j.m.ratkos

I can't believe that I missed this. can you add me to the waiting list for the special edition if someone bails out? (proto 1, I believe. the one with the hand drawn artwork)

Time Phantoms Much like every weekend for the past 3 months, Kyle Christensen ignored the beautiful warm weather and found himself once again huddled over a stack of musty scrolls, tomes and piles of notes. Tucked away in Professor Elrick's office at the back of the University's library, he continued putting the finishing touches on his thesis which would link the Mayans and Aztecs back to the Egyptian Dynasty. Unaware that he, himself would play a major role in the facts and myths that he had been collecting and attempting to tie together for the past 18 months. Midday brought a much needed break in the form of Jonathan Kouward carrying a rather battered and sun-bleached parcel. Kyle and Jon had met and become fast friends in Professor Elrick's classes, each trying to show-up the other in an almost sibling-like rivalry. With the Professor on sabbatical for the past 4 weeks, Jon knew exactly where to find his roommate and that the package he now carried would pose enough of a mystery to tear Kyle away from his work, if only for a few minutes. After examining and opening the package, the scholars found a pair of plain wooden boxes and a note which read: My Dear Professor Elrick: My time grows short and I can only hope that the contents of this package will find its way safely into to your hands at the University where it can be hidden away from prying eyes. Enclosed in this parcel you will find a pair of rather unusual pocket watches. Guard them with your life for they hold a power greater than any man has ever laid eyes upon. DO NOT, under any circumstances, attempt to unlock and use them for personal gain, for to do so would bring down the wrath of the Gods! Sincerely your trusted colleague Professor Alek Von Heisizer Amazing and perplexed, the men stared at one another, mentally attempting to comprehend the hastily scrawled warning that the note contained. Then after several moments, care gave way to curiosity as they took out the boxes and opened them. Resting on a plain piece of soft white linen, a pair rather nondescript tarnished pocket watches were found. In fact, other than opposite face colors (one in white, its twin in black), the watches appeared indistinguishable from one another. Kyle immediately noticed that rather than the typical '1' through '12' to mark the hours, each watch featured several tiny values scattered unevenly around the watch fact, ranging from '000' through '2000', with a slender golden hand resting 2 tiny, but distinct notches from the '2000' mark. Pulling up the pin to wind the watch, he accidentally pulled the pin to its 2nd position and with a quick winding motion, rotated the golden arm backwards. Then, in a blinding flash of light, disappeared leaving Jonathon staring in shock and horror! No more than a single gasp had escaped Jonathan's mouth when a 2nd flash quickly engulfed the room and then receded leaving Kyle standing at its epicenter. “What the heck just happened?!” exclaimed Jonathan to his bewildered looking roommate. “One instant, you were standing there. Then this flash of light blinded me and you were gone but before I could even react, you re-appear just as quickly as you disappeared!!” Kyle looked at him unsure. “What do you mean I was only gone for a mere instant? You'll never going to believe this, but somehow... somehow after the light subsided, I found myself in the year 1900.” “I've just spent few hours as the local townspeople celebrated the opening of this University's library!!”

I think that everyone is in agreement that the zelda-type games are truly "action/adventure" with rpg elements. however, the term RPG does extend to cover many types of adventure type games in addition to the standard turn-based genre. I hope that what kroogur and I have been hashing out will appeal to a good portion of the audience here.

kroogur and I have been hashing out some ideas and we should have the scenario back story up for your perusal in the next day or two.

thanks to both of you. I mainly wanted the documentation so that I wasn't attempting something that was completely not possible to begin with. since I'm not really familiar with the system at a hardware level, even simple things like screen resolution modes, the number of colors for the sprites, sprite size limitations, etc. this should help me to determine what can and can't be done before putting on my rose colored glasses.

I'm back in the land of the living after a serious bout with the flu over the past few weeks. I'll try and get with groovey bee and kroogur to continue firming up the plotline and present it to the forum for feedback and go from there. welcome aboard jrok (any and all help are much appreciated in the meantime, can anyone point me in the direction of any documentation for the 7800 so that I know exactly what our limitations are for graphics, max no. of sprites on the screen, sprite sizes, etc?

I'd suggest Fuji, but then I'd keep waiting for him to provide genuine Saskatchewan sealskin bindings. how about "Goishi" (this is what a full set of Go stones are called) or "Yunzi", the composite material that Go stones are made of? either would give us an Atari tie-back reference

I've been away from the forum for the past few weeks due to my current work load and the fantastic fall allergies but am back now. I'll get with kroogur next week and maybe we can brainstorm on some ideas that will help make this scenario appeal to the masses.

I really like the scenario for no. 6, but had to go with no. 3 because I think it breaks away from the traditional swords & sorcery template.

groovybee: are you creating the poll to move this project forward?

it doesn't look like anyone has added anything to this project in quite some time now groovy bee. any idea for a deadline before you create a poll to determine what we're going to base the story line on?

I received mine yesterday as well (and spent a good hour or so playing it immediately I almost had a heartattack when the game first started because I accidentally had one of the difficulty switches set and everything was moving a such a blinding speed, I could barely control jr. through the twists and turns of the mazes. beautiful job bob! a side note. damn r-f video looks like crap on the newer lcd televisions. welcome to blur-a-rama.

hey bob, if you're looking to do darker colors, you might want to consider something like the rit dye. it soaks into the plastic, vinyl, rubber (whatever you're painting) and impregnants it, lasting a lot longer than paint and isn't as subjective to scratching like normal paints. my neighbor just spraying the rubber boots on his honda 3-wheeler, and you'd swear that the were brand new from the factory now.