Commodore Free 19/Commodore_Free_Issue_19_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.b guide 4.2

Text File | 2008-01-01 | 10.5 KB | 331 lines

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In the Beginning
By Lord Ronin from Q-Link

Chapter 4, Section 2

 There is even a game where you an
explore the Titanic on the floor of
the sea. Pictures are from the early
remotes that Ballard did on the wreck.
A game where you can run a submarine.
The book or it says you can be allied
or German navy. But my used copy is
corrupted and never got to play it,
need to find are placement copy in
some form.

 Text adventures deserve to be
mentioned by themselves. First I must
say that there are two major types.
One is just plain text, the other is
one that has text and some graphics.
The latter part being illustrated
pictures on the screen.

 This type of game has its points and
fans. Also its drawbacks and
detractors. There are statements that
this form of game was the first style
for computers and goes back to the
60s. I've read the stories about that
in different books and online. Today
you may not have a clue to what the
game looks like or how it functions.
So I'll explain as best as possible.
First off I dislike these games with a
pink and purple passion. Good got that
out of my system. Lets move to the
positive points. This form of game was
exceptionally popular for the 8 bit
realm of existence. True text
adventures are just that, they are
nothing but text. All the sounds and
pictures must come from your mind.

OK I'll add that from some companies,
specifically one called Infocom, would
add a mess of props to the game box. I
do have some of these in my
collection. In simple terms you enter
the game world. Read the story line,
then make certain choices at each text
entry. Things like picking up
something, going in a direction, using
an item. Oh yeah and looking/examining
things in the area that you are
located.

 An important thing to do in this game
style is to make a block map of your
travels. Other wise you will be lost
and go in circles in the game.
Creating a gigantic sense of
frustration along with the feeling
that the programmer intentionally did
this to you. <what he didn't?>

 It has been said that a picture is
worth a thousand words. In programming
it is worth a lot more in memory
space. That I guess is the reason why
text adventures where very popular.
Instead of having a mess of images and
sounds. A huge game world with twists
and complexities could be created.
Letting you paint the picture in your
own mind. Sort of like an interactive
book I was told. Variations on this
would have perhaps an image and a
sound effect at a specific place in
the story. I have seen a couple that
use what appear to be C= coloured
digital images. A few seconds of sound
to set the mood, and then back to the
text part of the game. Another version
uses just the C= keyboard graphics
<gfx> for the information. This type
is in one of my type in programming
books for text adventure games. In
this example there is a keyboard
command that will show you a map.
Displaying the areas you have
explored. All done with keyboard
graphics. A real big help in game
playing for me.

 Before I explain another type of text
with gfx game, and one that I can
play. Must tell you the down side to
the stock text only game. Trying to
not wax on this too much on the psych
or cultural stuff. Big problem is
"WHAT ARE THE FRELLING WORDS?". OK
some of the games have a command
called "VOCAB", or something close to
that type of word. Typing that in will
give you a list of the accepted words
for the game. Not all the games have
that option. Some do have a? HELP"
command. Again not all of them.
Personally I find my self lost early
on in the games. Because Haven?t a
clue as to what words to use at that
time. As an example the game Mist from
Infocom. That company was considered
to have the best text games.

My character is at the gates to the
grounds of the mansion. How-to get
through the lock gates on the stormy
night. Understand that I have the
props for this game. I have the story
as well in the manual. Even a handful
of the words. Though Infocom had a way
to use a lot of words in their games.
Took me hours of real time to make it
past that gate. Oh it was blow the
horn of the car. Like I would think of
that right off the bat? Not that it
would be done, but that it could be
done in the game. BTW: that was the
first encounter in the game. I never
got past the second encounter.

 Words, the right ones and their use
is one of the problems. Another is the
right things to do. That is naturally
based on the authors sense of values.
But also the time frame of the games
creation. Sort of a time capsule of
the world. Some games of this nature
use a bit of the current pop fad
language jargon in the text. Not in
what you need to type in, but in the
words in the descriptions. As you can
tell I have problems with this sort of
game. But to be fair. I have met people
that love these games. They hunt to
this day, for ones that they have yet
to play.

