Alternate Reality: The City by Philip Price - Competition!


Alternate Reality: The City by Philip Price - Competition!

von Gast » Fr 13. Mai 2005, 23:52
Join in some fun at Atari Age! (downloads and instructions are linked):

Link: Alternate Reality: The City - Player Competition






The Flaming Dragon Tavern (2MB DivX Video)

von Bunsen » Sa 14. Mai 2005, 11:10
Yeah, AR is one of my favourites.

Nice idea, I think I will compete.

von Gast » Mi 1. Jun 2005, 07:57
Bunsen hat geschrieben:Yeah, AR is one of my favourites.

Nice idea, I think I will compete.


We miss you, the competition is getting harder!

Current Rank!

von Gast » Mo 6. Jun 2005, 00:53
CURRENT PLAYER RANKINGS:

#1 axewater:
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#2 Xebec's Demise:
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#3 Gunstar:
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#4 Goochman:
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#5 smartwhois:
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#6 Bunsen:
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Download v2!

von Gast » Sa 25. Jun 2005, 09:37
Ja ist das Spiel sehr schnell auf Patrone. Sie können Version 2 hier erhalten:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.ph ... t&id=34524

Spezieller Nacheiferer erforderte - auserwählte grelle Patrone, wenn ladendes ROM:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.ph ... t&id=31088

von Bunsen » Sa 25. Jun 2005, 10:41
:lol::lol:

This babelfish translation is very funny and hard to understand.

Better write english - we will understand better.

Thank you for the links!

translation

von Gast » So 26. Jun 2005, 21:26
Oops! Sorry :oops:

What does it translate to? :lol:

von Bunsen » Mo 27. Jun 2005, 21:52
Translate it back via babelfish to english and you will know what I mean.

For example:

cartridge = Patrone (babelfish german)

but in german we use "Patrone" for bullet.


But it is nice when foreign users try to participiate in our forum :)

While we're at the subject

von Mathy » Mo 27. Jun 2005, 23:01
Howdy folks

There were only two Alternate Reality games on the 8 bit Atari. "The Dungeon" and "The City". But more were planned. IIRC seven in total.

Does anybody know, if there where more AR games released (then these two) for other computers? And if these games used some kind of interpreter, that would translate "non computer specific" code into "Atari 8 bit code" or "C64 code" or "PC Code" or ... (before the software was released!!!)

Infocom used something like that for it's games and Tom Hunt has reverse engineered that interpreter for the Atari. A lot of Infocom games that were never officially released for the Atari 8 bit have been translated by Tom.

Maybe something simular is possible for AR???

CU Mathy

von Gast » Di 2. Aug 2005, 00:21
I wish! It would be a dream come true for many fans if the other FIVE expansions were ever finished! See the next post for a list of them. Unfortunately, none of the other games were made for any computer. The 16 bit versions do have more features than the 8-bit version such as being able to join guilds and get jobs, but they do not seem to have the same "magic" or realism that the original Atari 8-bit The City has. I don't think there is any type of translator either. The game was first created on the A8 and then later designed or ported over to the other systems.

Here is some info on the completed versions from http://www.eobet.com/alternate-reality/

The first Alternate Reality game was The City for the Atari 8-bit line of computers,
released early in 1985. It was a result from a joint effort by publisher company Datasoft
and Paradise Programming (Philip Price and Gary Gilbertson). But, it was under a company
named Marsten Systems, a year earlier, that Philip Price made his initial work on the game,
which featured The City and The Dungeon as one game. However, Marsten systems wanted a
game out fast, and had The City and The Dungeon split into two games. And, when The City
was not completed on schedule, Marsten turned it over to Datasoft.

However, the contract Philip Price signed with Datasoft allowed them to charge 100% of
conversion costs from his 7.5% of the net profits. Datasoft took longer time to convert
The City to each different platform than it took Philip Price to write the original game,
and so, he never saw any money (except small advances while writing his version) and was
forced to leave the business to seek an income elsewhere (in that process, a Philip Price
coded version of The Dungeon, which was about 50% complete, was lost).

Philip Price left his concept and ideas behind to Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal (employed by
Datasoft, which also by this time, went by the name Intellicreations). Using conceptual
documents and hand written notes by Gary Gilbertson taken during questioning sessions with
Philip Price, they were able to continue developing the series, and after 18 months release
Alternate Reality: The Dungeon for the Atari 8-bits (with music from Gary Gilbertson,
working from Hawaii, and graphics by Bonita Long-Hemsath, an inhouse Datasoft artist).
A C64 version of The Dungeon followed along with a conversion of The City (in the late 1985).

Plans for the third installment, Alternate Reality: Arena, which would deviate from the 3D
first person perspective and let you see your own character for the first time, were outlined,
but by now, the 8-bit market was declining and Datasoft were in financial trouble. Software
Toolworks then stepped in and bought Datasoft, and told Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal to work on
the 16-bit ports of The Dungeon from home. They got as far as a 70% complete version before
they both got layed off. Software Toolworks didn't have much faith in the CRPG market, and
decided to not wait any longer for The Dungeon to be finished.

