With Quest 5.0 currently under development as free and open-source software, it doesn’t make much sense to continue trying to sell copies of Quest Pro 4.x. So I’m happy to announce that the new release, version 4.1.4 is now available and is completely free.

There is no longer a separate Quest Pro product. Instead, all of the benefits of that edition have been folded into the free version. So, Quest 4.1.4 is now free and includes:

• an unrestricted version of the editor, QDK – you can now make games as big as you like
• the Quest Compiler, which lets you encrypt your ASL file so players can’t edit your game
• the Quest Packager, which lets you turn your game into a stand-alone Setup EXE file for Windows machines

There have also been a handful of bug fixes, both from this version and from version 4.1.3, which was only quietly announced on the forums:

You can download Quest 4.1.4 from http://www.axeuk.com/quest/

The first Quest 5.0 Technical Preview version is now available.

This is a very early release. Most importantly, it’s limited to hand-coding games (there’s no visual editor yet), and there’s no support for games for earlier versions of Quest. These features will be added over the coming months/years (it’s going to be quite a while even before the first proper beta versions).

You can download it from the new Quest 5.0 wiki at quest5.net

If you have any feedback or questions, please drop me an email or see the forums.

Enjoy!

Quest 4.1.2 is now available.

This release improves the performance of large games.

It also fixes the following bugs:

• A run-time error could occur when typing “put on” if that command did not exist.
• Locked exits weren’t working in packaged games.
• Some container-related messages were not present in the LDF file.

If the JAWS screen-reader is running, QDK now shows the old-style menus and toolbars as these are easier for the screen-reader to work with. In addition there is a new “Go To” menu for JAWS users which makes it easier to select items from the Treeview.

Quest Pro users can download the update from http://www.axeuk.com/mydownloads

Non-Pro users can download the update from http://www.axeuk.com/quest/quest412.exe

This weekend’s second Quest release is the test version of our next upgrade, Quest 4.1 Beta.

I’ve already blogged about this release here, and you can now download it for testing:

• Quest Pro users can download it from the My Downloads area
• If you’re not a Quest Pro user, you can download the trial version by clicking here

Please note this version is intended for testing only – we strong recommend you keep backup copies of any game you’re working on. We also recommend you install to a separate folder so you can keep your existing Quest installation.

Also please note that the documentation has not yet been updated.

Below is an overview of what’s new. For further details, you can check the VERSIONS.TXT and VERSIONS-QDK.TXT files the folder where you installed Quest.

Quest Packager (part of Quest Pro only)

This is a new product that lets you create a setup EXE file for your game, so your users can install it just like any Windows application. No longer do you need to tell people to download Quest separately – you can just send them an EXE file that will install your game for you. This opens up the possibility of submitting your game to software download sites, greatly increasing the number of people you can reach!

Quest

– Lockable exits
– Exits are implemented as objects, so you can check their status using the Object Debugger.
– You can now do “for each exit in game/<room>” to iterate through all exit objects.
– You can now specify a script when using “create exit”.
– You can now destroy directional exits e.g. “destroy exit <room1; northeast>”
– QSG files no longer save redundant property and action information, so saving and loading games is now much more efficient.
– For ASL 410 and later, the “visited” property for a room is now set only after the description for the room is printed, so you can print a different description if the player has visited the room before.
– New error “defaultwait” lets you specify default prompt for the “wait” command.
– Can now use “for each room in game” to get a list of rooms in the game.

The following bugs have been fixed:

– objects overriding actions specified by more than one type wouldn’t override correctly.
– objects and rooms created via the “create” command didn’t pick up the “default” and “defaultroom” types. This has been fixed only for ASL 410 and later to preserve backwards compatibility.

QDK

QDK has had major internal changes, and has a cleaner look.

– New toolbars
– Word-processor style text editor is now used for editing room descriptions, text blocks, and “print a message” scripts.
– Procedures, functions, timers, object types, status variables, synonyms, menus and resources are now accessed via the tree instead of the menus.
– “Back” and “Forward” buttons on the toolbar
– New exit editor for rooms combines the old “Compass” and “Go to” tabs, and allows for editing lockable exits.

Because QDK now uses some .NET 2.0 SP1 components, QDK no longer runs on Windows 98 or earlier. Windows 2000 or later is required to run QDK.

Other changes

As reported earlier, QuestNet Server is no longer part of Quest 4.1.

Testing

As this is a beta release, please be aware that you will almost certainly encounter bugs. Please do report any you find – please email me at alex@axeuk.com. As we have done with previous betas, I will be awarding the people who submit the most helpful bug reports with free Amazon vouchers. So please get testing and let me know your feedback!

Quest 4.0.5 is now available.

