytime I try to program my game and try to get the size of the characters and objects I have to keep restarting my game and going to the specific room to see how it looks.

Is there anyway we can do a "Place character in current room" Button where the character would be placed there to see it in contrast to the rest of the room?

Also, can we have object resizing as well on the screen?

For some reason I thought the editor supported this already. I just cant seem to find it in the manual or on the editor itself. So, if its already there, can someone point me to it? Thanks. If not, CJ, you think this can be an addition to the editor? At a minimum I would need the object resizer.

Hey guys, its not an adventure game, but it is a game release of mine. I just wanted you all to see it and tell me what you think. It is based on Hasbro/Takara's Transformers cartoon/comic/movie/toy series.

Here is the news I posted:

Thats right! Its been released! Go here http://www.energon-plant.com/Webpages/rpghome.php and click on download.

Please note that you need ODBC drivers 3.51 to run this game.So if you dont have it, follow the download link to get it.

Keep in mind that this is just a pre-release, or BETA version of the game. In other words, once you create the player character, dont get to used to it becouse I am gonna be resetting the game world. I am just trying to get an idea of what you guys think of it.

Before signing up, please read the rules on this.

Here are some features:
*Registering your character
*Logging in.
*Searching/Viewing/Editing your profile and other character profiles
*Hiding/unhiding your player profile and info
*Sending messages to other players
*Viewing who is online and who is registered to the game.
*Leaving/Joining a faction.
*Viewing Tech Specs
*Viewing your messages and deleting them
*While sending messages, you can send anonymous messages
*You can reply and forward messages
*You can transform
*You can view IC/OOC news
* And some other cool stuff.

If there are problems, please remember that this is a BETA version. Infact, I am looking for you guys to find the bugs and keep in mind that all the rules are not set in stone. I am basically trying to mimic http://www.swcombine.com . It is thanks to their inspiration that I am developing this game.

If you have any praise/insult or suggestions/bugs, please post it on the energon-plant forum in the appropriate place.

Let me know what you guys think...

This is my code:

int Eat_Cereal = 0;

if (Eat_Cereal == 0) {
oCereal.Graphic = 69;
cHomer.Say ("UHHHMMMM. Haaaiiirrryyyy...");
cHomer.Say ("***DROOL***");
Eat_Cereal++ ;
}
if (Eat_Cereal == 1) {
  cHomer.Say ("Ohhh. The Bowl is Empty!");
  }


I want Homer to eat the Cereal, and when he eats it, it basically empties the bowl. So the next time he tries to eat it, it has a different interaction on it. But this script above doesn't work. It keeps Doing everything, no matter what.

Anything visibly wrong with this code?

Just four small suggestions. And these are not just some random suggestions I am throwing in there just for the heck of it.I started working on my two Simpsons games again and my template. And playing around with the editor I noticed that there are some features needed that can make the editing life much faster and easier. In fact, I am almost begging for these features...

1) Do you think in the room editor, when editing an object, could there be a checkbox that says "Ignore Walk Behind"? rather than having to script it? I have 2.72 and cant seem to see this anywhere on the editor. Could offer some more clean coding and less scripting as well as making it visually easier for the user. What do you guys think? I would really like it personally.

2) I noticed that the "use walkable area scaling" option either doesn't work or is not what I thought it was... Is there anyway that in the objects editor we can have a resize option? In other words, Can we have it so there is a button that says "Resize Object on Screen now" and what this does is create a box around the image and you drag the corners and resize the image right then and there?

3) I found a workaround for the Simpsons game character image sizes. I copy the image to the clipboard and then import it at 640 res.  But, I need to still make some fixes and I need to keep testing the game constantly to do this and it is annoying. Each room has different sizes to it, so the player needs to be tested in every room to make sure the size fits (I mean character scaling).

What I was thinking was to add a "Test Character in Room" Button. What this does is sizes out the character and puts him on the screen right then and there. Depending where you drag him, it changes size due to the scaling of the room. This would be beneficial becouse then we can change the scaling size right there, rather than changing the scaling, saving the game, testing and teleporting to that room only to find out that you are going to have to rechange the scaling.

