Autor Thema: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?  (Gelesen 8290 mal)

Giocherellone

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Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« am: 19. September 2018, 10:08:21 »
Hello friends! :D

Recently one of my crazy ideas from FAN came to my mind!

Would it be feasible to propose, to the authors of old AGS fangames, which have remained freezed, a collaboration in order to complete those projects?

As a fan, reading the various themed forums in the past years, I noticed that the main problem that caused the abandonment of those projects is always the same: the lack of time, caused mainly by the fact of being alone (or being left alone) in front of a task that involves an important commitment.

And to think that, of almost all those works, a SIGNIFICANT percentage of work had already been done, and it's really a pity that everything remains abandoned.

Unfortunately in Italy, particularly in the Monkey Island World Forum, there are no experts in AGS, or graphics, who could propose themselves to develop this idea, and so I thought of you ...

But surely we wouldn't wash our hands of it!
My idea is to interact as a PR to "sew" the relationship between the specific author and those who will be pleased to accept this idea of mine.
And of course, once the work is done, we will upgrade the Italian translation and the possibility for other languages translation, too, for a multilingual result!

Which fangames am I talking about?
Well, there are several of them, but to begin with, just to make your mouths water, there are some very interesting, born just from German authors:

- The secret of Mount Monkey (known even as "Lorraine Threepwood and the curse of Tafkasomm")
Author: "SeBel" - (Sebastian Beloch) known even as "SkyHawk"
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=17608
https://web.archive.org/web/20040614235925/http://www.mountmonkey.de:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20050124094204/http://mountmonkey.de:80/
http://web.archive.org/web/20080501180835/http://www.tafkasomm.de/
http://www.adventure-treff.de/forum/5/11930

- Maniac Mansion: The new saga
Author: Rubacant
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=38430.0
&feature=related
https://www.maniac-mansion-mania.de/forum/index.php?topic=827.0

- Der atem der Götter (known even as "The breath of the Gods")
Author: Creedy (Matthias Prinz)
http://www.adventure-treff.de/forum/5/1455
http://web.archive.org/web/20050221030701/www.web4tune.net/guests/indy/news.htm

- Indiana Jones and the The crown of Solomon (known even as "Indiana Jones and the last crusade 2")
Author: CJ Entertainment (Carl-Johan Hagberg "Calle" & Jed Limke)
https://web.archive.org/web/20170709232733/http://www.crownofsolomon.com/

Yes, I know... Sounds crazy!
But, as a FAN, I had to try, right?
Let me know what you think, and if you feel that it is possible.

A big hug.

Paolo "Giocherellone" ;)

Cmdr

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #1 am: 20. September 2018, 08:25:19 »
Sounds great. I like your idea to restart old abandoned projects to finally give them a polished finish.

But for me personally, I would like to help you, if I had the time for it. I'm still struggeling with my own MMM-Episode, which is in progress for about 2 years by now. I also have A LOT of ideas for new fangames, but just not the time to create them.

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #2 am: 20. September 2018, 17:01:27 »
Yeah.
I remember Rubacunt being active in the forums here like 10 years ago. A controversial figure at that time.
Btw: There's an updated intro for his project, with some upgrades like facial expressions and other goodies:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa13cf

Looks promising but when you look at the date, I'd say the project is dead as a doornail.

Unfortunately at the moment I don't have time to work on anything AGS-related.

Giocherellone

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #3 am: 26. September 2018, 10:24:01 »
Hi guys! :D

First of all, THANK YOU for taking my proposal into account.

I imagined that the difficulties and commitments of each would be important obstacles, but for the ones interested, the initiative is still open for the future.

We're going to get to my next "wacky idea"! ;)

A hug. :D

Cone Arex

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #4 am: 27. September 2018, 21:45:29 »
The Secret of Mount Monkey...I probably wouldn't be here without that. Lorraine Threepwood and the curse of Tafkasomm however was a different project. You could say, it was a fork of Mount Monkey.


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Giocherellone

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #5 am: 28. September 2018, 08:54:39 »
Hi Cone! ;D

Zitat
Lorraine Threepwood and the curse of Tafkasomm however was a different project. You could say, it was a fork of Mount Monkey.

REALLY???  :o

I didn't know! As you know I do not know the German language, and from what I understood, I thought it was the SAME GAME, in an attempt to take it from AGS to Visionaire.

