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Ideas for a time travel game in general.

August 26, 2002, 8:16 pm
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Hello all. I have this awesome idea to make a game that would involve time travel. The game itself wouldn't be based on any movies, and would immerse the player in a little town where, after building a time machine would be able to go back virtually any time he wanted and interact with past and future NPCs (non-player characters) with repercussions to future events. The game would be revolutionary due to the fact that you have the freedom to do whatever you want in this small town. All the buildings would be able to be fully explored (unlike GTA 3). And as for character interaction, I was thinking of somehow implementing an open source AI I found on the net called ALICE which would allow in depth conversation with characters, who would remember the player. The player would start out as maybe a physics professor in the local college working on plans for a device that would travel in time. The player would be given plans that had been completed so far, and would have the choice on how to put the time machine together and what it would look like. A car, a phone booth, a watch, a bathtub, it's up to you! Or, if he felt so inclined, not build it at all and explore the town, doing as they please (with consequences of course! a la GTA 3). Note that this game wouldn't be set up to just pick up a rocket launcher off the side of the road and start blasting for points, but would be based on reality. The beginning would involve creating your custom character (face, gender, etc) kind of like The Sims, or Morrowind. The game would work more like Morrowind perspective wise with 1st or 3rd person views. You would have a house, bills, food that will rot in your refrigerator, etc. Time would progress in real-time with weather effects and sun/moon rotation. You would have a job at the college that you would need to go to every morning. If you wanted to go killing people, you'd probably have to break into someone's house and steal their hunting gear or something. (Though there would be cheat codes ) The time machine would be the major feature though. It would be cool to implement a time distortion device (Clockstoppers) or some other special features built in to give the game some flair. There are several time travel "theories" in movies and games, and I think the BTTF one is most fitting. With the BTTF theory, time has an original state, which can be changed/diverted and will not affect the time traveler, who remembers both states. This would involve paradoxes, but would enable the freedom from a fate set by the game maker to follow a set path to progress in the game. There would be, of course, "clones" of the player every time they revisited a time zone. This would be a snag in my idea. The first difficulty would be for having the game record the player’s movements and interactions the whole time, which would require quite a bit of hard drive space. The second difficulty being the paradox of interacting with said clone and diverting the past player's actions. Having the universe collapse on itself so frequently would have a negative effect on the person playing the game. ;) Any ideas or comments to be made would be greatly appreciated.

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August 26, 2002, 9:33 pm :
Future Boy 1955 Joined: 08/13/2002 Posts: 1314	Wow!That's really great but when are you making it???I want to buy it!

August 27, 2002, 2:42 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Well, as of now it's just an idea. I need to find a good 3D engine. I know about making the models and graphics more than the actual programming part. I've seen good game making programs on the net, but they are really expensive. I downloaded the demo version of 3DRad which I have yet to learn. I'm quite good at making characters in Poser, and editing graphics, video, and sound. Just have to put it all together and get a project going I guess... Anyone if anyone out there is interested in giving it a shot, I'd like to hear from you.

August 27, 2002, 7:27 pm :
BTTFGraphics Joined: 11/19/1999 Posts: 114	Great idea!! I am very impressed with the amount of quality thought you put into the concept of this game! You have a lot of key elements nailed down. The conversations and memories by the characters would be impressive. I would also love to see how things age-progress through different times. The way a building decays or becomes overgrown by plantlife (ala the ruins in Jacob's Ladder, etc..) if left alone for a long time. Plus, that addition of having a time-distortion / control device (Clockstoppers) would be extremely cool to have. It's always neat in Max Payne and if you could walk around alot longer like that... oh cool! Well, I might be able to help out with your project... I too, do alot in graphics.. not much in the modeling department lately but it'd be neat to 'brush' up on my drawing skills once again. These new packages are very impressive these days.. especially since most of what I use is still from 3-4 years ago. Lightwave's sure gotten some nice competition. hehe Well, give me an email if you like at [email]graphics@bttf.com[/email] and I'll see what I can do. Also, I'll take your ideas to mind tonight and see what else I can come up with.

