What is it?
- A RPG maker, written in QBasic, 1998.
- What computer or emulator will it run on?
- A fast Pentium II.
- Similar products
- ZZT, MegaZeux, DCGames.
What is it?
In most cases, I believe the people using the OHRRPGCE are generally the upper crust of the RPGing society, well, those who make RPGs for the art of making games that it is, rather than for egotistical purposes like certain individuals whom shalt remain unnamed, you know who you are. — Ben-Ohki in an interview for OHRmonthly, November 2000
The Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine has been around for a while. It certainly has its limitations, but on the other hand, it has some very definite advantages:
Now let me warn you that I do not speak out of experience here. I have not tried it yet. Neither have I played any of the games it has helped into being. But the games are there, and there is an existing fan community.
There are some features that set O.H.R.RPG.C.E. from other RPG makers:
Here are some of its limits and restrictions. This is supposed to become a comparison once, but I have been too lazy yet:
100 maps 100 BAM songs 60 heroes, 38 in the party, 4 active 32767 palettes 32767 attacks 32767 enemies 32767 enemy formations 255 formation sets 32767 text boxes 32767 shops, 50 items/heroes each 32767 vehicle types 4 spell lists @ 24 spells per hero 255 Items, 200 in inventory, 99 of each 8 Elements 200 doors per map 1000 NPCs, 36 per map in 200 instances 1000 Tags (switches), two of them reserved VGA. Tiles 4bit (16), 32767 sets each Walkabout......20×20 Heroes.........32x40 Small Enemies..34x34 Large Enemies..50x50 Huge Enemies...80x80 Attacks........50x50 Weapons........24x24 Your game can contain up to 16383 numbered plotscripts, and 16363 autonumbered plotscripts. The plotscript interpreter can handle up to 128 scripts or 4098 bytes of script code at a time (normally, the script code buffer runs out first). You can have up to 1000 global script variables. The experience requirements for levelup are not customizable.
All in all, it does not sound bad. Be prepared, however, that being a DOS based program, it will not be quite as easy to use as the Windows based ones.
Some games designed with O.H.R.RPG.C.E.:
Star Traks chronicles the "adventures" of the crew of the USS Secondprize, a ship manned by Starfleet's least competant, least stable, and least wanted. Have you ever said to yourself, "What Star Traks really needs is a video game?" No, I didn't think so. But I've gone ahead and built one anyway. It's not much, but I think it holds to the spirit of the Secondprize and the Secondprize crew.
Bottom line: It works. It has an active community. Numerous games have been designed with it. It is genuinely free. A combination not found on any other RPG maker currently available in English.
