Jim Kitchen's games for I-O-S

Hi.

I don't get why people always think that this will be a piece of cake for all the games. the hole game needs to be recoded for it to work on a touch screen device, even with cross platform programming languages. Also most of the games are abandoned or the developer has no intend to work on the games anymore.

Also, how would you adapt something like SOD for touchscreen devices, this is not possible, at least not if you want a solid gaming experience. These kinds of games must be played with either joysticks or the mouse and keyboard combo.

Greetings Moritz.

While it would be cool if that was the case, I'm pretty sure that to run a game or other app on iOS, it must be programmed in swift or objective C. I've never heard of other languages being used successfully to make an iOS app. Also redspot and survive the wild were not made by jim kitchen.

Yes, while I agree that having some of these games for IOS, it's not gunna happen. Plane and simple. A lot of work goes in to coding these types of games and let's not mention the whole thing of the games being abandon. Point being, it's not gunna happen unless someone would be willing to make them for IOS, of which, I don't see that happening.

Every time I see this subject pop up, it’s usually the non-programmers who bring it up. I don’t think any developer wants to touch that idea with a 10 foot pole, primarily because they have no source code to work from so they’d have to reverse engineer the games or develop them from scratch. And consider the audience: Jim’s games were free, and I have no doubt the majority who suggest this idea would probably whine louder than a jet engine if the developer tried making a profit from porting the games.

Indeed, I am agreeing with the previous poster above. As a dev myself, I'm not about to reverse engineer programs like that, just to see if I can't get the source, and then try to reprogram from that source, in an entirely different programming language. And I'm sure I speak for other devs when I say that. And hello, Jim Kichen ain't alive anymore so it's not like we can go to him, stating that we want the source for his games, because, that's not, gunna happen either. Same with redspot, same with STW. The other 2 were programmed in BGT and it would be a bitch and a half to code in c objective, or swift. When people bring these kind of topics up, it just makes me shake my head and go, not this again. People don't know, that's fine, but to totally expect for it to happen, or keep dreaming of it, when the reality of it being, it won't, no. Would it be cool to have? Sure, I believe it will, but there's just no point in the matter anymore. And with them being a touch screen and all, we would have to come up with gestures that would work well. When it comes down to it, it's all logic here. I honestly think that people just need to think of the time and also, ah, money when bringing these topics up because we can't just make stuff happen on the fly and expect them to work. If a game is out for an OS, like windows, you can't expect to have your cake and eat it too for IPhone or IPads or what not. I could go on a rant all day about this kind of stuff but I won't. And that's, my rant of the day.

When I hear thoughts like these, I always want to say, "If you have an idea like this, learn programming in the appropriate language, then make your idea come to fruition." We might all benefit. With Jim's games, keep in mind that you cannot get his source code from him. He has passed away. Also, think of how much profit you would make from such a project. Jim gave his games away for free, and gamers would expect the same from you. If you want to give it a try, go for it.

The one thing that i will struggle to understand is why do you, in general want to go back to a game that's been played a thousand times before. Yes, I played some of his games. Yes, had I a windows computer and wished to, would and could download them. I get nostalgia or trying to beat that last high score on football you did in 1992. The one thing I'd hoped out of quarantine was maybe developers on the Mac and the IOS platforms would've come out with something. That's not me trying to be discouraging or hurtful in any way. I just had a small hope of with so much time on one's hands things could start being beta tested or released if it were possible. Before anyone says anything, I realize jobs are a factor, I didn't mean to assume anything. Personally, though watching old shows is great or reading that book you once did, how are we supposed to bring the future into light.

I was never a big fan of the Kitchensinc games, but don't under estimate the power of nostaljia.

One of the hot rumors in mainstream gaming right now is that Nintendo may rerelease all the old 3d Mario games on their Switch. Yes, those are games that have been played thousands of times before, but people want to reexperience them in a modern format and in HD. Same reason their plug n play systems were so popular a couple years ago. And yes, I do kind of still want one. lol

Also look at Disney Plus. Part of why so many people have subscribed to it is because they can have all those movies and shows they grew up watching in one place. They can watch them again and/or share them with their kids.

I agree though that Jim Kitchen's games might not all lend themselves well to iOS, at least not without a bluetooth keyboard or maybe a controller. and, if they were free on PC, why would anyone pay for them if they were brought to iOS? Hmmmm... maybe bringing them to Apple Arcade would be a way around that, but who knows what that would entail.

Agreed with everything else said here. It amuses me that a topic of the same nature was created by the same person some time ago, but here's another one anyway, just in case we forgot.

