From: cat@bga.com (Dr. Cat)
Subject: ONLINE: DragonSpires client source available
Date: 7 Dec 1995 06:03:10 GMT
Message-ID: <4a602u$398@giga.bga.com>
Organization: Real/Time Communications - Bob Gustwick and Associates


From: cat@bga.com (Dr. Cat)

For those who haven't heard of DragonSpires before, it's a graphic MUD 
created by some of the people who worked on the Ultima series of computer 
fantasy roleplaying games.  Our prototype has been on the net for over a 
year now, has been written up in Wired and Axcess magazines, and tried 
out by thousands of people from all over the world.

This announcement is to let everyone know that the source code for the
current client program has been released to the public.  Permission is
granted for any form of non-commercial use - see the enclosed readme
file for more information.  The file is in
ftp://ftp.eden.com/pub/dspire and the filename is source15.zip.

I am going to resume full-time work on the project within two to three
months, and am hoping that perhaps by then someone will have ported
the code to Windows to give me a head start.  If people make versions
for other platforms like Macintosh, Xwindows, Amiga etc. that'd be
nice too.  If someone provides Windows code that I decide to use as
the basis for future versions of the client, I'll pay for the rights
to it.  Especially if it supports Windows 95, Direct Draw, and Direct
Sound.

I am considering the possibility now of putting out source for all future 
versions of the client software as well, and developing the client as an 
open architecture system, keeping only the server propietary.  Open 
architecture worked wonders for the web, after all!  But I haven't made a 
decision yet, we'll see how things go.

I'd like to keep as much of the questions and discussion on this in 
rec.games.mud.misc and rec.games.programmer, to keep my mailbox from 
getting flooded and unmanageable.

Currently 'Manda is back to working full time on DragonSpires again, and 
she's cooking up a new world setting, new web pages, new artwork, and 
even a new name.  There'll be announcements when she tells me it's time.
I'm just finishing up the last of the Sega Saturn programming I've been 
doing to pay the bills, and now I just need to finish the Sony Playstation
version of the game before I'm back on board.

I have two other programs I've been meaning to give away that I may 
release in the near future.  One of them is Awesome Man, a half-finished
puzzle/action game for the PC by Jeff Dee and myself.  Maybe someone out 
there might finish it and split the profits with us.  But even if nobody 
does, some beginning game programmers can surely pick up a trick or two 
from it.  The other thing is a real-time text compression/decompression 
filter I wrote a while back.  I think there are some valuable commercial 
applications for the code, but I'm too busy to try to track down the 
right company or the right person to exploit it, and I'd rather see it 
out there being used than sitting around not doing any good for anyone.


   Dr. Cat / Dragon's Eye Productions     **  Come play DragonSpires!
********************************************  ftp.eden.com pub/dspire
   Dragonspires is a graphic mud for PCs. **  has everything you need!
   ** http://www.realtime.net/~gauntlet/dspire.html for more info **