If you’re a Quest Pro user, you can download your update from the “My Downloads” area at http://www.axeuk.com/mydownloads

Otherwise you can download Quest 4.0.5 from http://www.axeuk.com/quest/download.htm

This is a bug-fix release, which addresses the following bugs:

Quest
– fixed various crashes when running using JAWS.
– when connecting to a QuestNet game with a blank title, Quest wouldn’t successfully connect to the game.
– when double-clicking a QSG file in Explorer, if the ASL/CAS file was not found and you chose not to find it, quest.exe would remain running in the background.
– The word “and” was hard-coded (for room descriptions “You can see …, … and …”). This has now been added to the LDF file so it can be translated.
– Variable names containing capital letters could cause a run-time error.
– If a game contained parameters with no end-of-parameter “>” character, no error would be reported.

QuestNet Server
– “disconnect” admin command didn’t work.

QDK

– No changes.

Other changes
– QuestNet Server is no longer being actively developed – I am currently working on the next major version of Quest, version 4.1, and this will not include QuestNet Server. Unless any bugs are found, this will be the last version of QuestNet Server. The “Pro” version is now included with Quest Pro, and is no longer available for sale separately.
– There is a slight change to the version numbering convention – this version is called 4.0.5 instead of 4.05. 

Quest 4.04 is now available.

If you’re a Quest Pro user, you can download your update from the new “My Downloads” area at http://www.axeuk.com/mydownloads

Otherwise you can download Quest 4.04 from http://www.axeuk.com/quest/download.htm

This is a bug-fix release, which addresses the following:

Quest
– fixed run-time error displaying collectables in Quest 2.x games.
– a run-time error occurred if a game’s default font name was invalid.
– a run-time error could occur if variables were accessed using different cases.
– CAS files with resources which used “define menu” blocks wouldn’t load correctly.
– verbs defined with capital letters wouldn’t work correctly.
– an object inside a container which was itself inside a closed container could still be taken. The container logic has been improved to recurse properly through the parent containers of an object before allowing it to be taken, opened, closed, added or removed.

QDK
– fixed various crashes when running using JAWS.
– fixed bug with “else” script being corrupted when nested “if” statements were used which only contained one-line “then” and “else” statements.

Quest 4.03 is now available.If you’ve already got Quest or Quest Pro, the easiest way to update is by selecting “Check for updates” from the “Help” menu in Quest or QDK. If you’re not already a user, you can download Quest from http://www.axeuk.com/quest/

Here’s what’s new:

QDK

• The Script Editor’s functions are now available from a menu (with keyboard shortcuts) as well as from the toolbar.
• Added “Allow players to use abbreviated object names” game option.
• Slightly increased the size of the Object Type box to display correctly in Windows Vista.
• If QCompile is launched from QDK and fails to compile the file, it now displays error information.
• Fixed bugs:
  • a run-time error occurred when removing a synonym.
  • double-clicking a script line in the Script Editor would cause it to be changed.

Quest

• The command entry box now uses the same font and fontsize as the game.
• You can now turn off the player’s ability to use abbreviated object names, by adding “abbreviations off” to the “define options” block.
• Quest now writes an error to the ASL log if an internal error occurs while running a script command, instead of quitting with an error message.
• Fixed bugs:
  • fixed run-time error when opening some large games.
  • fixed problem where “if” statements of the form “if … then if … and/or … then …” would be processed incorrectly.
  • QCompile wouldn’t add a WAV file to a CAS if the playwav command did not include the file extension.
  • a run-time error would occur if the “clone” command was used in an object’s “action” script.

Quest 4.02 is now available.

If you’ve already got Quest or Quest Pro, the easiest way to update is by selecting “Check for updates” from the “Help” menu in Quest or QDK. If you’re not already a user, you can download Quest from http://www.axeuk.com/quest/

This release fixes a few minor bugs in Quest and QDK, including a few issues with Windows Vista.

Quest 4.0 has finally been released, after a few months of beta testing.

QDK, the visual Quest editor, features a completely redesigned interface – it’s now easier and faster to edit your games, and the editing is handled within one main screen, so you’ll see less pop-up windows. Much of the internal code has been rewritten too, making QDK much more robust and reliable.

New features in Quest:

• containers
• verbs make it easier to set up custom commands
• you can now embed pictures, sounds etc. within your game file (using Quest Compiler)
• you can use more complex mathematical expressions within statements
• numeric variables are no longer forced to be integers, so you can use decimals and much larger numbers
• new Object Debugger gives you more power when debugging your game – when you’re developing your game, you can change object properties and “jump” around it while it is in progress
• “select case” (switch) support
• MP3 support
• pictures are now displayed within the main text window

To find out more, to order Quest Pro or to download a trial version, please go to http://www.axeuk.com/quest

We hope you enjoy using the new version of Quest – please contact us via the “Contact Us” link on the website if you have any questions, suggestions or problems.