Ambrosia Software Web Board: External References - Ambrosia Software Web Board

I realized two things:

• Cythera's Wikipedia page is but the barest stub. Surprisingly, it has been edited about 20 times since the page was created in 2007, but no one ever thought to add content! I'm not sure it's accurate either: did it really run on OS 7?
  
• Cythera didn't have a page in Macintosh Garden. I've now created a page, but I didn't yet add much information in. My recollection was that the game was released in late 1999, but I'm not sure.

We really ought to rectify both of those deficiencies. I don't think we need a lot of content; Wikipedia pages often sprawl into epic fandom rants, but the Escape Velocity page seems like a good model. I'll contribute too, but I have some stuff I need to get done by Wednesday.

In addition to space for uploading the games themselves (we don't need that since Ambrosia still hosts Cythera), Macintosh Garden also has a space for uploading manuals. Is there any chance we could get the Cythera hint book digitized to a PDF? I think there are places that will do that for you, and I assume it would be OK with Ambrosia.

By the way, if you haven't heard of Macintosh Garden before, I fully recommend going to its games list and taking a nostalgia trip through the whole thing. Gandreas's page also lists a game called Blobbo Lite I don't remember hearing of before.

I think you're right that we should solve those problems. More information should be given about Cythera. On Wikipedia, I think we should add more links, at the very least. I think we should link this message board (it already links the Ambrosia page for Cythera, but it's a nuisance to find the Cythera board from there), Slayer's Guide, and Wizzy's reference site. Of course, I have no idea how to do that, and Wikipedia is pretty scary...

By the way, I have played Cythera on Shorty's 68k Performa, running OS 7. It was laggy.

Also, I wasn't sure Cythera qualified for Macintosh Garden. It's not really abandonware, is it? You still have to pay Ambrosia for a license in order to complete the game.

I think there was some interest in a PDF hintbook a while back. Where could we get that done?

BreadWorldMercy453, on 01 November 2011 - 08:14 AM, said:

Macintosh Garden mostly has abandonware, but it has the option to add a big "Purchase / This game is still available from its publisher" link, which the Cythera page has. You're not supposed to upload non-abandonware, which I didn't.

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Office supply stores (Staples, Fedex) might do it. I don't know how expensive it would be.

I like this idea, though I'm rubish with wiki formatting. The information is all available in the places 453 described, so who ever wants to transfer/summarize it.. Cythera also runs in classic.

Side note: there were two reference documents I remembered, but had trouble finding. I've found copies and cached them to my Pinboard account:

• "Delving into Details", detailing several features of the engine
  
• "Cythera Role Playing Guide, explaining some of the mechanics

There's also a conversation between Bryce and gandreas on the subject of the internals of the game.

This is a good idea, Pallas. I think it would be very nice to have a longer Wikipedia article. That is actually a good opportunity because we can provide the most relevant information in a coherent format. While a lot of the material is already available, there is a surprising amount that we haven't done yet. For instance, there is no short essay length summary of Cythera's plot, so far as I know, other than the one or two sentence official summary that Ambrosia released with the game. Furthermore, we have not written extensively about the gameplay and features of Delver. The information included in Gandreas' article about the details of Delver will help a lot with this part.

About a digital copy of the Cythera Hintbook... I was waiting until I had much to say before talking about it, but I don't want BW to go spend money having it digitized . Anyways, the Hintbook has already been digitized. I scanned in the entire hintbook back in May, used OCR to convert the text, and formatted it to look identical to the physical copy of the hintbook. In fact, it is already online for those ambitious enough to find it, but I have not posted a direct link because I wanted Ambrosia's permission before distributing it. I contacted David Dunham about it back in June, but unfortunately, he said that he didn't have the ability to grant such a request. I was going to contact Magnus or Andrew, but then never got around to doing it. I probably should sometime...

Started on the Wikipedia page, adding "Gameplay" and "References" sections.

I think we might be overdoing it if we fill Wikipedia with a "short essay-length summary" of the plot and write extensively about Delver. That's the kind of documentation we might write for ourselves here. I think the audience we should be writing for on Wikipedia is someone that knows Ambrosia's recent games and is curious about the older ones—they have more than a passing interest but don't want an essay.

Technically, my Performa is running 7.5.3

I think this sounds like a good idea. A while back, there was actually an effort to create a Cythera wiki on wikispaces, but I don't think it lasted very long. It might be interesting to sometime create a "TS Reference Material" topic for TSs, but that is a different discussion.

I vote 453 write a concise plot summary for Cythera !

Awsome things happen, due to partying late in a thunderstorm.

Probably not that concise :D

Hehe, I remember editing that Wikipedia page once. It said something about Cythera winning some kind of award, but when I checked out the award it was for some porn movie named Cythera or something, most definitely nothing to do with the game

Actually, 453, I thought your summary would be shorter than that .


Also, nice to see you around, Rogan .

Hey Rogan! Thanks for editing the page back then... yikes.

I just got an update from Magnus, and he said to go ahead with posting the hintbook link! He said that they still have several copies, so if anyone is interested in purchasing a copy, just let him know!

Here is the hintbook page (direct link to PDF). The image quality is scaled down in this version to save size, but it should still be readable. I have tried to match the formatting and contents of the original exactly. The typos you see should be in the original hintbook. However, if anyone with a copy of the hintbook finds a discrepancy of some kind, please tell me about it.

Hah:

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