Does anybody remember the World Builder games for Macintosh of 1987-92?

The Game Room
1

After two months of tinkering, frustration, I have managed to get the following World Builder games up and running on a Mac Quadra 650 environment (System 7.5) running in Basilisk II emulator.

[ul]
[li]The Enchanted Scepters[/li][li]Karth of the Jungle[/li][li]Zoony[/li][li]Schmoozer[/li][li]Another Fine Mess by Ray Dunakin[/li][/ul]

These were “World Builder” games created with a program called “World Builder” which was used to make simple text-adventure games mixed with still “backgrounds” (mostly created with primitive programs like Mac Paint.) There would be simple commands like North, South, East, West, a list of inventory, and various weapons. The games ranged from outright shoddy and half-assed (Schmoozer) rife with errors and typos, to stunning (Another Fine Mess and The Enchanted Scepters) for their time, anyway. When I was a little kid in 1992, I thought these games were the coolest and most exciting adventures imaginable.

At first it was nearly impossible to figure out how to extract these games from the .hqx files and .SIT files with an old version of Stuffit Expander 4.0.1 that I was running. I downloaded most of them from Macintosh Garden, an abandonware site which in the past two weeks seems to have mysteriously vanished into the ether. Schmoozer and Another Fine Mess worked right away (though I had to convert the latter into a .BIN file, for some reason, in order to import it into Basilisk with HFV Explorer.) Karth of the Jungle and The Enchanted Scepters simply refused to unpack with Stuffit 4.0.1 and I tried installing Stuffit 5.5 but Stuffit 4.0.1 refused to unpack the .SIT file for the newer Stuffit. I finally was able to find a copy that worked, which I stumbled upon by chance.

Up until that point I was quite ready to pay a Mac programmer to figure this all out for me. But by sheer luck, I was able to figure it out.

There is one game that I am missing: “Swamp Witch.” As I remember, it was a very creepy game which took place in a haunted neighborhood and had a boat house, a dog kennel, etc and a horrifically ugly woman. Another one was called “The Village” and I think it was made in England because it kept talking about the “moors” of “Dartmouth.” I remember in that game, you would die if you typed in fuck or shit (in most other WB games, you’d simply be “reprimanded” by the game.) Anyone remember these two?

Anyone remember World Builder at ALL?

I will post screenshots on request. I will also send these games to anyone who wants them.

2

Lovely you should bring up World Builder - boredom moved me to fire up Mini vMac to play A Mess O Trouble and Another Fine Mess a few hours ago. I’m just starting out with Another Fine Mess, but I’ve been trying to figure out A Mess O Trouble since I was in elementary school. Ray Dunakin is still soliciting shareware fees on his website, and while ten bucks for a twenty year old game series is steep, the maps and hints you get in exchange are tempting me badly. I’ve been confounded long enough!

When I was a kid my family routinely ordered disks from Educorp and various MUGs, and so we ended up with a lot of homebrew World Builder games. Most of them were awful, and many were obtuse without being clever. I remember one particularly incomprehensible one that featured a jukebox-shaped alien who lived on the moon and a roving system error monster (and though it wasn’t a classic of the genre, I’d love it if someone could help me remember the title). There were some standouts, though. Louise Hope’s games were almost if not as good as Ray Dunakin’s in terms of design and graphics. Her games are a little easier than Ray D’s, but that doesn’t make them any less immersive and fun. They’ve been ported to OS X, too - no emulator futzing necessary!

3

Unbelievable - someone else remembers?!?!

Do you remember “Queen’s Quest?” I remember being five years old and trying to figure out this ridiculous game where you started out in jail and the intro said “your name is Carlo and you are in jail for dealing cocaine.” Also, whenever you started the game, it would start from a completely randomized position. I think whoever made it was in a less-than-sober state.

You don’t remember Swamp Witch, do you?

I have been in touch with Ray Dunakin, who is quite easy to reach and still maintains an online presence. All the other world builder programmers disappeared.

