OHRRPGCE

The Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Creation Engine, abbreviated as OHRRPGCE or OHR, is an open-source, "All-in-one" game creation system. It was designed to allow the quick creation of 2D role-playing video games. It was originally written by James Paige in QuickBASIC and released in late 1997 or early 1998,^[1] and a community of hobbyist game developers have released probably well over a thousand amateur games since that time.^[2][3] In May 2005, the source code was released as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), and it was soon ported from QuickBASIC to FreeBASIC.^[4] The community is spread across two websites: SlimeSalad and (now mostly inactive) CastleParadox, with both being open to all game engines, although over the years more than a dozen online magazines, game and review archives, and discussion forums have been devoted to the engine.^[5]

The OHRRPGCE is very simple to use, and full RPGs can be made without any scripting. HamsterSpeak, the scripting language used for the OHR, is very simple and can be picked up with no prior programming knowledge. As it is very specialized with many hundreds of available commands, many things can be done with it, although it does not attempt to be a general-purpose language. HUDs, battle systems, special effects, customized menus, and entirely scripted games are some of the possibilities.^[6]

Description

Most of the OHR's games are amateur and made by novice game developers for experimenting or prototyping. However, other games are full, robust RPGs with gameplay ranging from 2 - 20+ hours. Sidescrollers, puzzle games, and arcade remakes have all been made with the engine.^[6]

Limitations

One of the biggest drawbacks of the engine are its strict technical limitations. It runs at an 8-bit color depth, by default runs at a 320x200 resolution, and its editor does not use a modern graphical user interface toolkit. These are hold-overs from the original Mode X graphics mode used under DOS. Many other restraints are due to the engine originally being written in QuickBasic, and thus having terrible Real mode memory limitations. There are plans for removing most limitations, which the developers have been implementing gradually since the FreeBASIC port.^[7]

Mascot

The engine's mascot is Bob the Hamster, the protagonist of the game of which the engine was originally built for, Wandering Hamster.^[8]

History

The OHRRPGCE was created by James Paige as a generic engine for personal use in about 1997. He decided, though, to release the engine as shareware, offering only a crippled "4-Map" version to the public. Many people wanted the full engine, and James gave it to anybody who could mail him what he deemed a "Good game". After a few months of this, he released the full engine as freeware.^[1][9]

The November 9, 1999 release of the OHR was the first version to include the HamsterSpeak scripting language. The OHRRPGCE does not use version numbers, but rather named versions, starting with the "handshake" release on November 29, 2002.^[10]

On about May 19, 2005 the engine went open-source, and since then has been developed by a team of dedicated programmers. Not long after this, the engine was successfully ported from QuickBasic to FreeBasic to run natively on Windows and GNU/Linux.^[4] The OHRRPGCE gained the ability to play sound files as well as other music formats with the release of "Ubersetzung" on September 21, 2007.^[10][11]

The engine was later ported to Mac OS X in the Zenzizenic release (May 6, 2011), and to Android in the Callipygous release (April 4, 2016), as well as the OUYA, GameStick and Amazon Fire TV Android consoles.^[10] A number of OHRRPGCE games have been released on the Google Play,^[12] OUYA, and other stores.

Comparison with other game engines

RPG Maker Series: Although technically far inferior, the OHR does offer many features that some versions of RPG Maker do not include. These include generally much less restrictive tiling and mapping, a side-view battle system, portraits, a built-in graphics editor, and a simpler, albeit less capable, scripting language. On the other hand, RPG Maker generally offers better story progression tools, higher color depth and resolution, and more complex built-in effects.

Sphere: The OHR is less script-driven than Sphere is, making it much faster. It has more tools, such as built-in graphics editors, a fully working textbox system, combat system, deeper map-editor, and a simpler scripting system. As a whole, the OHR is more streamlined and easier to use than Sphere, but because Sphere is so reliant on scripting, it may possess better results, more complex games, or games of more genres. Although the OHR has been proven capable of recreating many arcade games and has a number of original sidescrollers.

Game Maker: The OHR is specialized towards RPGs, and as such, they are made both more easily and quickly on it. However, Game Maker surpasses the OHR in terms of both graphical limitations, and overall engine flexibility. As with Sphere, scripting knowledge is required to make RPGs in Game Maker.

External links

• O.H.R.RPG.C.E - Official website.
• Castle Paradox - Community site, forums and largest OHRRPGCE game collection.
• Slime Salad - Most active community site, with forums and large game collection. Open to all game developers, not just OHRers.
• Hamster Speak - A monthly web magazine regarding OHRRPGCE games and reviews, no longer published.

References