RSD Game-Maker

RSD Game-Maker is a DOS-based game engine that was produced between 1991 up until 1995 by Recreational Software Designs, who was based in Amherst, New Hampshire. KD Software was responsible for distributing the game via mail-order in the US, with other companies such as Microforum, & Screen Entertainment following suit in distribution in Canada, & the United Kingdom respectively. In 1995, RSD themselves would stop supporting the engine, leading to KD Software taking full control for the rest of the engine's life cycle. In fact, by the time it came out in the United Kingdom in 1996, KD Software already had a year of complete control over the engine, & they would do so until somewhere around the mid 2000s.

List of Tools
Game-Maker Interface Palette Designer Block Designer Monster Maker Map Maker Blaster Master (not to be confused with the NES game) Sound Designer Character Maker Autodesk Animator Graphics Image Reader AdLib Visual Composer GoldWave Intergrator Deluxe Paint NeoPaint LHarc ROL2CMF Xferplay

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It was the first ever MS-DOS game engine to be made for individuals at home to use instead of just established, & upcoming game studios.
 * 2) It featured smooth 4-way full screen VGA, & SVGA scrolling which was once thought impossible at the time.
 * 3) From 2.0 onwards, it supported both Yamaha FM music, & digital Sound Blaster sound.
 * 4) Game design is done by using the mouse, which is still unique compared to most other game creation systems of even later on.
 * 5) * Not to mention it is usually easy, & responsive to use. Plus it has one of the few instances of the middle mouse being used as it can allow you to get a 3rd color option(see below).
 * 6) Compared to ZZT, there was more you could do with the graphics, sound, & genres as to compromise with things that ZZT could do more of.
 * 7) Joystick compatibility is possible with games made on this engine, & if you're feeling really cool, you can use other controls, & hack those controllers to make the engine read them as joysticks, & start button mapping them. Therefore, you get more buttons on the controller of your choice to use!
 * 8) As seen on the chart, multiple versions have been made throughout the early-mid 1990s that improved upon the capabilities, & added more stuff to the mix. 3.0 when full out, & added many multimedia-like features such as the use of full motion video between levels, & even during gameplay(though nobody has actually done that yet), multiple save states to use, etc.
 * 9) You can sample each others' games, including the demo games packaged in such as Nebula, Terrain, Penguin Pete, Pipemare, Houses, & more. This was actually encouraged by RSD themselves as it was a collaborative project from the ground up.
 * 10) * This also means that you can import, & export graphics alongside other files throughout your usage.
 * 11) It was surprisingly simple to make, & edit Game-Maker games thanks to using both specialized formats for the graphics, & animation, & more common formats like .CMF(though it wasn't that common), .GIF, ASCII text files, Autodesk .FLI, CompuServe, & Creative .VOC.
 * 12) Demo games were made to showcase what the engine could do, & they do either an okay, or even fantastic job doing so.
 * 13) * Nebula, Penguin Pete, Pipemare, & Sample are full on video games instead of just showcases, with Nebula being the strongest one of them all thanks to good platforming controls, nice graphics that mostly capture the sci-fi fantasy elements that the game offers, gameplay that while not unique is still nice, & would get updated constantly throughout the different versions.
 * 14) * Animation was replaced with the more focused Game-Maker Tutor which does a better job showcasing what blocks can do than the former as well as showcasing character changing by using the .CHR function.
 * 15) * Game-Maker Demo is especially well made in that it edits the first stage of Peach the Lobster with extra features that have texts telling you what some of the engine's functions are alongside showcases of some of the things it can do in action.
 * 16) * Other demo games by different users were made such as:
 * 17) ** Cireneg's Rings, Clyde & Zeke(although it wasn't put on the CD due to it being arrived too late), Crullo: Adventures of a Donut, Glubada Pond, Linear Volume, The Patchwork Heart, Peach the Lobster, & Zark by Azurelore Korrigan, formerly known as Eric-Jon Rossel
 * 18) ** Barracuda: Secret Mission 1 by Mark A. Janelle.
