densonj

Well, hopefully, their bad practices are finally catching up with them. Seems the revolt is on! Meanwhile, if you love Alternate Reality, Acrin1 just released a new update (0.7.0) for his Alternate Reality X tribute. It's really nice running a favorite old 8-bit game natively in Windows (and soon OS X) at 1024x768 resolution! Philip Price has already stated earlier in this thread that he does not mind the fan tributes that are out there.

Well, I thought of checking the Apple App Store this morning, just to see what has become of Elite's offerings and I am pleased to say that they are no longer available. For people who had already purchased the AR apps for IOS (visible in your "purchased" page) they may still be downloaded, but they no longer show up in the store. However, if you are interested in Alternate Reality fan tributes that will run on modern platforms (PC mostly) then check these out: Acrin1: http://crpgdev.com/ SilverAR: http://parallelrealm.byethost4.com/ DensonJ: http://minecraft.curseforge.com/mc-mods/ar-minecraft/

Hmm. I purchased the IOS version of the games last year, but I thought they were derived from the Sinclair versions.. ? At any rate, now that I know what they did, I am very sorry that I spent my money on their trash.

Here's the full page, if anyone would like to check it out: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1923834-ar-minecraft-extends-mc-152-and-162-with-alternate-reality-style-blocks-secret-doors-and-sounds/

Well I don't think my Minecraft implementation can really be compared to a total 'redo' because mine was never meant to replace the game. MC already has (IMO) a feel like the original 8-bit AR. The weather and day/night cycles especially. The 'blocky' graphics are reminiscent of the old 8-bit graphics from the 80's so that fits as well (in a nostalgic sort of way). The encounters in MC can happen any time, day or night, however 'night creatures' such as 'undead' will only be active at night (of course) and they will generally perish in direct sunlight. I may code a couple of classic AR enemies into my MC mod. I was considering the Small Green Dragon and The Devourer just for fun. Your new wire frame building looks good. Looks like it would make a good inn!

You're absolutely correct about the Skyrim limitations. It was never designed to allow for creation of a totally different game. This may be why he stopped working on it. Minecraft is a much better fit. The day/night cycles and weather changes in MInecraft are very reminiscent of AR. The 'blocky' graphics also seem to fit nicely (IMO). Also, the fact that MInecraft is designed from the ground up to be 'moddable' makes it possible to do virtually anything you want with the game. Potions, spells, NPC's, quests... whatever you want to do is very easy if you can code in Java. I'm pretty addicted to it. The last time I spent this much time modding a game was with the old 'Dink Smallwood' game. That one was a blast too. Dink was interesting in that it was done with a modified C language that the author developed himself and labelled 'Dink C'. If you have never checked out Dink, definitely look it up. It's a lot of fun! It's a free DL these days (I believe).

LOL. This discussion is getting strange now. Alternate Reality was certainly (and obviously) a groundbreaking game. Honestly, I don't know how widely distributed it was and of course, Eastern Europe was still isolated behind the iron curtain at the time. I was over there, serving in the US forces at the time. But also, I know it was popular at least in Western European gaming circles. I was a member (at the time) of the Boston Computer Society at MIT and was in contact with a number of Atari fans in Britain and Europe who were blown away by the game. Anyway, AR was the first 3-D rendered RPG in history as far as I know. It was also the first RPG ever to incorporate cinematic features and original musical scores and lyrics AND to play and display the songs in-game. Awesome. For the Atari 8-bit, the game also incorporated more colors and graphic interrupts than almost any game of its time. Absolutely unique. Philip Price, Gary Gilbertson and the rest of the AR crews are rightly remembered as great innovators of the day.