4) This is not as important as the above suggestions, but it would be a load off a lazy guys hands. I suggested this years ago and would love to see it implemented. What I wanted for the editor for walkable areas, walkbehinds and hotspots is a new drawing tool. Plotpointing. It could have two options, 3 point plotpointing and 4 point plot pointing. Basically, you click on the screen and a point is made. Then you click again and a line is drawn from the first point to the next point. When you click your last point, the first point draws a line to the last point. This makes it faster to draw on screen. I know there is a line tool, but rather than dragging the line carefully, this could be abetter and faster system.

The other option to this is that rather than using 3 or 4 points, you could have unlimited points. And when your done drawing, you could hit something like CTRL-P and the first and last point connect. This is not such a rush of a suggestion, but it is something I have always wanted.

I hope others find these suggestions useful...

Thats right, and here you go: http://www.pncadventures.com/

There is nothing on there yet, but here is what you can use the site for:

One HTML file with images. In other words, YOURGAMESNAME.html and you can include as many images as needed. The html file has to be in the pagehosting folder and it has to be your games name.

You can upload images and avatars that need to be loaded externally in the image folder.

You can upload your game in the games folder.

I will be monitoring the files. Do not add anything offensive or damaging. Please do not abuse this priviledge I am giving all of you.

Let me know if you would like a front page (Or if you want to design one for me) and let me know if a forum would be good.

Keep in mind, I only have 20gb of space and 750 gb of bandwidth. So space is limited.

Here is where to upload what:

Images: pncadventures.com or pncadventures.com/images
Username: pncadventures.1
Password: 14d3c1

Games: pncadventures.com or pncadventures.com/games
UN: pncadventures.2
PW: 646197

WebPages: pncadventures.com or pncadventures.com/pages
UN: pncadventures.3
PW: 4d33ea

And those should be the URL along with your filename above. So tell me on improvements and stuff. And yes, I can see the potential danger in this system, but I wanted to give you all a place to host your games, small pages and images. And this is specifically made for the AGS Community. Other communities are welcome, just keep in mind this is strictly for games that are AGS games (Whether adventure or not). If its not AGS related, it must be an Adventure game.

Let me know on any suggestions or improvements.

EDIT: I added a few more options too...

Game Demo's: pncadventures.com or pncadventures.com/demos
UN: pncadventures.4
PW: 3fa95a

Tools(Specifically for adventure game making, including graphics editing) and Plugins or Engines: pncadventures.com or pncadventures.com/tools
UN: pncadventures.5
PW: 12150a

Walkthroughs for your games: pncadventures.com or pncadventures.com/walkthroughs
UN: pncadventures.6
PW: 958451

Ok, go moderatly nuts!

And I am excited becouse he was the original Optimus Prime!!! Check out info at
seibertron.com and donmurphy.net as well as discuss this news here: http://www.energon-plant.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1295#1295

But I am curious in this thread as to what you all think. Do you think this is good news or just stupid? Was it a good or bad decision?

Goto www.netfirms.com

The initial price is $4.95 a month and you pay for a whole year upfront., But if you put the coupon code MAX in, you only pay $10 for the whole year.

This is what you get with your package for only $10 a year:

6000 MB (6 GB) of Disk Space
300 GB Monthly Data Transfer
10 E-mail Accounts
1 MySQL Database
Netfirms Picture Pro Photo Gallery
FrontPage Exts. & PHP Scripting
24/7 Live Response Tech Team Suppor

This is good for game hosting sites. Just thought this should be known to you guys,

DISCLAIMER: This game is not officially endorsed. Matt Groening, Fox, or any other legal affiliations neither endorse, know of or are affiliated with us. This game will be free of charge. Graphics are taken from "Virtual Springfield" and "Simpsons Cartoon Studio" which are no longer being commercially sold or updated. We simply made this game out of our spare time as a contribution to AGS, Adventure games, and Matt Groening and his Simpsons. We are in no way affiliated with Matt Groening or Fox.


Since this is seperate from the "Simpsons: Springfield Woes" and "Simpsons Game Template", I wanted to post a seperate forum. This is the closest project I have to completion so far.  I have even included a demo which showcases the entire Introduction and allows you to move about the Simpsons Home and control the Simpsons Characters.

The game itself is being aimed at being a Short to Medium Length game. If I get more wild idea's, I will make it longer. Although, I just want to release something and get my contribution to this community done and over with. So, you may not see the game be longer than medium size.

Game Description:
After Homer discovers that Mr. Burns is giving him only one last chance to get his act together at work, Homer immediatly finds himself in a pickle. Marge was informed of one of Bart's many pranks that he committed and must now goto his school, search his desk and make sure there will be no foul play committed yet again...