 * 19) ** The Woman Warrior duology by Sheldon Chase from KD Software.
 * 20) It is compatible with Windows 3.X machines, Windows 95, & Windows 98.
 * 21) * Now that it's open source, you can also run it through DOSBox on Windows 2000 onwards as well as Macintosh computers from the late 90s onward, & even Linux.
 * 22) Yes, Andrew Stone himself did release it as open source in 2014.
 * 23) Multiple genres to choose from the start such as top-down action adventure games, platformers, & shooters.
 * 24) * And if you're really experimental, you can add in run-and-guns, QTE games ala Dragon's Lair (1983), puzzle games, exploration games, diggers, isometric shooters, faux-3D games, etc.
 * 25) Amazing graphics features, & possibilities that can match, or even outperform stuff such as the Sega Genesis, & Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Combine that with FMV capabilities that can outperform the Sega CD, & Sega 32X combined.
 * 26) Decent/good/awesome games made by people such as:
 * 27) * Adam Tyner of Mister Spiff fame as well as its spinoff, Power Flux, & Frisbounce.
 * 28) * Alan Caudel, who has done great games like Dummy Duck games 3 to 5, Mr. Berkel Derkel, The Complete Bone Adventures(which is a fan game based on an equally great comic book series by Jeff Smith), Advanced Techniques Demo, Fireaxe, Adam '97, Adam '99, Adam 2000, the Man Game series, Lil' Choklit Donit Man In: Choklit Terror, etc.
 * 29) * Azurelore Korrigan who made some of the above-mentioned demo games alongside A-J 3, Fluffy Ralph, The Bounerim, Nejillian Flux, Builder, (Did I Ever Tell You About the Time I Was) Taken By a Vampire One Night, Ninja Tuck, Ricci's Cow Hunt, Sign of the Hedgehog, Zoom the Super Bear, Rodip: Rover of the Deep, Gridline, etc.
 * 30) * Brandon Enterprises who has their Fox series, the Seal Boarders duology, Zarlor 2, Void Raiders, & Terra.
 * 31) * Chris Lavioette made the rather decent Roady Rabbit 2 sometime in the late 1990s. While the controls can be a little sluggish, the level design goes from passable to great, & it soon gets better control-wise.
 * 32) * Cly5m made 3 impressive shoot-em-up games, & an exploration game called Shooter.
 * 33) * Gary Acord's own Acord Games label, albeit in a so-bad-it's-good way.
 * 34) * James Faux pushed the engine to its limits with his games, which included full scale cutscenes, mostly original music(a rare thing for most users thanks to .CMF not being so commonplace), fake sprite scaling, etc. Mortal Harvey, & Ego Force are considered to be his best works.
 * 35) * James W. Morris can be viewed in the same way as the Gary Acord games.
 * 36) * Jeremy LaMar's Blinky 2, & Blinky 3 are classics, with Blinky 3 being a significant improvement over the 2nd one(which in itself is an improvement over the 1st one which is now lost).
 * 37) * Joshua Eric Turcotte's Orb: The Derelict Planet is one of the closest things to a full-scale Metroidvania on this engine with its impressive sprite work, heavily explorative environment, tons of secrets, etc.
 * 38) * Kevin Vance's games have a charming "little kid drawing on the refrigerator" look to them, & play well too(though Kirk Voodia has a 5th level that is nearly impossible to beat unless if you manage to get past the enemies, or shoot them quick enough.
 * 39) * EGA Combat Gladiators Arena is a fun 4-direction shooter with awesome visuals, 3 different ships to choose from, secrets around, neat controls with a pick-up-and-play feel, etc.
 * 40) * Mark Hadley's Parsec Man 3D has completely original music, has a cool 3-D aesthetic to it, & has great gameplay that has 2 different segments: 4-way space shooting segments, & platforming segments.