August 27, 2002, 8:59 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	That aging idea reminds me of BTTF 2&3 when you could to go back to 1955 and plant an acorn, and see it grow in 1985 and become a tree in 2015. Ah, those were the days... Spend hours of frustration on an 8-Bit game to be rewarded with a disappointing ending. "Congratulations Marty!! You've made it back! All your time travel is behind you now....maybe" The idea of aging introduces more complexity. Characters would have to grow old too... That would really increase the number of models and texture maps required just for any given character. Hmmm. This isn't going to be easy. But as Doc once said "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." I'll have to start drawing up some ideas myself tomorrow. Maybe jot down some algorythms for any programmers out there who are interested in turning this dream into virtual reality.

August 27, 2002, 9:24 pm :
temporal paradox Joined: 01/31/2002 Posts: 1237	It sounds like you'd have to have an enture computer entirely devoted to this game. At least with modern technology being what it is.

August 28, 2002, 9:46 am :
RedSlicer Joined: 07/19/2002 Posts: 799	I just love your idea! I've always wanted to see the effects of your interaction in the past. For example how the city would have changed if you killed some one 100 years ago, when the city still was a little village. Here's a little suggestion: You could make 3 modes: 1) Free lance mode, do whatever you want to do. 2) Mission mode, you have to travel around in time to complete a mission, fx a paradox or something... 3) Multiplayer version, chase other players in time to prevent they alter your future. What do ya think? RedSlicer<--- -

August 28, 2002, 5:02 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	temporal paradox: Actually I think it might be possible to get a game of this size to work nowadays. It might have to go onto a dvd or multiple cds, and a top of the line system would be required, but I hear CPU's are up to 2.8 Gigahertz... RedSlicer: It would take some time to set up the town's history. To make the game managable, it would have to be in a remote location with a low population. The desert would be an ideal location. Up to a certain date, there wouldn't be much to see. Then we'd have a founder come in probably around the late 1800's and start building. There would have to be certain events programmed to happen in response to other effects. For example, since it wouldn't be practical to go and program every character that will ever live in that town, we'd have to have "daily routine algorythms" they'd all have in common. All the kids would spend time at home or school, adults would have jobs, kids would take over the jobs as they got older. The day would be broken down into smaller tasks such as time they wake up, time they eat, time they work, time they go to sleep. (New idea: The ability to "drive" a horse and buggy or other old fashioned modes of transportation.) As time goes on we could introduce school buses, cars, and other modern day equipment. People will marry and have kids. Murder would effect the overall flow of the original timeline. People that were supposed to have kids would cease to be. Jobs that would have been filled would be filled by others. But with the algorythms we would set up, the remaining characters would be able to continue the timeline by doing their routine stuff minus the lost person. If the player were so inclined to kill everybody( :eek: ) then the town would be deserted for several years, or even decades if no one else wanted to inhabit it. Of course if you went back and did that, you would be killing off your ancestors and paradoxes abound. (Another idea, give the player access to his/her family tree. Or to prevent a paradox, we could have em be from another city that just moved in to do work on the time project.) As for the different modes of gameplay I think there will be a freelance mode, as you said, and the "mission mode" could involve the government somehow. Or maybe those darn Libyan terrorists want their plutonium back. :rolleyes: As for multiplayer, that might be difficult. It would be hard even to find out what time the others players had time traveled to, and the game would have to record all their movements. Ah ha! Another idea. Ok, the players can be working together and go back in time but get stuck there (a la Marty style). They would have to somehow work together to get "back to the future." We could even stick easter eggs in the game like have a DeLorean parked behind a billboard or something... That'd be funny.

August 29, 2002, 10:30 am :

RedSlicer
Joined: 07/19/2002
Posts: 799

I know it would be darn difficult to make all my (and other's) suggestments, but I belive it might be possibly to make in near future (maybe 1 or 2 years). For missions: like the DeLorean, you need energy. Maybe some plutonium or 1.21 jigowatts battery... Anyway, a part of your mission would be to find energy to your time machine.

Originally said by Doc: In the future you might be able to buy plutonium in the groserystory, but here in 1955 it's a little hard to get!

Maybe, you would be able to buy energy to your time machine in the future in your game. And maybe even a Mr. Fusion, would cost a fortune, but then you never run dry of plutonium! :D

We could even stick easter eggs in the game like have a DeLorean parked behind a billboard or something... That'd be funny.

