Page 1 of 1
Everett Kaser games
Posted: November 5th, 2007, 1:16 am
by strtj
Are any of the Everett Kaser games (
http://www.kaser.com) going to be added to this site? I have no idea how popular they were in the rest of the world, but my whole family enjoyed Solitile. My father and I also enjoyed Sherlock for many years. Some of the other games (like Snarf, which his website doesn't even list) were HARD and I haven't played any of his more recent ones. I always really liked the guy, though, because he sent a personal letter and several demo games when my dad registered Solitile.
Posted: November 5th, 2007, 1:26 am
by DOSGuy
I've never heard of him! The short answer is, if he wrote games for DOS that were marketed or distributed, then they're candidates for Classic DOS Games. That is to say, I don't consider a game that John Doe wrote in his high school computer class, that was never played by anyone other than his buddies, to be a "classic" game. If you and your family played and enjoyed these games, then they sound like classic games. I'll have to check out the games to find out if they can be legally distributed but, at first glance, this looks like a good find.
Posted: November 5th, 2007, 3:42 pm
by leilei
I always liked "Hero's Heart" which was super fun
I wasn't aware he even had a site :O
And yes, his games were distributed and found around in the early 90s, and on some shovelware though they're tougher to find there apparently
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: January 2nd, 2008, 10:13 pm
by DOSGuy
Okay, we've got all of Everett Kaser's DOS games on the site now, and he's released Snarf as freeware. There will be an interview shortly.
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: July 19th, 2008, 6:58 pm
by kilodude
Everett lives near me (well he did the last time I talked to him which has been a few years ago) and I've been to his house and he's been to mine. He's a truly nice guy. He included a number of my levels as bonus levels on "Snarf."
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: July 19th, 2008, 7:06 pm
by DOSGuy
Neat! I like hearing about authors from other authors. David P. Gray related to me that he had turned down a number of interviews in the past, but it helped change his mind when he noticed that I had interviewed Nels Anderson, who he considers a friend. It's interesting to me that authors who never worked for the same company sometimes know each other well.
Incidentally, I did interview Everett Kaser, though the interview doesn't appear on the site yet. We talked about his DOS games, but I've found it almost impossible to find copies of his Win16 games, so the interview process kind of got interrupted while I took a break to do more research. I hope to wrap things up soon.
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: July 20th, 2008, 2:29 am
by leilei
It'd be cool if the font used in his earlier DOS games were a .ttf font, since it seems to be shaped proportionally well to fit into Windows.
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: August 7th, 2008, 10:56 pm
by kilodude
DOSGuy wrote:Neat! I like hearing about authors from other authors. David P. Gray related to me that he had turned down a number of interviews in the past, but it helped change his mind when he noticed that I had interviewed Nels Anderson, who he considers a friend. It's interesting to me that authors who never worked for the same company sometimes know each other well.
Incidentally, I did interview Everett Kaser, though the interview doesn't appear on the site yet. We talked about his DOS games, but I've found it almost impossible to find copies of his Win16 games, so the interview process kind of got interrupted while I took a break to do more research. I hope to wrap things up soon.
Which Win16 games are you looking for?
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: August 15th, 2008, 9:46 am
by DOSGuy
Hi Allen.
It was impolite of me not to answer, but for the last couple of weeks I've been involved in a government selection process in an effort to end almost 11 months of unemployment. It would have taken me a while to compile a list of the games I'm looking for, and my brain just rejected the idea of working on any project, large or small, until my competency overviews were written, signed by my validators, and reviewed ad nauseum to ensure that they covered everything that I need to convey within the 8 page limit. With so much at stake, this has been the most stressful process I can remember taking part in. I have no doubt that I possess the competencies that I'm having assessed, but the process is made to be so intimidating that you have to scrutinize every word you write. If you've ever considered trying to get a government job, be advised that you will take a mental and physical toll to get it.
So, that's why there's been such a big gap between updates on the site. I've just sealed the envelope and I'll be taking it to the office in about an hour. I added a couple of games this morning, and I'll try to calm my nerves long enough to get you an answer about those missing games. Hopefully things will return to normal over the weekend.
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: September 5th, 2008, 10:27 pm
by kilodude
DOSGuy wrote:Hi Allen.
It was impolite of me not to answer... If you've ever considered trying to get a government job, be advised that you will take a mental and physical toll to get it.
Not a problem.
P.S. I've had a government job for nearly 12 years so I DO understand.
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:50 am
by DOSGuy
Okay, the long awaited answer to the Everett Kaser question!!! Here's a list of all of Everett Kaser's games, in chronological order.
