Hi Dark, Yes, most of the Draconis gtitles were written by James North when the company was still ESP. Specifically, Monkey Business, ESP Pinball Classic, DynaMan, ESP Whoopass, and Aliens in the Outback. James started ESP Pinball Extreme too, but Josh finished and released that game himself when they became Adora Entertainment. Ten Pin Alley and Soundoku were Josh's original creations. So comparatively speaking Draconis and Adora haven't produced as much as they did when the company was ESP with James north developing the games. However, I know Josh is working on a new cross-platform engine for Mac/Windows so here is hoping for more games in the future. As far as the old PCS titles goes I seam to recall having to use Jaws for Dos and a hardware synth to play them. I haven't honestly tried one under Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7. Although, given the design I doubt they would work. They were based on a totally different generation of hardware and for Dos, and dependencies would be different. Phil could tell you more about how they work on a modern operating system. As for your views about Jim's games I had the very same attitude when coming to this community in 99. I had been sighted for several years so I had litterally played everything I could get my hands on from the clasic Pong for Atari all the way up to the latest and greatest games like Doom, Quake, Tomb Raider, Jedi Knight, Mech Warrior, Soldier of Fortune, whatever. So I came to the audio games community with some really high expectations assuming that blind gamers wanted to play the same kinds of bleeding edge games I liked playing, and believe me when I found out all there were is board and card type games I was disappointed. My expectations were so high that I considered what people like what Kitchens Inc and PCS Games were doing as drastically infurior to what was available for the mainstream gamer at the time. It wasn't so much I didn't like the games, but thought they were old hat and behind the times so to speak. I guess to put it bluntly for me going from the latest and greatest 3d FPS titles of the era to text adventures, card and board games, etc was a major down grade. It wasn't until GMA released Shades of Doom in 2001 that I really began to take more notice of the audio games community in general. I realized that it was possible to create games that I liked in an accessible type format, and that somebody out there did share my interests in games after all. David Greenwood really has been a leader in accessible games for the fact he introduced the first World War II submarine simulation, the first tank simulation, and a remarkably good version of Doom for the accessible games community. Now, he has Time of Conflict. All have been revolutionary in there own way as they broke the mode of the card, board, and Atari shoot-mups that seam to be the majority of accessible games. Game's like those GMA have produced were realy were what I was after in 99, and I'm glad to see others are beginning to take up the cause now too. Phil put out Sarah, as you know, and there is Teraformers, etc. So it is coming, but slowly. However, like you I have had to go through a major shift in thinking to take each and every game on its own maret, and each and every developer as well. In 99 I thought text only interactive fiction games were beneath me, but once I began exploring them I found out I loved them. Admitedly I'm not a big fan of card and board games, but I've still had plenty of hours of fun playing Jim Kitchen's games once I finally started playing them. All things being equal I still miss the big FPS type games of the 90's I was playing, but I've managed to give credit where it is do, and try not to compare every single accessible game to big comercial budget games that they were never intended to compete with in the first place. Plus no one here, including me, can run a race against mainstream companies. We neither have the time or the money to create really huge mainstream titles, and once I accepted that fact it became easier to be happier with what we do have,a dn hope to make bigger and better games in the future.
Smile. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