 * 41) * Flying Guts is a cool game by Marty Valenti. Excellent conversions of various Doom (1993) graphics for the platforms(though making the game sort of unoriginal), some of the best digitization in any game made on this engine to this day with the main character being pictures of a real life person being painstakingly put into effect to make it look as clean, & crisp as possible. Plus, it plays well with a good selection of weapons to pick up along the way.
 * 42) * Yuphex by Matt Bell is more light hearted than the above entry thanks to its bright, yet not too bright colored graphics that have a smooth feel to them. You also get a high jump that can aid you to more areas that would otherwise take hours to get to. Areas are highly explorative, & have a set goal to them.
 * 43) * Matthew Groves' Jet Driver showcases crazy roads with high stakes throughout. While the "running over kids" part can be off-putting to some, people who aren't affected by that, & know that it's fiction can have a fun time with this short, but sweet game.
 * 44) * Matthew Saul made both Marley's Quest, & Popa: Invasion If the Green Things From Ickubackal, which are other great additions. The former is a very explorative platformer with many levels to see, & interact with. The latter is an incredible puzzle-platformer with lush graphics that give the characters personalities alongside amazing puzzles to figure out, & neato bonuses to keep you playing.
 * 45) * Mike Perrucci's Invasion of the Blobs II: The Evolution Revolution is a great sequel to the rather crappy Invasion of the Blobs! thanks to the better looking visuals(aside from the close ups of the humans, & Yarna which look hideously realistic), all the while keeping the same identity of using really impressive techniques as well as being mainly a platformer with some elements of top-down, fake 3D, & free-floating games instead of just a top-down game.
 * 46) ** Luigi's Heroic Debut by the same guy is really cool too, & is a great tribute to the Mario franchise.
 * 47) * Paradise Multimedia's Jet Pack Rat is a recent addition, & it's really well made.
 * 48) * PPP Team is responsible for classics such as the Badman trilogy, Pengo Adventure, Biokid, & Panzer 2019.
 * 49) * Roger Levy's Andy In Asunderland features fantastic art similar to that of Calvin And Hobbes, & plays really well too. It even features enemies shooting, which is very rare for these games to do.
 * 50) * Roland Ludlam made Hurdles, which is an fast-paced game where you're a space ship racing through 4 areas getting as many points as possible. Mech, while unfinished is a really neato experimental platformer involving a mech that you can control as well as explore 2 cool looking areas filled with stuff to see.
 * 51) * Terror Tower by Rylie James Thomas is a really cool showcase of a glitch in which not setting up a palette would lead to the engine choosing a random palette for each playthrough.
 * 52) * Stefan Meisse's Caves can be seen as so-bad-it's-good by some.
 * 53) * T3 Software made The Legend of Zelda: Harry's Awakening which is a cool, but unfinished fanmade port of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
 * 54) * Terry Chatman's games can also be seen as so-bad-it's-good.
 * 55) * Ditto for Yurik Nestoly, though Yurik 2 is a genuinely good game on its own.
 * 56) Games can be as large as 200 pieces of an integrator, which can be quite huge for any 16-bit hardware at the time if it's something like a platformer game.
 * 57) It's a very important piece of software & some of its users would go on to make other games, like Seiklus by Cly5m, the 2009 sequel to Bionic Commando which James W. Morris was apart of, Warhammer Online with artwork by Justin Meisse, & Homestuck with music done by Mark Hadley to name a few examples.
 * 58) The price was lowered when it came on CD, which meant more people could get access to it. This was especially since CDs were easier to mass produce than diskettes were at the time.
 * 59) * When KD Software took control over the whole project, they completely abandoned the licensing agreement, & allowed everyone to make whatever they want without having to charge them anything(though the manuals were unchanged because they were copying what RSD had already printed out due to being able to use the same studio rooms that RSD originally had)
 * 60) You can have all levels have very different things all throughout: Want one level to be a platformer, then another a vertical space shooter? You can do that! Want different palettes for each level? You can do that! Want specific weapons only working on specific enemies? You can do that! Want to have a different character to play as in the next level? You can do that!