Sure will, maybe you could use it in a mission! RedSlicer<--- -

August 29, 2002, 3:12 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Hmm, fuel. I haven't thought of that. Well nowadays I think they've agreed to stop producing plutonium, so it really would be "a little hard to come by..." and I don't think that anyone intends to create a 1.21 Gigawatt battery... (Heh, you're car could be "lightning fast... ) This is a tricky one. Looks like I'm going to have to do some research in some alternate sources of energy. This also requires me to create an actual science concept that I could put in the game to explain how the time machine works. Worm holes, magnetic fields, crystals... I'll look it up.

August 31, 2002, 2:11 pm :
mmx	Herbert, you have some great ideas, but I got bad news for you; making such a game is no easy task, and is near impossible due to the number of different routes available to take within a game like that. The customization that takes place in this world is way too big. Players will all do different things, you gotta think on different levels. Although, there are alternatives. You can create a MMORPG (huge player base), or a Deus Ex clone and implement time travel in it (just single player). Mixing the two won't work. You can perhaps create a single player game entirely focused on time travel (eg: find the parts, assemble it and attempt to do a mission, which will take a while to finish); kind of like finding the Water Chip in Fallout 2. You can do either a 3D game or Isometric. Hopefully this post will help you out a little bit. I too am crazed about making a game, but it's kind of hard to implement everything in one product. The time and resources available to us is kind of limited.

August 31, 2002, 9:15 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Yep, I agree with you. I would be tough to try to put all this into a game. The main reason I posted this is just to brainstorm and get some opinions. When I get enough jotted down I'll give it a shot and see what would be possible. The most logical course of action would be to make a text based program in some easy language and set up the basis for the game. The time travel bit, an interface of some sort, and the way stuff evolves (buildings and characters). I have a 2D game maker that would be easy enough to use for the game's next step. It would give the game some sprites to show off a bit and make it easier to navigate. It is possible to do an isometric in that too, but I'll have to decide the best way to present it. Then we would go from there with what features that managed to survive to go full 3D with all the bells and whistles. As multiplayer goes: It's out. The game is just too big. Wouldn't be right to have anyway, it's not that type of game. Thanks for the input everyone, I'll give that text based one a shot. Even if that's as far as I can manage, it should still be sweet. I'll keep you posted. :D

September 1, 2002, 12:09 pm :
Hey Mcfly! Joined: 02/10/2001 Posts: 38	Who's heard od "Day of the tentacle"? An old PC game that you can't get any more. It was set in 3 time zones in one house (past, present and future). There was three player characters and each one was set in a different time zone. Each time zone had missions to complete and puzzles to work out. But some could only be done if something in the past was done. For example, in the future, the character gets stuck in a tree befroe the game starts, so in the present or past, your character has to chop down the tree, so it isn't there in the future, so the future character doesn't get stuck in it!

September 1, 2002, 1:23 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	I've heard of it, but haven't tried it. Sounds interesting though. I have Maniac Mansion for NES though. That's cool. It's one of the few 8-Bit games that didn't leave me depressed after I beat it, and actually felt like I accomplished something. Ah, those were the days...

September 2, 2002, 12:28 pm :
Joey Joined: 04/08/2000 Posts: 4670	You're thinking about cheat codes already?! Anyway, track down a copy of "Timeslip" on the PlayStation, and try to get the C source code for free from the author ( [email]johnstdt@dcs.gla.ac.uk[/email] ). That had some great ideas and puzzles etc, and remembered exactly where your other-selves were.

