Where are the 'Construction Set' Games? 567
"I know that most PC games today have editors where a player can create their own levels and share them but users still need the original software. Even worse, consoles, which have the larger market, don't have enough storage (except maybe for the XBox) and aren't open enough to encourage players to create their own games and share them."
C :I think I see mbishop's point. Legos are still alive and well, but I don't see as much evidence on these types of toys in today's TV commercials. It seems those commercials are more interested in pushing the latest licensed crap instead of pushing toys designed to stimulate your child's own imagination. Of course, a simple Google search may yield a result or two, but that still doesn't answer the real question. Computer-based sets, would be a nice alternative, but nothing beats the real thing where children can use their own hands to create something they can show their paernts. Where have all of the Heathkit's, the chemical experiment toys and the other types of "builder" sets gone, and are they due for a revival, soon?
Robocode is pretty cool (Score:1, Informative)
Hey Remember core wars anyone?
Did somebody say Lego? (Score:3, Informative)
It was a real joy to see I could build with all the lego pieces my mother always threw away when I was a child because they weren't recognizable as legos.
Stagecast Creator (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.stagecast.com/
Neverwinter Nights (Score:4, Informative)
Contains an 3-D RPG Engine with toolset to create your own campaigns. Supports it's own C/C++ like scripting language, and includes a good integrated environment for developing maps, Non-Player Characters, and source code changed.
So go get creative...
They Exist... (Score:3, Informative)
I see your problem though. Those sorts of activities are very much confined to the geek. Level design and game mods take quite a bit of computer expertise, and I get the feeling you were thinking along different lines. Games like The Incredible Machine come to mind. I'd be hard pressed to give you references, but one "Construction Set" games comes to mind. If you're interested in the game of pinball, I recommend Visual Pinball [randydavis.com]. It's a complete pinball game construction program, and it works beautifully. Much to the dismay of most of the Slashdot crowd, though, it's main drive is VBScript. Very fun and easy to use, however. The programming is basic enough that I think a beginner could learn to use it very easily.
Other than that, there's lots of software out there for music creation and whatnot. It may not be presented in game form, but if you have an itch to do it, I'm sure those would serve just as well!
Have a look at Zome (Score:1, Informative)
RPG Maker 2000 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:RCS (Score:2, Informative)
IBM has this for you.. (Score:4, Informative)
ROBO CODE [robocode.net]
You can learn java, and you can beat the crap out of some IBM engineer at the same time! What more do you need?!
vast conspiracy? (Score:3, Informative)
The best thing I could think of was Hypercard for the Macintosh, it allowed games like The Manhole [useit.com] to be created with very little programming. Sure, it needed a significant amount of computer knowledge to create something enteretaining, but it was nothing like programming a game like Quake III in C.
My all-time favorite game construction kit was the Pinball Construction Kit [mobygames.com]. It came out in 1985, and it allowed for the creation of personalized pinball tables inside the game. The only problem is that the game required to play any pinball table you design.
Try searching google for game creation kit [google.com]. It came up with a ton of results, and this one [madmonkey.net] looks promising.
Your can still play/author adventure games (Score:2, Informative)
You can still find and play the old adventure games; there even seem to be ports to the Palm. By the same token, you can still write your own versions. See Inform [inform-fiction.org].
Re:Music Construction Software (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, it's a weeee bit more complex than the old MCS was, but we're not in the world of the Commodore 64 anymore.
You can do some pretty darned cool stuff with good tracking software and samples.
RCT & Other Tycoon games (Score:4, Informative)
Then there's Sid Meyer's SimGolf. You can build a (non-mini) golf course, and watch the Sims play on it, but you can also play the course with your in-game avatar golf-pro. Others can save their courses and there's a big course repository including real world courses at the official site, much less other non-official ones. The golf game is not like links, but it can be somewhat challenging and makes this an interesting mix of sim and sport.
Of course, prior to SimGolf there was the Sims. Build a family and a home, and then play with them. While currently you can't easily transfer families to other people, the online version due out soon is expected to be a huge seller, allowing people to pit their constructed families against others.
