Open tUME (the Universal Map Editor) is a versatile 2D map editor designed
to place tiles on maps. Tiles are rectangular grid of pixels,
whether they be 8x8, 16x16, or some other dimensions. Maps are a two-dimensional
grid of tiles.
What is a 2D map editor?
Suppose you have a 640x480 outdoor image where the top half of the image
consists of blue sky. You select a tile that is 16x16 pixels in size. The
image can then be represented by a 40x30 rectangular (1200 in total) grid
of 16x16 tiles. If the tiles in the tile set are numbered from 1 to 1200,
then the map consists of a two-dimensional array of numbers, where each
number indicates what tile is at that location in the map. Now suppose
the top ten rows of tiles consists of the same shade of blue sky. Now instead
of adding 40x10 tiles to the tile set, we need to add only a single blue
sky tile to the tile set. So using tiles and maps offer a means of compressing
images by exploiting repetitions found in the image.
Who is Open tUME for?
We believe that Open tUME is most useful for people developing games for 2D
character-based consoles, e.g., Nintendo's GameBoy. We're not sure
what the GameBoy Advance will be like, but it may also benefit from tUME.
Open tUME's features
Open tUME features flexible tile sizes, tiles up to 256-colors, multiple
map layers, support for iconic tiles, and pixel layers. Read more about
Open
tUME's Features.
Is there a guided tour?
There is a self-running demo of Open tUME available.
Please visit the download page.
Downloading Open tUME
Open tUME is now available under the
Mozilla Public License.
Please visit the download page.
Why is Open tUME freely available?
Development on tUME slowed significantly by the end of 1994, as the authors of tUME
believed the market for a 2D map editor was shrinking. Certainly, none of us
thought there would be a strong GameBoy market five years later!
We have received a few inquiries from GameBoy developers regarding tUME, but
they appeared to be unwilling to pay our asking price. We received no income,
and the GameBoy developers had to create a 2D map editor. No one won.
We discussed lowering the price of tUME, but since most of the license fee
represented a payment for support, this option held little appeal for us.
Open tUME Support
We're encouraging Open tUME users to assist other users.
Visit the support page to add or view support comments.
We'll try to answer questions posted to the
support page.
While Open tUME is now freely available, and we still offer paid support for the same
price as before (actually, the effective price has gone up, since only a portion of the
previous license fee went towards support).
How do I pronounce tUME?
We usually pronounce it "toom"; some pronounce it "toomee".
tUME History
tUME was created by Echidna to help them make their own
games. It was designed by Gregg Tavares, and first implemented
on the Amiga by Greg Marquez in 1989. The first game to be created
using tUME was the "Future Classics Collection" game for Amiga and MS-DOS.
tUME was built using the Echidna Game Generation System,
which was created by Gregg Tavares, Juan Alvarado, Greg Marquez,
and Dan Chang.
tUME was then licensed to Virgin Games. Stephen Clarke-Willson
of Virgin commissioned an MS-DOS port, which was implemented
by Dan Chang in 1991. After the MS-DOS version had been created,
we realized that it was general purpose enough to be useful to
other developers. Between 1991 and 1996, tUME was licensed to
many developers. Some of the games that were created using tUME
include Aladdin for the Genesis, and The Lion King for Genesis and SNES.
The members of Echidna have since moved onto other projects.
Gregg Tavares recently finished working on Crash Team Racing for the Sony PlayStation.
He is currently taking a sabbatical.
As a principal of Big Grub, Juan Alvarado recently finished working on Dinosaur
for the Sony PlayStation. He is currently working on a secret project for Kesmai Studios.
Greg Marquez is currently a technical director at Infogrames, Inc.
Dan Chang recently finished working on Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage for the Sony PlayStation.
While Dan aspires to starting a game development group, he is currently working
for Humongous Entertainment.
You may contact Gregg, Juan, Greg, or Dan by e-mailing opentume@aol.com.
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Last updated August 16, 2000.