Rosetta

I hope that soon I may introduce you the little Rosetta. By its full name: Rosetta Ados; just because it sounds so soap op… I mean latinized (and also remotely alliterates with my own name). Certainly she is now still tiny, merely just an ovule. Once she will be born, will be called as Junior for some time; and then may become a Senior – unless being foredoomed or non-viable again… For that it might be guessed where I borrowed the inspiration from.

Yes, from the Rosetta Stone of course. Champollion and Young solved the Egyptian hieroglyphs making use of it in 1823: since there was the same text engraved on it in two languages and three ways of writing. I would like to write something according to this; something that probably nobody has tried to do (or at least I have not heard of any attempt materialized of such a subject for the time being yet); that’s an Interactive Fiction system functioning as true multilingual at one time. (Though the Apple had already used the name idea before at its own PPC/Intel change, but I think that’s not relevant here and now.) Obviously, it consists of two entirely different things together: on one hand, programming the text interpreting and the sentence forming in independent code moduls; and, on the other hand, translating all and every text of each game later (including the dictionaries, too). Of all languages I can personally support English and Hungarian since I know these two enough only (and perhaps some basic initiative for German, too); but because I would like to make the whole system open (not only free, but also open-source) after publishing, thus anyone may expand it with further ones at will. The language of the narration would be flexibly interchangeable in runtime; and the other variant used for input would also be any of those included – in the fullest version at least I think (the algorithm is fit to do so in my theory).

At the level of the game: multi-protagonist nature, multiplayer mode, and realtime execution to be expected (with strong non-linearity and layeredness at the level of the events). (These are also dependent and built on each other of course: the multiplayer mode could not be much realized without its realtimeness in practice – nor without its multi-protagonist nature etc.) For him who had known a MUD (Multi User Dungeon) before: all of these characteristics had featured that. The surname of the maid, the Ados means: Adventure Operating System. The v1 version (the Jr.), the smaller one, as being built upon a more limited hardware environment, would be made at first (in Assembly, and optimized, with relatively modest capabilities); the v2 (the Sr.) may follow that later (once upon a time…), in C or C++, with much larger hardware requirement (and knowledge), also taking care of backward compatibility. The latter stays easily portable into further (modern) environments, starting from the source code. The game structure and language will be some kind of independent and abstract (but not too differentiated) script-like formation which may also be transported to and running in any other environment in its unchangeable, initial form.

C64. Naturally, I only felt attracted directly by an impossibly self-mortifying mission all my life long, therefore I shall start it in the same way, too: as mentioned before, by an ovule. In the present case, this zygote is (nearly) an 8-bit (we postulate it by way of an axiom that she has got down with the stage from 1-bit to 7-bit in thoughts before), and its fixed domicile will be not elsewhere than on the C64 platform. (What? How?! Why…? Just because.) And while you are about it, take a good one: it will handle all sorts of exotic hardware accessories (or their emulations): such as EasyFlash (the 1MB writable and readable EPROM), the memory expanders (REU, GeoRAM and co., max. up to 16MB) and processor upgrades (C128 and SuperCPU, Turbo Chameleon etc.), extra input devices (mouse and lightpen) etc. These typically contribute to heightening the user experience as we know. Multiplayer mode: trickily, via the RAM memory of the floppy drive (yet not sure; I have not tested yet that it would work in practice at all, or not… if not, then it rather shall be missed).

x86. Her twin brothers (or sisters… if you want): in x86 Assembly, a 16-bit variant for DOS, and (as now being planned) independent 32-bit and 64-bit variants under Windows, too. Then in the v2 all of this re-written later again in C/C++, which (as prospectively containing not too much system specific parts) opens the possibility for subsequent portings. For example: to Linux, to MeOS, or much rather to the modern mobil platforms (iOS, tablet) etc. (For the meantime, the two obsolete platforms might assure the portability, since unless anything else, then at least an emulator or a DOSBox still exists in essentially every environment everywhere.) Multiplayer mode: as simply as possible (by writing/reading shared network files, that’s universal, not dependent on anything else but rights, and comfortable, too). GUI (Graphical User Interface): in another application severely.

Whereas the border system and the script language are born, may be followed by my two „remakes”: my own two good old adventures: the extended re-writing of The Galleon (A gálya) and The Hobbit (A babó) for their new (changed) environment (after having them, some newer, further IFs, too, at will). Both of them have got some connections nowadays. One is nearly twenty years old soon. (And the other is applied as manuscript by Peter Jackson…) I would be so glad to write here that: „rewinding twenty years now in two years”; however, that must be probably more (or maybe that much more – when we count everything). What I have collected together above so far, surely must be the work of years. Never mind, just a sparetime activity, isn’t it? Yes. No. Yes, but it might be not only so – if anyone else was interested in this but me… (Whoever has got a usable idea, e. g. for getting some kind of material and/or financial support, or anything else, please write me!) I have already thought of a kickstarter.com registration for instance; but at the moment it would only be some near death experience and/or another kind of failure; although it is very nice to see that there is someone who had already done that before – Andrew Plotkin two years ago. (Obviously he is a worldwide known old brand name of the genre, moreover, some kind of „star”; and the presentation and the dressing may also count so much. And, of course, the iPhone.) (See: Hadean Lands IF)

To sum up in headwords the essence:

multilingualism,
multiple protagonists,
multiplayer gaming mode,
realtime event handling,
independent scripting,
expandability,
portability.

 

Robert Olessak (2012)

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		Far, Far Beyond the OSean	12/12/2012
		or: Why is it so good to work on dead platforms?

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