If Minionslayer is correct and the OP did post the same topic a while back, then I think the OP’s time would be better spent learning to program than continuing to wish for something no one wants to do.

Take it from me, a procrastination master, wishing for something to be done, no matter how many times you wish it, does not in fact get it done. I could wish my fiction work in progress was done and ready for me to enjoy reading, but only sitting down to write it will get it done. Likewise, if you want Jim’s games on your Apple devices so badly, you need to stop dreaming and take matters into your own hands, because I seriously doubt anyone who knows what they’re doing will do it for you.

This is coming from the same cat who wants Keynote Gold to work with NVDA. As mentioned a number of times Jim is dead. No I'm not an app dev and I'm sure it would be a pain in the ass to convert all of his games into an iOS app.

Swift Playgrounds for iPad. Free, accessible for the blind Ana Apple’s coding language for beginners too. I can’t wait to make my first game!!! Thank you Apple!!!!!

Indeed. coming from the same person who wants keynote gold for NVDA? Seriously? I've seen that topic pop up a number of times, on a number of forums, and it's honestly not as so much as pissing me off as is saying, uuuuuuuuuuug! Do your research, and your homework. You'll find out that stuff like that is not being maintained anymore and Keynote gold is no exception. It's old, old drivers, and I'm not even gunna say what needs to happen next because I've said it before. The only reason why keynote gold works under the Braille note and stuff like that back in the day is because it was running under windows CE. A vary old operating system if memories serves. Someone correct me on that if I'm wrong but I don't think so. Same concept here with this so called game topic. Of which, I don't see a point in discussing anymore.

well,
I think playing a games in any device is a kind of thing happening now.

if Jim Kitchen can make some IOS games.
that's will be cool.
and I think I don't mind pay for this games.
they need money to get programmer to work in it.

No disrespect to him, but he’s dead. He’s not gonna be making games for any platform anytime soon

someone is taking over Jim Kitchen's good works? right?

Unless they’ve popped up somewhere else, the games are gone for good. It’s time to move on.

Okay, What part of, He's dead, do you not undertake? Move on and for the love of the grate God above, stop expecting to have stuff like this popping up and expect it to be magic. and to have him, or someone else port stuff over like that. Trust me, if I was asked to do such said thing, it would be a no, or, if I was gunna do it, I'm going to charge for the games vary heavily because it would take a lot of time and money. Can there be stuff of the same concept for these types of games? Sure, but don't expect it to be like Jim Kitche's games at all. You're not gunna get that and you never will, unless someone has a lot, and I do mean a lot, of time to do such said process, of which, I state, yet, again, I sure as hell don't and I don't think everyone else does either. and I'm speaking for a general aspect here. Oh and one more thing. Let's not make the games payed if porting is an option because blindies are going to cry about it and expect for these games to be free as well, Just like Jim has made them. Just, stop with that too. I'm already sick and tired of people expecting self entitlement over themselves and wishing, and wanting and for the need to get, everything in the damn world, for free. Not everything is free.

I thought i read ages back when I visitted, that someone was keeping it going. Not of course new content but what he left. Let me check. I'll edit this. Yes, www.kitchensinc.net is still up. I didn't click the links but there's a lot of dos based games. Hopefully, now that i've given the address, this is all done.

Indeed, the website is still up in memory of him.

I thought I’d remembered the domain correctly, but apparently I didn’t and was checking a .com domain with the same name.

I love the idea of playing those types of games on IOS and iPad OS. :-)

For those of you that don't know saddly Jim Kitchen past on. We need to respect him and the amazing games he had built. As he has not named a successor the games can not be modified. This shouldn't even be a discussion.

Hey everyone thanks for all of your thoughts on my brothers games. I will just give a few facts here first then say a few things.
Yes, my brother did pass away a few years ago so of course he will not be making any further games. Further yes I do miss him! Jim was as great and caring of a man as was implied by him providing endless free games for the visually impaired. He simply loved programming and loved making people smile as anyone who ever emailed him knew very well as he would always end his emails with tagline jokes.
I am a programmer of over 30 years and all of you who stated how difficult it would be to port his games to a different operating system are 100 percent correct. One person stated that you may as well start from scratch and that person is correct especially porting to a touch screen. And beyond that having the code would not really even be that helpful because Jim did not use an Object Oriented Programming paradigm and most all languages today do. But even further so much of the code would have to be changed that it would even be easier to simply use the games concepts yet code it yourself in a more recent language.

