For after this release

After some thinking, it would be better to start from scratch after this release (which will be 2.0 of course). A lot of the things that are planned (custom enemies, subscreens, the whole custom list) would be impossible or very hard to put in the current engine.

With this, the new program can be made with total customisation in mind (the same thing I'm doing with multimario). This means no fixed subscreen items, enemy animations that have to be 'set up' first and other things. However, this will require a lot of planning ahead (maybe a week to determine the file format and organising all the data fields), but when that's done, you can create the engine steadily, without having to worry about changing things, etc.

Here is some list of features I think would be great to have in this engine:
- 16 bit colors, but keep the cset system
- custom subscreens
- custom enemies using either scripting or 'behaviour types'
- Scrollable screens (like in lttp)
- Diagonal walking character, but a rule to let him walk like zelda 1 (no diagonal)

If this can be done, old quests cannot be played in this new version. It would be better to create an additional program that converts the old format to the new format, so it saves a lot of code in both the engine/editor.

So how about it DN?

I agree. It also occurs to me that this new engine would not need to be limited to Zelda-type games. Scrapping the original source code would be severing all ties with PM's Zelda clone. We can already to lots of un-Zelda stuff...I'm working on a space quest now. I'm not sure where Dark Nation want to go with it though.

It might be a good idea. And it also wouldn't need to take incredibly long to do it since DN could use parts of the old code and he should be experienced enough by now to start from scratch.

but in the end, its all up to DN if he wants to code from scratch a million lines of code and more. :P :heart:

What you are suggesting is already out there: Open Zelda. Sure, it's not identical, and it lacks some of the puzzle aspects, but Zelda Classic is really meant to be just that, the original Zelda Classic. While I agree that the ZQuest has opened up many new ideas and ways to build quests on a once-simple engine, it is kinda throwing a legacy out the window if you know what I mean.

I know what you mean, Orion, Zelda Classic shouldn't be ditched. It could be brought to a stable stage and finalized, people would still make quests with it. But rather than stretching it more, it might be more effective to start fresh for further advancements.

Besides, for various reasons Dark Nation is reluctant to take credit for his improvements to Zelda Classic. If he started fresh and it was unconnected to the Nintendo game (except by user graphics) he might feel differently.