What is “Outpost Nexus” you ask? Well… here’s a hint…
“Oh, no! It’s not a derivative arcade shooter with power-ups, is it? Will the production of these things never end!?!”
Yes, and I don’t know.
Now for a question and answer session with up-and-coming game writer, Des Courtney!
Q: “Who is responsible for this hack you call a game?”
A: I, Des Courtney, created most of the graphics and wrote all of the game specific code. However, Ingemar Ragnemalm wrote the way cool and excellent routines that drive the actual animation handling. Also, the development environment was provided by Symantec Corporation, so they claim some amount of copyright to parts of the application’s code.
- Oh, and thanks to my original beta testers… they got copies of my game, and I haven’t heard a peep from them since. There must not be any bugs. (-;
Q: “What are the settings made at the factory?”
A: What factory? Anyway, if you are using a QWERTY keyboard, the cannons are fired with the keys “z” and “x” and pause is invoked with “e.” For Dvorak and others, I haven’t the foggiest. On all keyboards, the escape key aborts a game in progress. Also, the high score list has only the one name. Sound is turned on when Outpost Nexus is first run. “Fast” animation is turned off by default for compatibility reasons. If you want to know how to play the game, read the “Mission Briefing” provided with this distribution. The defaults can be restored by trashing the preferences file within the System Folder.
Q: “What machines will this game run on?”
A: The question should be “What machines WON’T this game run on?” It would still be grammatically incorrect, but I’m a bad speller, so who am I to judge? Outpost Nexus can run in as low as 640K of memory in Black & White, but with deeper monitor depths, it may need more. The default setting of 1536K works with 256 colors.
As far as I know, this game will fail run on, or run too slowly on…
- The Original 128k Mac
- The XL
- The 512K
- The Plus
- The SE (should run fine on a SE/30)
- The Classic (run fines on a Classic II, should on a Color)
Outpost Nexus WILL run under System Sick, ahem, Six, but it will probably need the 32-bit Color Quickdraw extension. (There hasn’t been any serious testing, however.)
If this game doesn’t run smoothly, you can try the following…
- Reduce the monitor depth
- Turn on “Fast” animation
- Install Sound Manager 3.0
- Buy a new Mac (-:
Q: “Just how much strain will keeping a copy of this game put on my pocketbook?”
A: Ah, it always comes down to this, doesn’t it? It depends on who you are…
- If you never, ever, pay for shareware, there’s no sense in me depending on a check that will never come. It’s free.
- If you’ve paid for shareware, Congratulations! You’ve done a GOOD™ thing! As a reward for your fine, upstanding behavior, Outpost Nexus is free. If you are gunning for sainthood, you can participate in the following option…
- If you WRITE shareware, Outpost Nexus is “Barterware.” If you like Outpost Nexus and decide to keep it, please send me a program/utility that would be about equal in value to what you think the game is worth. No, I’m not expecting some Finder-hastening, file-shrinking, or menu-multiplying type widget unless you feel like being charitable to a Poor, Starving College Student™. If you feel what you write is the Greatest Thing since Sliced Bread and is too valuable in exchange for my Lowly Game, go ahead and send cash or check. (No, I don’t take credit cards, sorry.)
My home address is…
Des Courtney
1411 Park Street
Findlay, Ohio 45840
My e-mail address is…
dcourtn@opie.bgsu.edu
My computer set-up for those who might send me software…
An Original Mac LC 4/40
12" RGB monitor (yes, I know this considered a badge of shame)
System 7.0.1 w/ Sound Manager 3.0 successfully installed
Outpost Nexus may be distributed via Bulletin Boards, User Groups, Archives, and what not. Please let me know if you are distributing copies to the masses. I could use the mail. (-:
Q: “Hmmm, I wrote a game that is in some ways similar to Outpost Nexus. I also see that you are not registered for my game. Pay up!”
A: I don’t have it. Seriously! As you can tell by the above setup, I cannot effectively run most Mac games. Either the game needs a 13" monitor, megs and megs of memory, or runs way too slow. )-: I wrote this game to try to soothe the hurt Color Classic, PowerBook, and LC owners who are dying to get some kind of decent action game. I also wrote Outpost Nexus to pay back a little to the people of the Internet (That’s Internet, folks, not “Infobahn” (-:) who provided an almost nurturing home for me.
Q: “Hey, could I make money selling copies of this?”
A: Over my dead body! I’m not going to make money off this; why should you? If you really must distribute this game in a for-profit manner, check with me first. No, *discounts* for CD-ROMs won’t cut it; I don’t own a CD drive. However, if you *give* me a CD, I’ll find a way to use it. (-:
