When the game was re-released as part of The Magnetic Scrolls Collection it had some additional graphics (and even animations) such as this one:
I didn't play it much (by the time I managed to get my hands on a second-hand CD of it, I had already played the game and I found the new interface to be a bit annoying, honestly), so I don't know how extensive these changes were. Still, I was wondering if these will be included - possibly as an option - as well.
@eriktorbjorn said:
When the game was re-released as part of The Magnetic Scrolls Collection it had some additional graphics (and even animations) such as this one:
@The_Librarian said:
Now I'm jealous. Looks good for its age
What surprised me the most was that the CD had nothing to do with Magnetic Scrolls. It was distributed by Virgin Games so it contained some demos for other games, including A sneak view of some early work in-progress on our much acclaimed Interactive Movie - "Guest":
Or, as we would later know it, The 7th Guest. Actually it was just three very short movies (the title screen, a door opening, and a headless ghost running down a corridor) so it didn't say anything about the gameplay. Still, I thought it was amusing.
@The_Librarian said:
Headless ghosts? Sounds amusing. Are there any horses involved, together with a certain sleepy hollow?
No, just a regular one:
But to bring things back on topic, here are two other images that I assume are new to this version of Guild of Thieves since they have a different size than the others:
That's as far as I got without starting to actually solve puzzles. And it's been too long since I played the game for me to do that right now.
The other two games included in that collection were Fish! and Corruption. I don't think The Pawn, Jinxter or Myth were ever given the same treatment.
@eriktorbjorn said:
What surprised me the most was that the CD had nothing to do with Magnetic Scrolls.
Oops, what I meant to say was that what surprised me the most had nothing to do with Magnetic Scrolls. Too many re-writes before posting.
@hugh said:
Wow. I didn't know about these extra pictures nor the animations.
I don't even know if the source material to these exist anymore. That might be something worth tracking down.
I do hope you manage to. The animations seem to have been mainly little things like the gravedigger digging a grave, and the miller playing his lute, etc. so to me the new images are the more interesting part. But I do know the Magnetic interpreter handles the animations, at least. And of course, it's possible that the new versions made other changes under the hood as well.
For reference, the games in the collection are identified by the "version" command as:
"Guild of Thieves - Copyright (C) 1987 Magnetic Scrolls Ltd
Version 1.3"
"Fish! Version 1.10, Copyright (c) Magnetic Scrolls Ltd 1988, 1990."
And Corruption is simply identified as "Version 1.12."
@The_Librarian said:
Animations can be a simple .GIF image (with browser-based games), otherwise it is some close-source code that does the animation IIRC
As I said, the Magnetic interpreter already handles animations. The front-end just has to implement the appropriate functions so display it. Many years ago I tried learning GTK+ by writing such a front-end (I don't know if anyone's still maintaining it), but I've forgotten almost all of the details. I know there are comments describing how to do it, though.
Here's a reconstructed animation I made by slowing down DOSBox a lot and taking screen shots. I don't know if I got the speed correct, and I could have messed up some frames (e.g. by taking the screenshot before the image was fully rendered) but something like this:
@The_Librarian said:
Animations can be a simple .GIF image (with browser-based games), otherwise it is some close-source code that does the animation IIRC
As I said, the Magnetic interpreter already handles animations. The front-end just has to implement the appropriate functions so display it. Many years ago I tried learning GTK+ by writing such a front-end (I don't know if anyone's still maintaining it), but I've forgotten almost all of the details. I know there are comments describing how to do it, though.
Here's a reconstructed animation I made by slowing down DOSBox a lot and taking screen shots. I don't know if I got the speed correct, and I could have messed up some frames (e.g. by taking the screenshot before the image was fully rendered) but something like this:
Today I've been working on this. Firstly, you're right, there were more pictures in the "collection" versions. I've made our build work with the collection graphics, except i haven't got the animation to work yet.
I think this is definitely something i have to get going.
Today I've been working on this. Firstly, you're right, there were more pictures in the "collection" versions. I've made our build work with the collection graphics, except i haven't got the animation to work yet.
I think this is definitely something i have to get going.
:bigthumbsup: I'm sure you guys will get it right! And we will test it for you!
@hugh said:
Today I've been working on this. Firstly, you're right, there were more pictures in the "collection" versions. I've made our build work with the collection graphics, except i haven't got the animation to work yet.
I think this is definitely something i have to get going.
Cool, I look forward to seeing it! (By the way, the collection had the option to turn off animations.)
Comments
Great stuff! Looking forward to it!
When the game was re-released as part of The Magnetic Scrolls Collection it had some additional graphics (and even animations) such as this one:
I didn't play it much (by the time I managed to get my hands on a second-hand CD of it, I had already played the game and I found the new interface to be a bit annoying, honestly), so I don't know how extensive these changes were. Still, I was wondering if these will be included - possibly as an option - as well.
Now I'm jealous. Looks good for its age
What surprised me the most was that the CD had nothing to do with Magnetic Scrolls. It was distributed by Virgin Games so it contained some demos for other games, including A sneak view of some early work in-progress on our much acclaimed Interactive Movie - "Guest":
Or, as we would later know it, The 7th Guest. Actually it was just three very short movies (the title screen, a door opening, and a headless ghost running down a corridor) so it didn't say anything about the gameplay. Still, I thought it was amusing.
Headless ghosts? Sounds amusing. Are there any horses involved, together with a certain sleepy hollow?
No, just a regular one:
But to bring things back on topic, here are two other images that I assume are new to this version of Guild of Thieves since they have a different size than the others:
That's as far as I got without starting to actually solve puzzles. And it's been too long since I played the game for me to do that right now.
The other two games included in that collection were Fish! and Corruption. I don't think The Pawn, Jinxter or Myth were ever given the same treatment.
Wow. I didn't know about these extra pictures nor the animations.
I don't even know if the source material to these exist anymore. That might be something worth tracking down.
Oops, what I meant to say was that what surprised me the most had nothing to do with Magnetic Scrolls. Too many re-writes before posting.
I do hope you manage to. The animations seem to have been mainly little things like the gravedigger digging a grave, and the miller playing his lute, etc. so to me the new images are the more interesting part. But I do know the Magnetic interpreter handles the animations, at least. And of course, it's possible that the new versions made other changes under the hood as well.
For reference, the games in the collection are identified by the "version" command as:
"Guild of Thieves - Copyright (C) 1987 Magnetic Scrolls Ltd
Version 1.3"
"Fish! Version 1.10, Copyright (c) Magnetic Scrolls Ltd 1988, 1990."
And Corruption is simply identified as "Version 1.12."
Animations can be a simple .GIF image (with browser-based games), otherwise it is some close-source code that does the animation IIRC
As I said, the Magnetic interpreter already handles animations. The front-end just has to implement the appropriate functions so display it. Many years ago I tried learning GTK+ by writing such a front-end (I don't know if anyone's still maintaining it), but I've forgotten almost all of the details. I know there are comments describing how to do it, though.
Here's a reconstructed animation I made by slowing down DOSBox a lot and taking screen shots. I don't know if I got the speed correct, and I could have messed up some frames (e.g. by taking the screenshot before the image was fully rendered) but something like this:
Looks good to me!
Hi guys,
Today I've been working on this. Firstly, you're right, there were more pictures in the "collection" versions. I've made our build work with the collection graphics, except i haven't got the animation to work yet.
I think this is definitely something i have to get going.
thanks,
:bigthumbsup: I'm sure you guys will get it right! And we will test it for you!
Cool, I look forward to seeing it! (By the way, the collection had the option to turn off animations.)