Thus the only games that ever made it to the public of the original Alternate Reality
game series were the following:

Alternate Reality: The City for the Atari 8-bit computers
Commodore 64 port of The City
Apple II port of The City (?? version)
Machintosh port of The City (?? version)
Atari ST version of The City (16-bit version)
Amiga version of The City (16-bit version)
PC port by The City (not made by any of the original authors) (16-bit version)

Alternate Reality: The Dungeon for the Atari 8-bit computers
Commodore 64/128 port of The Dungeon
Apple II port of The Dungeon

Today, all copyrights for Alternate Reality has reverted back to Philip Price.

-INFORMATION COURTESY OF PHILIP PRICE, GARY GILBERTSON, KEN JORDAN AND DAN PINAL

von Gast » Di 2. Aug 2005, 00:27
Tue Jan 02, 1990
from Philip Price

Okay since I am a notorious procastinator. I will give a brief outline of
what was the main parts of AR as originally conceived.

The idea behind AR was a place to entertain but also to enlighten/educate
oneself. I desired to have as realistic of a world possible, but still a world
that was filled with the unknown. I knew I couldn't do it in one product so I
plan to develope it through a series.

City/Dungeon (Something originally planned as one)

You are thrust into a new enviroment and have to first learn to survive.
You have to learn to discern to a certain degree. Free will is of course
permitted, monsters and people react to your moral decision. Traps are laid
both physical, mental and moral. Multiple ways to resolve problems are
avaiable. The first clues to why things are the way they are are given.
[Further details on the clues I will disclose further in this letter].

Arena

Original game would be patched to add slaver bands (you could be shang-hi'ed
into the arena amongst other ways in). [Original game meaning City/Dungeon].
The arena would permit combatting your characters against other peoples
characters or against computer run characters. The ultimate goal if you had
been abducted would be to regain your freedom, if you are free then it
would be to gain nobility and a title. A choice would be given if this was
accomplished that would retire that character to a life of luxury [and
boredom].

Palace

Palace intrigue and the ability to modify the city layout. You could climb
the ladder to greater power and responsibility, wielding it as you saw best or
worst. Again if you climbed to the pinnacle you had a option to retire the
character to a life of luxury, power and the thrill of trying to stay one step
ahead of future wouldbe kings.

(To become king you have to defeat the current king which at first is a
computer character, though once overthrown or disposed/killed/poisoned etc. it
would be someone else, possible a player character [retired].)

Wilderness

The wilderness would be the start of a pilgrimage to find the
truth of AR. There would be traps, tricks to waylay the adventure and to turn
him from his or hers true quest.

Revelation

Hidden in the depths of a cave behind the immense waterfall that
can be seen even from the city is a metallic door requiring a pass card to
enter. Once open it reveals corridors gleaming with technology far beyond our
own. Further investigation reveals a room that has immense windows/portals and
a view, a view into space.

Destiny

Fighting with high tech equipment (from both revelation, destiny and
if you run into the aliens that politically are friendly to you plight, the
weapons the riddler has from the dungeon). Searching further this immense ship
you discover a chamber filled with metal cocoons. Using wit and knowledge gain
through other locations you decipher the controls and the display. You learn
that these cocoons hold bodies, the bodies of all of those captured. The
machines keep the bodies physically alive and fit, but imprisoned. The minds
of those entrapped are tapped and fed with images. The ships computer can even
permit the images to interact with solid/material components of the ship. You
are an image. What is reality? You body lies in a cocoon. Your mind sees what
the image sees. What is a soul? What is experience? You experience, you feel
what this image you have been controlling since you kidnapping feels. Again
there are choices to make. In the end you are left with many choices, continue
to live in you image body, a nearly immortal life, but knowning that these
aliens have done this to you and can watch, feel, experience whatever you do
whenever they want. You are their entertainment. They have become jadded by
luxury, power and knowledge and use lesser beings to regain some of the
passions of life. You can cut off this channel, though they may also destroy
the ship, or earth. You can escape in a smaller ship than the entertainment
world and go back to earth (hoping to evade the future capture ships these
beings send to gain more 'entertainment'. You could destroy the planet [and
hope that they are not a multiplanet race] You can take the entertainment
world (that was orbitting the alien's planet) and bring it back to earth to let
the scientist learn from it [and hope the aliens don't trace it]. You could
blackmail the aliens. You could sell out humanity. You could try to bluff
them. There are many choices, life isn't easy and some of the most important
decision are the hardest to find a best answer in.

There were other details I haven't gotten into here (Like a lot of the fun
things to do in each scenerio other than the main plots). And there were/are a
lot of little details to be left until the scenerio each were to be produced.
But from this you can see the main plot and the main suprises that were
originally planned.

Take Care,
Phil P.S.