<![CDATA[Midnight Mansion Forums - Dominator]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/ Sat, 02 May 2026 13:18:33 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[ResNotFound]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1403 Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:50:31 -0400 jbrown1988]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1403
When I try to play this one and StarCraft, I get an error message, -192(resNot Found).

I'm pretty sure I have the updated version on MM. I have 1.2.0. I just re-downloaded yesterday.
:'(
]]>
When I try to play this one and StarCraft, I get an error message, -192(resNot Found).

I'm pretty sure I have the updated version on MM. I have 1.2.0. I just re-downloaded yesterday.
:'(
]]> <![CDATA[Re: Dominator]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=283 Sun, 11 Mar 2007 07:16:44 -0400 Mikee]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=283
But With this Game data and I understood it not yet completely in such a way...  :-[]]>
But With this Game data and I understood it not yet completely in such a way...  :-[]]> <![CDATA[Impressions]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=327 Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:00:27 -0500 Psychotronic]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=327
So. I just finished the mansion with like 71% secrets and 70 minutes or so on the clock. I'll just share my first impressions, and if I think of stuff later, I'll let you know.

First off: Holy cow, this must have been a lot of work. It's crazy! Everything is different! It often feels like a totally new game. It kept the
New Game!
pleasure centers in my brain activated the whole time I was playing, and that's a testament both to the novelty of the graphics and to the level design. It was a great idea to move the player down to the moon halfway through, because it mixes up the graphics right about the time when I was getting tired of the Dominator. And keeping so many of the droids a secret until you get to the moon is fantastic. Big thumbs up for the robot hand on the title screen.

I quite liked the music. There's some upper-register stuff that could conceivably start grating on my nerves if I had to listen to it endlessly, but it established a very nice light-hearted mood at the beginning that fits with the whimsical main character, and also contrasts nicely with the more sinister tunes later on.

I almost hate to criticize the graphics, because you obviously put so much time and love into them, but what the heck. I think there's mixed success, here, not because any of the new graphics are bad, but because they don't all really seem to go together. Some tiles have detailed photoshop textures, while others are very flat, and when the two different styles try to co-exist on the same screen, I feel a little uncomfortable. And then mix the 3D shaded droids with the 2D hand-drawn droids, and all the new sprites, and it starts to get hard to look at. I got used to it as I played, but the overall impression was cluttered and chaotic. I think the individual tiles would look good, but they need to exist in a world that suits them and doesn't clash.

I think it also has something to do with your habit of cramming every screen full of as many sprites as humanly possible, and using almost no areas of solid blocks. The rooms look flimsy and junky as a result, and the tiles don't feel substantial. It's an element of your level design style, and I don't think I'm going to convince you to change it, but I really think it hurts the overall aesthetic appeal.

But again, I really liked most of the individual elements. Each unique droid enemy is charming and menacing in a cute, Midnight-Mansion-in-space way, and I never had any trouble knowing when I was close enough to get killed by one (which is very, very important when you're switching out sprites). The AT-ATs on the moon are brilliant. Brilliant. Except they need their own sound. There's got to be an AT-AT-ish sound (or ED209 from Robocop -ish) available somewhere. Anyway, the backgrounds are awesome, to the point where I didn't even notice them at first, they looked so natural. And then I climbed down into a secret room under the Dominator where I could see the stars, and I just thought: wow. This is cool.

The biggest problem I had, which is the same problem I had in TOTOMBS, is that so many of the walls that look perfectly solid can be walked through. It makes for some decent puzzles, and it kept me alert, but I got so that I was constantly irritated at having to test every wall. I shouldn't have to test every wall, because Jack (excuse me - JAC) should be able to tell at a glance what is solid and what is not. There's a clog of insubstantial ropes here and there that cause similar problems. The game is simply more fun when I can tell right away what I can touch and what I can't, so I'm not jumping against walls inanely when I could be exploring and solving puzzles and jumping over droids.

Oh, and before I forget: PUT POLES IN LAYER FOUR! I could have easily flown off to the side and died about ninety times on my trip down to the moon.

