arkhamsoft.com

[catventure]

Hi Darthwiki,

Thanks for your interest in the TAB. I hope you can fix the "Duality" issue and I really look forward to playing it sometime in the future...
In the meantime Happy Christmas to you and yours!

Regards,
catventure.

[darthkiwi]

Hey there,

I've re-compiled the game with the most up-to-date version of DBPro on a Vista machine which uses DirectX 10, so hopefully that ought to rectify any problems you've been having.

http://www.mediafire.com/?dznvnca1azz

Give me a shout if it's still a problem and I'll have a closer look through the support forums or something. And give me a shout if it works and you like it!
_________________
The master of long, rambling posts.

[catventure]

Hi darthwiki,

Thanks. Downloaded, unzipped and tried again. No joy - but then I updated my DirectX with the latest directx end-user runtimes from Microsoft site and tried again...
Success. The required and missing DX9 dll's were now present and I'm pleased to say that "Duality" runs OK and without problem now

I have already completed the first chapter and have saved my progress.
I like the music and the nice atmospheric, creepy sfx effects.
Am enjoying the story and exploration so far.

Regards,
catventure.

[catventure]

Hi darthkiwi,

OK. I have finished the game! An unusual game to play on Xmas Day admittedly, but I enjoyed playing thru to the end (no doubt my text adventure experience helped there)
Also liked the plot twist in the final chapter.

Now I have a proposition for you. I am sure "Duality" could be converted into TAB and made as a text adventure (with gfx and sfx etc) fairly easily. The main emphasis being on the story and text. Just a matter of coding in the puzzles, vocabulary and responses... Would be an alternative way to present your game. Although TAB can be used to create CYOA adventures it would be interesting to see your story being input parser-driven...
http://tab.thinbasic.com/
I would certainly be interested in giving it a go, with your permission of course. I could create the coding needed to drive the game. Would just need access to the text for the location(room) descriptions, objects, characters and the logic branches... (ie. the basic code)
Of course you would receive the full credit as the author of the game after conversion and all rights etc... as before.
I wouldn't expect you to learn or do any of the coding into TAB; simply you would have full editorial control over the text and gameplay and the final result.
It would be an interesting project to work on and test out the TAB - and as I said before I like Lovecraftian stuff so I would enjoy the challenge of porting it over to TAB.

Anyhow have a think and let me know.

Regards,
catventure.

I recently found this old game on the web. 3D isometric point'n'click type.
The House on Sentinel Hill:
http://www.freewebs.com/plowking/

[darthkiwi]

Hi catventure,

I'm glad you liked it, even if it was a bit of a strange thing to play through on Christmas day! I am quite proud of that plot twist: I think somehow overturning the player's idea of who they are in-game is probably more effective and surprising than overturning a reader's idea of a character in a book (though I suppose it depends on the characters in question).

By the way, may I ask how you found out about Duality and Arkhamsoft? I'm just curious because it's such an obscure game and I'm always interested in how people come across it.

If you'd like to have a crack at converting Duality into a parser-driven game then by all means go ahead: I would be interested to see the result. I'll send you the main "script" as a message on the Arkhamsoft boards (I'd rather not give it out in a publically accessible link), I can send you some sound effects I used (though I think most of them are included in the Duality files) and, if Allicorn agrees, I could send you the music he composed for the game (which I think adds to the atmosphere tremendously). And if you want to make any changes to the original script (either because of the change in interface or simply because you want to do something different) then go ahead: I don't think the "official" script should necessarily restrict a remake if you want to do something in a different way.

I feel, however, that I should ask: do you think your time is best spent porting over this game, or would you rather write something new? It's just that Duality does exist, but there might be some other games (Lovecraftian or otherwise) that you or other people might want to make instead. Don't get me wrong, if you want to convert Duality then by all means go ahead - I just thought I should say this before you got into full swing. Of course, I'm probably just attaching too much value to people's spare time since I have so little of it myself.
_________________
The master of long, rambling posts.