ID-Tag for AGI Games!

[Sami Tervo]

Like mp3-files which happen to have ID-part, perhaps AGI Games could have also...No, I do NOT mean toying with some vol.x or dirs-code. It could be in logic.000, before anything or somewhere, where it doesn't harm game itself. Example:

display(0,0,"AGI-ID-Tag-Ver-0.001-START");

display(0,0,"Author:Jee");
display(0,0,"Email:jee@jee.jee");
display(0,0,"Homepage:http://www.jee.net");
display(0,0,"Game-ID:Jee in Wunderland, part I");

display(0,0,"Type:V2.999-GAME");
display(0,0,"Xtra:AGIMOUSE-GAME");
display(0,0,"Xtra:PALETTE-GAME");

display(0,0,"AGI-ID-Tag-Ver-0.001-END");

Player wouldn't even see the tag. So I think that this could be a useful feature for both NAGI & AGI Studio. NAGI could easily identify newer games and user wouldn't have to fix those .inis. And author could leave more information than that. Only imagination is boarder, those above are just few first ideas...I admit that this is bit too late for older games, but whaddaya think?

[Nick Sonneveld]

I was thinking an extra xml file to bundle with it.

- Nick

[Chris Cromer]

I like the XML file idea much better than putting the tag in the source. Makes it much easier to work with plus it doesn't require you to alter the game's source to add it in.

[Eero R]

I also prefer XML...

[Nick Sonneveld]

I think XML is the way to go.   I've managed to convert AGInfo to use XML and I think I might use that same code in NAGI as well.

Who knows.. you could replace the entire vol/dir structure with xml.

Easter break coming up.. lots of spare time..

- Nick

[Sami Tervo]

Hmm..XML is nice thingie and probably would be the best solution for ID-Tag..but replacing vols and dirs feels like taking part of AGI's soul or something..Aye!

[Nick Sonneveld]

Well, another cool thing about a .xml file is that you could bundle with all the current fanmade games and make NAGI's standard.ini practically redundant.

I got holidays now, so perhaps this could be something to place around with.  Might even be a good reason to release a new nagi.

Some things to consider:

1) What would you name the file?  it would have to be a standard name so all the interpreters would know what to look for.

eg:  game.xml  agi.xml  sierra.xml  description.xml

2) type of information to provide.  XML will allow pretty much any information you'd want to describe.

ie: title, box description, author, gameid (for savegames), publish date, version, comments, known bugs, system, original media format, state (finished, demo, beta, alpha), checksums for indentification, homepage, email

any i missed?

3) inheritence. well, games can and will share some information.  ie, Larry will have the same title and description for all the different versions of it (ie, across systems).  But will you want to inherit checksums as well?  Would you just be able to label nodes of data and link to them with a tag?  or just allow game nodes to be children of other game nodes.

4) interpeter features.  This would include interpreter hacks like palette and mouse stuff.  I'm not decided on how to represent these sorta thing.  Would the game information include it? or would you want to associate with a particular interpreter with these features?

5) packaging with new games. If a single game definition is in a directory with a game, it shouldn't bother about checksums.  The reason for this is so you can easily edit the game without having to regenerate checksums each time.

Some of these ideas are in NAGI's standard.ini.. but i don't like the ini format and perhaps a reworking in xml is in order.

If I write the libary code.. who wants to create a nice gui interface in windows to read this information?

- Nick

[Chris Cromer]

Also, it should have info about the interpreter version it should be emulating, such as version 2 or 3, or even more specefic versions.

If you do release another version of NAGI, hopefully it will have shakescreen support. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

[Nick Sonneveld]

yep.. still thinking about that.

and shake screen huh?

- Nick

[Chris Cromer]

Yeah, shake screen is the only noticeable missing command in NAGI... everything else in NAGI seems complete to me.

[Allen]

*wink wink, nudge nudge*

Say no more

[Sami Tervo]

1) My vote for gamename.xml and nfo.xml

2) Link to somesort of small preview-pic(s)?