Starting location
Using my new and nifty KryoFlux to convert Amiga disks to ADF files, I resurrected an old game of mine: Rolli!
Yes, it is another one of those RolePlayingGames.
This is the first RPG I started in C, I never made it publicly available so there is no shame in it, if you never ever having heard of it :-)!
As with so many other things I did, I did not finish this one. Had I been more persistent it could perhaps have become another ADOM (or the forerunner, since this one was done about four years befor ADOM ever saw the light of the day!).
I had some great many ideas, and quite a few are actually implemented:
- day and night cycle
- different “light” areas for light sources you are wearing
- interaction with your surroundings (open doors, windows, moving tables)
- chests and sacks where you can put stuff into
- each object has a size attribute and depending on that you could carry it, put into another object, hide it (under a table e.g.)
- you could join and unjoin objects and build new ones (ha! 25 years befor minecraft!)
- graphical tiles
- monsters you could interact (talk) with
- etc.
Inside the house
Following an original README I discovered with it:
I wrote this program in order to see what could be done in the field of roleplaying with the help of an Amiga. I tried do create an own world, but I must confess that I failed. I started with this program spring 1989. There are so many bits and peaces that must be covered in order to achieve what I wanted to achieve that it would take a lifetime to do so. I wrote all of it by myself, sometimes I stopped for month, sometimes I sat all night in front of the screen trying to get this computer to do what I wanted it to do. I started using fonts as graphic elements just like for instants Omega, but after a while I thought it better to use good old block graphics. I don't think it neccassary for a RPG to have fantastic graphics, what good do they do ? The player is not allowed to let his imagination flow, nor is enough memory left for the game worth playing it. I probably could have come up with a graphic somewhat more decent than the block things I use now, but as I said before I didn't think it neccassary. I tried to give the player the feeling of living in an own world, where the character is free to move and can do whatever the player feels he should do. I really intended the character to live in a fantasy world not just be there to do some quest in order to make some computer-user happy, you get what I mean ? I wanted the character to develope, like we do in real life, to get a profesion or whatever. As I also said before, I failed. But nonetheless I have implanted many comands so you get at least some feeling of your friend inside the computer. You don't ever need to touch the mouse during the game, some people will not like that, but for a game like this, sooner or later you will have to type something anyway, and rather than jumping back and forth from mouse to keyboard, I decided to give access to all comands via keyboard. I also wanted the program to be fairly open, to be able to release modules like they do with non computer RPG. I tried to write an editor, but it is rather complex and I don't know if anyone but me will ever use it, it exists nonetheless. Commands 09.01.1992 q - quit (saves game in progress) D - describe position s - seek if there is something hidden ... (for directions see below) S - switch move mode, jump or step by step, whatever you like t - talk not finished yet, but small talk can be done z - statistics of character i - inventory of character o - switch a possible light source on p - put object away, drop object (for directions see below) g - get object (for directions see below) h - hide object (for directions see below) l - look, a cursor appears move it with direction keys, 5 to look x - examine what is next to you c - change open,close - door, window, chest... (for directions see below) m - move - object (for directions see below) T - Day or night switch, just for debugging will be removed O - off, switch a possible light source off P - put object into another one (chest) (for directions see below) G - get object out of another one (for directions see below) X - examine closer, shows some more details L - Light change radius of light of character (for debugging) k - switch switch possibly this one will be added to 'c' j - join two objects to get another object J - unjoin rip appart, ...
Character status screen
As you can see by the screenshots, I do have a working copy here. But I would like to get my development environment setup correctly for the game befor I “release” it. So bear with me for a while, one day I will make this beauty available and you will be able to finish the game, since it will come with all developement tools necessary to build it!