Have you further news about this for me, please?

;)

Cone Arex

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #6 am: 28. September 2018, 20:22:14 »
As far as I remember, the history behind TAFKASOMM and Mount Monkey was something like this:
It started sometime in the 90s on the Amiga in a selfwritten game engine, but had to be canceled because the engine crashed constantly and the creators couldn't figure out why. Years later the project was revived by the original team, now for the PC using AGS. One of the creators wanted to expand productionwise and explore newer technologies like higher resolution and pre-rendered cutscenes while the other team members wanted to stay with ripped and edited graphics. The quarrel couldn't be resolved so this one team member left and started Lorraine Threepwood the curse of TAFKASOMM based on the same premise as Mount Monkey (TAFKASOMM even stands for "The adventure formally known as Secret of Mount Monkey") while the rest of the team continued to work on Mount Monkey.


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Sebel

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #7 am: 02. Oktober 2018, 21:49:09 »
Cone Arex nailed it. That was the story behind the different projects MOUNT MONKEY and the other TAFKASOMM: Skyhawk and me parted ways.
He had something different in mind and I wanted to have a pixel-oldschool classic adventure.

Giocherellone contacted me and now i want to give this forum a try... Because I still live which the unfinished game for so many years.
There was the new job, family business etc. - but MOUNT MONKEY still lives in my heart. Even if it's unfinished.

I still have the whole AGS stuff, and all the gfx, i mostly have mapped out what to be the final game should be.
The old AGS files are not compatible with the new version - i checked that out.

But I need a team when the whole thing should be finished sometime in the future, for me alone it's too time intensive to do it at the moment.

Greetings,
Sebel  :-\

Giocherellone

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #8 am: 03. Oktober 2018, 08:21:31 »
WOW!  :o

Hi Sebel! :D

What a beautiful SURPRISE to meet you here! ^_^

First of all THANK YOU for all the news! For a fan-collector like me they are PRECIOUS!

So you are NOT the same guy nicknamed Skyhawk! Sorry for the mistake.

Well, in the light of this news I start like a rocket with my considerations! :D

- It's true, the old AGS files are not compatible with the new release, but for every AGS game we (in the Italian "Monkey Island World" Forum) are in charge to translate in Italian language, we are able to UPGRADE every old AGS game into the new release!

- I sincerely hope that it will be possible to find collaborators to complete your game (and also the others I mentioned, and many others ...). It's my fan's dream! ;) But if for the moment the thing is still far away, we will be truly HONORED to be able to translate what you have done so far. And who knows that our work doesn't help to stimulate some other fans to collaborate, to complete the project?

- As far as I know, Skyhawk didn't release anything about his project, even though I was lucky and made it in time to download the videos he had made at the time (someone would like to have them?). Do you know if he'd like to finish his project, too? Do you still have a contact with him? Maybe a demo, or part of his game, was almost ready so that is possible to share it with all us fans? In case feel free to contact me by PM or to use my e-mail contact: bye.pulciniverdi@libero.it ;)

- As far as I remember, your game involved the interaction of ALL the characters in the LucasArts games (and also Simon the Sorcerer). In the first demo of 1998 was even planned the presence of the characters of Star Wars, which was then eliminated. But on the internet there is nothing more of this, unfortunately. Could you tell us about the evolution of the project, please?

Well, by now, you all know that I'm logorrhoeic... :D But I think I'm done here for now!

Good day to you all! Till next time!
« Letzte Änderung: 03. Oktober 2018, 10:08:34 von Giocherellone »

Rayman

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #9 am: 04. Oktober 2018, 17:47:39 »
Welcome to our Maniac Mansion Mania Forum, Sebel!

But I need a team when the whole thing should be finished sometime in the future, for me alone it's too time intensive to do it at the moment.

What kind of staff do you need in your team?

Sebel

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #10 am: 04. Oktober 2018, 18:28:50 »
Hey guys,

according to TAFKASOMM,  I have no contact to Skyhwak and do nothing know about his game. As far as i know he had only the techdemo-videos out; nothing playable.  ???

