oceanix42 Posted November 21, 2022 Share Posted November 21, 2022 Greetings enthusiasts! I hope you are all doing well. I have been dabbling in retro-game creation for the past year and stumbled upon Adventure Creator for the Atari 8-bit (I have an 800xl, best computer ever ) and am really enjoying the software. I nice break from my head-first dive into 6502 assembly. It's a pretty neat, albeit limited, adventure maker kit. Pitch: Using Adventure Creator, constrained by it's inherent limitations, hold a short competition to show off creative, fun, challenging games developed with it. Maybe have some cheap prizes, a youtube/twitch playthough and live award ceremony, etc, for fun. If you are not familiar with Adventure Creator, check it out: Atari 400 800 XL XE Adventure Creator : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms (atarimania.com) Any interest? Thanks! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invisible kid Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 Heheh, I won't make any, but I'll play 'em! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 Eight years ago I made an ATR version that works: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 I always felt Adventure Creator was too limited for the kinds of games I wanted to create, but it will be interesting to see what people can pull off with some creativity. Maybe I'll even give it a go.. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 (edited) I had Adventure Creator back in the day, I played the pre-created game that included, but I never got around to creating something myself. I always found the "construction set" games fascinating back in the day, buying up all I found, including A.C., Racing Destruction Set, Pinball Construction set, and other I don't recall atm, but I only ever ended up playing the games included with the programs, and never did much beyond a little experimentation with the creation elements. I loved the concept, but never had the attention span back then to follow through. Also partly because I had no one to share any games I created. These days I've a longer attention span and much more creative ideas and all of you in this forum to share with, so definitely more incentive. Which is why I'm teaching myself Basic (re-learning) and Assembly, but this might be a way to get the creative juices flowing that I can later leverage into my own unique games once I learn enough programming to pull something off. And creating an adventure that could be interesting and fun, with the very limited creation program sounds like a good challenge. My personal goal would be a more interesting adventure than the one that was ready made with the cartridge...using the same limitations the developers used for the included adventure. Of course I barely remember the adventure as I only played it once and had more interesting software that took up my time by then too, so I'll have to replay the included adventure to know the benchmark I have to beat. I'm not committing to the contest, right now, but since I have more time this time of year I'll give it a try and give a definitive answer in a week or two...and wait and see how many others may decide to enter the contest in that time as well, I'm not doing it with only one other in the competition and currently I'm the first to even say I *might*. Edited November 23, 2022 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdefabri Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 Not sure about the Adventure Creator, but I had Broderbund's Arcade Machine back in the day and could never make much from it other than very basic games. Then of course, it's pretty much cookie cutter stuff because it's limited in the games it can create (or I was just too young to try and push the tool to make something unique). This is interesting to me though, I might take a look at it and see if I can do anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceanix42 Posted November 23, 2022 Author Share Posted November 23, 2022 Sounds good. I'm really interested in stretching limits of old systems and software given the limitations placed on them. I think that's why I've done such a deep dive into the Atari 800xl and 6502 assembly, lol. I think I'll come up with a little site to garner interest, if any and see what happens. Though AC is very limited, it has a really neat conversation/trade mechanism with NPCs that I found to be interesting, and some hints as to use that functionality, with the other limitations could be used in very creative ways. Thanks for responding!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 10 hours ago, Gunstar said: I had Adventure Creator back in the day, I played the pre-created game that included, but I never got around to creating something myself. I always found the "construction set" games fascinating back in the day, buying up all I found, including A.C., Racing Destruction Set, Pinball Construction set, and other I don't recall atm, but I only ever ended up playing the games included with the programs, and never did much beyond a little experimentation with the creation elements. I was a sucker for the 'Construction Set' games too, Pinball Construction Set was awesome. Some of the others not so much. I remember seeing Electronic Arts released "Adventure Construction Set" and it looked amazing in the magazines! Of course it was available for everything except Atari So when I saw Adventure Creator in the store, it was an immediate purchase. Had some fun with it, but soon the limits were apparent. It felt like the "kiddie version" of the game I really wanted. Also bought Adventure Master which was for designing text/graphics adventures. