mTropolis

mtropolis
Engine developer
Companies that used it	Various
Games that use it	Dozens
Date added to ScummVM	Not Added
First release containing it	None

mTropolis, (pronounced like the English word "metropolis"), was a multimedia creation tool by mFactory. It had a userbase of a few thousand during the mid-to-late 90s but was outcompeted by Macromedia's Director. A few games were built on mTropolis with high profile titles including Obsidian and Muppet Treasure Island. Though mTropolis lent itself to the development of HyperCard-like point-and-click games, the tech was a fully-featured multimedia project creation suite that was used for various niche projects.

Games targeted by the engine

See mTropolis/Games.

mTropolis Files

Built mTropolis projects used standard file-naming conventions although there were some deviations. The runtime files, known as "mTropolis Player" tended to be renamed or have their icon changed to match the game. If a mTropolis game was small enough, they tended to be have a single release on a hybrid CD-ROM with separate Mac and Windows partitions. Larger or multi-CD games tended to utilize separate releases for each OS.

All mTropolis versions Data Files
- External Video Files -- folder "Videos"
mTropolis v1.0 or v1.1 Data Files (Mac)
- Segment Startup File -- name of the project and "1"
- Other Segment Files -- name of the project and number starting at "2"
mTropolis v1.0 or v1.1 Data Files (Win)
- Segment Startup File -- name of the project and "1" with extension ".MPL".
- Other Segment Files -- name of the project and number starting at "2" with extension ".MPX"
mTropolis v2.0 Data Files (cross-platform)
- Segment Startup File -- name of the project with extension ".mfx"
- Other Segment File -- name of the project and number starting at "2" with extension ".mxx"
mTropolis v2.0 Data Files (Mac)
- Segment Startup File -- name of the project with extension ".mfm"
- Other Segment File -- name of the project and number starting at "2" with extension ".mxm"
mTropolis v2.0 Data Files (Win)
- Segment Startup File -- name of the project with extension ".mfw"
- Other Segment File -- name of the project and number starting at "2" with extension ".mxw"
mTropolis v1.0 Runtime Files (Mac)
- "mPlayer 68K"
- "mPlayer PPC"
mTropolis v1.0 Runtime Files (Win)
- mTropolis Windows Player v1.0.0.1 -- "MTPLAY16.exe"
- mTropolis Windows Player v1.0.0.1 -- "MTPLAY32.exe"
mTropolis v1.1 Runtime Files (Win)
- mTropolis 32-Bit Windows Player v1.1.2.241 -- "MTPLAY31.EXE"
- mTropolis 32-Bit Windows Player v1.1.2.241 -- "MTPLAY95.EXE"
mTropolis v2.0 Runtime Files (Win)
- mTropolis 32-Bit Windows Player v2.0.0.0 -- "Mtplay32.exe"

History

mTropolis was released to the public at 1995's Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The mTropolis "authoring system" was designed for Mac System 7 and supported both 68K and PowerPC CPUs. Despite the Mac-centric development ecosystem, runtimes or "playback systems" were available for Mac and Windows. A web target and accompanying Netscape plugin was also developed.

mFactory's assets were purchased by Quark in 1997 who released mTropolis v2.0 in 1998. This was a final update and the end of all support for the product. A usergroup attempted to purchase the mTropolis IP and possibly make it open-source but negotiations fell through.

Versions

mTropolis v1.0: January 1995
mTropolis v1.1: May 1996
mTropolis v2.0: March 1998

External Links

Articles

Game Developer Magazine: "Goodbye, mTropolis" by Kevin S. Willis of Ransom Interactive (1998-06)
King of Dragon Pass (Blog): An Architecture Overview (2011-02-06)
Salon: The Software that Refused to Die (1998-10-06)

Emulating a 68K or PPC Mac to Run the mTropolis Authoring Software

The authoring software isn't needed to run any games though it may be useful for research about the engine.