Is a new fanmade game possible?

[Sance]

Hi everyone!

I've just registered to the forums after some years of following the PoP community and I'm very curious about something: now that the source code for the original Apple II version is released is creating a new engine / updating the existing one is possible? I'm having the usual stuff in mind: native Windows support, HD and widescreen resolutions with high res graphics, 60 fps etc. Basically it would be an update to the original while keeping the necessary elements like the original moveset, traps etc. intact.

I'd like to know this because I was always interested in who or what that freakin' Old Witch was at end of the second game. In april Jordan Mechner posted an entry of his blog about Shadow and the Flame:
http://jordanmechner.com/blog/2013/04/p ... and-flame/

He posted the original design "bible" he wrote for PoP2 back in the day and also answered the question fans were aching to get an answer for since 1993:

A: Ah, the Old Witch. In the final shot, after the prince and princess have defeated Jaffar and are flying off on a magic horse to live happily ever after, we pull back to reveal they’re being watched in a crystal ball by a sinister old hag. Tattooed on her forehead is a serpent-S symbol. Observant players may recognize that symbol from earlier in the game, as graffiti scrawled on the walls of the ruined city, presumably by the marauding army that sacked it.
That’s the peril of cliffhanger endings: I wrote PoP2 thinking there was going to be a PoP3… but then there wasn’t. (PoP3D doesn’t count.) In that never-written third game, the Old Witch would have been the primary antagonist. She’s the arch-villainess who gave Jaffar his powers, the one behind the slaughter of the prince’s parents and sacking of his home city, and whom he is destined to vanquish one day. The serpent-S is the symbol of the evil god she serves. (Apologies to Tolkien, Wagner, Lucas, etc. It was the nineties.)

Now that we know the answer and have access to original design documents for PoP1 and more importantly PoP2 I think there is a good chance for the fans and modders to create a fanmade sequel: a 2D, faithful to the original retro platformer that continues the story from The Shadow and the Flame with new graphics, some new mechanics and a few more hours of hardcore gameplay. As for myself I know absolutely nothing about programming but I've been a fan of PoP for the longest time and with the guidance of the original ideas I'm confident I could write a great story for a "PoP3" but that's worth nothing without an actual game.

[Norbert]

[...] is released is creating a new engine / updating the existing one is possible?

All you write is possible, but it would be lots and lots of work.
Putting together the story would only be a small fraction of the job.

[Sance]

Well yeah, it's not really even realistic to talk about it but I'm a bit disappointed: when the source code was released I thought I can throw away DOSBox and play some awesome source port that runs the DOS and Mac versions on Windows (and I'd kill for the Mac versions on Windows ). Guess that's a bit too hard even with the source code? Is someone working on a source port to save our souls or we'll be damned forever with crappy DOSBox and even crappier Basilisk? It's a shame that when I want to play Quake for example the question is "oh, which source port should I choose?" but when it comes to PoP it's "suffer on DOSBox or Basilisk?"

[Norbert]

Guess that's a bit too hard even with the source code?

The problem is that the source code is 6502 assembly, which is truly ancient; it was introduced in 1975.
Also, assembly is a low-level programming language; most programmers have only basic knowledge of it - or none at all.
David ported the room drawing code from assembly to C, and there have been various attempts to create a modern port from scratch (most notably FreePrince).
But, since it's so much work and emulators are pretty solid, don't hold your breath...

[Sance]

Guess that's a bit too hard even with the source code?

The problem is that the source code is 6502 assembly, which is truly ancient; it was introduced in 1975.
Also, assembly is a low-level programming language; most programmers have only basic knowledge of it - or none at all.
David ported the room drawing code from assembly to C, and there have been various attempts to create a modern port from scratch (most notably FreePrince).
But, since it's so much work and emulators are pretty solid, don't hold your breath...

So we are not really out of that water with the Apple II source then. Guess when Mechner said he is releasing it for historic value he meant that literally.

It falls on Ubisoft then but seeing that they ported the original Mac version to things like the iphone or the Wii and they did not even care to release the PoP Classic remake (or the DLC for PoP 2008 for that matter) I say that a modern PC release is out of the question for them. Because they are assholes.

As for emulation I think DOSBox is fine since vsync works properly in the Daum SVN, before that it was almost unplayable for me because tearing occured at the worst possible place: on the main character. As for Basilisk the sad truth is that it simply does not work well with Windows. The new versions of Basilisk and Sheepshaver have better sound support but new problems arise all the time: for example nowadays PoP1 runs with correct sound and music but as a new problem the game runs very slow (a few years before it was a bit too fast on the old version of Basilisk ), PoP2 is okay but the music still plays too slow. Sad.