Decker: An open-source Apple HyperCard clone (perfect for IF)

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Hey, just wanted to make you all aware of a new engine/tool that would be great for IF.

It’s an open-source clone of Apple’s HyperCard called Decker:

You can run it in the browser live: http://beyondloom.com/decker/tour.html

Just like Twine it spits out a standalone .html file of whatever you make with it.

If you don’t know about HyperCard, it was basically a program that shipped with every Macintosh in the mid-80’s. It was like a virtual stack of cards that you could add sound, text, images, buttons to. You can link cards together with hotspots or buttons. You can do scripting. You can make whatever you want.

The original Myst was prototyped in HyperCard. Cyan’s first two games (pre-Myst) were made in HyperCard: The Manhole and Cosmic Osmo.

There are some aesthetic limitations (that I think make it interesting). It has 1-bit vintage Macintosh style graphics (pixels are either black or white, no grays). It has 8-bit low sampling rate audio limited to 10 seconds per clip (but clever programming can have longer audio).

I’m not the creator of Decker, I’m just someone excited to use it. For me it’s like what I always wanted Twine to be.

Anyway, I just thought you should be aware of this. It’s so cool.

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You can see some examples of Decker projects here:

Also here’s an archive of actual HyperCard stacks you can look at, to get a general idea of what HyperCard was capable of:
https://archive.org/details/hypercardstacks

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Thanks for sharing a link to the gamejam, it’s neat to see what people’ve made with it. I tried out the silly one with the kitten on his computer, and the list of fictional birthdays.

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Ars Technica had a good retrospective on HyperCard a few years back, for those curious about this landmark piece of software:

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I really like the indie worldbuilding zine here:

1046×705 11 KB

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yeah a very good article. some excellent screenshots of the HyperCard aesthetic, too.


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I made HyperCard adventure games back in the day and would upload them to America Online. So excited to try out a HyperCard-like stack builder! Thanks for sharing.

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