Compatability

John Hughes I found this site and my mouth started watering. These are just the kind of games I want to make - and the programming language looks basic enough to grasp in a week.

-----------BUT-----------
I have a Mac, and nothing but a Mac. Is SCI studio Mac compatable, and is there any prospect of it being ported soon? I have seen many other great engines (AGS,etc..) but none of them are Mac compatable. The MAD engine (http://mad-project.sourceforge.net/index.shtml) is going to port to Mac apparently, but how soon? I am desperate for a Mac adventure game engine!!!!!!!
Brian_Provinciano Well, you could use Virtual PC for running Win apps, including SCI Studio. I have infact done this before.

Second, the compiler is written in portable, ANSI C, and can be compiled on any platform. I don't have a Mac binary, but have compiled it for the Mac in the past.

Unfortunately though, I have no plans on porting it to the Mac, since there really aren't enough potential users to justify the work. Others are welcome though.
John Hughes I know plenty of people who would give anything for a Mac adventure game scripter. ??? Everyone thinks that there are only 3 Mac users per country ::)
I would be willing to port it IF:
I know what software I would need and how to use it
and
there was a site/correspondent to tutor me through the entire process as I have little to no idea of how it is done, but only wish I did.
How long it takes is not an issue, as I would gladly put as much of my time as possible towards it.
(I mean that - I get up at 5 each day so I can code games before school.)

BTW Right now I use SilverCreator (www.silvernetwork.net/silvercreator) it is a good developement program (made by a 15/16 year old genius), but is far from ideal for LucasArt style games.
John Hughes Come on, someone here must know! :)
creichen John,

John Hughes wrote:

Come on, someone here must know! :)


such a port is a delicate process, particularly because (as I understand it) the existing code base (for the various editors, not for the compiler) is deeply rooted in some proprietary API which simply doesn't exist on non-Win32 systems. As such, porting the program will almost certainly not be a simple process like searching and replacing certain strings, but involve understanding someone else's source code, understanding the meaning, intent, and interrelationships of the semantics underlying it, mapping those to whichever new API you are using, and re-implementing the code in question (possibly re-using some existing parts). Depending on which APIs are involved, the process _may_ be simpler in some cases, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case.

If you really want to go through with it, your best bet would be to use a well-documented cross-platform API such as one of those listed at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/7184/guitool.html.

I would _STRONGLY_ recommend you to try porting one tool at a time, starting with the easiest one(s).

I do not know any of these toolkits, have never touched Win32 programming and have no relevant experience with programming windowing systems, so I don't feel that I could do the "tutoring" part here.

-- Christoph
John Hughes :) Thank you very much - you've been a great help.
I'll give it a go... :-