ChipWits II - Return of a Classic 1984 Mac Game

[Doug Sharp]

ChipWits II is in beta and I need bug reports!

The original ChipWits was one of the best games in the first year of the Mac - 1984. Won a lot of year-end awards. I wrote it in MacFORTH and then ported it to Apple II and C-64.

It's a geeky game - you program a robot using an iconic language called IBOL.

Out website is http://chipwits.com

We've entered ChipWits II in the Independent Games Festival and there is a nice little blurb there: http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entry2008.php?id=187

Here are some screenshots of the original Mac version:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardspics/7834280/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardspics/7834268/in/photostream/

I wrote ChipWits II in Adobe AIR. Not a bad game platform except for the slow blitting in the Flash player, which Adobe promises to fix in the next release.

You get 20 free plays of ChipWits II while in beta, so you should be able to give it a good look.

I also wrote Cinemaware's King of Chicago for the Mac in 1987.

Let me know what you think and please report bugs here or on our forums:
http://chipwits.informe.com/bug-hunting-df4.html

Gamely,

Doug Sharp, Old School Mac Game Dev

[Baldock]

Ah Cinemaware, many hours I spend on my Amiga 500 playing just about every game those guys put out.

I didn't get an Apple until many years later so I missed out on the early Mac ports.

[Doug Sharp]

The Amiga was a fun machine to program for. You had to reach down into the video machine code to do animation.

I'm working on a game with Kellyn Beeck, who designed Defender of The Crown. I'm sure you played that one.

[Baldock]

Out of the 13 games Cinemaware made I owned and played 9. I think I've still got most of the boxes.

I remember back in 2000 when they reformed I think I saw a post in iDG forums about it. They were looking for fans who had box art. I had an unusual tripple box set from Australia which I scanned and emailed off them.

So the new game, what platform? style? details?

[Doug Sharp]

We are using the Playground SDK, so Mac and Win will be supported. I'm just getting into Playground's mix of C++ and Lua. Just started to play with it a week ago.

We're not ready to talk about the game. Isn't that stupid? As if it's a state secret.

Actually, we've just started designing the game so it's a bit premature to talk much about it. We're having a brainstorming session this afternoon to nail down some details.

I'll be back here after ChipWits is released to talk about it.

Didn't Cinemaware have some great box art? They were one of the first to spend a lot of money on covers. Remember the vast breasts of the woman on the cover of Defender of the Crown? The owners of C-ware got a less well-endowed model for King of Chicago because they knew my then-wife would be pissed if they used a Pam Anderson type.

King sold 50k copies in 87-88. Defender sold 250k.

[ccccc]

This game is really cool! I'm probably buying it when a final version comes out :).
3 problems:
*When I quit it was still in the doc after the window closed then an error came up saying the application process unexpectedly quit, probably just my comp though, didn't happen the second time I opened it.

*The window starts to the right of the screen halfway below the doc, half above. It would look much more professional if the window started entirely onscreen ;).

*Reminds me to much of the stupid program interface mind-storms make you use :P (j/k the interface is fine)

[Doug Sharp]

I have entered your bugs in my bug tracking page.

When we release the game the price will go up to $19.95, so you might want to save big bucks with the beta price of $14.95 ;^}

We will have a contest next week. Hope you enter. I pick a mission and the ChipWit with the highest score after 10 Missions earns a t-shirt and immortal glory in the Prestigious Hall of Pie (http://chipwits.com/hallofpie.html). I'll announce it on the website.

Glad you like ChipWits II!

[Doug Sharp]

I'll post a new build this weekend.

[ccccc]

Another bug: Whenever you change something in another function, method, or whatever you want to call it, it goes back to the main one. VERY annoying, every time you click something like the pointer on the chips it switches to the main function.

[Doug Sharp]

That is a hugely annoying bug. Chalk it up to poor quality control on my part. Fixed it yesterday. Will post a new build Monday.

Thanks for the bug report.

[Doug Sharp]

Fixed that bug and some others and posted a new build. Check it out at http://chipwits.com.

We'll be hosting a contest next week. Give it a shot.

[Doug Sharp]

We're having a ChipWits contest on chipwits.com (http://chipwits.com) . Code the smartest ChipWit for the Mission "Happy Trails" and win a t-shirt and immortal glory.

You get 15 free plays of ChipWits so you can learn it well enough to enter.

Good luck on your entry!