Adventure Construction Set
Encyclopedia
Adventure Construction Set (ACS) is a program written by Stuart Smith
that is used to construct tile-based
graphical adventure game
s. ACS was originally published by Electronic Arts
(EA) in 1984 on the Commodore 64
, and was later ported to the Apple II
, Amiga
and MS-DOS
platforms. It was one of EA's biggest hits of 1985, earning an SPA
"Gold Disk" award.
The program concept was inspired by the 1983 release Pinball Construction Set
, and was produced by Don Daglow
in parallel with the development of Racing Destruction Set
. It provided a graphical editor for the construction of maps, placement of creatures and items, and a simple menu-based scripting to control game logic. A constructed game was stored on its own disk which could be copied and shared with friends, however for some ports (such as Amiga
) the ACS software was still needed to play user-constructed games.
Included with the system was a complete predesigned game called Rivers of Light which was based on the legend of Gilgamesh
. It featured art by Smith and Connie Goldman and music by Dave Warhol (Goldman and Warhol also provided art and music respectively for Racing Destruction Set). The Amiga
version of ACS featured art by Greg Johnson and Avril Harrison, and an additional pre-made adventure called "Galactic Agent" by Ken St Andre which was exclusive to that platform.
Titles influenced by ACS include The Elder Scrolls Construction Set. Project lead Todd Howard
had stated, "When we started Morrowind, I was really excited about making a tool like 'Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set for the Apple 2'. I even used part of the name."
and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. It was reviewed in Computer Gaming World
as an "easy-to-use, albeit time-consuming, means of creating a graphic adventure."
The framework of an adventure built within ACS is organized into the following main categories:
Tiles may be stacked. Only the top tile of a stack may be directly interacted with by the player, however special tiles allow for game-logic to be implemented via the stack. For example, a tile may be set to "Activate All Things at This Place". Tiles may also allow or disallow interaction based on the contents of the player's inventory, or activate if a specific object is dropped on top of the stack..
Spell-effects may be attached to Things.
The game allows for limited, monster AI variance. A creature may be specified as either a "fighter" or a "slinker", and it may be specified as either an "enemy" or a "friend" (for a total of 4 possible behavioral patterns.)
There are maximum quotas applied to most categories in the game (including the total number of unique things, text messages, pictures, regions, creatures per region, things per region, and rooms per region.) These limits restrict the size of adventures. For example, "Each adventure can contain up to 15 regions and each region can contain up to 16 rooms."
ACS included a framework for fantasy adventures, as well as starter toolkits for fantasy, futurist, and "spy" game genres.
.
posing in different genre costumes along an aesthetically structured staircase. The staircase in question is a part of the Palace of Fine Arts
in San Francisco, Ca.
Stuart Smith (game designer)
Stuart Smith is an American computer game designer and programmer.He is best known for his adventure games, and was a pioneer in the development of graphical adventures in the early 1980s. He was also a unique designer for his time because of his desire to faithfully build history and mythology...
that is used to construct tile-based
Tile-based video game
A tile-based video game is a type of video or computer game where the playing area consists of small rectangular, square, or hexagonal graphic images, referred to as tiles. The complete set of tiles available for use in a playing area is called a tileset...
graphical adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s. ACS was originally published by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
(EA) in 1984 on the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, and was later ported to the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
platforms. It was one of EA's biggest hits of 1985, earning an SPA
Software and Information Industry Association
The Software & Information Industry Association is a United States based software trade association. The organization lobbies United States policy makers as well as conducting surveys and research and many conferences and webcasts....
"Gold Disk" award.
The program concept was inspired by the 1983 release Pinball Construction Set
Pinball Construction Set
Pinball Construction Set is a computer game by Bill Budge published by Electronic Arts. It was released for the Apple II and Atari 800 in 1983 and was later ported to other platforms, such as the Commodore 64 and DOS .-Description:...
, and was produced by Don Daglow
Don Daglow
Don Daglow is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. He is best known for designing a series of pioneering simulation games and role-playing games, as well as the first computer baseball game and the first graphical MMORPG, all between 1971 and 1995...
in parallel with the development of Racing Destruction Set
Racing Destruction Set
Racing Destruction Set is a car racing and motocross computer game that was published in 1985 by Electronic Arts. It was developed for the Commodore 64 computer system, and was advertised as being Commodore 128 compatible...
. It provided a graphical editor for the construction of maps, placement of creatures and items, and a simple menu-based scripting to control game logic. A constructed game was stored on its own disk which could be copied and shared with friends, however for some ports (such as Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
) the ACS software was still needed to play user-constructed games.
Included with the system was a complete predesigned game called Rivers of Light which was based on the legend of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk, modern day Iraq , placing his reign ca. 2500 BC. According to the Sumerian king list he reigned for 126 years. In the Tummal Inscription, Gilgamesh, and his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, in Tummal, a sacred quarter in her city of...
. It featured art by Smith and Connie Goldman and music by Dave Warhol (Goldman and Warhol also provided art and music respectively for Racing Destruction Set). The Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
version of ACS featured art by Greg Johnson and Avril Harrison, and an additional pre-made adventure called "Galactic Agent" by Ken St Andre which was exclusive to that platform.
