Adventure Story Game for iPod Released

XO Play writes "XO Play today released an adventure story game for the iPod called 'The Rise Of The Lost,' puts you in the role of Sir Jacob Zaviour. Your mission is to travel through lands and fight the evil Wizard Sazque. As you read through the adventure you will be asked to choose your destiny by selecting from a number of options found at the bottom of the page, similar to the 'choose-your-own-adventure' series. The game costs $9.99 is played via the Notes section of your iPod." It wouldn't take too much to write a generator for such games, as Notes uses small text files with HTML tags for links, as long as you had the data to do it with.

Comments

Re:See?

[47Ronin]

I know the parent was a troll, but just to list some of the games available for Mac.. there are a few thousand and a growing many are simultaneously released for both PC and Mac, including Halo: Combat Evolved, SimCity 4, The Sims (and sequels), Command & Conquer: Generals, Age of Empires II, Northland, Activision Anthology, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, ToySight, Championship Manager 03/04, Wakeboarding Unleashed, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness.

Apple's own small list of SOME of these games at this link includes, but is not limited to: 3D Hearts Deluxe, 3D Spades Deluxe, 4x4 EVO 2, A-OK! The Wings of Mercury, Active Lancer, Activision Anthology [NEW], Age of Empires II: Gold, Age of Mythology, Airburst, Alchemy, Alias Underground, Aliens vs. Predator 2, Aliens vs. Predator Gold**, American McGee's Alice, America's Army, Androkids, Another War, Arcane Arena, Argonaut, ARR!, Arthur's 1st Grade, Avalanche, Avernum 3, BabelBloX, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, Bejeweled, The Belt, Big Money Deluxe, Billy Frontier, Birdie Shoot, Black & White, Black & White: Creature Isle, BloodRayne, BombSquad, Bongo Boogie, Bubble Trouble X, Bugdom 2, Burning Monkey Casino, Burning Monkey Mahjong Solitaire, Burning Monkey Solitaire 3, Burst, Candy Cruncher, Captain Bumper, Chainz, Championship Manager 01-02, Championship Manager 4, Civilization III - Game of the Year Edition, Clive Barker's Undying, Coldstone, Command & Conquer Generals, Cosmic Encounter Online, Cro-Mag Rally, CrossCards, CyberExtruder, Deimos Rising, Diablo II*, Dominions - Priests, Prophets & Pretenders, Doulber Gold, Dragon's Lair 3D, Drip Drop, Dungeon Siege, Earth 2140, Enigma, Enigmo, Episilon Tahari, Equilibria, Escape Velocity: Nova, Europa Universalis II, EverQuest, F1 Championship Edition, Fallout, Fallout 2, The Feeble Files, Finding Nemo Games, Fly! II**, Forma, Freedom Force, Galactic Patrol, Geneforge, Geneforge 2, Germs, Ghost Master, Ghost Recon: Game of the Year Edition, Giants: Citizen Kabuto**, GLTron, Gorky 17, Green Machine, Grizzly Adventure, Gutterball, Halo: Combat Evolved, Harpoon 3, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Heavy Metal F.A.K.K.2*, Helix, Heroes of Might and Magic IV, High Roller, Icewind Dale**, iConquer, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, iPuppets Presents: Colin's Classic Cards, James Bond 007: Nightfire, Jeopardy! 2, Jinni Zeala, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, Kick Off 2002, Kiki the Nano Bot, Knights and Merchants*, Law & Order: Dead on the Money, Legion, Lineage, Links Championship Edition, Lua Lua, MacPuyo 2, Marble Blast Gold, Master of Orion III, Max Payne, Maximum Pool*, Maya Personal Learning Edition, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Medal of Honor: Spearhead, Mind Rover, Monster's Inc. Games, Mummy Maze Deluxe, Mutant Storm, Myst III: Exile*, Myth II: Soulblighter, Myth III: The Wolf Age, NASCAR 2002, NASCAR 2003, Neverwinter Nights, Nickelodeon Jigsaw!, NingPo MahJong, NoLimits Rollercoaster Simulation, No One Lives Forever, No One Lives Forever 2, Oni*, Only Mortal, Orbz, Otto Matic, Owari, Payback, Pillars of Garendall, Player Manager 2003, Pocket Tanks, Ponere, pop-pop, Power Chips, QBz, Quake*, Quake II*, Quake III: Gold*, Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc [NEW], realMYST, Red Faction*, Republic: The Revolution [NEW], Return to Castle Wolfenstein, RHEM, Sacrifice, Scramble, Second Life, Seven Seas Deluxe, Shadowbane, Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos [NEW], Sheep*, Sim Theme Park*, SimCity 4, SimCity 4: Rush Hour [NEW], Simon Extreme, Simon the Sorcerer II*, The Sims*, The Sims: Hot Date, The Sims: House Party*, The Sims: Livin' Large*, The Sims: Makin' Magic, The Sims: Superstar, The Sims: Unleashed, The Sims: Vacation, Sin Gold*, Slope Rider, Slots from Bally Gaming, Snowball Run, Solace, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, Solitaire Till Dawn X, Spelvin, Spider-Man, Spin Crisis, SpyHunter, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, Star Trek: Elite Force II, Star