For my part, which concentrates only on MOUNT MONKEY:
- I don't know if it's the right way to translate the demo to italian language right now. It has simple dialogue-lines (in some cases it isn't even funny). It's only some kind of "layout" version.
  The whole dialogue has to be redone the "right way" if you know what I mean. The thing is not locked yet to translate into other languages.

- What kind of staff do I need? Good question. My part would be the "director", the creative input.
   We could even discuss the storyline. But the team has to be small at first:

   - a trustful dedicated loyal DEVELOPER/PROGRAMMER for ags.  8)
     The last demo version of "The secret of MOUNT MONKEY" was developed on AGS 2.70 (Build 2.70.601) --> It is not compatible to actual AGS version. I don't know why.
     I used a couple of plugins at that time (I don't know if we need it anymore: ags_SnowRain20.dll, ags_parallax.dll, ags_ccs102, ags_flashlight_1_1...)
     I used a SCUMM template for AGS at that time (Proskritos MI2-Template v2.0c)
     It would be nice to have compatibility with many platforms today.
     Maybe my old code is a bit chunky and not smart. Parts of it maybe had to be redone.
     When I look at my old code, the last version I had my hands on was at the end of june in 2007. OMG.
     The first chapter exists, the "inbetween"-level which connects all chapters and maybe the first rooms of the second chapters are done. So the programmer has to finish the whole thing to the end. Expect 3-4 chapters with a connection through an in-between level.
     Which leads us to...:

  - a trustful dedicated loyal GRAPHICs-expert  ;D
    MOUNT MONKEY has to look like the oldschool classic pixel-style graphics from the old Lucas Arts games. We even used the same rooms & locations because the intention IS to revisit the old locations and meet the original characters from the beloved games. Some rooms & character animations exits (as mentioned above). The graphics are still not locked yet, there's A LOT to do, too.

- no DIALOGUE writer AT THE MOMENT.  :o
  For my intention, we still have to map out the programming and graphics first, to have some kind of FRAME or STAGE to work. I will give my layout dialogue to work with.
  When the main thing is done we would go into details.

Though I‘ve mapped out maybe 80-90% of the rough storyline, but with a trustful small team of the programmer and the gfx-guy we finiish the rest out together.

It IS a fangame. At the end NO MONEY has to be made with it. All original graphics had to be credited to the original stuff who did it; we kind of "expand" it and wire it together.
It has to be FUN and an adventurous game.. And at the end.. for the gamer will revealed what the secret of MOUNT MONKEY will be (well we know it, of course).

So that's written down some kinda "rough" right know, but I think that's the needs for the project right now.

Greetings,
Sebel  :-\
« Letzte Änderung: 04. Oktober 2018, 20:29:39 von Sebel »

Giocherellone

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #11 am: 08. Oktober 2018, 13:46:33 »
Hi Sebel and everyone! :D

Years ago I downloaded the LAST release of you game. Take a look here:

http://www.adventure-treff.de/forum/5/11930

It was 20 june 2011!  :o

It was released with AGS 2.70.864, so it was not so difficult for me (from AGS 3.0.0 and on I am no more able to do a thing, sigh...).
So I was able to extract the TRS file, to made a first provvisional translation in Italian language (for my use as FAN :D ) and to recompile it, even without the source!
And it WORKS! ^_^ At the time there were not all the difficultises there are now in the possibilities to implement other languages!
And it is REALLY FUNNY!

It's a pity that it stucks in the middle of chapter 2 (maybe a bug?), soon after the entry in the Simon's cave.

However, I REALLY hope this project can go on!
Good luck from me and from all the FANS!
If you think I can do other to achieve this goal, feel free to ask!

Till next time!

;)

Sebel

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #12 am: 09. Oktober 2018, 22:50:34 »
I have released that in 2011, but the last changes were made in 2007.
Check the version info when you enter the Save/Load Menu.
Anyway it‘s quite a long time ago.  :-X

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #13 am: 10. Oktober 2018, 20:55:23 »
Leute ich wollte mir das spiel mal anschauen aber der server http://beta.dosiert.de/index.php/Mount_Monkey IST DOWN ! ! !
Alles liebe
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Cone Arex

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Re: Idea and proposal: Resurrect projects of old, stuck fangames?
« Antwort #14 am: 11. Oktober 2018, 02:57:43 »
Where are your manners, Teilzeitshowmaster? This is an english-language thread.


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