I have to run for the moment but want to invite any of you to feel free and welcome to contact me for any reason. I am not blind but Jim taught me not to use punctuation other than the period ending the sentence to be respectful to those who are visiting impaired. God bless all of you truly. My email follows next.
GlennTK@gmail.com

I would pay for a good game of american football. Most of us would do so. However I do not see anyone doing it. Just word games or management games.

hope it can be hapened soon

I used to enjoy a lot of those games, golf, Life, baseball, loved the old time commercials he'd used. Although I've switched to the Mac as my operating system, I am reasonably confident your brother would've tried to either cross platform or release a version for the Mac. I find the Mac is sorely underdeveloped in games as a whole. I'm sure the idea of creating something if you choose might be difficult, there's so much positive feedback you can get on here to improve. I wish you luck in anything you set out to accomplish.

Here we have his own brother saying the source code isn't available and wouldn't be useful even if it were because it was written in an older, non object oriented programming language. Then you want Chat GPT to somehow find that code from his grave or something and magically do what's beyond the ability of basically every programmer out there just to have something on a touch screen? I love the Jim kitchen games and indeed wouldn't mind coming back to them as time permits now and then. I had so much fun putting my friends' names in that text file so they could be the running back or batter when I was a kid but come on, it's 2023 and most of us are allegedly adults here.

If someone could get these on iOS it would be awesome.

Sure Dennis, I'd like this too. I'd also like a phone with 16 gb ram and an M3 ultra chip, with a water cooler built in, to run all the virtual machines I feel like in my pocket. As far fetched as that is it's more ppossible.

If you carefully read Glenn's message no where did he say the source has been lost for ever. He made no statement one way or the other if the source code still exists. As for GPT as someone who has used it for programming tasks and read a lot of the hype around it it's a legitimate question for someone with out programming experience to wonder if converting sourc ecode from one language to another is something it could easily do.

While it sure makes for good entertainment, it’s not always reliable. Try asking it to pass or fail a character based on stats, and it may go bananas from time to time. Too many hiccups as of yet.

Ok, sure, maybe the source code exists somewhere and I jumped the gun. I fail to see what difference that makes though. As far as Chat GPT goes though I think we're a long way off, especially given the limited buffer for each conversation. Also, hey, if this were to happen I'd be the first to jump on in and spend a couple hours reliving my childhood. Although I guess I already have a decent windows machine so maybe I'll just go do that anyhow. :)

OK. Maybe we need another great person who step up and do the type of games Jim did. I can not believe we do not have such animal. Tire of games that focus on words or so call management games. A good football game be cool. Where are those people?

Bro died years ago, and nobody knows where his source code is

Read all the comments, and everything everyone had to say so far. I'm also one of those few percentage of blind people who fairly understand the balance of being realistic and hoping for this and that to happen based on the current conditions.
But if somehow, if there's even the smallest of chance the NFL football game and things like that could be brought to iOS, I would gladly pay for it to win another Super Bowl. The game is so cool and it taught me at least some things about American and gridiron football even though I prefer association football more.
But being realistic here and with absolute understanding of the challenges and everything we have to go through to even try having those on say iOS, I will just silently dream and hoping or just move on with what we have and could be having moving forward., since I don't have the resources, from time, to the knowledge to code etc.
But just saying here, if somehow this as of now, wild and unrealistic dreams would to come true, I'm gonna be one of those who would be willing to pay, I repeat, pay, for the game.
And would also take this opportunity to voice my great appreciation to Jim for everything he've done when he was with us to promote gaming among VI community. As one of the audio gamers out there, I do think what he did was nothing short of amazing.

He did incredible things. I would certainly pay for the games. It was truly an incredible set of games. I know it may not happen but if it did I would pay for them.

I don’t think it was meant for Windows 10 usage though

I don't believe I've replied to this thread yet, but please accept my apologies if this is a duplicate. I, too, played all of Jim's games and would love to see them ported to iOS and/or Mac OS. They were free under Windows, but I'd be willing to contribute some dough depending on finances and the like. Either way, these were awesome games and hopefully somebody out there can and will figure out a way to port these over. A sister of mine also played them, and once she gets good enough on her iPhone and Mac I'm sure she'd play them as well if she could.

If they could be recreated and also respect the non-direct touch area way of doing things, that would be awesome. It would be equally accessible for braille users other than the baseball game which required stereo sound to play. Same with golf, obviously. However, Trucker and several others which do not require audio to play the actual game would be awesome. I used to really enjoy De Stenno games, which were great, but disappeared with the 32-bit app mass deletion.

For those who didn't know, one audio channel is enough for many of the games.
I did try play NFL football with headphones, and sure, you can better hear the players and ball movement sound, as well as the tackling sound, but it's not necessary to use headphones I think.
Weird at first playing a non-stereo audio game since most games specially nowadays are in stereo, but once I got use to it, it's fine.