But the level design overall was very good. There's a nice mixture of linear sections with more open-ended areas, and I really felt like I was exploring a huge space station a lot of the time. In fact, the level design was good enough so that I forgot about it for most of the time and just enjoyed the game, which is a very good place to be. I don't quite understand using multi-color keys to open multi-color doors, since that's not what they're for at all, but a lot of people are doing that these days and I don't know how to stop it from happening. I often accumulated keys when I had no idea what door they would go to, but I never found myself without a key that I needed for long, so that wasn't a problem either. Finished it on my first playthrough, which I would say puts the difficulty at a solid Easy/Normal. There's a couple of rooms that killed me pointlessly several times, but I didn't play with Debug Mode on, so I couldn't tell you the room numbers. I'm attaching the movie of my run, so with any luck, you can see them.

Despite the criticisms, I really enjoyed playing through the mansion. And again, I can appreciate the insane amount of work you put into it. I hope somebody uses the tile set to compose their own mansion, because it would be very nice to see JAC's world expanded even more.

.zip   Dominator_Movie.zip (Size: 19.53 KB / Downloads: 1) ]]>
So. I just finished the mansion with like 71% secrets and 70 minutes or so on the clock. I'll just share my first impressions, and if I think of stuff later, I'll let you know.

First off: Holy cow, this must have been a lot of work. It's crazy! Everything is different! It often feels like a totally new game. It kept the
New Game!
pleasure centers in my brain activated the whole time I was playing, and that's a testament both to the novelty of the graphics and to the level design. It was a great idea to move the player down to the moon halfway through, because it mixes up the graphics right about the time when I was getting tired of the Dominator. And keeping so many of the droids a secret until you get to the moon is fantastic. Big thumbs up for the robot hand on the title screen.

I quite liked the music. There's some upper-register stuff that could conceivably start grating on my nerves if I had to listen to it endlessly, but it established a very nice light-hearted mood at the beginning that fits with the whimsical main character, and also contrasts nicely with the more sinister tunes later on.

I almost hate to criticize the graphics, because you obviously put so much time and love into them, but what the heck. I think there's mixed success, here, not because any of the new graphics are bad, but because they don't all really seem to go together. Some tiles have detailed photoshop textures, while others are very flat, and when the two different styles try to co-exist on the same screen, I feel a little uncomfortable. And then mix the 3D shaded droids with the 2D hand-drawn droids, and all the new sprites, and it starts to get hard to look at. I got used to it as I played, but the overall impression was cluttered and chaotic. I think the individual tiles would look good, but they need to exist in a world that suits them and doesn't clash.

I think it also has something to do with your habit of cramming every screen full of as many sprites as humanly possible, and using almost no areas of solid blocks. The rooms look flimsy and junky as a result, and the tiles don't feel substantial. It's an element of your level design style, and I don't think I'm going to convince you to change it, but I really think it hurts the overall aesthetic appeal.

But again, I really liked most of the individual elements. Each unique droid enemy is charming and menacing in a cute, Midnight-Mansion-in-space way, and I never had any trouble knowing when I was close enough to get killed by one (which is very, very important when you're switching out sprites). The AT-ATs on the moon are brilliant. Brilliant. Except they need their own sound. There's got to be an AT-AT-ish sound (or ED209 from Robocop -ish) available somewhere. Anyway, the backgrounds are awesome, to the point where I didn't even notice them at first, they looked so natural. And then I climbed down into a secret room under the Dominator where I could see the stars, and I just thought: wow. This is cool.

The biggest problem I had, which is the same problem I had in TOTOMBS, is that so many of the walls that look perfectly solid can be walked through. It makes for some decent puzzles, and it kept me alert, but I got so that I was constantly irritated at having to test every wall. I shouldn't have to test every wall, because Jack (excuse me - JAC) should be able to tell at a glance what is solid and what is not. There's a clog of insubstantial ropes here and there that cause similar problems. The game is simply more fun when I can tell right away what I can touch and what I can't, so I'm not jumping against walls inanely when I could be exploring and solving puzzles and jumping over droids.

