Ten years ago, in 2011 I detailed my experiences as a youth with tabletop and computer based role playing games. I had played several in the 1980's and by the 1990's, inspired by Dungeon Master (and also irritated that Dungeon Master 2 was never developed for the Apple IIGS) I had embarked on the development of my own cRPG using HyperCard IIGS. I envisioned creating a HyperCard based engine stack that would be used to run community generated dungeons, much like a 3D graphics version of EAMON. Unfortunately my reach exceeded my grasp.
Dungeon Master IIGS by FTA
Dungeon Master revitalized my interest in building my own games, but at the time of its release there was no way to modify it or build your own dungeons. So I turned to HyperCard GS and spent hours trying to create my own dungeon engine I called "HyperAdventure" and sample game I called "Fangborne". My goal was to combine the 3d dungeon exploration and point and click interface of Dungeon Master with the fairly simple real-time combat system of my own devising. My HyperAdventure system relied on predefined cards that defined every possible appearance of a hallway. This would have allowed for a nearly unlimited size dungeon within the constraints of the software and memory (a high-end IIGS typically had no more than 4 MB RAM, and it could be as little as 1.25 MB). Also, since a dungeon was essentially defined by a set of text records it would have been easy to create a dungeon generator and save files would be very small text files. Characters were also saved in text files so that they could be migrated between games. It all worked but it consumed an enormous amount of my free time designing it and with the abandonment by Apple of the IIGS platform and HyperCard IIGS it became difficult to remain motivated to complete it. I stopped working on it in 1995. The final prototype version was only 750K in size.
Fangborne prototype in development
Flash forward to October 2020 and I was putting the final touches on Script-Central 2020 SE, my personal homage to the Script-Central HyperCard IIGS disk magazine that had been published by Resource-Central in the early '90's. I had just enough room for one more stack and I decided to include the Fangborne prototype.
I decided that I still had time to release Script-Central 2020 SE in 2020, and so began adding some minor enhancements to Fangborne, hoping it would end up closer to an enjoyable game than just a concept piece. I worked on it through mid-February 2021 and enlisted the aid of a family member or two to test it out. In the end it became a 350 card stack of over 2 MB in size, eclipsing the 750k prototype I started with.
A demo of a beta version of Fangborne v1.0
Fangborne v1.0 is a completely functional single-player multi-level cRPG that includes editors for creating items, populating stores, and generating template-based dungeon levels of up to 20x20 size.
Some of the many features of Fangborne include:
Player character generation, saving, loading with multiple races and attributes
Game session saving/loading
Help system stack
Editors for developing items, stores, and map levels (5x5, 10,10, 15x15, and 20x20)
A theme editor
Auto-mapping
Game and Sound FX menus for easy access to options while playing
An on-screen mini-map
A large 3D display with a mouse-driven interface
Combat in the style of Bard's Tale with a variety of monsters
Loot from both random drops and placed treasure troves
A spell casting system resembling that of Dungeon Master
A variety of normal and magical weapons and clothing
Spell scrolls and notes, with a spellbook and a folio
Dungeon features such as pits, traps, doors, gates, secret doors, one-way doors, and more.
Sound effects that can be customized
Built-in speed control so that it can be played on fast emulators
A kid mode that allows exploration without fighting
A master mode that doubles monster hit points and attack damage for replayability
A developer mode that allows access to many hidden commands such as teleport, giveitem, etc.
A non-flashing mode to reduce the amount of on-screen flashing
All of these features do come at a price though. The game will function on a IIGS, but even on an accelerated IIGS the gameplay will be frustratingly slow. Loading the initial maps can take several minutes, as can viewing the in-game level map. Movement can take more than 15 seconds, even with the mini-map toggled off. For an enjoyable experience I strongly recommend playing on an emulator with a CPU speed of 40 MHz or more. The faster the better really, although at faster speeds you will be more likely to encounter random monsters. Testing has been done on Sweet16 and GSPlus. I have found that the GSPlus emulator has problems playing sounds in HyperCard IIGS, so unless that is fixed I recommend using Eric Shepherd's Sweet16 emulator due to Fangborne's frequent use of sound effects. At this time Sweet16 works best on Mac OS 10.13. It has disk mounting issues on 10.14, and does not work at all on 10.15 or later. If you have Windows or Mac OS 10.15 or later then you can try GSPlus (without sound) or ActiveGS.
HyperCard is an Apple Computer application developed by Bill Atkinson and released in 1987 for the Macintosh. It was bundled with all new Macintoshes and provided an easy way for Mac users to develop applications, called "stacks", that utilized the WIMP interface (windows, icons, mouse, pull down menus) popularized by the platform. This made Macintosh development accessible to thousands of Macintosh owners in much the same way that AppleSoft BASIC had made programming on the Apple II series computers accessible to thousands of owners of Apple IIs. Because it was developed at a time when Mac allowed only shades of gray, HyperCard did not support color. HyperCard used the concept of a Home stack (much like the iPhone Home button) from which HyperCard stacks could (1) be organized and easily launched, and (2) provided a customizable programmable layer between application stacks and the HyperCard application itself.
