Well, when it comes to the game of TILT the answers are defintely both yes and no. Or, to be completely unequivocal, it depends on your viewpoint.
You see, Mike Gilbert and I have known each other since sixth grade. When I wrote my first professional science-fiction story, he illustrated the cover of the magazine. When he got married he introduced me to his wife's cousin (who I married). Then he got me involved in collecting "Uncle Scrooge" comics but that's a whole other story.
I was the first of us to discover computers though, and I got Mike interested in the Apple II and, later, in the Mac. We tried to write our first game together in about 1980 on the Apple II. Well, it didn't work. Neither of us ever had the time or dedication to learn assembly language.
Then came the Macintosh. Well, we tried again. This time with the idea of TILT in mind, using various compiled BASICs. But, no, I just could not get the time I needed to learn the vastness of "Inside Macintosh" to find out where in the ROM all the
"goodies" are hidden away. It looked as if we were doomed. I felt particularly bad as I had spent about six months in developing the various algorithms in the combat tables and Mike had wasted equal time on the preliminary artwork.
AND FINALLY....
Along came HyperCard and Danny Goodman's wonderful book "The Complete HyperCard Handbook." Suddenly, I realized we could do it!
Well, the results are even now glimmering behind your computer's glassy face. Depending on how you count time, this game took us maybe seven years to do, or perhaps three years, or maybe a year and a half, or the month we actually spent Hypering around.
Mike and I are releasing TILT as shareware. Probably everyone knows by now what that is but, for the uninitiate, a shareware program may be redistributed in any NON-COMMERCIAL manner (you cannot sell it). This means it can be copied and passed around although the authors retain copyright of the work (in this case the copyright is in my little company's name: MCU Inc.). The idea is that if a person LIKES and will USE a shareware program, he or she sends money to the program's authors.
Mike put a LOT of work into this program and I think he has done a magnificent job. Believe it or not, he drew everything from within HyperCard!
He's a professional artist and actually turned down at least one assignment to work on this game with me. After all, I told him, the Macintosh Community will not let us down!
I put a bunch of work into this too. Probably not as much as I would have had to if I was smarter, but enough that my fingers are still numb.
So, if you like and will be playing TILT, Mike and I ask that you send $10 to us at:
--------------------------------------
Neil Shapiro
MCU Inc.
P.O. Box 520
Bethpage, NY 11714
--------------------------------------
We promise that success will not ruin us.
And, when you send us the shareware fee we will mail to you the special password you need to unlock this stack all the way to the "scripting" level. So, if you are learning HyperCard or would like to play around modifying such things as the CRT routines within TILT the password will enable you to have even more fun and utility from this game.
Also, sending in the money is the only way I can be certain that Mike will want to work on the next game with me. How important is that? Well, imagine the knights in armor in TILT as stick figures for a moment.....
Checkbook out yet? Good.
AND THANKS TO
A very special contribution was made to TILT by a friend of ours -- Scott Bizar. Scott owns Fantasy Games Unlimited which publishes a whole bunch of wonderful manuals for the adventure gaming market.
One of the games he publishes, CHIVALRY AND SORCERY, covers everything you could possibly imagine about gaming a fantasy or medieval environment. Scott graciously granted us permission to base the CRT
(Combat Results Table) that is within
TILT's program algorithms on the CRT that is printed in the "Tournaments" section of the above manual.
For more information on Scott's complete line of rule books and more, please write to him at:
Fantasy Games Unlimited
P.O. Box 182
Roslyn, NY 11576
Remember: He gets letters but _we_
get the checks! (Grin).
DEDICATION
I've written dedications for novels, short story collections and technical books before but never for a game. But, I think it's appropriate.
_________________________________
TILT is dedicated to Bill Atkinson,
Dan Winkler, Danny Goodman and Apple's
HyperCard Team.
_________________________________
Bill Atkinson, one of the original Mac wizards, designed HyperCard. Dan Winkler did the HyperTalk language. Danny Goodman wrote the book that taught me (mistakes
in this program are obviously my own thick-headedness and not the book's fault!) and the HyperCard Team are all the people at Apple who have worked on this new programming environment. Thanks, people, now it really IS the computer for the rest of us!
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