Gr.A.C. V2.0 GOLD RELEASE REVIEW By Andy Gibson When I first bought GR.A.C. GOLD V1.1, it was mainly due to all the hype going around, plus the fact I've always wanted to write my own Graphic Adventure Game. I didn't really take much notice of V1.1 due to its limitations such as no perspective mode and no Map Screen facility etc. That has all changed with V2.0, and then some .... GR.A.C V2.0 has so many new features, it's really hard to know where to begin! A read through the manual wasn't really much of a help either! Having not even tried GRAC V1.1 didn't help me much though. Still, after reading the new manual twice, I decided to have an attempt at the tutorial. I loaded in the Tutorial file. Now this is supposed to be a skeleton for you to work around, but it didn't seem to load into my Grac Editor without throwing up requestors stating that it couldn't load some files! Aaarrggh! What was I doing wrong? It couldn't load the Controls or Inventory files! Help! What did all this mean? Well, to cut a long story short, I had to get hold of the GRAC USER Disk from my F1 CD Rom and follow the tutorial on that disk on how to create a Control Panel. A few minutes later and I had it all done. (Well, only after a few attempts :-) I followed the tutorials from all versions of GRAC and I must say that it is pretty straight forward. The time had come to begin my own game (which is coming along very nicely now, thanx for asking) Although it states that no coding experience is required to use GRAC, I kinda feel that non-coders will have some probs at first due to the complex scripts that can be achieved. Typing in the scripts is easy when you get to know the basics though and anyone with half a brain should have no major problems. By far the most time consuming part is the drawing of the screens and character animation frames. You would do well to make sure your character is 100% perfect before grabbing each frame. This will save you time later on. I should know. I've had to grab my character about three times already. The experimenting was well worth it though. Full examples on how to draw your character(s) are given and Edmund Clay (author of GRAC) has kindly included a free character for you to use as a stencil. Everything in GRAC is just so easy to use. Point and Click and voila! You want to load a new Room, click on ROOM. Add paths to walk on, points to walk to, make your character move in any position etc. It's all possible. The user panel can also be customised by yourself and can take on any shape or form. All Verb Buttons can be placed wherever you like. You have complete control (no pun) over what goes where. Music, samples and even animations can be played too :) Close Up screens are a new feature of GRAC 2 and can be used to whizz you to another room of your game to save you wandering around for hours. (at last!) I also like the new perspective command. Now your character can walk off into the distance while getting smaller as he does. It's a really great effect and is simple to do. Just type perspective in a Room's Startup Script, press HELP and click on the floor and the horizon. The coords are then added to the script :^) The same applies to most script commands. A simple press of HELP and you can point and click on most items, rooms etc. to build up your script. If you are really dedicated, you should probably have your character, first room and objects all up and running in a few hours. (not including time to draw and grab of course!) A lot of that time will be used learning how to use GRAC. I spent two solid days learning it. I still don't know it all, but after only two days, even I had my first couple of screens/locations up and running. I find the best way to learn the scripting is to load in the supplied FREE game, Lethal Formula and look at Edmund's scripts used there. There is no Print Feature in GRAC 2, so you'll either have to memorise them or jot them down on a bit of paper! :( A Print Out Script feature would have been nice. Edmund says he didn't include one because he doesn't have access to a printer to test this kind of feature! Well, why not just add a Print Script To File? Then the end user could simply print this file via their favourite text editor if need be. Is that a good idea or what Ed? One to think of for future updates maybe? Another thing that I personally don't like about GRAC is the emission of a Graphic Inventory! Instead of small thumbnails of what you are carrying, all you see is the item's name printed in the user panel window :-( I'm sure many GRAC users will feel disappointed at this. Maybe Edmund will sort this out for future updates if any are ever released! (we all hope) No AGA support either! So your screens must be drawn in pre-AGA modes. (normally 32 colours) Who needs AGA anyway? Look at Monkey Island or even Lee Bamber's excellent Relics games to see what can be achieved with pre-AGA modes! - I would personally like to point out that Lee Bamber's Relics games were NOT written with GRAC! Lee actually coded these games himself. A lot of the reviews and adverts state that Relics was written with GRAC. Lee must be pissed off at this. I know I would be if I had spent months/years coding a game just to have some stupid git saying it was written with a game editor, even if the editor in question is superb! - (Obviously this is not Ed's fault, but seeing as the Amos AGA Extension isn't completed yet, there was no point in implementing the half completed commands! - Maybe once some support is shown, the author of the AGA Extension will release an improved version. Let's hope so.) One other thing that maybe should have been included with this update is a Script Error Checking System of some kind! At present, if there are any errors in your script(s), you game will just quit! You'll just have to guess what went wrong! It's a bummer, but maybe the addition of a script error handler would make the GRAC Editor and Player too large! I suppose Edmund could include two versions of each. Productive versions for when you are working on your game, complete with error handling and of course a cut down Player with no error checking which could be used on your final distribution release :-) What GRAC V2.0 really needs is a NEW User/Tutorial disk. Not just a usual small tutorial, but a fully