  
 
|
Specification
If in doubt, download Les
Misérables to see if it works on
your computer.
Download sizes:
Individual games: around 200 MB
All games combined: around 450 MB
Games then expand to around twice that size
after installation.
Hardware:
50 free RAM (i.e. not including your
operating system): 100MB recommended.
1.2 GHz CPU (1.6 GHz recommended)
(the game was
made on a low range 1.6 GHz XP machine, using
75% CPU)
(Vista needs 1.7
GHz minimum)
150 MB free hard disk space for each story (on
average).
(i.e. for a package of four
stories, allow 600 MB)
16 bit color or higher.
No special graphics card is needed. |
Got Windows?
The game was made on XP, has been tested on
Vista, and should work on everything from 98 up.
Any problems?
If it doesn't run perfectly first time, see the
help page for what to do.
If the game runs slowly, try Slow Computer Mode.
Press Ctrl and S during a game,
and this will disable scrolling, fading, and
other non-essential features.
Slow Computer Mode also has larger text. If you
want larger text on its own, press Ctrl
and V for Very large text mode. To
speed up or slow down the text, use the up and
down arrows.  |
Got Linux?
The game has only been seriously tested in
Windows, so there are no guarantees for other
platforms. However, a Linux runtime does
exist, so why not give it a try?
Option 1:
the new Linux runtime
http://www.t-vandepoele.be/AGS/files/testbuilds/AGS312.tar.gz
Enter The Story uses AGS 3.1.2. These notes
are about getting any AGS 3.1.2 game to run on
Linux. If you see references to other versions
(e.g. 2.72) ignore them - 3.2.1 is where it's
at! The Linux runtime is an extra program to
enable Enter The Story (and other AGS games)
to run in Linux. You still need to download
whatever Enter the Story games you want.
Full
details.
From the thread:
"Be sure to open a terminal window. And
where the file install.sh is located type in:
sudo ./install.sh and it should take care of
everything you need."
Option 2:
run it in WINE
A Linux user wrote:
"I decided to try playing the game using
WINE. Turns out that it runs
beautifully that way. (Must be that one of
the WINE developers loves adventure games.
:) ) For reference, the version of WINE that
I used was 1.1.1 running on Debian Linux 5.0
(also known as "Lenny")."
Other emulators may also work - try
the free demo and see.
Option 4:
Sun's Virtual Box (if your box is very fast)
One Linux user tried the game in Sun's Virtual
Box, running XP on Ubuntu. The game played,
but too slowly to be useful: the music was
choppy and the mouse was intermittent. Which
indicates that on a more powerful machine it
might work properly. The game was designed on
a 1.6 GHz Windows XP machine, and normally
uses 70 percent of CPU. So your Virtual Box
needs to emulate at that speed or faster (i.e.
your computer must be a lot faster to allow
for emulation overhead). If you try it please
let me know your results and I'll update
this page. Thanks!
|
Got a Mac? (or
other platform)
Why no native Mac / other
version?
This game is a labor of love. I'm making it
because I want to see games like this, and
not because there's any demand for it. So my
budget is not large. Cross platform
development tools cost a lot of money, and
Windows still has most of the market, so I
had to make some hard choices. But I've made
sure that the game doesn't use DirectX,
DLLs, etc., so it has a fighting chance of
working through emulators etc. This advice
is for the Mac, but you can adapt it for
other platforms.:
To run the game on a Mac, you have three
choices:
1. run a Windows emulator such as Crossover,
or
2. dual boot your Mac to also run Windows,
or
3. (cheaper) dual boot your Mac to also run
Linux
I don't yet have a Mac, so I got most of
this from the AGS
site.
Using "crossover"
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=39890.0
"I have a mac and i can run AGS! It's
through some horrible 'crossover games'
program but 2.72 works okay (and most
games)." (Note: Enter The Story uses AGS
2.72)
Running WINE on the Mac
A Linux user wrote:
"I decided to try playing the game using
WINE. Turns out that it runs
beautifully that way. (Must be that one of
the WINE developers loves adventure games.
:) ) For reference, the version of WINE
that I used was 1.1.1 running on Debian
Linux 5.0 (also known as "Lenny").
"For your Mac users I have found a page
on WINE's site that links to
conveniently packaged pre-built
binaries.
[
http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX/Installing
]
All they need to do is download and
"unpack" the software."
I don't know if anyone has tried running the
game on a Mac in this way. Other AGS users
have said their games don't work this way,
but their games may not be the same. AGS 3.0
uses a Windows-specific graphics system, and
many AGS games use Windows specific
plug-ins. 'Enter The Story' uses AGS 2.72
and no plug-ins, so it might work. If anyone
manages to get 'Enter The Story' to work on
a Mac using WINE, please
let me know!
Dual booting to Linux
http://www1.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=33880.0
"Try running Linux on your mac; most AGS
games run under Linux."
The game should run in Linux (see above),
and Linux disks are practically free, so why
not dual boot your Mac? Maybe it's a bit of
hassle for just one game, but it's cool to
have a dual booting machine for other
reasons: Linux has tons of free software, it
means having two computers for the price of
one, and you can impress your friends! And
keep your private stuff secret, since none
of your friends will know how Linux works.