Oh, and before I forget: PUT POLES IN LAYER FOUR! I could have easily flown off to the side and died about ninety times on my trip down to the moon.

But the level design overall was very good. There's a nice mixture of linear sections with more open-ended areas, and I really felt like I was exploring a huge space station a lot of the time. In fact, the level design was good enough so that I forgot about it for most of the time and just enjoyed the game, which is a very good place to be. I don't quite understand using multi-color keys to open multi-color doors, since that's not what they're for at all, but a lot of people are doing that these days and I don't know how to stop it from happening. I often accumulated keys when I had no idea what door they would go to, but I never found myself without a key that I needed for long, so that wasn't a problem either. Finished it on my first playthrough, which I would say puts the difficulty at a solid Easy/Normal. There's a couple of rooms that killed me pointlessly several times, but I didn't play with Debug Mode on, so I couldn't tell you the room numbers. I'm attaching the movie of my run, so with any luck, you can see them.

Despite the criticisms, I really enjoyed playing through the mansion. And again, I can appreciate the insane amount of work you put into it. I hope somebody uses the tile set to compose their own mansion, because it would be very nice to see JAC's world expanded even more.

.zip   Dominator_Movie.zip (Size: 19.53 KB / Downloads: 1) ]]> <![CDATA[Downloadable now!]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=322 Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:58:48 -0500 Freddy]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=322 3 Lists Dominator is there for you all.

After downloading you have a folder that contains the mansion, a sub-folder with data AND a read-me-first textfile. Well, read it first! That always helps. Wink

Because of the included data in the subfolder, keep in mind that the downloadingprocess may take a while: a few minutes.]]> 3 Lists Dominator is there for you all.

After downloading you have a folder that contains the mansion, a sub-folder with data AND a read-me-first textfile. Well, read it first! That always helps. Wink

Because of the included data in the subfolder, keep in mind that the downloadingprocess may take a while: a few minutes.]]> <![CDATA[Dominator beta testers]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=264 Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:41:44 -0500 joeb]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=264
1. It will be a BIG upload.
2. You MUST know how to move the 3 mansion resource files to a safe place and replace them with the custom files. Screens and music as well.
3. You will need some MM skills, newbies will get frustrated. This is a medium hard to hard mansion.
4. Jack has been totally replaced with JAC (Just Another Cyborg). It takes a little getting used to.
5. I've played the entire mansion about 5 times but we're sure there are dozens of little bugs, there always are.
6. There are 132 rooms and most of what you are used to with MM doesn't apply as far as platforms, ladders, switches, money (replaced with batteries and battery packs), keys (replaced with access cards), doors, etc., etc. are concerned
7. Looking for four testers. We'll send the files to you directly at the end of this week. 2/16/07
8. Looking for JAC stucks, overly difficult rooms, anything that will get the admins upset.
9. There are
sins
in this mansion although minor. All of them can generally be overcome with either speedy fingers or patience. The fun of Dominator is figuring when to use which.

Please PM us if interested.

Thanks,

Matt & Joe]]>
1. It will be a BIG upload.
2. You MUST know how to move the 3 mansion resource files to a safe place and replace them with the custom files. Screens and music as well.
3. You will need some MM skills, newbies will get frustrated. This is a medium hard to hard mansion.
4. Jack has been totally replaced with JAC (Just Another Cyborg). It takes a little getting used to.
5. I've played the entire mansion about 5 times but we're sure there are dozens of little bugs, there always are.
6. There are 132 rooms and most of what you are used to with MM doesn't apply as far as platforms, ladders, switches, money (replaced with batteries and battery packs), keys (replaced with access cards), doors, etc., etc. are concerned
7. Looking for four testers. We'll send the files to you directly at the end of this week. 2/16/07
8. Looking for JAC stucks, overly difficult rooms, anything that will get the admins upset.
9. There are
sins
in this mansion although minor. All of them can generally be overcome with either speedy fingers or patience. The fun of Dominator is figuring when to use which.

Please PM us if interested.

