I have to admit, Power Pete was the best game for a while back in the day. I figured that if there was a forum with people that would know about it, it would be this one. I've got something that might interest you folks.

A long time back, maybe a few years ago, I used an old copy of RealBasic to write a few programs that could display images (screens & characters) from the game. My ultimate goal was to write a program that could open up map files, edit them, and then save them, so that you folks could go and edit the game and rebuild it however you wanted. From my perspective, Power Pete was a very extensible game engine. The author even had the source to the game up for sale back when it came out, however I don't think anyone bought it.

I had a lot of hope for this project. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time finding the same thing I do interesting. The programs I wrote never had saving capabilities, my experience as a programmer was limited, and thus the programs kind of just died. I'm hoping at least one of you guys finds this interesting because right now I'm re-opening this great big old can of worms here. By tonight I hope to have something you guys can play around with.

- GV

Edit: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IX9QXRZ0 MpTox OSX (scroll down for more info)

I loved playing Power Pete back in the day. If an editor existed, I would definitely play around with it.

Welcome to the boards. You're right that you'll probably find as many Power Pete players here as anywhere else. It looks like Pangea doesn't have its own forums (in fact it looks like Brian Greenstone runs the website by himself), or else I'd suggest posting there.

I'm on an Intel Mac these days, as are more and more users, so we can't play Power Pete anymore (at least without emulation). If it weren't for that, I'd probably play around with your editor, assuming it had a quality interface.

Thanks for the welcome. I must have guessed correctly in choosing this board.

I'm trying to get a working version of the program up, and it shouldn't take too long, I've already spent about 7+ hours on it, and there is an interface... It just can't really open anything yet. I've got the decompression code working (I think), but no image/graphics parsing code... I'm actually taking all this from old code I wrote, so most of the work I've done now involves cleaning up that code.

After I get the graphics & image code working, it's going to take me a while to decipher the level format, (I never figured it out back in the day), and then I'll have to get a GUI working, which means wrestling with RB. It can be a time saver, if you know what you're doing...

Anyway, be prepared to see a working graphics / image program here, but it's going to be a while before I can get an actual level editor... Off to work now.

- GV

I don't know if RealBasic will be able to do all this but if it's the only language you know then I guess it's what you gotta use. Good luck either way.

RealBasic is actually quite versatile. I have been able to successfully load up image, graphic, and tileset files from Power Pete in the past. Displaying the images and then saving them to the harddrive is no problem. RB is quite fast when it comes to things that it has already has a method to implement them, like displaying graphics. The reason I say that is because when I use my decompression program to decompress the PP files (most of the are actually compressed, they would normally be around 300-500 kb but compressed are around 30 - 50), it takes maybe about 10 seconds, whereas the actual PP game can do it instantaneously. The code I write all has to be interpretted by the compiler, whereas, no doubt, most of PP uses assembly which means whatever amount of optimization the author wishes to use, he can use.
So on the upside, I can get RB Apps out quite quickly, without having to test every single thing. They can be a bit slow, but the GUI doesn't suck, and it's useable. If anyone's taken a look at OreoEdit... god.
Also, yeah, I don't know much C/Cpp outside of console text manipulation... Interfaces and stuff like that would be a nightmare for me. RB is like tinker toys as C/Cpp/Assembly is like getting all the materials yourself and making plastic molds to manufacture tinker toys... granted, you could make tinker toys with weird shapes, but it takes forever...
I hope my analogies aren't too far out there for guys This definately is not totally important but I felt like writing a bit.

- GV

I've finished the image viewing code and redone the decompression code... it now takes way less time to decompress than before. Like, it's almost instantaneous. I didn't think it was possible but I guess it is...

Anyway, you can download the program here, and Mighty Mike if you don't already have it. Open up MpTox OSX, click the splash screen, then click on the console that pops up. Type "o." It'll ask you to open a file. Navigate to the Mighty Mike / Power Pete folder, then "Images," then click on one of the items. Once you open it, the file manager window will come up, so then you can click on the item you've just opened and hit "edit." The image will show up. You can load as many images as you like.

Some things:
If you hit edit, and there's already a window open for that file, another will pop up. I don't suppose that's a problem right now, but it will get fixed later...
The file manager may be a bit buggy, the only problem I know of now is that if you use the arrow keys, the popup menu won't change.
It only supports images right now. I'll be working only the shape (graphics) viewing code tomorrow. After that, I'll implement a method for loading new images and saving them, and then after that, I'll start work on the actual map (level) editor.
The menu doesn't exist. D'oh.
Behind the scenes, the code is quite neat, compared to my last bits of work, however theres lots that I want to improve. That might create a bit more time between you guys actually getting releases.

If you have any comments on the interface, or other things you'd like to see changed, tell me! Please! I'll accept all the input I get, provided it's constructive.

Also, why am I releasing this now, instead of finishing up all the features and releasing it when it's ready? I have lots of stuff I should be doing (like sleeping... it's 2 am right now) besides this, but when I know that people are waiting on me and they want to see stuff, I'm just that much more motivated.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IX9QXRZ0 MpTox OSX
http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=10487 Mighty Mike Shareware

Edit: I'm using megaupload because I know of no better alternative... Help me out here, guys? I don't have a website at this point... Also, it's a zip file, because I don't want to figure out if/where stuffit is on this computer, so it won't work on classic... Sorry guys!

- GV

Wow, that's some really cool work. Has anyone messed with this, guys? Kind of cool to see something along these lines released so long after the game was released... very very fond memories of that game. Some new maps might be fun...

I could host it if you want, PM me and I can work something out.

Hey all sorry for lack of activity but I'm suffering from this syndrome called "second semester as a high school senior" needless to say getting prepared for college is just loads of fun. Shape code is being added and little bits of functionality are being inserted here and there. Source will be available with the next release for those that are curious.

EVWeb - I've sent you a PM. Awaiting further instructions.