Macintosh HyperCard Home stack
The primary language of HyperCard, HyperTalk, is an object based event driven English like language that allowed rapid prototyping of concepts even for non-programmers. It was the inspiration for AppleScript, the Macintosh automation language, and is what JavaScript might have been if the developers of JavaScript had been native speakers of English rather than C. HyperCard is the direct parent of both the visual application product Microsoft Visual BASIC and ViolaWWW, which preceded Mosaic as the first popular web browser. The overall impact of HyperCard on the digital world far exceeds the impact of all the thousands of stacks developed for it.
HyperCard IIGS was developed by Apple Computer for the Apple IIGS computer and released in 1990 with an upgrade in 1992 to v1.1. HyperCard IIGS has many of the same capabilities as Mac HyperCard v1.2.5 with the notable addition of native color support for all object types. HyperCard IIGS was meant by Apple to be a gift to the Apple IIGS owners and facilitate their transition to the Macintosh platform. Apple even released a free utility called HyperMover which could dissemble and reassemble HyperCard stacks between Mac HyperCard and HyperCard IIGS. Because of its native color support HyperCard IIGS stacks often looked significantly better than their Mac HyperCard equivalents.
HyperCard IIGS Home stack
Also in 1990 Apple released Macintosh HyperCard 2.0, and finally added color support in HyperCard 2.2 which was released in 1992. Though Apple ceased HyperCard IIGS development in 1992 with v1.1, they continued Mac HyperCard development until its final update v2.4.1 in 1998.
About Script-Central
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Script-Central was a bi-monthly magazine for HyperCard IIGS enthusiasts published by Kansas City publisher Resource-Central. There were 22 issues published from July 1991 to January 1995, each issue distributed on two 800K 3.5" floppy disks. Implemented as a HyperCard IIGS stack, the disk magazine used a building as a metaphor, with 1st floor rooms dedicated to regular features and a 2nd floor for special features. Each issue had a theme based on the time of year, and the magazine was entertaining as well as educational. I was fortunate enough to contribute a few stacks to Script-Central during its run, and at the time of its abrupt cancellation had several stacks ready for publication.
Along with the rest of the Resource-Central catalog, Script-Central was released under Creative Commons license 3.0 in 2010.
Script-Central 2020 Special Edition
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the summer of 2020 I found myself prototyping a personal application with HyperCard IIGS and then using HyperMover to convert it to Mac HyperCard, and finally importing it into LiveCode for completion. I also began interacting with the online Apple II and Apple IIGS enthusiast communities. With HyperCard IIGS on my mind, I decided to polish and complete some of my never-released HyperCard IIGS stacks and release them to the community. I decided that there would be no better way to release a collection of HyperCard IIGS stacks than to produce a special edition of Script-Central. I tried to contact both Bruce "HangTime" Caplin and Tom Weishaar, the respective editor and publisher of Script-Central, and was unable to reach either of them. Learning that Script-Central had been released under the Creative Commons license in 2010, I decided to move forward on the project and do my best to not only provide a vehicle for the release of my stacks, but to also dissect, document, and enhance the Script-Central front end and regular feature stacks so that it would be possible for other issues to be made in the future, if community interest warranted it.
Getting content for the special edition was not a problem though. A standard issue of Script-Central usually included four feature stacks and I had recently written stacks as well as stacks from the early 1990's that could be included. I did not want to require a follow-up issue, so I took the time to add a basement level to the Script-Central "building", allowing an additional 6 feature stacks.
In addition I reviewed all existing issues of Script-Central developing a glossary of all content, and developed documentation that provides enough information on the Script-Central front end and regular feature stacks for future issues to be developed. All the while adding visual and utility enhancements, cleaning up code, and correcting minor bugs.
Script-Central 2020 Special Edition is based on the latest issues of Script-Central but includes features from the entire run, and therefore should appeal to anyone who was a fan of the original magazine.
In addition to its regular features: Tips & Trix, the Lounge, Q+A, Scripter's Workshop, the office, the mailroom, and the bathroom, there are a number of special features, some entirely new and some updated versions previously released on Script-Central or online:
Word Scrambler
Stack Analyzer (a Mac HyperCard conversion)
HyperTalk Tutor 101 with all 4 lessons
Merlin GS, an enhanced emulation of the handheld Merlin device
No Worries, a launcher modeled on Apple's Macintosh At Ease program
Reminder
DateFun
Splash Color - A GS/OS Splash Color screen editor
IIc+ Technical Look (an enhanced Mac HyperCard conversion)
BlankerConfig - a HyperCard based Screen Blanker with multiple configuration options
Fangborne, a 350 card 2 MB HyperAdventure single-player RPG (recommended CPU speed > 40 MHz). Inspired by Dungeon Master, Bard's Tale GS, and EAMON.