Thanks,

Matt & Joe]]> <![CDATA[Dominator]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=252 Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:49:33 -0500 joeb]]> https://actionsoft.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=252
I've only been back for a day but here I am learning already....

Didn't know about the multiple music file options. I tried something similar with the background screens and it doesn't seem to take anything over 6.

Glad that others are starting to do serious modifications to MM. When I started on this a long time ago in a galaxy far far away only a couple of people were doing it but now it seems as if a whole new group is taking on the challenge.

I also have had Bias and SoundConverter but they both seem to not like the Intel Macs and I have had issues on the PPC platform similar to what you're seeing. So I guess for the time being I'll keep the SoundApp solution which although a little hokey does do the job. I've also been playing around with another nifty little piece of code called Soundflowerbed which allows me to do virtual patching between music/sound applications using Apple IAC. I'd like to get a midi interface for my old Roland D-10 but since I just dabble in music I don't want to spend a lot on an interface that will spend most of it's time collecting dust.
For Dominator I wanted to create John Williams type music but the first 2 things I've come up with are based strictly on Apple Loops. And it's been Matt doing that. I'm working on a 3rd piece written completely by hand but working with the music typing and miniscule keyboard in Garageband has made me pull out the Roland and an old Yamaha and I think I'll wind up in Finale which is more robust for
real
music but also carries that nasty learning curve thing.

As far as DS goes believe it or not it actually started on the Mac (or so I've been told) but like most software has taken a turn to the Dark Side. Take you time with it and don't make the mistake I did by assuming I could go straight from DS to MM graphics. Then you wind up in that annoying
Oh crap, the edges look terrible
mode. Just make PS posting part of the process and you'll see how much easier it becomes. I'm probably what would be considered a proficient DS user so PLEASE don't hesitate to ask me for help and again, I do have a ton of content so let me know if you can't find something.

In the same vein I'm probably going to ask you guys a lot of sound stuff. Finally what mansions have you guys put together so I can go get inpired to finish the dilithium mines and get Dominator posted.  Matt's also looking to play some new mansions so any suggestions would be welcome.

And now back to that annoying work thing.....

later,

joeb]]>
I've only been back for a day but here I am learning already....

Didn't know about the multiple music file options. I tried something similar with the background screens and it doesn't seem to take anything over 6.

Glad that others are starting to do serious modifications to MM. When I started on this a long time ago in a galaxy far far away only a couple of people were doing it but now it seems as if a whole new group is taking on the challenge.

I also have had Bias and SoundConverter but they both seem to not like the Intel Macs and I have had issues on the PPC platform similar to what you're seeing. So I guess for the time being I'll keep the SoundApp solution which although a little hokey does do the job. I've also been playing around with another nifty little piece of code called Soundflowerbed which allows me to do virtual patching between music/sound applications using Apple IAC. I'd like to get a midi interface for my old Roland D-10 but since I just dabble in music I don't want to spend a lot on an interface that will spend most of it's time collecting dust.
For Dominator I wanted to create John Williams type music but the first 2 things I've come up with are based strictly on Apple Loops. And it's been Matt doing that. I'm working on a 3rd piece written completely by hand but working with the music typing and miniscule keyboard in Garageband has made me pull out the Roland and an old Yamaha and I think I'll wind up in Finale which is more robust for
real
music but also carries that nasty learning curve thing.

As far as DS goes believe it or not it actually started on the Mac (or so I've been told) but like most software has taken a turn to the Dark Side. Take you time with it and don't make the mistake I did by assuming I could go straight from DS to MM graphics. Then you wind up in that annoying
Oh crap, the edges look terrible
mode. Just make PS posting part of the process and you'll see how much easier it becomes. I'm probably what would be considered a proficient DS user so PLEASE don't hesitate to ask me for help and again, I do have a ton of content so let me know if you can't find something.

In the same vein I'm probably going to ask you guys a lot of sound stuff. Finally what mansions have you guys put together so I can go get inpired to finish the dilithium mines and get Dominator posted.  Matt's also looking to play some new mansions so any suggestions would be welcome.

And now back to that annoying work thing.....

later,

joeb]]>