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OK, thanks. I got there in the end - I just had to try it a few more times.

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So that's Sorcerer and Rogue - is it possible to become the Brigand in the demo?

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Thank you! I've completed the demo now. Beautiful artwork, and an excellent demo. Congratulations to your team on winning an armful of awards on Sunday. I was surprised you didn't get one for the best background art, but the standard was high this year.

One final question, if I may:

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Is it possible to slay the beast if you are sent to kill it by Ian? It always seems to get the better of me. Or can it only be killed if you go after it for Prospero?

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Apologies if there's already a hints and tips thread for this game - I searched but didn't find one, so please redirect me if I overlooked it.

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I need to find a man's blood for Prospero. I thought I might be able to get it from the head on the stake, but no joy. I have killed the beast and worked out how to get in and out of Volksville. I have the fish, pint glass and helm. Thanks for any hints.

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Looks like I'm stuck much earlier than most people here. If it matters, I'm playing the demo.

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I've got into the building and got to the second floor. I have fiddled with the fuses, read the newspaper, spoken to the guy on the phone and tried combining clues in the phone, but now I'm stuck... Any pointers? Thanks.

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EDIT: Never mind, I got it in the end. I had somehow managed to completely overlook the door at the top left of the screen. All finished now!

Γεια ΧριÏÆ'Ï„ÏÅ', είμαι Άγγλος άλλα καταλαβαίνω τα ελληνικά. Αν θα ήθελες να ÏÆ'ε βοηθήÏÆ'ω, ÏÆ'τείλε μου ένα μήνυμα. Έχω ήδη κάνει Ïâ,¬ÃŽÂ¿ÃŽÂ»ÃŽÂ»ÃŽÂ­Ãâ€š μεταφράÏÆ'εις για άλλους Ïâ,¬ÃŽÂ±ÃŽÂ¹Ãâ€¡ÃŽÂ½ÃŽÂ¯ÃŽÂ´ÃŽÂ¹ÃŽÂ±.

UPDATE: My machine plays AGS v3.0 games without any problem. I tried reconverting the game from scratch, and also tried converting it in v3.2.1, but still no joy. So for now I'm stuck with continuing to develop in v2.72. Any other ideas?

Oh, I missed this one.
Do I understand correct that the mouse works well with ALL AGS games, except for your own built game?

Also, might be a redundant question, but where do you get AGS? Is it this website, or some other hosting?

E: Also, does your game use any plugins?

Sorry for the late reply on this one.

Yes, I can play downloaded AGS games without any problems. I would imagine pretty much every recent game was built with AGS 3.x, and I've downloaded and played a few recently.

I got my version of AGS 3.0 from here, yes.

Yes, I am using some plugins: Scorpiorus's SnowRain plugin (ags_snowrain.dll). I'm not sure whether modules matter (they're not precompiled, I don't think), but for the record I'm using SSH's Credits module and Aapeli Kutila's Simple Save & Load. I thought plugins should work out of the box and didn't need to be recompiled for other versions of AGS.

A friend of mine had the same problem. It turned out he had some steam game running in the background; try closing all media related programs and try again I'd say.

No, no other media-related programs running, but thanks for the idea.

Thanks Khris, I'll try that. I'll also try building the default game to see whether that works. The game I ran successfully was The Bum - I take it this would have been built with v3.x as jt's a recent game, but I can check with the author. Another possibility - I tried updating my game to 3.0 once before but couldn't get it to work because I had a dll in the wrong place. I could try deleting all v3.0 files, reverting the backup and converting it again in case there are any out-of-date files.

UPDATE: My machine plays AGS v3.0 games without any problem. I tried reconverting the game from scratch, and also tried converting it in v3.2.1, but still no joy. So for now I'm stuck with continuing to develop in v2.72. Any other ideas?

Yes, it's v3.0 I've upgraded my game to.

I've finally updated AGS from v2.72 to v3.0 and got my game building with very few changes needed. However I'm unable to run my game as I get the error "No mouse was detected on your system, or your mouse is not configured to work with DirectInput. You must have a mouse to play this game."

I've had a look at the other postings on this subject but they haven't helped. First of all, the obvious: I do have a mouse and it is working. I have updated to DirectX v9.0 (although I think I might already have had it). I have run DirectX Diagnostic Tool and the entry for my mouse device reads "Device Name: Mouse; Status: Attached; Controller ID: n/a; Vendor ID: n/a; Product ID: n/a; Force Feedback Driver: n/a

I am able to run AGS games that I download, just not my own when I build it, so my problem is not quite the same as the one that other people have had in the past.

I am running AGS on Windows XP SP 3. Device Manager gives these details about my mouse: HID-compliant; manufactured by Microsoft; connects via USB port; working properly.

