This vs. open-source RPG Maker implementations

[ZoriaRPG]

RPGM is a big fat bloated frog of a programme. I'd sooner make my RPGs in ZC--and I do, then buy into their commercialware nonsense.

Until something better comes along, I'll continue pushing forward on an RPG game designer built exclusively in ZC, but there's always room for a completely open RPG designer.

IDK wha tthe status is on FFC, or what any of it looks like at present.

Just please try to avoid branding this as /the/ ZC rewrite for now. I sort of have a long-term goal in mind for that, but it might require using Allegro5 instead of SDL or whatevr.

The short version:

ZC 2.55->2,60: Updates to the engine.
ZC 3.0 -> ZC migrates to Allegro Legacy. This allows bridging allegro 4 stuff while using Allegro 5.
ZC 4.0 -> New engine. Old quests run in a yellowbox-bluebox type of environment. (Think Apple Rhapsody. ack in the 90s.) When a uer loads a classic quest, the engine loads an image of ZC 3.xx, and runs the quest. Because we use ag5 for input, and video at this point, we only use ag4.x for legacy components in this emulation shell. New quests run wholly on the new engine using ag 5.x.

Pretty vague logic diagram


Logic Diagram Premise

Spoiler: show

Premise:
Allegro 5 is the main lib.
All Allegro 4 stuff is handled by Allegro Legacy, linked to AG5
CLassic Quests play in a background running process of ZC 3.xx (Legacy Environment)
on top of ZC4 (New Environment).

New quests run entirely on new environment.

No emulation is needed, now do new quests need to maintain compatibility with
legacy quests, as the old software runs invisible over the new, with inout and video
output being translated.


INPUT     VIDEO bitmap +-----------------> Display
-----     ------------------------
V         ^  Modern Audio Output +-------> System Audio Devices
V         ^ +---------+-----------      
V         ^ |         ^ 
V         ^ ^
V         ^ ^
+---------+-+<<<<<<<<<+-------------------------------
|           |         | Legacy Audio and RAM Bitmaps |
|  Allegro  |         ------+-------------------------
|     5     |               ^
|  Library  |       --------+---------      -------------
|           +<<<----+ Allegro Legacy +->**<-+ ALLEGRO 4 | * Linked via AL
|           |       ---------+---+----      -------------
-------------                |   ^
      ^                      |   ^
      |                      |   ^
      |                      |   |-----------------
      ^                      |---+   RAM Bitmaps  |
      |   --------->>>>>>+   |   | Old Quest Data | 
      |   | Read Into*   V   |   ------------------
------+---+----      -+--+---+---------
|  ZC Rerwite |      |  Zelda Classic |
|   Engine    |      |    ZQuest      |
------+--------      --------+---------
      ^                      ^
      ^                      ^
-------------                ^    
|  New Type |	             ^	 
-------------                ^
      ^                      ^
------+--------        ------+-----------
|  Quest Type |=====>>>+ OLD QUEST TYPE | 
---------------	       ------------------	  
			  
*Old quest read into ZC4, loads classic ZC3 engine in the baqckground.
This background layer pipes new input in

You can all have a good laugh at this, later.