Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Ali Baba++
From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (Khan)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 17:52:44 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana


[This is a re-cross-post of a pair of notes note originally posted in
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games (for reasons that will shortly become obvious). It is
being reposted here because Ali Baba was originally an Atari 8-bit game,
and thus there may be more people in this group who are familiar with
the game and interested in discussing this topic, especiall;y those who,
like me, have an Atari 8-bit AND an IBM clone. Those who've alredy seen
this post in c.s.i.p.g will want to hit 'n' now; there's nothing new
here.]


Speaking of Stuart Smith adventures...

How would you (all) feel about an MSDOS version of Ali Baba or Heracles?
How about a version which allowed multiple machines to participate in
the game? But wait, there's more! What if this hypothetical game used either
serial ports, network connections, or combinations of both, to link the
machines together? Suppose the number of machines which could play were
limited only by the number of available ports and/or the number of available
playable characters? NOW how much would you pay? Is this beginning to
sound like a Ginsu ad? ;-)

No, an exact clone of Ali Baba/Heracles is not politically correct, but
a new game, inspired by AB/RoH, and incorporating the above features
(and more), would certainly be doable from a legal standpoint. But would
it be worthwhile (i.e. would there be a market for it)? Would anyone
want to play it? Would anyone want to BUY it? Could the concept be sold
to a commercial sofware producer, a modern day Quality Software?

This whole concept arises from the question "what do I do now that I've
rescued the Princess unaided without attacking a single living thing and
gotten the congratulatory message from Stuart Smith?"

The main reason for the multimachine capability is so that people separated
by some distance can still play "together," whether that distance be across 
the office on a Novell LAN (SHHH!! Don't tell the boss! ;-) or across the
country via Compu$erve's MTM Gaming facility (for example) or even around the
world via the Internet. Or perhaps a multiline BBS could connect two callers
together for a game. The flexibility of allowing multiple machines via 
multiple connection media would be a first in IBM PC gaming history, as far 
as I know. Some of Dan Bunten's games promise to allow connection via modem 
or network, but at present they only do modem (as evidenced by the recent 
Global Conquest, which I purchased for a friend; it needs some sort of driver 
before it will connect via a network, and the driver isn't available yet 
according to the docs). Of course, you could also simply play on one machine 
and pass around the joystick(s), just like the old days. ;-)

As for the game itself, I'd be interested to know how folks think an Ali Baba
type game could be expanded to become more enjoyable, given the above sort of
connectivity capability. What sorts of things would you add? Suppose you
could find magic potions which, if swallowed, can increase your strength or
make you run faster or heal your wounds (or maybe poison you!) How about the
option to play either cooperatively OR competitvely? Perhaps the game would
randomly select a task to be accomplished by each group, and the first group
to complete their task would win? Perhaps the tasks would be interrelated
such that when one team advances the other is retarded, sort of like a tug
of war? Or each team could purposely set up obstacles which would hinder
the progress of the other team?

I'm interested in a sort of brainstorming session, to see what sorts of 
interesting things people come up with. Who knows, I might even be 
inspired and implement the sucker. ;-)

So, let's hear it from all you Ali Baba/Heracles/Stuart Smith fans out there!