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Get an antivirus right now - not downloading anything doesn't protect you from viruses. This one is free and regularly updated.
Really, you shouldn't be online without any antivirus software running.

Thanks Mr. Jones - I'll pass it on

Everytime you save your game, the exe file and everything else you need to distribute is compiled into the 'compiled' folder inside you game folder.

Hi there!

A friend of mine has quite an old computer which he uses only rarely, so I gave him a copy of my Windows 98 CD, which is also installed on my computer.
He has experienced some problems though, especially concerning Outlook Express, so I wonder if it is safe for him to run Windows Update, as I have already done so on this Computer. Will Microsoft recognize that the same Windows 98 version is installed on two PCs? Would there be any problems arising from this?

Or would they know but care little, as they have even announced to stop support for Win98 and most people already laugh at me for still using it.  

First of all: Beautiful background, I really like it.
As far as I can see, the perspective is basically correct, but the vanishing points are very close to each other, which makes the perspective look a little weird. In fact, they are both located inside your image, whereas they would be much further apart in 'real life'.

Might be worth experimenting a little.

The advantages of 256-color mode are a smaller filesize (useful if you want to distribute your game over the internet), and the games will run much faster even on older computers.
With 800x600 and 32-bit, you can drive even a new computer to its limits, while a 230x240 game with 256 colors will probably run fine on a 468 too.

I might have misunderstood you, but it seems to me that you got something wrong there:

The palette consists of fixed and open slots. The fixed ones are for character sprites, GUIs and everything that has to look the same in each room. The rest of the slots is variable for every background. So, if you have 56 fixed slots and 200 open ones (for example), one night scene background would use the 200 slots for different shades of black and blue, while a desert scene could fill them with white, yellow and red tones. You don't have to make each background use the same colors, just make sure they don't exceed the number of free palette slots.

Does this help?

EDIT: Ah, after re-reading your post, I think I know what you mean. You want to use 256 color sprites to reduce the file size, but not have to stick to the same 256 colors, right?
I guess it would work, but it's generally recommended to keep your whole game to the same graphics mode, i.e. high-color backgrounds and hi-color sprites.

By the way SSH, the pdf was created using a free online conversion. You might want to convert future releases yourself to make sure they're up to date.

If anyone wants a pdf, that is.  

I took the freedom to convert this brilliant file to pdf, just for those who, for some reason, prefer it to the .doc file.

I hope you don't mind, SSH - please tell me if there's anything wrong with it. And thanks a lot for your work - this will indeed come in handy for me as well.  

[213.93.124.148]

Just so you know: The server port in the IP adress isn't needed anymore, it's even impossible to connect when it's still there. If you want to join the AGS hub, change the adress line to 213.93.124.148 please.

Unfortunately, it's in German.
If you're really interested in it, I could try to convert the CD into an ISO file and put it into my DC++ folder. My average upload speed is 3 KB/s though, so it could take quite a long time to download.

Hmm, did a quick google search, and it looks like this game was only published in Germany.
This review has some screenshots and also gives it 75%, but the dialogue writer has definately taken the wrong job.
I think I have never seen characters with such little personality before. They look beautiful, you hear/read them talk and the whole screen turns into backgrounds, sprites and text overlays. The whole atmosphere goes down the drain.

Oh, and there's a content-free intro, too: Crazy scientist is hit on the head by his own created monster and turns into hundreds of small crazy scientists. Sue drives by in her car and is stopped by a crocodile cop. They vanish in his car which starts bouncing *hihihi*. Then sue comes out, goes on driving and is followed by the police car. They drive along roads, twice through each screen, on a news speaker's desk, out of a computer monitor, and into a small town. That's where you start out as the player. No idea what to do. Don't get it? I didn't either.

What to say?

So I stumbled upon a copy of Silver Games 1, which I had bought in a bundle with Gold Games 2 some years ago and saw there was an adventure game on one of the disks: Bazooka Sue. (1997) It said it was similar to the classic LucasArts adventures, so I gave it a try.

And I was heavily disappointed.

This game has got really beautiful backgrounds. The characters are nicely animated, but the gameplay is terrible. Take this dialogue: (I had to take one from the very beginning, because I didn't play more than three screens)

- May I have your newspaper?
- And what do I get in return?
- Erm, a thankyou?
- Pah, you've got to bring me something better.

Is there anything that hasn't been done wrong here? There's no reason why I would want that newspaper. There's no reason why he wants to keep it, it just lies around there. This is going to be a give X to Y puzzle, without any motivation. The text reads as if a 14-year old had written it. A dumb one. Just in puberty.

I wonder how they convinced their artists to work for them, really. If you ripped the backgrounds and gave them to a randomly chosen member of this community, he would most probably make a better game out of them.

I'm not really frustrated, I mean - I practically got it for free, I'm just shocked that something like that has been sold for money. And that it has been rated 75% by PC Action and 81% by PC something.

Any opinions on this one?

I really recommend to learn scripting. It's not too hard, and it opens up whole new worlds in game design. Have a look at this scripting tutorial - I think it's also part of the help file that comes with AGS.

Good luck!

There's an open source MIDI sequenzer called Jazz++.
You can get it at www.jazzware.com.

A-ha!
It says "The player has reached a dead end [...]", but "The character is a walking dead, when [...]".

So - the situation of being helplessly stuck is a dead end, whereas the player character in this situation is refered to as a walking dead.

Thanks Andail, for clearing that up.

Well, if youre still not sure, and choosing the right one would make a big difference to you, then I say that you dowload the trial versions ( as you did) and crack them to test them, and then choose the right one.

Hmm, why are you cracking trial versions if you want to test them? That's what trial versions are for, right?

I mean, you could take trial versions and crack only the one that you like most.  

Why not do a google picture search?
This is what I found:

Have a look at this thread - it might be just what you want: http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=5644

You can try Shalom Help Maker. It's freeware and quite easy to use, although the program window is a bit over-loaded with buttons.