Mark Eaton

Some 25 years ago I loved playing text adventure games. There was something about them that got lost as the years went by.

For me it was the ability to actually stop and think about what I wanted to do. It wasn't a matter of just pressing buttons on a console, but I had to consider how to solve problems intelligently.

I enjoyed them so much that I started writing my own text adventure games on an Amstrad CPC464 using Basic and later my dad followed suit with some great games of his own.

A couple of years ago dad showed me some websites that proved people are still playing these games, which surprised me being in the age of 3D graphics.

I don't spend much recreational time on a computer these days, I'd rather use a smartphone or a tablet due to their convenience.

And that got me thinking.

I searched the Android market and I struggled to find even a handful of text adventure games. So, like some 25 years ago, I wrote one for Android: Moonbase 3.

My dad originally wrote this for the Amstrad CPC6128 back in 1991 and he sold a number in England at that time.

Hopefully now that it is on Android you might want to give it a try yourself.

There's a demo version which is about 20% of the full game but has all the features like:

Different font sizes
Text to speech so that the game can read the text aloud
Speech input to issue your commands
Gestures. You can use an arrowhead to indicate north or south, and swipe to indicate east or west
And, of course, classing text input
It's link is: https://market.android.com/details?id=Moonbase3.demo

If you enjoy that try the full version: https://market.android.com/details?id=Moonbase3.Complete

Based on how these games go I'll consider creating more of these old classics.

Let me know what you think.

JAy3001

Looks quite good. I shall give this retro number a go later.

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Mark Eaton

Thanks JAy3001 for the comments and thanks. :-)

Hope you enjoy playing the game, and if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know.

JAy3001

Not a problem Mark. I played and completed the demo last night and thought it quite fun considering its age. Certainly did not have much in the way of issues, although I could not get the gesture to go North while infront of your space craft to work or South once you where actually outside your space craft. Not sure if I was just being a plum or not.

The only thing I would suggest is that you turn off predictive text before playing, otherwise you end up with a load of junk words in your dictionary if you start using shortcut words.

Mark Eaton

Thanks for letting me know about that predictive text issue, I understand how that can quickly be annoying. :-)

I will address that in the next update, along with implementing an autosave feature.

JAy3001

Could not resist, so I purchased the full version.

Would I be right in thinking that gesture movement is not working for North or South directions Mark, as I had the same issues in the crater area?

Are you sure about an autosave function Mark, these games drove you nuts if you died as you had to start over. Just having a manual save function is fine imo.

Mark Eaton

Glad you bought the game :-)

Another person who bought the game said he would like an autosave feature so I was going to implement it for him.

You will still be able to manual save and load like you can now, there will be no difference there. However if you quit the game it will automatically save a filename "autosave" and when you open up the app it will automatically load "autosave".

What do you think?

In connection with gestures this is going to be difficult to diagnose. Originally I wanted to use arrow heads for north, south, east and west. However Google Gestures isn't perfect yet and a compass point will sometimes be confused for an adjacent one.

E.g north could be confused for east or west, but never south.

I tested the current implementation on an Android emulator, Samsung Galaxy II and a HTC Sensation. I can get a 100% success rate with these.

I don't think your phone will be an issue though. Have you had a look at my promo video as to how I do the gestures, just in case you might be doing it differently?

https://market.android.com/details?id=Moonbase3.demo

It's a pity I can't see you do the gestures, would make life a lot easier.


I will try and get a few other people I know to try gestures as well to see if they can replicate the issue.

Sorry I can't be any more helpful at this stage.


Kind regards

Mark Eaton

JAy3001

Hello Mark, after some play time last night I realised you can do more with gestures than just left and right and that you can curve them. So I think that has solved my issues.

Ah, I like that sort of Saving. However in-game autosaving would be a nightmare as you can end up in dead ends with noway back and if the game saves there you are stuck!

Regarding gestures, why not while the game is being playing horizontally implement touch sensitive navigation buttons on the right of the screen? Might be handy as once my keyboard is open in Hoz mode it takes the entire screen up and you have to shut it after each move to see where you are. Just a thought.

On a side note, it might be a nice option if once you have played the demo and paid for the full version you were able to use the Demos save file?

Thanks for the game Mark, I noticed the Lighthouse Mystery popup. Any plans as yet?

Mark Eaton

Hi Jay3001

I'm glad you've got the gestures worked out.

As regards to the horizontal issue this may be because you have predictive text turned on which covers more of the screen. In the next update I will disable that so hopefully that will give you a bit more room.

I did some testing on my Samsung Galaxy II and I had enough room to gesture as the keyboard only took up half the landscape view.

However after the update if it isn't working well please let me know.

Nice suggestion too regarding the demo and full version to share the same saved game. I had thought of it, but I decided against it as once you know how to complete the demo it won't take too long to replicate the steps in the full version. Plus I would need a central repository to save the game files, like the SD card.

Currently my app only asks for the SD card permission so that users can move the app there instead of on the phone if they wish.

If more uses find this to be an issue then I could implement it.

Yes, my dad had a sense of humour regarding these games :-) He created a few some 20 years ago so I am looking at porting them over.

I'm sure Lighthouse Mystery will be one of them :-)

JAy3001

Thanks for the reply Mark.

You have a more upto date phone than me with a bigger screen so I guess thats why yours only takes up half the screen. Either that or its the fact my phone will only update to droid 2.2 and yours should be 2.3 or maybe even ICS which might have made the keyboard smaller.

I'll keep my eye out for them Mark.

Right now I feel like kicking that bloody door in at the top of the caverns!! Bloody thing. lol

Mark Eaton

Just had a thought. HTC phones use their own unique keyboard by default and not the standard Android keyboard(although personally I like the GO keyboard).

Are you able to give me both a portrait and landscape screenshots of the game on your phone? This will help me hope you: -)

JAy3001

Sure can Mark, hope this helps.

As you can see, in landscape the entire screen is the keyboard!

Oh, take no notice of the file names. I'm at work and they are the last file names used. lol

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Last edited by JAy3001; January 21st, 2012 at 06:35 PM.

Mark Eaton

Thanks I can see what's happened. In landscape the edit box has blown up to fit the screen. Apparently this happens with a lot of apps. The next update in 2 days will fix this. This should let you use gestures. : -)

JAy3001

Sounds great Mark, I'll keep an eye out for the update.

Mark Eaton

Hi JAy3001

I have just released the update. If there are any issues please let me know. I'm hoping it will address that landscape problem you were facing :-)

JAy3001

Thanks Mark. Just updated the game and it works lovely. Even works well on my Prime. :-D

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Mark Eaton

I'm so glad it worked for you, that was a tricky one. Thanks for the rating too : -)