legendary Monks liberated by Revolution

[Brian Thomas]

"Legendary Š almost defies description" was 
MacUser magazine's description of the original 
1988 HyperCard classic, If Monks had Macs.

"If Monks had Windows -- they'd jump out of 
them!" was the reaction of the first programmer 
that I talked to about moving If Monks from Macs 
to Windows. That was in 1995 -- long before the 
Revolution.

Over the following decade I tried...

::  MacroMedia Director
     (they built the Bob Dylan CD-ROM in director 
and you couldn't even do a simple find thru 
Dylan's lyrics!)

:: Quicktime Interactive -- HyperCard as a front end for Quicktime      
    (vaporized)

:: OMO, Oracle Media Objects
    (you couldn't build a sensuous believable 
world that linked interconnected stacks  - our 
library has 24 volumes)

:: the beta of SuperCard for Windows
    (there was a reason it was never released)

:: mTropolis
    (cool, but you can't build applications and it's been dead for many years)

And finally, MetaCard and Revolution. And, I have 
to say, after all I've been through, these 
programs do Windows well. What a joy it was to 
move files over to Windows time after time and 
know they were going to work perfectly. (I can't 
resist saying if only OS X had been that easy -- 
but I think it probably is that easy NOW. Windows 
had been conquered long before I started using 
MetaCard and now OS X will be that way for new 
users.)

So, 15 years later, the longest running project 
in the history of interactive media has arrived 
thanks to the MetaCard and Revolution teams, the 
beta testers ...

and the If Monks programmers:

:: RICHARD GASKIN of Fourth World Media 
Corporation helped tie most of the project 
together and developed two amazing applications. 
First, our unique threaded journaling 
application. (With our threaded journal you can 
shape the way you look at yourself and your 
world.) AND second, Sophie, our new e-book reader 
which you can learn more about and download from 
FourthWorld.com:

http://www.fourthworld.com/products/sophie/index.html

:: TUVIAH SNYDER moved the journal onto 
Revolution, developed a new game for us AND was 
invaluable as a MetaCard and then a Revolution 
employee helping us make the "MYST" like opening 
with its seamless integration of HyperCard and 
Quicktime work, well, seamlessly.

:: JEANNE DeVOTO programmed the way our giant 
images of the Tower of Babel scroll smoothly and 
elegantly across the screen AND served as 
technical coordinator for the conclusion of the 
project.

:: JACQUELINE LANDMAN GAY, during one of the many 
delays in the project, programmed many of the 
features she had developed for her own solitaire 
games into "Killing Time," the game that Tuviah 
helped me develop. Killing Time, is a solitaire 
game for monks. Now everyone can "kill time 
without injuring eternity" -- everyone can 
practice safe-solitaire."

:: SARAH REICHELT responded to a question 
addressed to this list a couple of weeks ago 
about how I could overcome issues with the long 
time it takes OS X to learn to associate files 
with their applications. I hired her to write the 
AppleScript she suggested and was able to ship on 
schedule.

------------

So, what is If Monks...?

A hearty stew of interactive books, games, art, 
music and more, you can find out more about If 
Monks had Macs here:

http://www.rivertext.com/

The only other thing I wish to say is that if 
anyone asks you, "Can Revolution do stylish 
innovative cross-platform CD-ROMs that include 
games and sophisticated intellectual tools?"

The answer is yes.

-- 
Brian

http://www.rivertext.com/

If Monks had Macs - the director's cut
is now shipping for Windows as well as Macs