progress is being made and I have fleshed out much more of the new object system, several of the object routines are done now (for instance, "battle animation" causes the screen to jitter about {used before a battle} and "interact check" lets an object see if the player tried to interact at its direction).  A number of object related issues are currently a cause of much deliberation such as the optimal mehtod to alow an object to act as a solid wall type object, how to start a battle, etc. but I will hammer these out as I go (right now I am just using place holder code).

The entire new game engine is fully up though it is still rather stripped of functionality from lack of the many objects, as such it is not possible to give a prediction of how much the speed has changed.  All in all, this system does work well though as it allows for a high level of abstraction and is motivating to work on as you can quickly build an object to, say, create a bridge across a chasm or door that requires an item to open fairly fast.

Sadly, I seem to be cursed in all of my efforts at asm so a number of issues have hindered in certain aspects of my progress.

Id like to use asm for certain graphics but it hasn't worked out.  The 83 version is currently basic and xlib only.

I will release the first demo simulataneosly with a new demo for combat ball and with necro's rpg tutorial 1 (now finished), hopefully some time soon.

well, I am currently learning asm (I actualy have got it to display text, and draw sprites) and I am trying to make certain parts of the game assembly (such as battle/magic animations).  So, I am currently making less progress but should be able to make the game smaller, faster, and better this way.

and learn asm in 28 days is terrible

I'm glad to hear lot of people are attempting assembly atm, I am curious what they will come up with in the near future

well, I am going to try out the gs programming pack and see if I can get the game to work well enough to make both calc versions in gs.  The pc version is still using full color and larger graphics, sounds and such.

Well, I will be realeasing a full blown movie trailer with the next batch, which may be a little while off.  I found Windows Movie Maker hiden in my c drive's bundle, and its a wonderfuly easy program.  Add music, sounds, pictures, and movies all rather simply with a few drags, so far my test looks quite nice, will be great when I actualy put the real game footage in.

Game has actualy undergone some major changes, story and combat have been trimmed of most of their fat to make this whole thing more do-able.

Poke.