That's right! we've finally pushed out a new dev package and added a short but familiar packin demo for you folks.

The Dev Package includes:

• The newest official build of V3
  
• The first public release of Maped3 (requires the .NET runtimes to use)
  
• The first public release of Packed (also requires .NET)
  
• The current build of CHRMAK (the utility to make .chr files)
  
• A very very important (if brief) README.TXT
  

The packin demo reinstates the time-honored tradition of releasing a new VERGE build with a modified version of The Sully Chronicles. However, this is a very short clip of the original game, mainly constructed by vecna for feature debugging during various builds, and later augmented slightly by me. It's main use is to show off a demonstration of zones/entities/maps and vc working together to make a game.

Please feel free to open up the maps in maped, tinker with the vc, and so forth. This build was released so that ya'll can start tinkering with the full suite in it's prototype state.

Also note that this is not the packin that Hahn and I have been working our bottoms off on. That branch of the Sully Chonicles tree (Sully Chronicles Complete) will not be released until the first non-beta version of v3 is released.

Furthermore:

The first official VERGE Compo is now started

For the first time in VERGE's history, verge-rpg.com itself will be hosting a compo event. This will be the first of many, and by far the most loosly defined. However, it's for a good cause (being giving the dev tools and current build an excessive shakedown), so regardless of skill, all of VERGEdev would appreciate it if you joined in!

The contest runs from present through next Sunday (April 11) to 11:59 PM, EST. That's a full week to make a small game. The rules for this competition are listed here.

And most importantly...

Please give feedback!!!

This is a early, early beta release. We need your bug reports. We need your rigorous testing. Please, if you consider yourself a VERGEr, if you consider yourself a lover of classic games, an artist, a poet, or a human.... please use VERGE, and then give us feedback and bug reports.

If it wasn't apparent, there was a later released devset to fix a dumb bug in maped. If you can't create a new map, download the new pack.

w00t V3 is going to change the gaming community once again! Unfortunately this came out at the worst possible time because my life is the most hectic =/

are all those new .dll files needed?

So you're going to force me to download that .net crap on my 56k! Ouch! Actually I'll probably just force Rage to do it and burn everything for me.

And yay! V3 at long last!

Wohoo, now let's all dance naked on a field of flowers and sing happy songs!

Erm...

The new Maped kicks ass! Finally all the tools are easily available.

Sully crashes when I enter the undersea though. :( I'm running it on Win98... However, if I skip that part and enter the undersea again from the overworld, it works fine.

Ratgash - could you check your verge.log and see if theres something in there about WARNING: 15bpp blitters something something? I can't really think of anything that would crash in undersea tho...

As for 'actually' releasing it this time... yeah, I meant what I said about releasing this weekend, because we decided we just needed to pick a cutoff date and release it then. Things are in a 'workable' state, and theres no reason why we shouldnt let some people begin work on projects while we polish. I do apologize about the delay tho - the entire universe conspired against me coding this last, oh, MONTH.

Vecna:

I tested this on win98 also and it crashes for me too when I leave the island and enter the undersea passage. It works fine when I change the map-changing effect from TBLACK to TNONE. (I had to change this for both going from and to the island.) The weird thing about this though, is that TBLACK works everywhere else. :P

[EDIT: Also, I checked v3.log and it doesn't say anything about 15bpp blitters.]

I hope this helps.

- Creft

This sounds like a really ugly bug.

Everything else in the game works for me though.

(Aside from dexter disappearing if you get him before you see the flashback.)

That was me.

vec, just as a heads up, Hypno and Zara both had the same crash trying to enter the Undersea Passage. They both are on 98, I believe (I know Hypno was), and Hypno had nothing in his v3.log, and the most debug info he had was a register dump (ew).