So, I don't understand... he's tweaked the online Sarien to run well on iPad but he's not releasing it? For legal reasons?
If anything, isn't this campaign just going to drive negative Activision attention toward Sarien allowing people to play Sierra games for free online? They don't have some special dispensation from Activision as far as I know...
EDIT: this TouchArcade article makes it more clear. Apparently he's still putting the final touches on it; sounds like it'll be released pretty soon. I continue to fear that his work toward getting Activision to do something with these games will end up forcing the issue and getting him a C&D. If that is to happen, I hope it at least gets released first.
http://toucharcade.com/2010/10/15/sierra-adventure-games-com...
More interestingly, he(Martin Kool) wrote an interpreter for the old Sierra adventure games engines. Notably the engines use GOTO statements which javascript doesn't have an analog of, so they compile the entire thing into a giant switch-case statement. Nifty!
This is much more impressive than it looks, I feel. Saving/loading games by using a browser bookmark? Multiplayer?
I'm glad it's available — there are lots of folks that wouldn't even give a change to a full text interface these days. I and my nostalgia would certainly prefer a keyboard option, though.
I was a little disappointed (though not surprised) that this only supports the older AGI games and not the later SCI games (SQ4+). Still, very cool. Space Quest is easily one of the most entertaining game series ever developed.
AGI and SCI are completely different game engines. Both the interpreter and the data formats are radically different.
BTW, I've actually converted my fan-made AGI game using Martin's tool, and it worked very well. He really deserves a round of applause for this.
If anything, isn't this campaign just going to drive negative Activision attention toward Sarien allowing people to play Sierra games for free online? They don't have some special dispensation from Activision as far as I know...
EDIT: this TouchArcade article makes it more clear. Apparently he's still putting the final touches on it; sounds like it'll be released pretty soon. I continue to fear that his work toward getting Activision to do something with these games will end up forcing the issue and getting him a C&D. If that is to happen, I hope it at least gets released first. http://toucharcade.com/2010/10/15/sierra-adventure-games-com...