Re: Timelord Demo

[spector@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article neiderma@er4.rutgers.edu (Kid) writes...
>
>WOW!  I jus downloaded the Timelord demo from GEnie!  The game looks
>like Ultima 6!  Incredible!
>
>Now, why didn't the thing ever come out?  The date on the demo says
>1992.  This is a shame, because it could have been a big money maker,
>figuring that there are no more Ultima-style games for the II series,
>and absoolutely none for the IIGS.  And the quality, wow.

	Two reasons: The chief programmer, Chris McKinsey, kind of 
burnt out and walked away from the project before it was completed.
He left the Apple II world and possibly programming from any computer
platforms completely (not entirely clear on just what did happen, but
I very much doubt he's ever going to complete his "TimeLord" game).

	Secondly, no one at DreamWorld was willing to take over where
Chris left off on the game, and most of them were starting to drift away
from the Apple II themselves at that time. These days there's not much left 
of the original DreamWorld programmers -- even Steve Chiang has found himself
a full-time job writing 65C816 SuperNintendo games. This makes the idea of
seeing "TimeLord" completed even less likely, let alone updates to existing
software like "DreamGrafix". :/

>Maybe the Dreamworld guys should release the source or something,
>maybe someone could finish it.  Seems like a waste to just have
>the thing sit around.

	That's not a bad idea. Though the problem is finding someone who'd
be willing to finish the game and then someone to publish it (forget
about BRCC as their planning to close-up by the end of 1994, *sigh*).

	Releasing the source-code for "DreamVision" would be nice too! Anyone
who's seen the demo-release knows how impression it is/was (basically a
very smooth QuickTime player/editor for the IIgs! :-)

Mitchell Spector
sb_spec@pavo.concordia.ca / spector@vax2.concordia.ca