September 2, 2002, 1:15 pm :
Bosch To The Future Joined: 10/12/1999 Posts: 1387	Here is a post I wrote a while ago conerning ideas for a new BTTF game. It is very similar to your game idea, only it intergrates BTTF. It is loacted at this thread , 6th post down. Originally posted by Bosch To The Future: I had an idea for a BTTF Video Game a long time ago... First, the idea came to me as I was playing a demo version of 'Cool Boarders' for the Play Station. It was a snow boarding game, and I couldn't help but imagine the characters riding on Hoverboards instead of snow boards. Later I played Tony Hawk, and couldn't help imaging the samething, only in a free roaming atmosphere. At some point after that, I started to think about how cool a racing game featuring a flying Delorean would be. Of course, personally, I can't stand racing games, and couldn't imagine an entire BTTF game dedicated to simply racing. I'm much more of afan of 'driving' games, where there's a free roaming enviroment. I started thinking about what actual game would encapulate these other possible gaming features. I knew it would have to be a first person shooter type game (without the 'shooter' aspect). I felt, much like you, that the character (lets say Marty) should be able to freely walk around the enviroment, in this case being Hill Valley and assorted interiors. I felt that Marty would be after something, or should be doing something, in the game, only it's not toally clear what. We would most likely know that he has to do something...complete a mission of some sort...only we're not sure how he's supposed to do it (like, in Part II, where they know they have to get the Almanac back, only they don't know how to, and it takes them a while to actually do it). Much like Myst, he would have to travel around, trying to find objects and clues, and learn certain things that will help him out in the future (or past). Unlike Myst, the clues and tasks they corespond to would not be abstract things, such as ramndom numbers to know, or how many notches to move a lever. The clues and information in the BTTF game should make complete sence in the big picture, and have practical usage. It shouldn't be a simple "figure out the puzzle...find the key...move onto the next level" type senerio. Another game that comes to mind is kind of an odd refrerence. There was an old Sega Gen. "Duck Tales" game that I used to play in my younger years. The great thing about this game, the reason I was so attracted to it, was the fact that it wasn't a simple "side scrolling...jump, duck, jump...finish the level, move on to the next" type game. It was side scrolling, and there was a bit of Jump, Duck, Jumping going on, but when you got to the end of the level, you weren't done with it yet. At the far right scroll of each level there was an airplane that took you away to some other place of your choosing. Of course, I think you needed to cmplete a certain mission your first time in each level in order to have the plane pick you up, and all the loactions you could fly to weren't available at first, but only after completing certain tasks, but aside from that, it was pretty much free roaming. I remember being in a later "level" and having to go back to the first level to find something I was going to need in the other level. It was the free travel between lands and levels that made the game interesting and exciting. This brings me to the Time Traveling part of my BTTF game concept. Instead of having a gimic where you can't leave a certain time and time tavel to another until you complete X things, the time travel could be free for the player to use, to learn information and find clues and complete his mission. Maybe at the beginning of the game, the character could be stranded in some time, without a way out, and he would have to find some way out. Either a time machine, or clues to lead him to a time machine, or a way to conatact somebody in the future or past, or things to that extent. After aquiring a time machine, he would be free to time travel as he wishes, unles he runs out of gas or plutonium, or whatever (of course, this wouldn't be a game plot point, but a simple aspect of the game that is up to the player to regulate and keep an eye on [much like real life]). Marty (or whomever) could be in 1985, and find a clue that would require him to travel back or forward in time to ustilize. He could have talked to somebody that told him the exsistence of something in the past that he might need, so he would have to travel to that time and get it. He could find out that something he is looking for is located in a certain room where access is prohibited in his curent time, so he travels back or forward to a time to gain access to the room. Heck, this may be far fetched, but it could even be that, once you're far into the game, and you find something or find out something you could have used earlier in the game, you could leave yourself the item or a message where you knew where looking before, and you could start the game over from that point (of course, you would have to remember to re-find the item and re-leave it for yourself, so you wont cause a paradox). The time period themselves could be regulated by a limted time span (you could only travel from 1875[b]* to 2025)and simple decades (you can only visit 2015, 2015, 1995, 1985, 1975, ect). Of course, this brings us to the fist fights, car races and skateboard chases. Because it is a game, this BTTF game would have to be more Part II then Part I. I don't meant that the game should follow those movies plots. In fact, I think it should be more of a continuation then a rehatch. What I mean is, the game would need to be more action driven, like Part II, as opposed to the comedic story driven aspect of Part I. Of course, the game shouldn't revolve entirly on fighting and chasing and driving fast. There wouldn't be as much action as there would be adventure. There would be certain points when you would need to sneak around, or break into places, or get in a fight with someone, or run from someone, or have a high speed, high altitude hover converted car chase through the skyline of 2015 Hill Valley! Of course, this would all serve the purpose of the game, which is to complete, or figure out, the mission at hand. What I like about your suggestion is the RPG aspect of it. The idea of living the characters lives for a while. In this case, we could work a bit of Part I and III into the mix. Maybe at first, went the character is stuck until he finds the time machine, or at some crisis point later in the game, he would have to live in the current time period for a while. He would have to comunicate with the other citizens of Hill Valley, make freinds and allies, and most likely find some place to sleep and eat. This could give the game a nice mix of pacing and action, which is what made the first movie so great. The game could even allow the player to simply exist within it, without having to play the game. Someone could choose to simply hang out in different time periods and check the town out. And, of course, we could play with different characters, such as Marty, Doc, or somebody else, where each is interacting in a different aspect of the game (i.e. Marty is looking for Doc and/or a time machine; Doc has a time machine and is looking for Marty; Doc, Marty or a new character are looking for a specific thing or person, ect). Each character's interaction with different time periods could affect the rest of the continuum, and cause more problems for himslef and others. Ok, enough of my ideas. What do you think?[/b] -Kevin Bosch

