Several months ago, I posted the following message regarding the
release of "Axiom", a universal gaming system.
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.forth/browse_thread/thread/f71fc77303783c61/c385227c3a9f9a3d?#c385227c3a9f9a3d
Axiom is designed primarily to facilitate the creation of "abstract
strategy" games. These are typically, but not necessarily, two
player, perfect information games. Currently, there are now 21 Axiom
games posted at the Zillions site at:
http://www.zillionsofgames.com/
The Axiom toolkit has recently received the "Spotlight" award (see the
above page).
Zillions allows game developers to program their games using a game
specific, but highly reduced subset of a Lisp-like scripting language
(e.g. no variables, macros but no functions, no math capability)
whereas Axiom provides a rich Forth based environment with similar
game specific extensions. Note that the former makes it easier for
beginners, but limits the possible games that can be programmed via
this method. With the full power of Forth available, Axiom blows the
doors wide open.
In addition to myself, three additional game developers have created
Axiom based games. One of the three had once used Forth, the other
two are beginners (I have found that those new to Forth struggle with
the stack - I refer them to Brodie's online books). I am aware of
several more games in the pipeline. It's not a "blockbuster", but I
do consider it to be an example of a successful Forth application and,
at least to me, Forth seems to be nearly ideal for this purpose.
As I mentioned in the original post, the toolkit and all of the games
may be downloaded for free (I cannot vouch for good style in all
cases). These games cannot be played (with the exception of self-play
via the "AutoPlay" program which comes with the Axiom toolkit) without
purchasing an unlock key to Zillions of Game (I have no affiliation
with Zillions). In the future, it may be possible to play all Axiom
games via a freely distributed game client which has been discussed,
but not implemented. However, today if someone were to create a
custom GUI for a specific game, they could use Axiom for free to
produce their game logic and AI.
-- Greg
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