There are also a number of tools and applications that were used by the author to create Script-Central 2020 SE included. In total over 11 MB of material distributed on a 16 MB hard drive image.
I decided that it would be easier for me to launch games within DOSBox if I had a little launch menu that appeared when starting DOSBox. So I brushed off some very old DOS BAT file programming skills, consulted a couple of websites, and came up with this simple launcher. It just displays a menu of options and then launches those programs. It is named menu.bat and is in my ~/DOSGAMES folder.
To make DOSBox automatically mount the location of my games folder and run menu.bat I edited the DOSBox preferences file in ~/Library/Preferences/ adding the following lines to the end of the autoexec section:
Screen displayed when launching DOSBox and using my menu.bat
I have fond memories of playing Dungeon Master in the late 80's on my trusty Apple IIGS. The game interface was so different than the cRPG's that preceded it like Ultima, Wizardry, and Bard's Tale. It was the first to fully utilized the mouse to grab things, throw things, cast spells, open doors, solve puzzles, eat food, drink potions, and fight beasties. And unlike those earlier games the monsters would follow you down hallways if you tried to run away, giving the combat a far more realistic and threatening feel. The dungeon levels were also immense; far larger than I anticipated. I distinctly remember around level 4 thinking that I had played for so many hours that I must be near the end of the game, but there were in fact several levels and many more hours of adventuring to go.
Dungeon Master was a huge hit for FTL/Software Heaven on several platforms: first the Atari ST,followed by the Commodore Amiga, IBM PC, Apple IIGS and others (not Mac though). It was followed by the sequels Chaos Strikes Back! and Dungeon Master 2 (which was released for Mac but not IIGS). I never purchased or played CSB, but by the time Dungeon Master 2 came out I had a Macintosh and so I bought the Mac version, there being no IIGS version. The Mac version of DM2 is a Power PC application and cannot run on Mac OS X unless you use the Classic OS 9 mode. Since Apple dropped Classic with Mac OS X 10.5 the only Mac I have that can play DM2 natively now is in a box in my garage.
When I started experimenting with Wineskin a couple of weeks ago, my intent was to use it to allow me to play the Windows versions of games since the Mac versions now no longer work because of Classic and Rosetta being dropped by Apple in OS X 10.5 and 10.7 respectively. It didn't take long to get Wineskins working with the Windows versions of DM and CSB, but I was unable to get a working Wineskin for DM2. My attempts only resulted in the Wineskin log reporting that I should try DOSBox.
So, today I downloaded DOSBox and set that up to work with Dungeon Master 2 as well as a couple of older AD&D based cRPGs: Eye of the Beholder and Eye of the Beholder 2.
This got me thinking though about all of the emulation technologies I have set up now, each with their own pros and cons.
My Apple IIGS desktop using Sweet 16
Dungeon Master IIGS using Sweet 16
There is of course Apple's Mac OS X facility Boot Camp, where I have Windows XP installed. I can use that to run almost any Windows compatible game. I haven't tried to run the Windows versions of Dungeon Master and its sequels on Windows XP, but I suspect they would work fine. I also have Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion and the games are likely to work in those as well. Of course there is a significant amount of overhead and inconvenience running a full blown Windows environment just to run an old game and you have to own a copy of Windows to do it. Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion are also products that have to be bought. There are several free options though.
Dungeon Master 2 using DOSBox
Dungeon Master 2 Mac using Sheepshaver
Using Wineskin Winery, which is free, to create Wineskins worked well with Windows versions of Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back!, but did not work at all with Dungeon Master 2. DOSBox, also free, can run Dungeon Master 2 but not Dungeon Master or Chaos Strikes Back! (at least not the versions I have) and DOSBox requires far less disk storage than Wineskin ports do.
My Mac OS 9 desktop using Sheepshaver
Alternatively I could give up on the Windows versions and leverage the IIGS and Mac versions I have. I can run Dungeon Master using the free IIGS emulator Sweet 16 by Eric Shepherd. And I can use Sheepshaver, also free, to create an emulated Mac OS 9 environment similar to Classic and run the Mac version of Dungeon Master 2 in that environment.
And there is also a free Java version of Dungeon Master that should work on any system that supports Java. At this time anyway that includes Mac OS X 10.7 but I suspect future versions of Mac OS X may not include Java.
Frankly I find the range of options to be a little staggering. But it is nice to know that so many people have developed free technologies that allow abandoned software like Dungeon Master to continue to be used many years after its development.
Emulation... because a program is a terrible thing to waste.