September 2, 2002, 6:22 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Whoa. Sounds like a good idea to me.

September 2, 2002, 10:37 pm :
rgtg Joined: 01/12/2002 Posts: 30	Great idea! but i would like a lot if in the game i could find a fly deloren

June 11, 2003, 6:52 pm :
dmc fan 5446 Joined: 08/20/2010	a simple, 2D rpg would be enough for me, like tales of phantasia for snes.

June 11, 2003, 9:37 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Whoa! This is an old topic! I never did get a good program to make it in... I played a game called Shadow of Destiny recently, and it is somewhat what I had in mind. It's an interesting game. Kinda short though, but something to look up some time. They have a demo on the net somewhere. The furthest I had gone with the idea was a little paradox simulator written in QBasic. I got as far as getting the white circle to move in a blue rectangle, and have the program record the movements so if you went back in time, you would see your other dot-self. I'll post it when I get around to writing some collision detection for it.

June 12, 2003, 6:29 am :
Joey Joined: 04/08/2000 Posts: 4670	Originally posted by dmc fan 5446: a simple, 2D rpg would be enough for me, like tales of phantasia for snes. Yeah, heheh. Did you ever play Chrono-Trigger on Nintendo or Chrono Cross on PlayStation? What about Shadow of Destiny on PlayStation2?

June 12, 2003, 11:03 am :
gimmeamilk Joined: 08/20/2010	This sounds a great idea, I'm up for some programming. Recording player movements shouldn't be too hard (pretty much every sports and driving games have an action replay feature). Generating trees/plants that grow over time can be quite easily achieved using a fractal generator. Modelling the construction of buildings is very interesting to me and object-oriented programming will really help this. You just model objects such as a brick, a pane of glass, a steel girder. Your completed buildings are just stored as a list of references to instances of these objects and a little algorithm can be written to render only a certain number of objects for a given time. eg for a house the first objects in the list are the foundation elements, then the steels, then the external brick structure and then the fittings/plumbing/whatever. Whole towns can then be stored in some kind of scripting language, eg: 1963 BEGIN_CONSTRUCT HOUSE001 1966 END_CONSTRUCT HOUSE001 1978 BEGIN_CONVERT HOUSE001 HOUSE006 1980 END_CONVERT HOUSE006 1992 BEGIN_DESTRUCT HOUSE006 1993 END_DESTRUCT HOUSE006 As Herbert said, AI characters can have shared set daily routines which may deviate if the player interacts with them. If we assume all interactions are initiated by two game objects colliding (eg to "talk" to another character you walk up to them, a bullet hits them to when you shoot) then all we need to record are the collisions that cause a character to deviate from their normal pattern. Upon visiting the past, every new interaction is compared to the record. If there is a mismatch, a new branch is taken and records referenced by that particular event are recalculated. If a circular reference is detected (in other words a paradox) then the game can assume we have done something dumb and it would be game over. Any thoughts?

