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The Museum of Anything Goes

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The Museum of Anything Goes is a very, VERY bizarre exploration game made by two school teachers in Chicago.

You explore all sorts of paintings and the weird and WACKY stuff that's in them, while a voice sometimes comments on and judges everything you do-

"DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING?!"

INTRO.DIR and INTRO2#

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There's a whole lotta words or pictures here, but not enough videos. Please fix this.

Found in the same directory as the used one are different files for the intro.

INTRO.DIR is the same as the final version. The main difference is that the file was saved in an unprotected state, leaving the original code and developer comments intact.

INTRO2 is also similar to the final version, but lacks the animation for the "MSR MM" text, contains no music, and omits the instructions shown at the end. Replacing the final file with this version causes the game to bypass the title screen and proceed directly to the intro sequence.

Unused Rooms#

ORANGE#

Directory: DATA/ORANGEM

An empty Adobe Director file named ORANGE is present in the game's data. Since the file contains no content, it may be a remnant of something from an earlier stage of development.

The file is dated January 30, 1995.

Dummy Files#

XLIBS#

Directory: DATA/XLIBS

Two zero-length files, MEMOBJ (1) and REAROBJ (1), are present in this directory, the files appear to be empty copies of MEMOBJ and REAROBJ.

The files are dated March 8, 1994, and April 13, 1994, respectively.

DOU#

Directory: _--_DOU

A single zero-length file, ICON_(1), is present in the directory. Dated January 25, 1994, the file appears to be an empty duplicate of ICON_.

Uncompiled Source Code#

Inside MOAGSTRT is a large amount of uncompiled code of routines for locating and loading external movie files, managing XObjects, checking system memory settings, and verifying that the computer is running in 256-color mode.

Uncompiled Code:

--used in the projector movie
on FIGURECDBEGIN
    put "Start" into aMov
    put CONVERTCDNUMSTRTOMOVIE(aMov) into aMov
    go frame 1 of movie aMov
end FIGURECDBEGIN

--macro to figure out which movie we are going to
on CONVERTCDNUMSTRTOMOVIE aMov
    put the machineType into amachine
    if amachine = 256 then
        put "\" into sepchar
        put the pathname into apath
        put the number of chars in apath into cnum
        repeat with x = 1 to cnum
        if char x of apath = sepchar then
            put char 1 to x of apath into adisk
            exit repeat
        end if
        end repeat
        put adisk&"Data"&sepchar into partStr
        put adisk into diskStr
    else
        put ":" into sepchar
        put "MOAG:DATA:" into partStr
        put "MOAG:" into diskStr
    end if
    if aMov = "Start" then
        return (diskStr&"OPENDATA"&sepChar&"INTRO")
    else if aMov = "Help" then
        return (diskStr&"OPENDATA"&sepChar&"MOAGBOUT")
    else if aMov = "MenuXLib" then
        return (diskStr&"DATA"&sepChar&"XLIBS"&sepChar&"REAROBJ")
    else if aMov = "FileXLib" then
        return (diskStr&"DATA"&sepChar&"XLIBS"&sepChar&"FILEOBJ")
    else if aMov = "MemoryXLib" then
        return (diskStr&"DATA"&sepChar&"XLIBS"&sepChar&"MEMOBJ")
    else
        return (diskStr&"LITESIDE"&sepChar&"OUTLI55")
    end if
end 
on TESTMEMORY
  global gXLibPath
  if the machineType <> 256 then
    --check for virtual memory on a mac only
    -- UNCOMMENT the line INITIALIZEMEMORY if you
    -- want to check for VIRTUAL MEMORY ON MAC CPU's
    --INITIALIZEMEMORY
  end if
end TESTMEMORY

on STOPMOVIE
  global gMemory
  --dispose of the XOBJ, we do not need it anymore
  if objectP(gMemory) then gMemory(mDispose)
end STOPMOVIE

on INITIALIZEMEMORY
  global gMemory
  if objectP(gMemory) then gMemory(mDispose)
  put CONVERTCDNUMSTRTOMOVIE("MemoryXLib") into theXlib
  openXLib theXlib
  set gMemory = memory(mNew)
  --test for proper initialization
  if (not objectP(gMemory)) then
    alert "Memory XObject could not initialize."
    closeXLib theXlib
    exit
  end if
  CHECKVM
end INITIALIZEMEMORY

on CHECKVM
  global gMemory
  set VMCode = gMemory(mGetVM)
  put CONVERTCDNUMSTRTOMOVIE("MemoryXLib") into theXlib
  closeXLib theXlib
  if VMCode <> 0 then
    GOTOAFRAME "MemError"
    --put ERROSTR() into eData
    --alert eData
    --quit
  end if
end CHECKVM

on ERRORSTR
  put "Warning: This computer has virtual memory turned on, " into str1
  put "Macromind Director Version 4.03 does not support virtual memory. " into str2
  put "Please turn virtual memory off in the 'Memory' control panel and " into str3
  put "restart your computer. --Wayzata Technical Support 1-800-377-7321" into str4
  put str1&str2&str3&str4 into errData
  return errData
end ERRORSTR

on DOQUIT
  global gMemory
  --dispose of the XOBJ, we do not need it anymore
  if objectP(gMemory) then gMemory(mDispose)
  quit
end DOQUIT

on DOCONTINUE
  go frame "StartCD"
end DOCONTINUE

on CHECKCOLORDEPTH
  put the colorDepth into anum
  if anum <> 8 then
    go frame "BadColor"
  end if
end

Hidden Text#

Developer Note#

Examining INSTALL.EXE as a text file reveals embedded developer text authored by Colin J. Adams, who is not credited elsewhere in the game.

In the message, he advises against modifying the executable's object code.

Copyright 1994 by Colin J. Adams - Don't mess with this object code!

Hidden Company Credits#

A hidden copyright string referencing Portions is present in the game's installer.

Portions Copyright (c) 1991

Hidden copyright strings referencing other companies is present in the game's EXE data.

Copyright 1985-1994 Macromedia, Inc.

Copyright (C) 1993 SLR Systems
All Rights Reserved

Copyright 1985-94 by Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright (C) 1994 Macromedia, Inc.  All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 1988-1992 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright (c) 1991 Altura Software, Inc.

File Info#

As usual for games made with Macromedia.

File

Director Version

About

Copyright

Created by

Modified by

Filepath

INTRO

4.0.4

0

0

Maxwell S. Robertson - ?????

Maxwell S. Robertson - ?????

MOAG PT1:OpenData:

WINMOAG.EXE

4.0.4

0

0

Maxwell S. Robertson - ?????

Team Wayzata - Wayzata Technology

E:\OPENDATA

Revisional Differences#

This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: There could be more differences in these both versions.

In the Mac version, the Ctrl key used to exit the game and toggle the menu is replaced with its Macintosh equivalent being ⌘ Command.

The text is also positioned slightly higher than the Windows version.

Mac

Windows

References#


  1. https://www.igdb.com/games/the-museum-of-anything-goes↩︎