Code: Select all
Snarf DOS from 1.0 to 2.61 (1988-1993)
Solitile DOS from 1.0 to 3.61 (1989-1994)
Sherlock DOS from 1.1 to 2.07 (1991-1996)
Hero's Heart DOS from 1.0 to 1.52 (1992-1996)
Kosynka DOS from 1.0 to 1.1 (1992)
Sherlock for Windows Win16 from 3.0a to 4.0 (1995-2000), Win9x for 5.0a to 6.0 (2002-2009)
Solitile for Windows Win16 from 4.0 to 4.5a (1997-1999), Win9x from 5.0b to 5.1 (2001-2004)
Dinner With Moriarty Win16 from 1.0 to 1.1a (1997), Win9x for 2.0 (2004)
MESH: Hero's Hearts Win16 from 1.0 to 1.1c (1998), Win9x for 3.0 (2007)
MESH: Hero Defiant Win16 for 1.1c (1998), Win9x for 3.0 (2007)
Descartes Enigma Win16 for 1.1 (1998), Win9x for 2.0 (2003)
Floyd's Bumpershoot Win16 for 1.0 (1999), Win9x for 2.0 (2007)
Honeycomb Hotel Win16 from 1.0 to 1.0a (1999), Win9x for 2.0 (2006)
MESH: Falling Hero Win16 for 2.0 (2000), Win9x for 3.0 (2007)
MESH: Hero's Friends Win16 for 2.0 (2000), Win9x for 3.0 (2007) -- no shareware version
Knarly Works Win16 from 1.0 to 1.1 (2000-2004), Win9x for 2.0 to 2.0a (2005-2006)
Lunatile Win9x for 1.0 to 2.0 (2001-2008)
Knarly Mazes Win9x for 1.0 (2002)
Latin Squares Win9x for 1.0 to 2.0 (2002-2006)
Occam's Quilt Win9x for 1.0 (2003)
Descartes Rainbow Win9x for 1.0 (2003)
Crocotile Win9x for 1.0 (2004)
Watson's Map Win9x for 1.0 (2004)
Knarly Jigs Win9x for 1.0 (2005)
Greek Squares Win9x for 1.0 (2006)
Baker Street Win9x for 1.0 (2006)
Fermat's Fences Win9x for 1.0 (2007)
Knarly Branches Win9x for 1.0 (2007)
Flipitile Win9x for 1.0 (2008)
Scotland Yard Win9x for 1.0 (2008)
Knarly Hexes Win9x for 1.0 (2009)
Inspector Lestrade Win9x for 1.0 (2009)
Knarly Combs Win9x for 1.0 (2010)
The answer to the question is that I can't find any Win16 copies of Descartes Enigma, MESH: Falling Hero and Knarly Works. The zip files names were de.zip, meshfh.zip and knarly.zip.
Actually, I can't find Win16 copies of any game after MESH: Hero's Hearts. The shovelware era ended (and besides which, shareware compilation CDs would have moved on to Win9x by then), so cd.textfiles.com can't help me after 1997. Any sites that claim to actually have Win16 versions of the games for download are just hotlinking to Everett Kaser's site, and the links are now dead. I was able to get copies of MESH: Hero Defiant, Floyd's Bumpershoot and Honeycomb Hotel from archive.org. Links to zip files often don't work, and when they do work, the zip file is almost always corrupted. On very rare occasions, the damage is minimal enough that WinRAR is able to repair the archive for me, and that's how I managed to recover some of the zip files by basically grabbing them from the past. I haven't been able to download a salvageable copy of those three games, though, which is really frustrating.
Google and Clusty searches for meshfh.zip and knarly.zip produce nothing, and naturally searching for de.zip produces thousands of results. When I add search terms like "Descartes" or "Kaser" to reduce the results, eventually I get to a point where there are no results. It really doesn't look like anyone bothered to host any of Everett Kaser's games for Windows. A few dishonest sites claim to have copies, but kaser.com is always the only mirror.
Everett didn't seem hopeful that he could help me fill in the gaps in Classic DOS Games' collection, so I'm afraid that some versions, and perhaps three entire games (at least the Win16 versions), will be lost to time.
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:01 pm
by ThreeHeadedMonkey
Looks like you did quite a bit of research! This information could be helpful, thanks. Too bad about those missing games though. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.
Re: Everett Kaser games
Posted: October 26th, 2008, 6:53 pm
by DOSGuy
I spoke too soon! Everett Kaser was indeed able to find copies of his Win16 games, so we now have at least one version of every Everett Kaser DOS/Win16 game. Our sincere thanks to Mr. Kaser.