June 12, 2003, 12:45 pm :
Hover_ ConversionUK Joined: 08/20/2010	yeh very good idea herbert i would love to help out on it if its possible, i was going to make a game exactly like this but you could basically go back to times like 1800s 1900 etc etc, but now ill have to make a new idea for a game but i would really love to make this game with you! what do you say? the idea is excellent and will be excellent! see you soon p.s im talking like bill and ted lol weird EXCELLENT!

June 12, 2003, 3:25 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Originally posted by gimmeamilk: This sounds a great idea, I'm up for some programming........Any thoughts? It seems as though you know what you're talking about! :D If you think it's possible then I'm up for it. This would be great if it could be done in 3D. What do you think it could be done in? ie. Are there any available (free or cheap) 3D engines or game creation sdk's you think would fit the bill? I've seen one out that looks rather easy to use, but it's over $1000 for the professional version. It would probably be possible to write one but I'm not that advanced yet with C++, DirectX, or OpenGL. Thanks for the input. I think it has real potential. If you want to try out my little time travel prog, I'll post it here. It's really basic though, and I haven't worked out any algorythms for "bumping into" past selves and changing stuff. It's fun to have 20 of yourself running around in a box though. Almost creepy... :eek:

June 12, 2003, 9:02 pm :
gimmeamilk Joined: 08/20/2010	3D is certainly possible. I am in the middle of writing a basic 3D engine in OpenGL (check its progress on the MyTime thread, not sure why it ended up there...). My original intent was to write a 3D mission-based BTTF spinoff, ie you would still be Marty/Doc in Hill Valley but some of the missions would not correspond to scenes in the movie. For movie-based missions I was thinking of taking some artistic license (eg in the Lybian chase you have to go down a few roads and finally reach the mall, just to make the level a bit longer). A DeLorean can reach 90mph in about 19s so there needs to be ways to make driving levels a bit longer. I always wanted to keep the car because it is just so bloody cool. Plus I have spent a lot of time creating 3D particle effects that look a lot like the effects in the movie and I want to use them!

June 12, 2003, 9:18 pm :
Mikey Mcfly Joined: 08/20/2010	Okay this game sounds really cool, but it brings a lot of questions to my head. First of all would this file be big enough to post on the net? Sencondly, if it is then I would be happy to post it on my webhost, however the file can't be bigger than....600/700 MGs. Once I upgrade my webhosting(again)I won't have a file size limit, this game sounds really cool and I will help out anyway possible. Another thing, this game will be very hard to make won't it? Due to the cause and effect therory I would find this near impossible to make, why don't you try pitching these ideas to someone? I'm sure if you wrote letters to game makers (e.g. EA GAMES) that at least one of them would have to consider it. (Also this would roll over very well with Universal, due to the fact that it might draw more attention to BTTF A.K.A more peeps buy more DVD's) Just a thought.... --Phillip--

June 12, 2003, 9:36 pm :

Herbert

Joined: 09/08/2000
Posts: 228

Originally posted by Mikey Mcfly: First of all would this file be big enough to post on the net?

My hopes and dreams for a game like this would be huge. Complete and total imersion. I want the player to be able to react with everything in the environment possible. To give you an idea, you need to take into account all the 3D models (which would be rich in variety), textures, sounds (including maybe some radio, environmental, speech, etc.), and video.

Sencondly, if it is then I would be happy to post it on my webhost, however the file can't be bigger than....600/700 MGs.

Thank you very much. I don't think you have to worry about that for any time in the near future. This will take time. (hehe)

Another thing, this game will be very hard to make won't it? Due to the cause and effect therory I would find this near impossible to make, why don't you try pitching these ideas to someone? I'm sure if you wrote letters to game makers (e.g. EA GAMES)

Yes it will take a heck of a long time, but this idea is too good for big business to mess up.

