Re: Adventure Construction Set

[gkomatsu@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Galen Tatsuo Komatsu)]

(this was orignally a c.s.cbm thread, but since I did
ACS work on my //e, I thought I'd crosspsot it.=^)

In article <4b9mpg$ro1@gti.gti.net> netw1z@gti.gti.net (Charles Simpson) writes:
>Anyone remember this construction set from EA?  i have it.  If anyone
>has that , let me know.  ANyone want to trade adventures made in
>Adventure Construction set?  scuh a great system made by Stuart Smith.

	I created two and had plans for a two more.  The first was pretty
simple, I'd call it linear, but it was almost simpler than that. =^)
Some spaceship was stolen by enemy aliens and you had to track it down. 
(original, eh?)  Basically you followed a path leading from one area to
another, (stations, spaceships, alien ski-resort =^) meeting some person
for the necessary "key" to continue and getting into gunfights with spies.

	The second was a little better, with some puzzles and trick doors
sending you halfway across the map.  Originally I had planned to write
(_hand_write no less...) a "journal" of a previous explorer in the realm
of the game which would offer hints and keys the puzzles, but my literary
creativity wasn't all too great at the time, plus I'm downright lazy,
so I ended "releasing" ...to a total audience of _one_... with a hint
sheet.  (gave it to a friend, I think his mom, an avid crpg fan who once
actually asked me for Ultima IV help, tried it too).

	The third never really got past the conceptual stage, it was to
basically turn the adventure into one big puzzle.  The main map to be a
maze dotted with puzzle rooms.  One puzzle I recall (recall thinking
about at least) was to abuse "invisible" one-way doors and make a maze
out of an otherwise empty looking room.

	The fourth was to be my most ambitious and revolutionary (in
my adolescent mind at least) taking the available tools and functions
and using them in ways "not originally intended".  It was also, like
my second adventure, to include an introductory story to provide the
setting and maybe give a few hints.  You'd start off as the "average
guy in the street" and by the end of the game achieve greatness in
your corner of the galaxy.
	(man, you got me started, now I can't stop =^)  The "world map"
would be turned into a region (a lead up to the final section of the
game), while I would use a region my game's "world map".  Not a region
where you had free roam, rather it was a "galactic map", and movements
would take you from one section of the map to another, and if there
was a planet in that section you could "land" and go about that planet's
mini-adventure.  Access to the map was somewhat regulated through a
space-port, basically, if you didn't have money to buy a shuttle-ticket
you couldn't travel to the other planets.  Later on as your wealth
increased you could buy your own personal space-craft and access the
galactic map (travel to other planets) without the hassle of buying
a ticket.
	...also planned to put in an easter egg that would allow to
you "edit" your character. =^)  edit attributes, special equipment...


	I'd be more than happy to dig them up and trade, but these were
done on the Apple //.  (I was the lone Apple //e among a circle of C64
owning friends)

>I remember they offered a contest for the best design adventures with it.
>Did any actually win?

	The prizes were awarded I think I have the list of winners in
an old issue of Family Computing somewhere.  I always wanted to write
to EOA to see if I could get copies of the adventures, but never got
around to it. (and I figure today, at best I'd get dumb looks from them)

>I found it to be a wonderfully complex system to create great adventure
>customized to the Nth degree.  You could make any world with any time of
>object.  Prehaps in today's world it seems mundane but at the time it was HOT

	I must've had a zillion gripes with it (then again like they
say, the one who complains the most probably didn't pay for it =^)
but still thought it was one of the coolest things at the time.
(...but in a week or two I shall actually own my own copy...)

let's see, there was...
- sloooooow execution in general.
- quirky text entry, dunno about the C64 version, but in the short message
  entry, entering a period "." would cause it to save and exit..._sometimes_
  Other times it would accept normally as part of your text input.
- slow operation.
- segregated tile sets.  I never understood why one set was for monsters
  only, one for monsters or items, etc... Why weren't they all combined
  into one big tile set?
- did I mention the speed?
--

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