In the meantime, Marge asks Homer to bring Maggie to the Babysitter before he goes to work. Risking being late and getting fired from Mr. Burns, Homer goes to upstairs to Maggies room to bring her to the Babysitter. Much to his surprise, the door is LOCKED, and he cant find the key! Struck with bad luck, Homer decides to Employ Bart and Lisa in a quest to help Homer get Maggie out in time before he loses his job. Will Homer make it? THAT is up to you...

Take Control of Homer, Bart and Lisa in this "Maniac Mansion", "Day of the Tentacle" style 3rd person point and click adventure game. Find and combine objects to help further reach your objective. Have constructive conversations with the members of your family. Explore all the rooms in the Simpsons House and more in this mind-challenging adventure game.

Progress Report:
Background graphics: 100%
Character art: 90%
Inventory art: 85%
Music/Sound: 90%
Story: 100%
Puzzles: 70%
Font: 100%
Testing: 0%

Current Status Report:
Total Rooms: 20
Playable Rooms: 15
Characters: 7 (With possible mystery characters)
Inventory objects: 13 at the moment.
Playable characters: 3
Music/Background music: 3
Sounds/voice files: 2

Special Features:
640X 480 resolution
Playable on Windows, Mac, and Linux
Languages: Currently only English is supported. Italian to come soon.
You can Control upto 3 different characters
Each character has his own GUI
Trademark voice effects
Special Simpsons Font!
Custom Cursors
Custom Options and Save/Load screen
Original Style interface

Screenshots:
Homer, Bart and Lisa in the living room


The Skip Intro screen:


Burns Yelling at Homer:


Burns, Smithers, Homer:


Each character has their own seperate GUI:



The options screen:



Instructions:

To play the game, simply unzip the contents of the Zip file to a directory. Click on Winsetup and choose your options. PLEASE NOTE: 640x480 is the best resolution for the game. Also note, this game was compiled with AGS version 2.71.628. To be able to play this game in Windows, just use the winsetup.exe file. To play the game on linux, please go to this thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=24598.0
To be able to play the game on a mac, go here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=21531.0

"The Simpsons: Where's Maggie" was made with Adventure Game Studio(AGS) found at www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk . For the latest version of AGS for Windows and the AGS Editor, please visit the technical forum over here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?board=2.0

In-Game Instructions:
*Clicking through messages: Click the left mouse button.
*Moving a character: Click the left mouse button where you want the character to move to.
*Changing interactions: Right Click the mouse button and the players personal GUI will appear. Clicking on their 'leg' would allow you to make them walk to whatever part of the screen you want them to walk to. Clicking their 'eyes' will put the cursor in look mode. Clicking the 'arm' will put the cursor in interact mode (Try it on Homer). Clicking their 'mouth' will put them in talk mode.
*Finding a hotspot: Move the cursor over various locations to find various hotspots. The hotspot location will be displayed on the top of the screen in Simpson Font, towards the center of the top.
*Changing rooms. Certain times you may need to walk over a hotspot to change location of rooms. Other times you may need to interact with the hotspot, such as a door.
*To save a snapshot: Press F12. The snapshot will be in the same directory as the game.
*To save a game or to load a game or to even quit and restart a game: Press F5 and hit the right options.
*To switch characters: Press F9 and choose your character.

Note for the Demo:
I tried to cut out most of the interactions from the game. This will go through most of the intro. After that, you can move around the house and interact with almost anything. There is no music or sound in this version either. Character portraits are still missing as well. Even the voice effects are not there. I totally stripped it so that you get an idea with the demo of what the game will play, feel and look like and to give you an idea of what the story is about. This way, when the final game version is released, you will see a major difference with it and enjoy it more.

Download the Demo here:  http://energon-plant.com/OLD_ENERGON/SimpWM.zip
It is 3.2 megs

Here are some related sites to this game and to me:
My Simpsons: Springfield woes and AGS Game template site: http://www.energon-plant.com/Simpmain.htm
My Simpsons Game Template AGS game page: http://adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=546
My Simpsons Game Template and Springfield woes thread at AGS (Other games Main Forum): http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=2667.0
My Simpsons Game Template and Springfield Woes thread at Simpworks:  http://www.simpworks.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=66b78d7dae94f598c80661f90d1cd803opic=3784.0
My Where's Maggie AGS thread(Main forum):  http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=24863.new#new

My Transformers Site: www.energon-plant.com
My All-purpose adventure gaming site: www.pncadventures.com

--------------------------EDIT---------------------------------12/24/06

This game demo has now been compiled with AGS 2.72. So Linux and MAC support might not be available with this version of the Simpsons Game. Atleast not until we get an updated port for both versions.

