Symantec Greatworks

- Can be used to create and view documents and newsletters
- Can be used to create spreadsheets
- Can be used to create databases
- Can connect to BBSes via a standard modem
- Compatible with "Avara"

Web Browsers

- Can be used to create and view documents and newsletters
- Can be used to create spreadsheets
- Databases require an addon such as Microsoft Azure
- Support for serial connections is inconsistent at best https://caniuse.com/?search=web%20serial
- Not compatible with "Avara"

In other news I've just discovered there's a port of Avara to modern computers based on a source release authorized by Ambrosia and they have a Discord, so don't expect to hear from me for the next nine to eighteen months, I'll be busy https://github.com/avaraline/Avara

@silverfox @vertigo oh!

What I meant was, I think the original Avara used PICT draw format? Which if I remember right both ClarisWorks and GreatWorks could open. I definitely opened Avara level files in one of those two.

I'm really curious to try the Avara revival!

@mcc @vertigo it absolutely did! The game read the PICT/QuickDraw opcodes to assign colors, positions, and/or dimensions to objects. Additional properties (including position/size for the third dimension) were specified via text blocks within the PICT data. It’s almost like the PICT was machine code for some level-building VM. Pretty brilliant! These days we use a much more boring XML-based format, but…QuickDraw isn’t exactly around anymore.