Software:Adventure Construction Set

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Short description: 1984 game creation system
Adventure Construction Set
Developer(s)Stuart Smith
Fantasia Systems (Amiga)
Publisher(s)
Platform(s)Amiga, Apple II, Commodore 64, MS-DOS
Release1984: C64
1985: Apple II
1986: Amiga
1987: MS-DOS
Genre(s)Adventure, game creation system
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Adventure Construction Set (ACS) is a game creation system written by Stuart Smith that is used to construct tile-based graphical adventure games. ACS was published by Electronic Arts in 1984 for the Commodore 64, then for the Apple II, Amiga, and MS-DOS. Smith previously developed several commercial adventure games of a similar style, such as Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1981).

ACS provides a graphical editor for the construction of maps, placement of creatures and items, and menu-based scripting to control game logic. A constructed game is stored on its own disk which can be copied and shared with friends; games exported from the Amiga version still require ACS to play. A complete game is included: Rivers of Light, based on the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Amiga version has an additional pre-made adventure called "Galactic Agent" by Ken St. Andre.

Todd Howard revealed that when Bethesda started making Morrowind, he was excited about making a tool like Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set for the Apple II.[1]

Gameplay

Gameplay features of Adventure Construction Set include:

  • Turn-based system.
  • Up to four players may play.
  • A player character can be imported from another adventure, but the character might not retain the same graphic tile if the new adventure uses a different tile set.
  • Music and sound.
  • Random encounters.
  • Spells.
  • Range and melee combat.
  • Along with graphic tiles, text screens are also available for conveying information.
  • Creatures which behave as player-mimics, copying various traits and equipment of the player.
  • Shops.

Construction system

A room built with a custom tile set (Amiga)

Adventure Construction Set was designed to make tile-based graphical adventure games similar to author Stuart Smith's earlier games The Return of Heracles and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

The framework of an adventure built within ACS is organized into the following main categories:

  • "World map": This is the top-level map from which characters begin their adventure. The world map differs from other playable areas of the game in that it has no fixed creature encounters, no stacked tiles, quicker movement, it is scrollable, and it optionally may wrap around (have no borders). Random encounters may occur on the world map, during which the game switches to a special view similar to a "room" to handle the encounter.
  • "Regions": A region is a collection of rooms. A region is a construction concept and does not present itself to the player, except by indirect means such as disk access when traveling between regions.
  • "Rooms": A room is a rectangular, tiled area of a size which must fit within the game's viewport. Tiles may be used to make a room look like shapes other than rectangular.
  • "Things": A thing is a background tile, obstacle, or collectible item.
  • "Creatures"
  • "Pictures": These are art assets used by the tiles. For some platforms, four colors are available for images. For the Amiga platform, 32 colors are available, each of which can be assigned to be any of 4096 available colors.

Tiles may be stacked. Only the top tile of a stack may be directly interacted with by the player, but special tiles allow for game-logic to be implemented via the stack. For example, a tile may be set to "Activate All Things at This Place".[2] Tiles may also allow or disallow interaction based on the contents of the player's inventory, or activate if a specific object is dropped on top of the stack.

Spell-effects may be attached to Things.

The game allows for somewhat varied monster AI behavior. A creature may be specified to behave solely as a "fighter" or "slinker", or adjust its temperament based on its condition. In addition, it may be specified as either an "enemy", "friend", "neutral", or "thief", with a total of 8 possible behavioral patterns expressed.

There are maximum quotas applied to most categories in the game (including the total number of unique things, text messages, pictures, regions, creatures per region, things per region, and rooms per region). These limits restrict the size of adventures. For example, each adventure can contain up to 15 regions and each region can contain up to 16 rooms.[2]

ACS included a framework for fantasy adventures, as well as starter toolkits for fantasy, futurist, and "spy" game genres.

Auto-Construct Feature

Along with user-constructed adventures, the software can also auto-construct a random adventure. This feature can optionally be used to auto-complete a partially built adventure. The user may specify numerous parameters for auto-generation, including difficulty level.

Development

Stuart stated that the concept was based on his experience writing accounting software, during which he developed a report generator that would create a standalone COBOL program, and that Electronic Arts suggested the name Adventure Construction Set. ACS was produced by Don Daglow in parallel with the development of Racing Destruction Set.

Release

Shortly after Adventure Construction Set's release, announcements were included in the packaging for players to submit their adventures for a contest to be judged by Electronic Arts and their playtesters. Approximately 50 games were submitted and winners chosen for three categories:

  • Fantasy: Festival by R.C. Purrenhage
  • Science fiction: Cosmos by Albert Jerng
  • Contemporary: Panama by Will Bryant and Codename: Viper by Peter Schroeder

The supplementary manual included with the Amiga port mentions, "If you're an ACS fanatic you can join the Adventure Construction Set Club. Club members receive access to a library of adventures created with ACS".[3] The supplementary manual also mentions that the club is not affiliated with Electronic Arts.

Reception

Orson Scott Card criticized Adventure Construction Set's user interface, stating that it "was designed by the Kludge Monster from the Nethermost Hell". He praised the game's flexibility, however, reporting that his son was able to create a spell called "Summon Duck".[4] Computer Gaming World's Scorpia described ACS as an "easy-to-use, albeit time-consuming, means of creating a graphic adventure".[5]

Reviews

  • Casus Belli #35 (Dec 1986)[6]
  • Games #70[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ APY (March 19, 2007), Todd Howard Exclusive Interview, The Elder Scrolls IV Shivering Isles, Planet Elder Scrolls, pp. 1, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=51, retrieved August 6, 2011 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 David Grady, "Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set - The Manual", Electronic Arts, 1984
  3. ↑ unknown author, "Commodore-Amiga Adventure Construction Set" pamphlet, Electronic Arts, 1986
  4. ↑ Card, Orson Scott (January 1989). "Gameplay". Compute!: pp. 12. https://archive.org/stream/1989-01-compute-magazine/Compute_Issue_104_1989_Jan#page/n13/mode/2up. Retrieved 10 November 2013. 
  5. ↑ Scorpia (Feb 1989), "Writing Your Own: Three Software Adventure Kits Compared", Computer Gaming World (56): 52–53, 56 
  6. ↑ "Ludotique | Article | RPGGeek". https://rpggeek.com/rpgissuearticle/138561/ludotique. 
  7. ↑ "GAMES Magazine #70". December 1985. https://archive.org/details/games701985december/page/n55/mode/2up. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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