CHANGES:

I fixed three bugs I found with the game so far.
I moved hosting from ScrubEngine.com to energon-plant.com
I added some minor test interactions with this one. Its just to give you a feel for it. Try interacting with the Cereal Bowl several times.
I updated some graphics. Not much from the last demo. But from the full game, I have added much.


NOTES:
The game runs the same as before.

WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR:

Find some bugs. Look at the graphics and tell me how to improve it. Look at the interface and tell me how to improve it.

And what do you guys think? Should I do the Sierra Style portraits with the characters, or should I find someway of animating their mouths as if they are talking? If its the latter, I am going to need some help...

I have been sending out e-mails to a few people, actually, a lot of people asking them what they would look for in an Adventure Game engine. So this site should now be public to everyone.

About two months ago, I contacted Thomas Mayer about his Engine he was working on. He always had made some promising stuff. I was wondering about its status. From then on we discussed a few things and he had decided to create a new Adventure game engine. He has decided to call the Engine "Scrub".

Let me give you some quick links to look at first and then I will explain some more about the site.

The site can be found here: www.scrubengine.com
The forum can be found here: www.scrubengine.com/forum
Board Rules: http://scrubengine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2
For some news: http://scrubengine.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=35
For some suggestions we could use: http://scrubengine.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2

This is why you should begin making suggestions now, becouse development has not begun on the engine, but many of you know Thomas Mayer and know about his sciencefact game engine back in the day and even Sage Classic and SFCI.

Check out some links to his older stuff:
SFCI : http://www.tomkatgames.com/SFCI1.htm
Sciencefact Interactive Archived: http://web.archive.org/web/20020105110650/www.sfsoftware.com/index.html

You can check out his MobyGames profile here: http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,196072/

So, since he hasn't begun programming on it, making suggestions now would give him an idea of how he would go about it. So the sooner you get suggestions out there, the better.

Now on to the site... I didn't come here to promote this engine. Well, partly I did, but I also come here to get people to populate the site a bit. The site and its name is mostly focused on the engine. But it would be a lot more.

For one thing, I am a great AGS fan. The site will still contain as many possible resources for AGS as it can. In fact, at one point, I would like to add the modules, plugins and other resources to the site. I would like to have Older and new builds of AGS on there. Some AGS tutorials, some links to games and possibly be a mirror for all AGS games and resources and AGS builds.

I also wanted to host the RON type Community game based on the AGS community on this site when it gets launched. So Vel and others, if you would like to participate with this, let me know and I will get a setup for you guys to start uploading files and stuff. I would even create a forum for you.

What else am I going to do? I am going to provide Web Hosting for adventure games and all things related to adventure games! For now, the hosting will be completely free. I might even setup a MySQL database for you and a your own personal forum.

What else do you get for being hosted on the site? Here is a list of features:
*Yourname@scrubengine.com email address.
*Support for PHP
*Real Audio and Video
*Streaming audio
*External Linking
*FTP access to your folder.
*Space allowed? 500 megabytes. If you need more for a promising reason, I will give you more.

Okay, okay what are the requirements? Here they are:
*You can host anything you want, as long as its Adventure Game related. It could be a site that reviews games or previews games. It could be a blog site about Adventure games, It could be even a site on Adventure E-zines. Or if you are making a game, you could host it on mine. You can even transfer all your AGS made games to my site.
*You must include a link to the Scrub main site (www.scrubengine.com)
*When we have  a banner or small button image, you must include it somewhere on every page of your site. This is, sorry to say, for promotional reasons.
*No Porn material, or links. Nothing illegal or that would get me arrested.
*If you have resources and games and certain public files, You must allow me to include it on a CD for redistribution on Cafepress.com or lulu.com. The disc would be compiled with other material from the site. The reason for this is becouse the more people join the site and the more popular it gets, the more money I will need to pay for it to stay up. This is mostly for bandwidth and Disk Space. Sorry.

I am actually hoping that most of you move your site over to ours actually. And Chris, I will mirror all new AGS Builds as well if you would like.

