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RE: The First Game That I Never Made
I've created text based adventures, and also a "text-adventure making engine."
Long ago and far away.
I understand some of the frustrations you've described.
Have you succeeded at making any games? Best wishes...
😄😇😄
Thank you for stopping by to share your feedback @creatr :c)
Well... sort of, yes.
Things really took off for me in 2015 - with a crash as resounding as a desktop executive's toy balls crashing into each other. ;c) Took part in the Med Game Jam, fulfilled my small narrative role in a team on a game called Buzzed, and spent the rest of the weekend solo-making a prototype for a tabletop roguelike - 'Storm the coves'.
In the Global Game Jam for 2016 got a little familiar with Twine and and sorted the narrative for Job Up a crude game about interviewing one's way to success... and stuff.
In the Global Game Jam for 2017 I wanted to prove to myself that I could, in some way or another, produce a video game. I sort of did and I mention and link to it in my intro post.
Wow. You have a lot of stuff under your belt, and while your creating a text-based adventure is impressive, in my mind making the engine really takes it up a notch. I appreciate sufficiently that you probably put more work into the game - but the latter project is enabling. :c)
I really appreciate your well wishes and wish you well in kind!
Hi again, James, and thanks for getting back to me! :)
Thanks also for pointing me to your intro post. Sounds as if you've been having some fun, and that you have some cool ideas. Are you familiar with the Eye-Wire project? Kind of a "gamified" distribution of the task of mapping neurons.
You've also reminded me of some other "game crafting" I've done - I once wrote the code to enable a chicken to play Tic-Tac-Toe. I also wrote firmware for an electronic pachinko machine. I programmed an "Othello" board on a Sinclair computer. There may be a few other adventures that are escaping my mind at the moment. Oh, yes... I disassembled an early Flight Simulator that ran on an Apple ][ and hacked the database. I "picked up" the painted lines on the runway and used them to construct some barnstorming fixtures to fly through... Fun! I also hacked a version of "Spacewar" so that I could play it continuously without dying or being shot down. This allowed me to get an intuitive "feel" for how orbits work.
You have now reminded me of material for several more articles, THANK YOU. ;)
I have heard recently that there are several excellent tools for crafting new Text Adventures available these days... I'm tempted to try a new one! :)
In any case, I look forward to hearing more from and about you, and I'm appreciative of @merej99's challenge that has resulted in my "meeting" you here today. ;)
Thank you also for taking the time to craft such an elaborate response @creatr. :c)
This is the first time that I've heard of Eye-Wire. I just gave their front page a look and it sounds interesting (not that you didn't make it sound so already).
I'd also not heard of Pachinko machines before today. Its one of the wonders of Steemit - the perspectives that one runs into. :c)
I am guessing that you had a purpose designed 3x3 pad for the chicken to peck at? Thats a fascinating idea - I had wondered about the possibilities of using technology to keep anmals bemused (the most obvious candidate being laser pointers for cats (just don't have it accidentally lead the frenzied moggy leaping out of that 23rd floor window!
(Nooo! Moggy! Oh... you still have 3 lives left, do you? I'm not even going to ask about the other five.) ^_~
I admit that I never got into hacking games. Your mentioning the Apple ][ brings back nostalgic memories. Though besides playing a couple of SSI games (which still influence me today) I cannot remember ever having had any success with it beyond pulling up 'CATALOG'. I miss those black vinyl-like disks. Their skritchy-scratching almost melodious to my ears (no kidding - I still recall the loading skritches for one of those SSI games - to the smallest detail - and then it stopped working (and emulators don't simulate the hardware's feel - 'sobs' ^_~)).
It is very clear to me that coding has never been an issue for you. That, along with your inspired creativity - I'm guessing that you surely released some title in the past that I might have heard of. :c)
I am really glad that I gave you inspiration. Its funny how our resources always dwarfs our works. :c)
I too look forward to hearing more about you and your materials past and future. Thanks again @merej99 for enabling all this. ^_^
Now if you'll excuse me... I'll need to step away. :c)
Thanks, friend...
I code mostly in C, and in any flavor *asm you may care to mention.
I have written emulators and assemblers... never yet a compiler, though.
The chicken simply pecked at a flashing light - there was a chicken psychologist who trained it - and the "random" timing at which the chicken threw that switch determined which of a few select moves it would make.
I remember the sound of the Apple ][ floppy very well... all 128K bytes of it! :D
A friend of mine had advised me to write a text editor for Apple ][ back in the day when there were none... I should have listened! I'm sure an editor would have sold much better than the stuff I did write! ;)
Its been a year since I last earnestly attempted to adhere C# to my mind.
The day for me to succeed in such has not come. It might not ever - and thats OK. I am coming to terms with working around my shortfalls - but such is still a work in progress (I admit to feeling envy ;c).
Your chicken interfacing experiment sounds quite ambitious. Did you have any level of success?
Ah yes. A text editor back then was a big thing. It was still a big thing upon the Atari, let alone for the Apple ][. Still, I suspect that like myself you once saw programming as being a means toward an end rather than as the end itself.
I appreciate your insights and also your time here. These exchanges have been pleasant and I look forward to getting into further exchanges in the future. :c)
The chicken machine was not my own project - I was a subcontractor, paid only to do the firmware coding. It was, in fact, my very first consulting gig! ;)
And it was a great success. Several units were made and they made the rounds of fairs and shopping malls. There is something about a person's pride that makes it difficult for him to walk away after being beaten by a chicken at Tic-Tac-Toe. The temptation is too great to keep putting money into the machine until you beat the chicken, or at least until there is a draw.
As I programmed it, the firmware had two settings, selectable by a switch in the back. One setting guaranteed "Chicken will never lose." The worst case for the chicken would be a draw. The other setting was "Chicken may lose," and interestingly enough, the chicken seemed to win more often on that setting... :D
I too have enjoyed our conversation, and look forward to more! ;)
To land a consulting gig normally requires either intimate knowledge of the somebody in the loop, or a sterling reputation. I'd suspect the latter.
Well either way, you've worked on some really interesting projects even if they may not have been your own. ^_^
Hearing more about the chicken project makes it all the more intriguing to me. Very rightly said about pride. The psychology at play will have people demanding repeat chances until they manage.
I will certainly be seeing you around. Thank you for sharing your experiences! :c)