4

I went digging through my vMac disk images to see if I had Swamp Witch (which sounds familiar) or any of the other games you mentioned. Alas, I couldn’t find Swamp Witch or a whole lot else, but I did find the moon jukebox game. It’s called Enchanted Pencils, and it’s actually not half as bad as I thought it was. Your character wanders around surreal landscapes equipped only with a pencil and an eraser that serve as weapons/tools/portable deus ex machinas. It’s pretty clever and fun and well-drawn, and I wouldn’t mind sending it along.

The opening of Queen’s Quest sounds familiar, but so many of those games had scenarios where you had to break out of jail. After Googling Schmoozer I can say for certain that we had that one, or at least we did until my parents noticed the whole poo-flinging angle. There were a few World Builder games that were pretty racy. I remember one that was sorta like Enchanted Sceptres but with badly drawn boobs and sudden deaths galore.

Did you ever try making a World Builder game? I remember taking a peek at the innards of Gray Tower and thinking that it didn’t look all that hard, but ultimately it was just too much work.

5

I remember coming across one called Psycho, which put you in the role of a psychotic criminal. Pretty twisted.

Speaking of twisted, as I recall a one-man company called Lamprey Systems released a few World Builder games, their flagship one being “Mormonoids From The Deep”.

6

I’m interested in these oldschool WB games.

Can you post them somewhere for download?

7

Yeah, hold on a bit…give me some time, I will do so.

8

Hi, for those of you wondering, I’m the creator of the WorldBuilder game called Swamp Witch, a shareware game ($5) I made in the late 80’s. A few people have tried to contact me about the game lately, but could not as the contact info on my game documentation has changed. That info is: Address–Jim Thompson, 5780 Jane Road, Millbrook, AL
Phone Number: 334-285-3312
email: jim@elmore.rr.com
If interested, you can download my game (Macintosh OS 9.0) at:
Swamp Witch - Macintosh Garden

9

Moved to The Game Room from Cafe Society.

10

I remember that one really clearly. I was a kid and it was pretty much the first time I came across “adult” stuff on the computer. You had to rape women and stuff to escape a mental hospital.

I played other games but, truth be told, that’s the one I remember most clearly. I also showed a few friends. :smack: Misspent youth…

11

Hi–I’m the author of WorldBuilder’s Swamp Witch. The contact info in the games docs are outdated. My current contact info is: Address–Jim Thompson, 5780 Jane Road, Millbrook, AL 36054 TELEPHONE–(334) 285-3312 EMAIL--jim@elmore.rr.com I’m so glad that few of you have succeeded in finding me. I hope people continue to enjoy my game.

12

Funny. I googled this game tonight because I had a dream about it. I woke up and realized I really wanted to go back 27 years to fifth grade and play it. I am running windows XP (yeah, I’m old school)

Any leads on how I could play this game on my computer. I don’t mind having to pay…just really hankering for a trip back to my first PC gaming experience.

Hope you figured this out eventually and got Witch’s Swamp working.

-Peace

13

Ok, that was my first post on this forum so I’m sorry that it was almost unreadable.

I was wondering if anyone has any links or contact info…I’m trying to figure out how to play “Enchanted Sceptres” on my windows XP. I had a dream about this game last night and realized I really want to go back 27 years to 5th grade and play it.

Thanks!!!

14

From its Wikipedia article:

Does that help?

15

Damn, I haven’t thought about World Builder in years, and I never actually played any World Builder games, but I made a few… well, I’m hesitant to call them ‘games’ but, things, back when I was about seven. It’s crazy awesome that we had a developer post here - I suppose he hasn’t stuck around, but I’d love to know if he was still making games of some kind.

16

Pardon me for resurrecting such an old thread, but I thought you might be interested to know that my classic adventure game, A Mess O’ Trouble, has recently been revamped and updated for OS X, and is now available on the Mac App Store!

For more information, a preview trailer, and a link to the game, click here:

www.amessotrouble.com

Thank you for your interest in my games!