Thanks for any help. I could keep slogging away with 2.72 but given all the advantages 3.0 has to offer (including a debugger - hurray!) I'd much rather use the newer version.

Thanks for the hints, Gribbler. I'll try them out

I'm a bit stuck on this game. I seem to have done all the initial stuff but I'm not sure what to do next.

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Looks like I need to get rid of the worker so I can get his toolbox. Somehow I need to get £15,000 so I can buy the uberball from Compulsive Joe. Do I have to burn the paper? And the biker claims he's not scared of anything, so no doubt I have to frighten him somehow.

I've been in the "old-school" alley too - not sure if that's relevant or not.

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Thanks.

Thanks for the links. I knew they were around somewhere but wasn't sure where. It's good to see that hardly anything has changed scripting-wise. Time to take the plunge, I think.

I've found a solution to the problem. There is a further problem, namely that when I restore the saved game, it doesn't go back to the point where it was saved, but rather to the point after that where control of the game is returned to the user, so what I was trying to do wouldn't have worked anyway. Now I have moved the save points to earlier points in the game, each point being where control is about to be returned to the user (ie, at the end of a cutscene) and, importantly, not in dialog_request (). This fixes both problems, and is probably a better solution as it makes it less obvious to the user what they did wrong.

Actually, I checked - it's 2.72. My game's been in development for a long time, so shoot me

Here's the full error message, for what it's worth:

----
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 2.72.920)

in Global script (line 10748)

Error: NewRoom: two NewRoom/RunDialog/StopDialog requests within dialog
----

Line 10748 is the line with the call to ChangeRoom().

Khris, that makes sense. I thought it might be something like that. I thought the entire state of the game was saved in the save game. Note however that while the saving of the game is done in dialog_request(), the room change is not. Any subsequent room change, however, causes the crash (whether to the room that plays out the epilogue when the player dies, or the next room in the game if the player is successful).

So is there a way round this? Can I remove one of the room changes from the queue manually, or prevent the first from being added? Or is the fact that the queue is not saved an AGS bug, possibly?

And a secondary question (which maybe belongs in a separate post) - I also have AGS v3.0 installed. I know there is a lot to gain in using 3.0, but what are the risks in updating my game from 2.72 to 3.0? Is anything likely to break?

PS: An answer to Kimberley's question: Yes, Kimberley, you can do this. First print your image. Then, while the ink is still wet, use chromatography to separate the ink into its component colours. Then, with a tissue, mop up the colours you don't need. This will be tricky, but it should work if you're careful enough. Good luck!

Thanks for replying, Crimson Wizard. Yes, I get an error dialog with the error I mention. I'm using v2.71. I'll edit this post later with more details.

EDIT: further details after Khris's post below.

I've got a bug in my code that I'm not sure how to fix.

At various critical places in the game I automatically save the game to give the user a "safe point" to reload if they mess up so that they can try again. One of these automatic saves is in a block of code in dialog_request(), and works more or less like this:

function dialog_request(int index)
{
    [...]
    else if (index == 17)
    {
        //check whether all dialog options have been used
   if (dialogComplete)
   {
            StopDialog();
            [...]    //conversation between characters
            warnOfDanger();    <--- safe point is set here
            [...]    //conversation between characters
   }
    }
}

The crash happens when the following takes place:

* Player completes dialog and the above code is executed
* Player messes up and gets killed
* Room changes to another playing an ending
* Room changes to a blank room that displays a "Try again/Restart/Quit" GUI
* Player clicks "Try again"
* The safe point is restored
* Player plays on
* Room changes eventually (either because they get killed again or are successful)
Crash at this point

Note that I test whether the dialog is complete and stop it myself so that the last dialog option can be displayed by itself in the dialog.

I'm aware that StopDialog() is executed at the end of the request, but I'm puzzled why the crash is happening because it doesn't happen when the room changes after the player was successful first time round. The safe point is saved using SaveGameSlot(100, "#SAFE POINT#"); and restored with RestoreGameSlot(100); Surely the game should continue from where it left off?

Ah, thanks, I didn't realise I could do that. Thanks cat, I've finished it now. Cute game! (Ooh, bonus material! :-) )

I can't get the toolbox open... what do I need to do? Thanks.

Buongiorno Fitz. I'm in the middle of another translation job at the moment, but if you'd like a translation into Italian, let me know.

Ah, brilliant! Thanks, Ben, m0ds! (scurries off to play some games :-))

I love the new website, but where has "Recently added games" gone? You can find games by award-winners, picks of the month, etc, or by clicking "Browse" and selecting categories, but there doesn't seem to be a way of finding out what's been released lately. There's the Completed Game Announcements forum, of course, but that isn't quite the same and not everyone announced their games there.

I haven't been around here much for the last few months (my computer was up the spout for the first six months of the year so I couldn't play any games) and I'd like to know what I've missed out on!

Thanks.