Another example, outside of PC gaming, is the PS2 game Frequency. It's similar in nature to DDR, save that you only use the shoulder or right pad buttons to hit notes as they pass, but one of the features is a remix mode, where you can take any of the ingame tech/industrial/electronica songs and play around with their arrangements to some extent. Once you've created a new remix, you can save it, and by swapping cards, allow another player to attempt your new track. The same can be said for many of the eXtreme sports games (THPS3, etc) that allow you to create a skate-type park that you can save and let others play on.
My favorites: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sigh.... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:vast conspiracy? (Score:5, Informative)
They're unplayable now -- ignoring the CGA graphics, it was one of those old games that didn't properly handle increased clock rates. Run it on a 386 and you lost the ball instantly because it was running too fast.
There's a modern version available now... Visual Pinball [randydavis.com], which seems pretty good. Much more complicated, of course, but we're comparing CGA and 4.77 MHz to SVGA and 400 MHz.
Re:Plastic Bubbles (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Chemical Experiment Toys (Score:4, Informative)
I went to castle Neuschwanstein outside of Munich last winter. The best vantage point is a bridge high above the castle, and getting there required walking up a very icy path. People were slipping and sliding all over the place, and all that I or the other Americans that were with me could think of was "man, not in America. Somebody would sue."
The cost of litigation is such a terrible example of a rotten apple spoiling the bunch. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for legitimate damages when a party has caused harm, but I really think we need to try to get back to some degree of personal responsibility...
Re:Robocode is pretty cool (Score:3, Informative)
A more interesting game, IMHO was SSI's Omega [google.ca].. you build the tanks in addition to simply programming them; (so there are trade-offs, where different weapons fire at different speeds, and do different damages.)
There's also much more depth, because the tanks have to find each other, instead of being placed in a simple 'arena'..
I am impressed with some of the new stuff... (Score:2, Informative)
I am also impressed with Rokenbok. This doesn't include programming and such, but it does combine technologies and push the limit of what is possible in children's minds...
Great toys are the ones that make children comfortable with the emerging technologies. The construction toys that we played with in our younger days are old news. Toys are not nearly as cool when your parents are better at using them than you are.. My favorite memories as a child was building a computer program, and having adults be totally astonded by what I made. Because Adults are more comfortable with current technology, toys are going to have to go somewhere where adults are not comfortable.
Computers really did not come of age until a generation of kids had been able to play with them. I think robotics and the like may come to age after this generation of kids play with Mindstorms and Rokenbok and the like.. I see games like Robowars becoming the new playground for the nerdy kids, and They will be doing things with Embedded software and robotics that blow the adult generation's mind
dark basic (Score:4, Informative)
The great thing about DarkBasic is that it acts as a very good introduction to both programming and 3D programming (which can be a nightmare if starting with something like DirectX).
Re:Chemical Experiment Toys (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Bill Budge's Pinball Construction Set (Score:5, Informative)
One of the more interesting projects done with VP is to recreate arcade pinball machines; you can even hook up a special embedded version of MAME to emulate the LED display.
Racing Destruction Set (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Pinball Construction Set! (Score:3, Informative)
The main difference is you have to learn some basic Visual Basic Scripting.
Re:Bill Budge's Pinball Construction Set (Score:4, Informative)
Have you played Visual Pinball? It is a modern equivalent of Pinball Construction Set, with a 3-D table appearance, supporting ramps and multiple levels and such. It uses VBS (gasp) as the scripting language... the first non-viral use of VBS that I've ever seen!
Unfortunately there is no way to make a standalone player yet. It is a free program (closed source), but it runs only on Windows, and the author has plans to take it commercial someday so get it while you can.
http://www.randydavis.com/vp/ [randydavis.com]
http://www.vpforums.com/ [vpforums.com]
I loved Pinball Construction Set, and made several Apple ][ disks full of games. Bill Budge recently did a very wonderful thing: he declared all of his past Apple ][ games to be in the public domain! A great thing, and I wish more authors of classic software would do the same.