Most Linux disks will create a dual boot
system automatically. You just download a
Debian Linux 'ISO' file (a CD worth of files
in one lump) then open your CD software
(Nero or whatever) and make a CD. Then pop
the Linux CD into your Mac and click "yes"
and "OK" a few times.
If you've never made a dual boot system
before, take care. The Linux CD will need to
change the boot sector (the part of your
hard disk that starts up your computer) and
make new partitions on your hard disk. The
Linux CD software does it all for you, but
these are still major changes.
Nothing is ever quite as simple as it
sounds, so don't say I didn't warn you.
Dual Booting to Windows
This is like dual booting to Linux, except
Windows costs money. But it's easier to run
the game in Windows. Here's what other AGS
users say:
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=28584.0
"I run Bootcamp on my mac which is a
fancy name for dualbooting. As far as I
know, it's freely available if one has Mac
10.4 or lower and it comes with "Leopard"
[but you need to buy a copy of Windows as
well]"
Running Windows in a virtual box
A common solution is to run software that
lets Windows run as a Mac program.
Some software pretends to be Windows, other
software lets you install Windows on top, so
you have to pay for Windows as well. Some
programs are better than others:
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=35488.0
"I'm on Mac OS 10.5 and VMWare 1.1.2.
...as long as it's not fullscreen, I
usually can play AGS games"
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=31958.0
"I'm running AGS on a Mac, G4 PowerPC to
be precise, emulating Windows 2000
with VirtualPC. ...[changing
location] moves incredibly slowly"
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=15855.0
"I have been playing some games on my
mac created by AGS through virtual
desktop. Although it runs
rather slow and the music doesn't work."
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=34614.0
"For Mac OS 9 or an older operating
system, [buy] Virtual PC 5. For Mac OSX
10.3.9 or older OSX versions, [buy]
"Virtual PC 6". For the OSX 10.4.1 Or
Later [buy] "Virtual PC 7" [or later]."
http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=28584.0
"I have a MacBook (Intel based) I can
run Windows inside Parallels (it's like
VMWare). But a port of the engine
it's surely better, because virtualization
(and emulation) needs a lot of
resources, and so the game doesn't run
well at all. Plus, Parallels, it's not
free, and Windows it's not free too."
I don't have a Mac (yet), so if you have any
questions please visit the links above.
Good luck!
|
Got a mobile (Android etc.)?
How to play the game on an
Android phone or similar
The easy way to play the game on a phone is
to have it the game installed on your home
computer, and launch it and play it via your
mobile from anywhere in the world. Just use
PhoneMyPC.
The PhoneMyPC
web site will tell you how to run any
program over your phone. There are other
ways to do it as well, for example, Windows
"Remote Desktop" (often used by helpdesk
people to fix computers over the phone), or
VNC (where you run a server
on your PC then log
into it on your phone). But so far
I've only seen PhoneMyPC being used with
Enter The Story. And it as used by an
ordinary person, not a computer expert, so I
feel safe recommending it.
So now you can play Enter The Story while
waiting in a queue or standing in a crowded
train!
If you have low bandwidth, run the game in
Slow Computer Mode (press Ctrl and S
at the same time when the game is running).
This disables fading and scrolling, and
makes the text bigger.
Please note that playing older versions of
the game over a phone can be very
frustrating if you don't have a super fast
connection and giant phone screen. But
future versions of the game (mid 2010
onwards) will have a "super low bandwidth"
option that makes this much easier.
If you play Enter The Story this way, please leave a message
on the blog and suggest ways to
improve the game when in mobile mode.
How to play the game on your
Palm Pre or similar
You
can
now get software to run Linux on the Palm
Pre, so in theory it should run Enter
the Story that way!
Why not produce dedicated
versions for mobile phones?
Coding takes me a long time. I'd rather
spend that time on stories. Also, mobile
platforms are constantly changing, and I'm
planning for the long term:
A glimpse into the future...
Enter The Story is a thirty year project. So
it's designed for hardware that doesn't
exist yet. (Though obviously you can play it
now using Windows or some other systems.)
All the stories are based on books, and the
menu, opening sequence, menus, maps, amount
of reading, etc., is all based on the idea
of a book. So eventually it will be used as
a book. That's why the screen resolution is
relatively low (640 x 480) because
eventually it will be mostly played on small
screens.
What operating system will be used in twenty
or thirty years' time? Who knows? Mobile
operating systems are changing all the time.
But we can be fairly sure of some things:
1. They will be more powerful than today's
mobile devices.
2. More people will use them.
3. Plenty of Windows programs will still be
used.
4. Windows will not be able to dictate terms
- it will have to cooperate.
Put them all together, and I think it will
be common for mobile devices to emulate
Windows, so they can run "old" Windows
programs if they want to. Including Enter
The Story. My vision is of most people
playing the game on their mobile, just like
opening a book.
It may even be that cloud computing and home
servers are normal by then, so everyone will
work remotely. So when you play the game on
a mobile (by linking to your home computer)
you're seeing a glimpse of the future!
|
|