blown, step by step guide on how to get the most out of GRAC. It would have to explain uses for ALL commands and full examples on how to use them to their full potential too. A small manual (40 pages) just isn't enough to get you writing your own masterpiece! On the up-side, GRAC is the easiest way to write a Graphic Adventure. No real coding required and with a bit of patience, you will be churning out games in no time. Sure, nothing can actually beat coding your own game with a language, but GRAC is not just your usual Game Creator! It's one of a kind and no doubt we shall be seeing quite a lot of new graphic adventures appearing very soon - thanx to GRAC V2.0! Ratings: ~~~~~~~~ Since I've never used any previous versions, I'll rate GRAC V2.0 as a new title. Why compare it to earlier inferior versions like everyone does? Ease Of Use: 80%: A bit tricky in places, requires better tutorial! Value : 90%: Can't beat coding your own, but sure is easier :) Layout : 95%: Everything you need at the click of a button. Price :100%: Excellent value for money :-) Can't be beaten! Overall : 95%: Few points deducted duee to minor niggles :( Available from F1 Software at the usual address or via any of F1's distributors. Supplied on 2 quality branded disks. (usually TDK/Fuji) Comes complete with 40+ page A5 Printed manual and a plastic sleeve FREE game on disk 2, Lethal Formula which could be sold as a full release on its own. (This is a new updated version of the game previously seen with GRAC V1.1. Now created with GRAC V2.0 and uses some of the new features to full effect) GRAC V2.0 Prices: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New buyers : £6.99 + 50p P+P Direct from F1 or any F1 distributor. You can upgrade from V1.1 by sending back your original disks and £3.50 +50p P+P for V2 and the new manual. You can upgrade from V1 by sending back your original disks and £4.50 +50p P+P for V2 and the new manual. ******************************************************************* YOU CAN ONLY UPGRADE DIRECTLY THROUGH F1, NOT THROUGH A DISTRIBUTER ******************************************************************* I'll leave you with a list of some of the new feature (taken from F1 cat disk text file) ..... * Complete incompatibility with GRAC 1.0 and 1.1. This was unavoidable. However, it is possible to convert between them, with a suitable program. See the 'readme' file for details of obtaining this program. * Support for IFF animations. * Close-ups (also used for map screens). * Fast character scaling for realistic perspective. * Player can control any character, and switch between them. The program now `remembers' the location of all the characters, so that they will still be in a room if the player leaves and re-enters. * New verb type : QUICK - has immediate effect when the verb button is pressed, not requiring an object to be selected. * Animate characters from within text strings. * New script commands: play anim - plays animation limbo - clears everything from memory to make room for large animations flash - flash colours fade picture - fade out a picture toggle flag - switch flag from 1 to 0 or vice-versa scroll on - allow automatic scrolling scroll off - disable scrolling scroll - scroll the screen switch - switch between characters control palette - change the palette used by the panel fade control - fade the control palette close up - go to close-up exit close up - leave close-up clear flags - set all flags within a range to zero cycle - colour cycling cycle off - stop colour cycling save off - disable save game facility save on - allow save game verb off - disable a verb verb on - allow verb to be used walk off - stop the character from moving walk on - allow the character to move compare - new compare instruction, replaces all other compares pause - new form of timer pause off - cancel pause anim - alternative to amal set mark - place a mark for use with 'goto mark' goto mark - goto the stated mark perspective - activate character scaling scale - set the size of all characters in a room. static - speed up the display in rooms which contain a lot of objects position voice - allows speech in close-ups and pictures * Improved script editor. Scripts can now be any length, and are edited as in any text editor, i.e. press return to insert a new line, backspace to delete, arrow keys or mouse to move the cursor. Commands are entered in one of the following formats: command first parameter,second parameter command parameter command A flag can be entered as a parameter using the @1# symbol, e.g. compare @1#@116,1 Would replace the old instruction compare value 16 1 There are several preset variables to make it easier to enter parameters. These are: room - indicates the current room item - the selected inventory item pc - the players character entrance - the last entrance gtime - global time-time elapsed since the start of the game rtime - room time - time elapsed since the room was loaded current - background/foreground/inventory item/character associated with the script string - string associated with selected object height - height of the selected object A comment can be inserted in a script using the * character, like this: * Put the comment here. The function keys now have different uses. F2 to move to the next script, F1 to move to the previous script. HELP functions as before. DEL deletes the current line. Shift-up moves up one page, shift-down moves down one page. * 32 background objects allowed per room (rather than 16) * When selecting verbs for actions, the script numbers are printed in the requester so you can see at glance which verbs have associated scripts. * The GRACplayer now prints text in two lines instead of one. I think this looks better but some text in old games may need to be rearranged a bit. * A button to change the text colour. * Finally, a new mouse pointer (the AMOS one was getting on my nerves). All this takes memory of course; the GRACeditor is now about 40K larger, and the GRACplayer is 30K larger. When crunched on disk the increases are much less. The extra memory requirement is offset by the fact that text strings can now be stored in the room files and loaded only when needed. Therefore, you won't have to cut down a project if it is pushing the memory limits, just relocate the text. End.