Titles influenced by ACS include The Elder Scrolls Construction Set. Project lead Todd Howard
Todd Howard
Todd Howard is an American designer, director, and producer. He is currently Game Director and Executive Producer for Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the creation of Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls video game series. GamePro magazine named him to the Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming...
had stated, "When we started Morrowind, I was really excited about making a tool like 'Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set for the Apple 2'. I even used part of the name."
Game-Play
Game-play features of Adventure Construction Set include:- Turn-based system.
- Up to four players may play.
- A player character can be imported from another adventure. However the character might not retain the same graphic tile if the new adventure uses a different tile set.
- Music and sound.
- Random encounters.
- Spells.
- Range and melee combat.
- Along with graphic tiles, text screens are also available for conveying information.
- Creatures which behave as player-mimics, copying various traits and equipment of the player.
- Shops.
Construction System
ACS was designed to make tile-based graphical adventure games similar to Smith's earlier games Return of HeraclesReturn of Heracles
The Return of Heracles is an adventure game for the Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 and Apple II computers, originally written by Stuart Smith and published by Quality Software in 1983...
and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. It was reviewed in Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
as an "easy-to-use, albeit time-consuming, means of creating a graphic adventure."
The framework of an adventure built within ACS is organized into the following main categories:
- "World map": This is the top-level map from which characters begin their adventure. The world map differs from other playable areas of the game in that it has no fixed creature encounters, no stacked tiles, quicker movement, it is scrollable, and it optionally may wrap around (have no borders.) Random encounters may occur on the world map, however the game shall switch to a special view to handle the encounter, which plays similarly to that of a "room".
- "Regions": A region is a collection of rooms. A region is a construction concept and does not present itself to the player, except by indirect means such as disk access when traveling between regions.
- "Rooms": A room is a rectangular, tiled area of a size which must fit within the game's viewport. Tiles may be used to make a room look like shapes other than rectangular.
- "Things": A thing is a background tile, obstacle, or collectible item.
- "Creatures"
- "Pictures": These are art assets used by the tiles. For some platforms, four colors are available for images. For the AmigaAmigaThe Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
platform, 32 colors are available, each of which can be assigned to be any of 4096 available colors.
Tiles may be stacked. Only the top tile of a stack may be directly interacted with by the player, however special tiles allow for game-logic to be implemented via the stack. For example, a tile may be set to "Activate All Things at This Place". Tiles may also allow or disallow interaction based on the contents of the player's inventory, or activate if a specific object is dropped on top of the stack..
Spell-effects may be attached to Things.
The game allows for limited, monster AI variance. A creature may be specified as either a "fighter" or a "slinker", and it may be specified as either an "enemy" or a "friend" (for a total of 4 possible behavioral patterns.)
There are maximum quotas applied to most categories in the game (including the total number of unique things, text messages, pictures, regions, creatures per region, things per region, and rooms per region.) These limits restrict the size of adventures. For example, "Each adventure can contain up to 15 regions and each region can contain up to 16 rooms."
ACS included a framework for fantasy adventures, as well as starter toolkits for fantasy, futurist, and "spy" game genres.
Auto-Construct Feature
Along with user-constructed adventures, the software can also auto-construct a random adventure. This feature can optionally be used to auto-complete a partially built adventure. The user may specify numerous parameters for auto-generation, including difficulty level.Electronic Arts contest
Shortly after Adventure Construction Set's release, announcements were included in the packaging for players to submit their adventures for a contest to be judged by Electronic Arts and their playtesters. Approximately 50 games were submitted and winners chosen for three categories:- Fantasy - Festival by R.C. Purrenhage written for the Commodore 64
- Science Fiction - Cosmos by Albert Jerng written for the C-64
- Contemporary - Panama by Will Bryant for the C-64 and Codename:Viper by Peter Schroeder for the Apple II
Adventure Construction Set Club
The supplementary manual included with the Amiga port mentions, "If you're an ACS fanatic you can join the Adventure Construction Set Club. Club members receive access to a library of adventures created with ACS" The supplementary manual also mentions that the club is not affiliated with Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
.
Trivia
The inside cover features Stuart SmithStuart Smith
Stuart Smith may refer to:*Stuart Lyon Smith , politician, psychiatrist, academic and public servant in Ontario, Canada*Stuart Saunders Smith , American composer and percussionist*Stuart Tyson Smith, American Egyptologist...
posing in different genre costumes along an aesthetically structured staircase. The staircase in question is a part of the Palace of Fine Arts
Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
in San Francisco, Ca.
See also
- Music Construction SetMusic Construction SetMusic Construction Set is a music composition notation program. It was originally developed in 1984 for the Apple II, and quickly ported to other systems of the era. It was designed and developed by Will Harvey and published by Electronic Arts...
- Pinball Construction SetPinball Construction SetPinball Construction Set is a computer game by Bill Budge published by Electronic Arts. It was released for the Apple II and Atari 800 in 1983 and was later ported to other platforms, such as the Commodore 64 and DOS .-Description:...
- Racing Destruction SetRacing Destruction SetRacing Destruction Set is a car racing and motocross computer game that was published in 1985 by Electronic Arts. It was developed for the Commodore 64 computer system, and was advertised as being Commodore 128 compatible...
External links
- Adventure Construction Set at AmigaMemo.com - Amiga.Game.Museum
- Review of C64 version from 1985
- Adventure Construction Set Website
- Adventure Creation Kit - remake of Adventure Construction Set