Playing Fan Ages
Introduction
There are two different methods of downloading/installing/playing Fan Ages: UAM and ULM. Historically, UAM(=UruAgeManager) was written initially and used for Fan Ages. During the "Great Cyan Clampdown of 2006" things were driven underground for a while, and ULM(=UruLibraryManager) was written to take its place. Later on, UruAgeManager was rewritten from scratch as a part of the Drizzle tool.
UAM Strengths:
- Doesn't require .Net framework
- Has every Age ever released, some 24+ more than ULM
- No problems with corrupted Ages
- Much faster downloads
- Caches downloads, and lets you easily switch versions of an Age without redownloading
ULM Strengths:
- Doesn't require Java
- Allows you to customise which books are on your Relto shelf
For info on UAM(Drizzle): Drizzle
For info on ULM: Installing_ULM
Disclaimer: I may be a bit biased :P
More Details
What are Fan Ages?
As you know, in D'ni culture an Age is a separate universe, described by and accessible through special books. And as you know, as D'ni culture is represented in the Myst and Uru series of computer games, an Age is essentially a level in one of these games.
This article deals with a certain kind of Age - those created by fans of Myst and Uru, that are playable using Uru's game engine, Plasma.
What makes up these Ages is data made in special tools (Blender, Python, AlcScript, PyPRP). However, the game engine needs a push to recognize these Ages. Manager programs, most notably Uru Library Manager (ULM) and Uru Age Manager (UAM) were written to make this push (installation).
While Fan Ages are not created by Cyan Worlds (and thus not commercial, not always cohesive, and in some cases not finished), it is important to note that these are the cornucopias of imagination of the person next to you on the bus, and you would be remiss to not enjoy them.
What do I need to play Fan Ages?
- Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Windows7 (Also known to work in Linux using WINE)
- The Uru game engine, necessarily as part of one of these games:
- Uru: The Path of the Shell (which requires Uru:ABM)
- Uru: Complete Chronicles
- An Age manager program:
- Uru Age Manager, currently included with the Drizzle toolkit. Requires Java. Maintained and created by Old Wolle and ddb174.
- Uru Library Manager. Requires .NET. Created by Trylon.
For online play, you'll need to find someone running an Alcugs shard, or set one up. Details are at [1]