Yep. It's been a good amount of work. I added a lot more than just textures. The secret doors, blinkers, etc... are all in place. Minecraft is 100% customizeable so with enough time, I could replicate most of the functionality of the game (music, monsters, quests, etc...). It was never my intention to do so (but I could ). Yes there was a guy last year that started doing a Skyrim mod of AR. He did quite a bit on it actually. Here's a link to one of his videos's (he did a few if I remember correctly):

I believe a 'xebec' was also an ancient sailing ship used as a trading vessel. I always thought that the name "City of Xebec's demise" was referring to some spaceship crash site or something.

Philip Price was busy working on the B2 Stealth Bomber project. Besides, I think the whole fiasco with Datasoft hosing him out of his royalties really burned him out. Too bad the ARO '97 thing didn't work out. Oh, well. We have Acrin1 doing the new ARX project and now SilverAR starting on the new 3D project. That is pretty cool goings-on. If you're a minecraft player, I got into the action as well and built a replica of the City & Dungeon to run in MC 1.5.2, complete with original art, secret doors, blinkers, sound-effects, etc... You can check that out here(Part1, make sure you check out part 2 as well!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stv4aTsg7UY&feature=youtu.be If you want to try it out, you have to have Forge for MC 1.5.2 and both my City Map and ARMinecraft Mod plugin (the map will not function without the Mod Plugin file.)

Just pulled this one down now and am listening to it. Gary hasn't lost his creative touch a bit. It's lovely. Very somber. I would love to know what type of scene it was meant for in ARO '97. I remember coming across the ARO website back then and could hardly contain my excitement. I was so disappointed when it fell through.. Ah, well..

Pulled this file down and am listening to it right now. Wow. Awesome! I don't know why my favorite song in the original game was always 'Thoreandan'.

Oh man. I bought that on the app store. If I had known this, I would not have purchased it. At any rate, it is a bush-league attempt at porting the game. It crashes often and also has no decent music to it. Very misleading. I don't believe the person made much on it and it has not been updated or patched/fixed at all, even after all the complaints in the reviews. Acrins version is far superior and adds extra graphic/sound options that are very nice and makes the game fun to play. Of course, the best feature of ARX is the merging of City & Dungeon. Way cool! (That's what initially gave me the idea to make the city/dungeon maps in Minecraft and join it all there as well.)

I have not been on the AtariAge site in a very long time. But I originally joined back in 2005. I heard that Philip Price was posting on the forums and just had to visit. I have been a huge Atari nut for 30+ years. Still have a 1200XL, 800XL and 130XE in the basement along with all of my modded floppy drives, MIO, blah, blah, blah, the list goes on and on with me. Also have original Alternate Reality disks for the dungeon (but alas, I recently discovered that I seem to have lost my City disks somehow unless they are buried somewhere in a box.) I also purchased my copies of AR legitimately at the store. My brother-in-law and I spent months playing the city and mapping it out (and we also encountered the accursed death squares). Also, he had the C64 at the time and bought AR for that, but he would be coming to play on the Atari at my house all the time because the music was simply breathtaking at the time (and still is wonderful). Gary Gilbertson is a musical genius! Does everybody remember 'Passionately'? I bought the dungeon when it came out and we spent months playing all over again! Definitely my favorite game of all. I would purchase a special edition City/Dungeon from you Philip! Also, I am a fan of Acrin1 and have supported his endeavors with ARX. I hope that he will be allowed to continue. His project is really a labor of love and a true fan tribute to the best RPG of all time. I love AR so much I even replicated the City and Dungeon in full 3D in Minecraft recently. I borrowed a lot of the original 8bit art (Atari) as well as music and sounds. I hope you don't mind!

I have an old 1M MIO attached to an old Apple 20SC Case with a built-in controller and 20M HD. I picked it up a few years ago on e-Bay. I'm thinking of putting a 40M HD on it. My original MIO system used an old XT PC case with an Adaptec controller and 40M HD. I never used up all the space on that one. The old system ran on an 800XL with a RAMBO. I run the current MIO on an old 130XE with an old Trans-Key adapter installed which I also got off e-Bay a few years ago. I love it!