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 25, 2022 Share Posted November 25, 2022 (edited) On 11/23/2022 at 8:56 AM, zzip said: I was a sucker for the 'Construction Set' games too, Pinball Construction Set was awesome. Some of the others not so much. I remember seeing Electronic Arts released "Adventure Construction Set" and it looked amazing in the magazines! Of course it was available for everything except Atari So when I saw Adventure Creator in the store, it was an immediate purchase. Had some fun with it, but soon the limits were apparent. It felt like the "kiddie version" of the game I really wanted. Also bought Adventure Master which was for designing text/graphics adventures. I too bought Adventure Creator when I saw it in the store for the same reasons, and I too was disappointed when I found out it was intended to be a "kiddie game." In fact, I do remember that either on the box, or in the instructions it actually did recommend it for younger kids. I of course didn't find that out until I already owned it. But all my original software from the 80's was lost in a move in the 90's, so I don't have it anymore. I've been building up an original physical release collection again, slowly, since the 2000's. But I hadn't been interested in trying Adventure Creator again though until now, with this proposed contest. Adventure Master I never heard of back in the day, but I did actually download it from Atarimania in the last year or two with the intent to try my hand at it. I haven't actually tried it yet, since downloaded. Edited November 25, 2022 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted November 25, 2022 Share Posted November 25, 2022 6 hours ago, Gunstar said: I too bought Adventure Creator when I saw it in the store for the same reasons, and I too was disappointed when I found out it was intended to be a "kiddie game." In fact, I do remember that either on the box, or in the instructions it actually did recommend it for younger kids. I of course didn't find that out until I already owned it. I think Spinnaker was an educational software company, and the packaging artwork of Adventure Creator did give off more of an educational vibe than a gaming vibe, but I ignored those warning signs when I bought it 😄 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 25, 2022 Share Posted November 25, 2022 ye 10 minutes ago, zzip said: I think Spinnaker was an educational software company, and the packaging artwork of Adventure Creator did give off more of an educational vibe than a gaming vibe, but I ignored those warning signs when I bought it 😄 Yeah, me too. I think I was hoping that even though it was intended for kids, that since it was a construction set game that I could just construct something a bit more adult (older kid really). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted November 25, 2022 Share Posted November 25, 2022 Adventure Creator and Pinball Construction Set were two of my teenage favorites. I even made a Rogue / Adventure Creator inspired 2600 game called Atarowg. Wouldn't mind taking another stab at an AC-esque game again. What about widening the net a little then? Have a contest that uses AC as a base theme for a new game and accept submissions from any system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-Pack Posted November 25, 2022 Share Posted November 25, 2022 On 11/21/2022 at 4:52 PM, oceanix42 said: Greetings enthusiasts! I hope you are all doing well. I have been dabbling in retro-game creation for the past year and stumbled upon Adventure Creator for the Atari 8-bit (I have an 800xl, best computer ever ) and am really enjoying the software. I nice break from my head-first dive into 6502 assembly. It's a pretty neat, albeit limited, adventure maker kit. Pitch: Using Adventure Creator, constrained by it's inherent limitations, hold a short competition to show off creative, fun, challenging games developed with it. Maybe have some cheap prizes, a youtube/twitch playthough and live award ceremony, etc, for fun. If you are not familiar with Adventure Creator, check it out: Atari 400 800 XL XE Adventure Creator : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms (atarimania.com) Any interest? Thanks! I'm interested enough to offer a $25 Atari Age gift certificate to a first-place winner. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceanix42 Posted November 26, 2022 Author Share Posted November 26, 2022 That's awesome. Ok. Let me think this through and get back to the forum with a plan! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceanix42 Posted November 27, 2022 Author Share Posted November 27, 2022 On 11/25/2022 at 10:47 AM, Gemintronic said: Adventure Creator and Pinball Construction Set were two of my teenage favorites. I even made a Rogue / Adventure Creator inspired 2600 game called Atarowg. Wouldn't mind taking another stab at an AC-esque game again. What about widening the net a little then? Have a contest that uses AC as a base theme for a new game and accept submissions from any system. Do you mean have a competition for AC like games on any system, or have AC generated game, on any system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted November 28, 2022 Share Posted November 28, 2022 On 11/26/2022 at 7:01 PM, oceanix42 said: Do you mean have a competition for AC like games on any system, or have AC generated game, on any system? I think having a contest that allows any platform for AC inspired entries would widen the net. The amount of people able to write AC engines and reverse engineer AC save formats might be slim. A middle ground might be a contest for AC inspired game maker software that can make AC styled games/levels. But, that still restricts the audience and contestant pool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted November 29, 2022 Share Posted November 29, 2022 Does it have to be Spinnaker's AC or are other AC's also allowed ? Some examples: https://forums.atari.io/topic/7514-text-adventure-game-system-by-peter-j-meyer-for-atari-8-bit-disk-image-available-on-github/ http://www.atarimania.com/pgelstsoft.awp?system=8&type=G&genre=2&step=25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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