June 13, 2003, 4:59 am :
Mikey Mcfly Joined: 08/20/2010	Yeah, good point. I was playing the rom yesterday for BTTF 1-3 and I was still dissapointed. I think they did a bad job on that game and it's a disgrace to BTTF. (just my personal opinion no way enflicting my beliefs on anyone else). Well, just let me know if you need any help at all, I not much of a graphis designer but I'm hoping to learn. FYI: My aim name is phil13carr and my msn is [email]phoenixslayer14@hotmail.com[/email]

June 13, 2003, 5:37 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Well, here is an interesting program I wrote that simulates time travel. Just unzip it to a new folder and run paradox.exe. To move: W=up A=left S=down D=right T=set destination game time Q=quit. It's rather simple. Instead of typing in a real time and date, the game starts out with a counter going up 1 every tenth of a second. So the number you enter is going to be an integer from the "Game Time." The real time clock is there for testing purposes, as are the X and Y coordinates at the top of the screen. So say you moved around a while and you hit "T" and the game time was 122; you could enter 5 and see yourself moving around up until you disappear at 122. You can travel up to 20 times. And you don't always have to go backwards. You could go forwards and then go back, etc. The program will create 20 log files for you time travel in the game folder, so make sure the game is in a folder by itself, or you'll have to worry about deleting all those extra files when you get tired of playing . > Here's the link. < Also, remember not to touch another of your past selves or the game will end! ENJOY!

June 14, 2003, 9:34 am :
Hover_ ConversionUK Joined: 08/20/2010	so am i allowed to help then herb u never replied

June 14, 2003, 1:11 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Originally posted by Hover_ ConversionUK: so am i allowed to help then herb u never replied Of course! ;)

June 14, 2003, 8:06 pm :
Herbert Joined: 09/08/2000 Posts: 228	Has anyone tried out my little program? It would be nice if anyone would give feedback/suggestions.

June 15, 2003, 1:48 am :
Fluxxed Joined: 08/20/2010	Just D/L ed it, will give you some comments later in the day.

June 15, 2003, 3:13 am :
outatimedelorean Joined: 08/20/2010	Tried it. Nice.

January 14, 2008, 6:54 am : Re: Ideas for a time travel game in general.
Strainj1 Joined: 01/14/2008 Posts: 3	Hi There Just found this thread and noticed it was pretty old.... How did it go? P.S. If you need any music written for it I'm your guy!

January 14, 2008, 7:22 am : Re: Ideas for a time travel game in general.
Wilko1985 Joined: 08/23/2002 Posts: 968	Ooh thankyou for digging this up! I've been looking for this program since 2003.

May 18, 2011, 12:04 am : RE: Ideas for a time travel game in general.

Herbert

Joined: 09/08/2000
Posts: 228

My God, has it been almost a decade since I wrote this first post?? Well, it has been 8 years, 8 months, 23 days... But who's counting?

I have a suitcase literally filled with paradox scenarios I've come up with over the years that would come up in a time travel video game, and I finally found a game engine in which to build a prototype. No promises, but I do at least plan on updating my original DOS Paradox Simulator.

Is there anyone here that can program C++?

Whohohoho, the future is looking a whoooole lot better. Now that Herbert has changed the PAST on 2011-05-18T00:06:59-04:00

July 22, 2011, 5:10 pm : RE: Ideas for a time travel game in general.
kar69999 Joined: 07/22/2011 Posts: 1	i keep on trying to click the link but it keep on sending me back to this same page and i found this and i really in to time travel and time manipulation and i just found this forum and i think your idea is great and i had the same idea once just forgot about it

July 24, 2011, 4:57 am : RE: Ideas for a time travel game in general.
coocoosim Joined: 01/04/2009 Posts: 78	WOW! This is old! I like how you still have all those paradox ideas! I am wondering have you ever played Harvest Moon? I remember playing one on the Nintendo 64 and there were 6 women in the town which you could befriend and ultimately marry, a similar thing could happen in the game, if you befriend them enough you can marry, and the NPC would then live in your home and do her own thing, then eventually you could have a child who just hung around the home or went to school. Maybe if you don't keep the relationship you have with her up, by neglecting her she leaves town? Another idea is having the explorable shops etc. but the shop keepers inside them, which you can talk to, stay there, this would make it easier to program, if they just stood in the shop all day (ofcourse if you went into the future the shopkeeper would get old) I would love to contribute my ideas if you would like them. I would also be able to lend any voice acting talents you may need, maybe a tutorial voice over? pleas email me on mr.flurp@hotmail.com Regards, Coocoosim

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