 * 61) * Since the file formats are practically raw, unencrypted data, you can put in any of those types of files listed above, & try to make sense of it with very few, if any complaints, or instability issues. The aforementioned Terror Tower, & Blinky 3 do this technique for palettes, & characters respectively.
 * 62) Many incredibly advanced techniques have been done throughout the years, & they are awesome to see in action!
 * 63) * The inclusion of SVGA means that you can put in really good images, or even FMVs of real life things that almost look like how they would on a VHS tape, or a DVD-R. Virtual Apartment is the best example of this being used.
 * 64) * Metals Torm, an unfinished port of Metal Storm on the NES, has a neato showcase of gravity blocks being used.
 * 65) * Invasion of the Blobs II has a fake 3D sequence as level 4. Alan Caudel's Jet also showcases this. Caudel even made a demo port of Space Harrier, further showcasing more untouched possibilities.
 * 66) * Nathan Rocks has a somewhat decent attempt at a Pong port.
 * 67) * RPG battles have been done in Man Game RPG, & they function like they should.
 * 68) * In A-J 3, you can turn Rugs invisible by pressing the space bar. Ditto with Dukes F. Hazard from Power Flux, & one of the ships in Zarlor 2.
 * 69) * Popa: Invasion If the Green Things From Ickubackal has some puzzles that involve some neato block, monster, & animation trickery. One example is a level where you shoot up at one of the red ceiling meats to bring it down in order to activate a ladder. Afterwards, it'll activate an arrow, which then activates another arrow, then activates a space ship to collapse some of the blocks that are blocking the exit.
 * 70) * Coin Toss, Roll the Dice, & Rock Paper Scissors by Alan Caudel feature showcases of semi-randomized events, which were thought to be impossible for such an engine to do.
 * 71) * DropBlok by the same person as the above 3 is a good attempt at a Tetris (1984) clone.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) That said, there are several limitations throughout the engine that can make most gamers feel turned off, such as no true transitions(though FMV capabilities could sort of make it happen), not being able to map 2 button keys together, hard to make monsters do complex behaviors(though this is possible with some skill), etc.
 * 2) Most games never truly got into the crazy multimedia techniques it can do, like having FMV being played in the background of a level.
 * 3) ZZT was considered more user-friendly by most people, & had some things that it could do better, which made this engine become more obscure as time went on whereas ZZT still has a big fanbase.
 * 4) * The introduction of MegaZeux later on didn't help matters.
 * 5) Several average/bad games have been made, such as mh:crappygames:Friction from Azurelore Korrigan, the games by Erwin Bergervoet, Ronnie Toon's games, Roland Ludlam's John's Archaeological Adventures Episode 1: The Tomb, among a few others.
 * 6) * Sherwood Forest Software is the biggest offender of them all as not only are all of their games awful beyond belief, but have seemingly been the final nail in the coffin for the game engine before ultimately getting the somewhat undeserved bad reputation it has gotten.
 * 7) It was a bit overpriced back in the day, & had a frustrating licensing registration. Thankfully, RSD solved the former problem sometime in 1994 with their CD version, & when KD Software decided to take over, the licensing agreement, while still said in the manual, was completely abandoned. Before any of those 2 problems were fixed, it was widely pirated, with M & R Inc., & Ciro Duran being people known to have used pirated versions.
 * 8) The use of the numpad's "7", & "9" for diagonal jumping in most platforms can throw off most gamers.
 * 9) There is an easily avoidable(in gameplay, not in design), but common glitch that happens when you go diagonally, & up towards the highest part of the screen. The graphics will overload, making the game either go slow, or stay at normal speed. Either way, you can get stuck doing that. Thankfully, there are times where it'll only happen for about 10 seconds, or less instead of taking forever.

Reception
The engine has gotten mostly mixed to negative reviews throughout its years, but it does have a rather tiny fanbase underneath the hatred surrounding it.