And just for your info, my 2 Simpsons games I am making and the Template will still be made with AGS. Future games of the Simpsons will be made with Scrub.

The site will offer more than just a new game engine and hosting. I am going to open up my own Book and Game publishing business as well. We will offer ISBN numbers as well. We will market your game for you, create manuals, etc...

We loved the Crows Nest and Ambrosine.com, so I will be making a resource site similar to that as well, where you can post engines, tutorials, sites and games you made with any engine.

We also like the Garagegames and Sourceforge approach to finding teams, so I will be setting up a way to find a team for your games through there.

There will also be some tutorials for Poser, Gimp and other programs so you can make games with your own graphics and sounds etc...

Also, we are going to be making a team to develop a commercial product. We have two in mind, but all we are capable of doing is come up with a story and plot etc... We need some more members to join the team. Payments will be made.

Right now, we have a forum made up which will really be useful to the visitors. We set up for technical help, and discuss general things such as games and hints and tips. We also have a programming section to share tips and ask for help in a particular language. We even allow abandonware. In fact, there is a section in the forum directly related to that.

There will be more soon. I know the site looks bare now, but within the coming months we are still going to be adding to it. Right now, I need some moderators and some team members who want to help create a commercial game. If you are interested in helping in anyway or having your site hosted, either post below or e-mail me at admin@scrubengine.com


Joey DiPerla

Its funny that at the time that SCRAMM and GLUMOL were being developed, that noone noticed or accepted AGS as an engine as powerful as SCRAMM or GLUMOL. I mean, neither project ever showed any REAL progress and yet even people on this board, at the time, were saying how they were gonna stop using AGS and goto Glumol or Scramm.

All I have to see is, where is Glumol? Where is Scramm? They are both gone. In fact check out these pages:

http://www.glumol.com/english/
http://www.glumol.com/english/diary.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20010611154504/www.scramm.org/feature.shtml

I got both sites off of the webarchives.

Lets look at the features that Glumol offered its users:

*Includes/Defines/ Macros/Conditional Parising --- This is already possible in AGS
*New Types definition --- Possible in AGS
*Arrays -- Possible in AGS
*Global Variables --- Possible in AGS
*Classes, structures and unions -- Already possible in AGS
*Local Variables, Parameters, Return Values -- Already Possible in AGS
*Comments -- Possible in AGS
*Conditionals -- Possible in AGS
*Loops -- Also possible in AGS.
*IDE (Objects, Characters, Scenes, Script editor, etc...) -- This was always possible in AGS. The only thing not possible is the fact that it cant import SCUMM Stuff. Of course, this can be done VIA a plugin though.  But at the same time we can still support SCI Fonts I think.
*The Launcher stuff.--- AGS always did all that stuff that Glumol proposed to do.

What about SCRAMM? What features did it promise to its users? I always thought SCRAMM was going to be a Kick-Butt program. And I had faith in it becouse Serge was programming it and he was GOOD! But at the same time, I knew AGS would eventually surpass even SCRAMM. Here are its features that it promised:

*The Lechuck Language-- Modular, OO, C++ like scripting language. Intended to be able to write not only adventures, but even other programs. Engine was to be expanded by modules. --- Holy crap! AGS can do all of this and more!

*The IDE :

- Scripting editor. --- Okay AGS may not support all the stuff that SCRAMM promised, but hey, do you really need all that stuff anyway? We already got Syntax Highlighting and code completion. What more do we need?

- I have no clue what the hell the difference between the Help Tools and the AGS ease of use and manual is. I feel this was unnecessary and could complicate things.

- Compiler/Linker/Builder -- AGS takes care of all of this for us. And we have several options on how to build our games, as well as now we have the option to port the games to Mac and Linux. Be nice if we could get the DOS port back along with a Pocket PC port and an Amiga Port

- Debugger/Tester -- If AGS has this, I have never seen it. But I wouldn't doubt that one day Chris may implement it if its not there already. We do have some in-game debug tools. But I personally use those to cheat instead of Debug.

- File Formats --- AGS supports all the same formats and converts it into its own format during compilation.

- LeChuck scripting -- Too much detail to go into, but once again, AGS goes far and beyond with this. IT includes everything SCRAMM promised and Far Far More. Not only that, but scripting can be enhanced via plugins as well.

- Save game functions --- AGS handles all that too and gives us much flexibility on how we write our Save/Load GUI.

