Graphic Adventure Creator

Graphic Adventure Creator
Interpreter, Authoring system
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Link
Developer	Sean Ellis
Format	Other
Interaction style	Parser
Systems	BBC Micro/Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64/128, Sinclair ZX Spectrum
System details
Latest version
Status	Stable
Uses interpreter
License	Commercial
Notes
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The Graphic Adventure Creator (a.k.a. GAC) was an authoring system published in 1985 by Incentive Software. The original Amstrad CPC version was created by Sean Ellis; it was ported to the Spectrum by Brendan Kelly, to the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron by Dave Kirby and to the Commodore 64 by The Kid. Over 300 games have been made (or ported) using the system.

As well as the original English language version, the system was released in German.

The Adventure Creator

A text-only variant of the system, called The Adventure Creator, was released for the BBC and Electron.

GAC+

An improved version of the system was touted by Incentive. Unfortunately, a true plus version of the software was never released.

The GAC+ name was eventually used for an upgrade of the C64 version of the system that was exclusively distributed by Adventure Probe. This edition was little more than the modified version of the system released in the US; with its disk support and routines for multi-load games.

Utilities

Various support programs, utilities and code snippets exist that can be used in conjunction with the GAC on certain platforms

• The Essential Myth published GACpac for the ZX Spectrum version of the system; which include database optimisation, spell-checking and other editing tools.
• Kelsoft produced The Reclaimer, a tool for the ZX Spectrum version, to counter one of the database memory issue "bugs".
• Don Macleod created a GAC Database Utility for the C64 version of the GAC, which added a way to print out the game database and some tools to tackle the database memory issues.
• Bruce Abbott has produced a "fast fill" patch for Amstrad CPC that greatly improves the speed at which the graphics are drawn.

Interpreters

In common with other 8-bit adventure systems of the time, such as The Quill, the version of the authoring system on each platform would generate a finished game file complete with an integrated interpreter. There was no easy way for general users to transfer game code from one platform to another.

Most games can be played on modern systems with the Grackle interpreter. Kien Vincent has produced GACPlayer; a text-only interpreter for Raspberry Pi and Linux, which can run Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and C64 snapshots.

Dissemblers

The game code of finished, compiled adventures can be extracted using a dissembler such as unGAC or Grackle.

See also

• STAC, a later port of Graphic Adventure Creator for the Atari ST.

Links

• List of GAC games A list of games created or ported using GAC at CASA.
• Graphic Adventure Creator - at Wikipedia.

Reviews

• The Graphic Adventure Creator - CRASH Issue 32, September 1986.
• The Price of Magic (Programmer Anthony Bailey compares the GAC and PAW utilities) - CRASH Issue 50, March 1988.

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