MESE: Already done.

[ahknight]

As far as a program that uses text files and makes a CYOA thing, that's already done: Multiple Endings Story Engine

Works great. :) No one's seemed interested so it's not seen many updates, but works great the way it is. If someone wants to write some up I'll happily host them. It's real simple to write. I almost made an editor for it as well, which would be rather simple, too.

Re:But how do you quit?

[ZackSchil]

I figure I'll karma whore and explain my system for passcodes. When you reached a certain part of the game, you'd write down the passcode it gave you on a sheet of paper, then reboot your iPod (to go listen to music or whatever). The next time you opened the game, on the first screen there would be an option to enter in your passcode. Clicking on it brought you to a screen that looked like this:

1 - - -
2
3
4
5

1 through 5 being links. Each number, say, 4, would lead to a document inside the folder named after it with that number, containing another file that said:

4 - - -
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5

It would go on like that until the last number, of which each contained its own file. For invalid numbers, it would say "Invalid Passcode" with a link back to the title screen. Valid passcodes linked to whatever state and location the game was in when you read off the code.

I guess it might be fitting to discuss the method I used for my game. Each time you decided to perform an action, you'd be linked to a different world state (or folder). That way you could actually interact with the game even though the notes feature does not have access to anything more than basic HTML (no scripting at all). Luckily, most world states were only a few files large because the action would usually trigger a puzzle that wouldn't allow you to leave a room. One of the biggest troubles was just keeping all the wold states straight amongst what grew to literally hundreds of thousands of files. If you broke a vase in your house in the game and were allowed to leave, a whole "broken vase" world had to be created. Every single text file for the game had to be duplicated and scrubbed through by a script to make sure that the game "remembered you had broken the vase. This is the main reason why I gave up on the game. Every insignificant event that wasn't self-correcting had to have its own world branch in which that task was completed! Oh, if only for some basic, basic scripting. Or perhaps a game making tool that simulated scripting by allowing me to program with it, then generated all of the event branches and HTML files for me. Then, I'd make a game. A good one. Hell, maybe I'll write the tool! Some day. Alas, for enough free time...

3rd Generation Only

[metalligoth]

Before you mod me down for whining about not having a new feature on my old device, let me tell you that is not the intent of this post.

The linked notes (which the game relies on), as far as I know, only work on 3G iPods and the miniPod. I couldn't find anything on the game's website that stated this.

I imagine a lot of not-ultra-techie Mac/Win users might get pissed off if they download the game for their 2G or 1G iPod and it doesn't work. Just a thought.

Re:Wait a second...

[cei]

Actually, it was a guy from England named Steve Jackson, who was no relation to Steve Jackson Games.

Too many Jacksons, too little media coverage.

Re:I can't play Doom on my iPOD?

[damiam]

No one is turning up their noses, but it'd be nice if we could do more. As evidenced by Solitaire, Brick, and Parachute, the iPod is capable of decent graphical games (and other apps), and it'd be nice if Apple would release an SDK allowing their development. Maybe iPod Linux will get there at some point...

Re:Great

[martingunnarsson]

There might be more to come, but if they are limited to use the notes function in the iPod, don't expect anything fancy.
If Apple provided an easy way of executing programs from the harddrive and a nice specification of the iPod API, then we'd probably se lots of small games. I wonder if that's ever gonna happen.

Ask and thou shalt receive...

[NaugaHunter]

Does that Handspring still use Palm OS?

Here you go.

It has a couple of interpreters, and if you hop around it has the games. I just refinished Hitchhikers and am working through Planetfall.

Note - there are other Frotz's around, though I got the OS X one through Fink. Using Terminal really brings out the throw-back experience if you set the background to black and get some neon green for the letters. Though I am 'cheating' with a larger than 80*24 screen for legibility. :)