 Now then there are two variations to
this type of game. These have actually
gfx in them. One has a static picture
at the top of the screen. Illustrating
some point of the game. Based on your
location. There is a bit of
descriptive text at the bottom half.
Now there is either a blank line for
you to enter the words. Or there is a
set of words for you to select. This
type I have played with some success,
and remember fondly the Lord of the
Rings in this form. A more advanced
type is set up the same way. Having
the top part of the screen with the
scene. The bottom part with the words.
Maniac Mansion is the first one of
this style that I played. Difference
here is that the top screen is
animated. In game play  you move the
character around the screen(s) with
the joystick. At first you must select
the team of characters for the
adventure. Done with the joystick.
Next you take them, one by one, to the
front of the mansion. Now to get in
you need to score the key from under
the mat. This requires looking around
and reading the text information that
is presented.

Getting the clues for that action. But
to do it, you must select the action
in a set of commands at the bottom of
the screen. You can probably guess
that I like this game. Well I only
finished it with the help of a couple
of walk troughs?. Like most of the
games I have experienced on the C=.
They are more in depth and take longer
than expected.

 Rest your eyes a bit. That is a lot
of information to digest as well.
Point is to accept and understand that
there is a wide variety of games.
Asteroids, Defender, Mario Brothers
and more classic coin op arcade games.
Like Frogger, and Donkey Kong <ever
find the Donkey?>,Pac Man and the
clever one called Plaque Man that was
a special dental care game for kids.
Well assuming I spelled it correctly.
Shoot' Em Up games. In fact there is a
construction set to make that type of
game. War games, and yes there is a
construction set to make them as well.
Adventure games, you know the type
where you explore the world, defeat
the bad things and eventually save the
day.

Yuppers there is a construction set to
make them as well. Oh I was just
reminded that some readers may not
know what exactly is a construction
set. Simply stated it is a utility
tool. Which will allow you to create
the above types of games. Then pass
them around to your friends and others
that use the C=. Yeah a creative
thing.

 That brings me to other things the C=
can do for you. Besides the games.
Quadratic <spelling?> equations, may
not be your bag. But I had a programme
that taught them to you. In fact basic
math into Geometry I have on disks for
the Commodore. Had one that would
teach you the bones of the body.
Typing of course, and that is one that
I should really use myself. Grammar,
and that too is another one that I
should use myself. Have a few English
ones. Side note they specifically
state that they are Canadian English,
not American. I'll stop there with the
educational programmes.

Pretty much you name it, and there was
something for it on the C=. One part
that I will add. Some of these were
adjustable. I mean that if you wanted
to say update the information for the
lessons. You could do that in the
programme.

 Print Master+ & Print Shop, these are
the two most widely seen programmes
for creating, greeting cards,
stationary, banners, calendars and a
bit more. Each one has additive disks
to the main programme. Adding more
gfx, fonts and borders for your use.
There are some others, but you see the
point. We have three voices and 9
octaves for the C=. Yes there are
programmes to create music on the C=.
Many hundreds of these where on Q-Link
for free download. I have an almost 2
mega byte file is zip format of an
unknown amount of the songs. That a
guy saved from Q-Link and sent to me.

 The News Room, that is a programme
that allows you to make your own
newsletters. Contains fonts and gfx
images. The latter you can alter a
bit, or create your own. There are a
few additional disks of fonts and gfx
that you can pick up as well. I have
most of this set. Want to draw your
own things? There is a wealth of art
programmes. No idea how many are out
there for you. However the most
popular ones that I know about and
have used are, Koala <which seems to
have been a standard hi-res art prg
.Since it is used in a lot of intro
screen things> Blazing Paddles,
Animation Station, Doodle, FlexiDraw
are the ones that I have used. Koala
and Animation Station are both tablet
style drawing programmes.

There is a crack running around for
Koala that allows the use of a
joystick over the tablet. FlexiDraw
has a mess of extra programmes, that I
have yet to use. Can be used with
other input devices. I though have
only used it with the light pen. Each
of these has its own pluses and
drawbacks. As well as their dedicated
fans. All I can tell you is that I
have seen some really great art work.
Nothing that I could attempt to create
myself.

 Games, educational, creative
programmes. Those are just major
category titles. Now then, the thing
that I do most of the time, writing.
Honestly I thought at first the
C=64would be a game machine for me.
Ends up I do more writing stuff than
anything else on it. No I am not going
on about what to write or how-to
write. I am a rather poor example of
that stuff. Nor can I tell you which
is the best programme to use.

 In fact since space is running out.
All of that will be in the next part.
At this time I want to impress on you
that there is a gigantic amount of
programmes of an almost endless
variety of styles and subject matter
for the C=. When you add that people
are still doing programme writing on a
25+ year old PC. What else can be
created? Obviously not everything as
of yet. OK next session continues with
the programme overview and then back
to simple from the manual BasicV2
programming.