- Screen modes --- AGS supports the screen modes and the resolutions etc... That SCRAMM would have supported.

-- Scrolling rooms with layers(hotspots) -- Yep, AGS always handled this. ALthough I dont think AGS has alpha blending or runtime intelligent color reduction. Also AGS does not directly support Paralax scrolling, but it does support it via Plugins.

- Font editing --- AGS has a system for this as well.

-Special Graphic effects --- Again, AGS has different room transitions and even tinting etc..

-Animation -- All the proposed Animation features that SCRAMM had, AGS currently has.

- Music and Sound --- Same as animation

- Custom interface (100% custom)--- Again, AGS can even have Text parsers in the GUI. AGS is far more advanced than what SCRAMM would have included.

- Custom mouse pointer -- Already done.

- Custom Mouse function -- Already done.

-Keymapping -- This could probably be added at one point.

- Autohighlighting of Verbs -- With a bit of graphics editing and small coding, AGS can do this.

So whats my verdict? AGS is more than what SCRAMM or Glumol were ever meant to be. On top of that, it was released far ahead of them and lasted longer. Heck, these projects never released anything.

There are a few limitations that AGS does have though that other engines have automaticaly built in that AGS doesnt. For instance like Wintermute has support for 3d characters and paralax scrolling. I have no doubt that one day though, AGS will have all these features (That are currently plugins) built in.

On top of that, AGS can create fully 3d applications. Just check out some of the modules, and completed games. I have never seen Wintermute do this. And lets not forget AGAST. In my opinion, this was once more powerful than AGS, just harder to use. But now it is in every way inferior to AGS.

Plus look at some of the great features that AGS has that no other Engine has:

*Ability to run a game inside an AGS game
*Language translations.
*Plugins
*Ease of use
*Ports to Linux, Mac and Windows.
*Game Templates
*Speech in games is possible and very easy to do.
*Easily create a PnC third person adventure or first person adventure as well as text adventure games such as Sierra's style or Questprobe(Scott Adams, Infocom) style games.

On top of that, AGS can now recreate any game from the SCUMM engine, The AGI/SCI engines, AGAST, RoBOT, Maker R2 and any other Adventure game engine.

And if thats not enough, AGS must have the record for most Adventure games ever created by an engine, a great programmer (Who takes the time to talk to his users), and a great community. And most importantly of all, the engine is FREE! And there are no Ridiculous licenses!

My final, final verdict is : AGS is the greatest Adventure game engine EVER! Thanks Chris Jones. And I hope you all enjoyed my opinions and reviews.

EDIT: Seems we are back on topic and more peaceful, so I changed the Topic name. Hope noone minds.

Hey Guys, Uhmmm... I think this is only the fourth time I ever posted in the General Forum. I read the rules and I hope that what I am about to post is following the rules. I really hope this is not considered Spam.

If it is, I do apologize and moderators may delete this post. Anyway, I am inviting several people to play an Online MMORPG/MUD/MYOWNCREATION of a game. It is based on Star Wars like the Title says.

I am basically looking for 1)Help in maintaining, adding to and improving this game 2)Feed back on how well I did in programming the game 3)Players to join.

On most other RPG's my character's name is Keibak Aruu. This will be my name as an administrator and character in this game. I am curious to hear feedback from all of you on this game. Just also try to bear in mind that all graphics and the rules written so far and even the database and webpage have all been created and maintained by me, and the program that you are able to download was programmed in less than a week.

For anyone who is curious, I programmed the game in Visual Basic, using ODBC 3.51 drivers to connect to a MySQL database.

And again, I really hope this isn't considered Spam. I pretty much think that Spamming is advertising someone elses product and is also completely pointless to advertise as well. I hope this is not considered that.

Anyway, feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT:
It would probably help if I gave a link: www.swunlimitedrpg.com . Read the news page to see where to download the client. It is similar to Star Wars Combine or Star Wars Unleashed.

This is the code: function room_a() {
  // script for Room: First time player enters screen
Character[cHomer].Think("What am I going to do?");
 
}

And the topic is the error I get. Sounds newbieish. What am I doing wrong?

Ok, I think its great that you can use AVI files and all, but I couldn't find a way to add sub-titles to the AVI file or even Dub over the sound.  Is there a possibility to add a script such as PlayMovieText(At point, Duration, String) ?

It would be very useful for me.