Description of Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set
As its name implies, Adventure Construction Set is a program that allows you to create your own "adventure." The result is really an RPG, due to heavy emphasis on monsters and statistics.
As a tool for creating dungeons, ACS was very advanced for its time. Though the graphics and sound are simple, there is a lot of room for customization. In addition to a myriad of design choices, the program offers a "create random adventure" feature that is perfect for everyone with limited patience. Once an adventure is created, you can create a "stand-alone" executable to give out to your friends.
Overall, a solid, versatile package that is well worth a look if you like top-down RPGs. Too bad the dated graphics don't stand up too well with time, though-- anyone for a muted-EGA dungeon romp? :)
Review By HOTUD
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Comments and reviews
Blacklight 2020-12-24 9 points Commodore 64 version
This is hands down my favorite C64 game. I spent so many hours on this thing. To this day, despite it's age limitations, I believe this game to be the most ambitious RPG/adventure creation program ever made. You can customize pretty much everything in this game: The story, the locations, the items, the creatures/allied creatures/characters, the magic spells and effects created by everything, and even the graphics. All in one package without you having to resort to a bunch of separate programs, to do every individual thing, and to hunt through forums and websites for assets to build your RPG with, like you have to do with most modern RPG creators today. It does everything. In one program. Not only that, I've yet to find another RPG creator that allows up to four players to play the game simultaneously, using hot seat. You never see RPG creators that allow for multiple players to play with each other, collaborating during the adventure, or even COMPETING with each other. I can't tell you how many competitive adventures I built with this game, where each player was experiencing a different part of the adventure, and it was designed to bring them all together, in a titanic battle to the finish, in the big climactic ending. You don't see that at ALL in ANY modern RPG builders. As you can probably tell, I LOVE this game. It's a necessary part of ANY C64 collection. You can really push this program to do things that it wasn't initially designed to do and you can get VERY creative with it.
Seannachie 2019-03-04 4 points
I remember running this a few years back, but I had to do some research to figure out what to do on certain points.
[1] For the speed issues under DOSBox: Create a DOSBox conf file and lower the cycles. I have the conf point to the game/exec location, then create a batch file to call DB + conf.
[[2] INS / Insert refers to the key in the Home/End area of the keyboard. You don't have to have a floppy drive, real or virtual (Win/DOS at least).
[3] On the adventure disk: The dosbox homepage says to simply create a blank text file and drop it in the game folder, but thanks to macrosloth's ham-fisted tinkering, that doesn't work anymore. But there's still a way around it.
Look in the program folder and open any non executable file in notepad (*.ovl) will work. Don't do Anything to the file itself, simply select 'New' in the notepad menu to create a new file. 'Save as' then look carefully: the name field is blank and the file type is text by default. Change 'text' to 'All files' then type ADVEN.HRD as the name. Save. Make a backup copy if you want. I just tested it and it works fine for me.
Chapin 2018-09-19 2 points
I was playing this on Android with Amiga emulator called ua4droid it works perfect if you install the kick rom and choose correct settings but now these product have issues with Android updates the emulators, I have to dos version how I got it to work was by copying the unzipped dos files onto a 3.5 floppy and I have old machine running xp pro with a floppy drive so I make the floppy and use 1 black floppy and the game makes a copy of it self on one and your adventure in the other,when it started it was running a mile a minute It was unplayable, too fast, so you must need to use that dosbox emulator and I'll figure it out this week and write back
Kyle 2017-03-03 -1 point
The only version of this game that was ever good was the Amiga version. After that maybe the Apple or commodore. The dos Version is cheesy looking in comparison so don't worry About getting the drive to work folks. Don't worry at all.
guitardian 2016-03-25 0 point
I understand the AMIGA emulator version is the only way this can run due to the floppy drive assignment issue... Anybody can give me a quick guide to where to find one , a link to a FAQ site or something, because I loved this so much as a kid and can't understand much how to make it work.
Flurgen 2016-01-17 1 point Commodore 64 version
This was my favorite game as a kid. A total predecessor to game like Minecraft (which would've blown my mind!).
Sparkle 2016-01-07 0 point DOS version
Hi, if anyone sees this, again with the disk drive question. You cant tell it where or how to locate the new floppy. You only have the option of entering "Insert". There's no way to modify this in any way. I'm sure someone has been successful in running and creating new games with this emulation - yes? Please help.
Im running Windows 10 fyi
Cadence 2015-06-21 1 point DOS version
I must have spent thousands of hours on this back when it was released. Thousands.
Garth's Equipment Shop 2014-11-08 2 points DOS version
I still love the classic ACS/Ultima style RPGs of old. If you just want to play similar looking games theres tons of roguelike games that use optional graphics tilesets of various sizes. But if you want to make your own the simplest way is to download a kit called Adventure Creation Kit which was inspired by ACS. http://mozomedia.com/ack/download-ack/
seleuki 2014-06-12 0 point DOS version
how does one get an amiga emulator, i don't understand how to change where it looks for a floppy, can you be a bit more specific with the directions for overcoming the floppy problem?
chapin 2013-08-29 1 point DOS version
U have to change the location of where its looking for the game its looking for it in the floppy a drive change it to.d or whatever location u have the game installed and the CPU speed is to fast for.that game try using the Amiga emulator and playing it there works flawless
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DOS Version
159 KBCommodore 64 Version
- Year: 1985
- Publisher: Ariolasoft UK, Electronic Arts, Inc.
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