ROSS'S GAME DUNGEON: QUARANTINE

[brandone]

Hilariously Unsuccessful Curve(Surface) Fitting Of The Pedestrian Weight To Impact Ratio Function

 

I've recently learned a technique of fitting any random data to interpolating polynomials(using a Lagrangian method). It allows one to take some crazy complicated function and turn it into a nice and simple polynomial(in theory). The downside is that if function doesn't fit well into any polynomials you get a really crazy and wavy polynomial instead which can be even worse than original function or it's data...

 

C'mon man, now you have to use Taylor Expansion.

[danielsangeo]

Subs up!

[AP_Pastor]

Nice! Thanks Dan!

I gotta say this is the 1st Game Dungeon episode that really got me into listening to the soundtrack, particularly because of the song "The Driver Is You". Also, Quarantine kinda reminds me more of Postal 2 and Twisted Metal than GTA.

[HLPrincess]

Subs up!

Subs added!

[eldflaugamadur]

Hilariously Unsuccessful Curve(Surface) Fitting Of The Pedestrian Weight To Impact Ratio Function

 

I've recently learned a technique of fitting any random data to interpolating polynomials(using a Lagrangian method). It allows one to take some crazy complicated function and turn it into a nice and simple polynomial(in theory). The downside is that if function doesn't fit well into any polynomials you get a really crazy and wavy polynomial instead which can be even worse than original function or it's data...

 

C'mon man, now you have to use Taylor Expansion.

 

It would not achieve much, as it is already a polynomial. Tailor expansion around zero of a polynomial will give back that same polynomial. If it's not around zero, then I'm not sure what it will give, probably something at least as complicated.

 

Oh... Sorry for posting it here I guess. Normally I wouldn't go around and jump scare people with math, there are more appropriate places to talk about that. It's just that the table from the video looked like a function and I thought, "Hey, I wonder what kind of function?", and I thought I'd share, normally I'd just keep things like that on my hard drive and keep quiet about it.

[BTGBullseye]

[optimusjamie]

Almost a cult classic.

 

What kind of Cult Classic? An under-appreciated gem like Tyrian or Strife, or the 'MST3K' kind?

[ScottD.Betson]

Nice! Thanks Dan!

I gotta say this is the 1st Game Dungeon episode that really got me into listening to the soundtrack, particularly because of the song "The Driver Is You". Also, Quarantine kinda reminds me more of Postal 2 and Twisted Metal than GTA.

Its honestly like Escape from New York Or LA mixed with Carmageddon, Twisted Metal and Postal 2. and its also from Canada (REPRESENTIN CANADA UP IN HERE :D ) but what makes it even more cool is how it has weapons you can add to your car, since I think Twisted Metal had the same thing but it didnt show where the weapons were coming from, the newest one that came out back in 2012 does show where the weapons are on the car in the end.

 

Still a great review Ross.....I want some more of this badassery

[ScottD.Betson]

Almost a cult classic.

 

What kind of Cult Classic? An under-appreciated gem like Tyrian or Strife, or the 'MST3K' kind?

Well If its film wise, Cult Classic wise itd be the sort of Escape from New York type, but if its gaming wise, its either Tyrian or Strife or even Future Cop LAPD

[Nex]

See, I thought so too, that it has a really small niche of dedicated players. Like Neverhood or LSD. But then he says "almost". What does that mean? Is it almost known? Is it obscure but with a dedicated group of 10 players worldwide? My guess is, once again, Space Rangers for an upcoming ep, partially because that could be a good 20-minute episode, especially since they can't sell the first two games and the expansion anymore (cough cough judicial issues cough game uses renamed mp3s until the new remake hack cough) but this could be anything. Maybe it's not even a PC game. Maybe it's a Domino's Pizza game for Colecovision. Is there one? We don't know.

 

But hey, two more episodes coming soon is good enough for me.

[BTGBullseye]

What about Vigilante 8?

[Xeotroid]

Potential cult classic. Anyone have any ideas what games are almost cult classics?

 

Wait, does this count other countries? I can think of some games forgotten in Canada/US but loved in Poland, Ukraine, and the rest of eastern Europe.

 

You mean Teenagent?

[ScottD.Betson]

What about Vigilante 8?

I totally forgot about that game, Quarantine is basically Carmageddon, Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8 and any other car combat game meets Escape from New York

 

Vigilante 8 and 2nd offensive are both classic games, kinda miss the 2nd, loved the first ALOT! same with Twisted Metal 1 and 2, aswell as Black...

 

I think this game is classic as hell, if Vigilante 8, Twisted Metal or even Carmageddon were all open world games simolar to Quarantine i do think we would have some really good games, i mean we would have a wanna be version of the GTA London Packs (Vigilante 8), add some Rob Zombie music (twisted Metal 2) and we got a kickass game rivalry going on......but hey I do think all of those games all did something unique and only one lasted the longest and it was a Playstation exclusive and still is to this day......Twisted Metal......only sad thing is I dont think we will see another Twisted Metal game any time soon, we could but honestly I doubt it highly, same with a Quarantine Reboot or a Vigilante 8 Reboot, I mean I would love to see a new V8 or Carmageddon or even a new Quarantine (I would buy any of those titles if they were to come back but honestly I dont think Activision deserves to have the rights to V8 at fucking all.......I think if they are to give the rights to anyone it should be Avalanche Studios)

[vraptor]

Made an account just to say how much I love this video. It really encapsulates everything I enjoy about the Game Dungeon, making it my favorite video game-related series on the Internet. Every time one is released, it's like Christmas to me.

[ScottD.Betson]

I did some research and theres a 2nd Qurantine out there called Quarantine II: Road Warrior, not too sure if it has Drake Edgewater or not but I think its right after the events of the first and basically i believe rips off a good bit from Mad Max

[Goggles2114]

I seriously wish this game's source was released, or at the very least someone had tried making a game like this in 2.5d. Can't be that hard compared to making a proper 3d game if you're not trying to reverse engineer level design and asset placement right? It doesn't even have slopes, stares, or anything just a flat map with 'stuff' there.

 

Then again I kinda have a soft spot for 2.5d games, even if I kinda suck at most of em.

 

I saw in video the 'complete' map and one section was greyed out, is that the last map of the game or is it a chunk you never get to see?

 

Any chance a reverse engineered port could be done, since I seriously doubt the source code is around.

 

Hey, think Night Dive could figure out what the rights situation is? Even if at first it's just a dosboxed version of the game it's better than NOTHING, and it being obtainable would theoretically mean people would be able to work magic on it eventually.

[daBomb619]

It might be WAY too late to note this, but the Chinese characters that Ross asks about (at the Nasty Market) are 營商者注意. Google Translate says this means "businessmen pay attention", but maybe someone else can give a more accurate translation.

[AllTinker]

Inspired by Ross's episode on it (which rekindled my own memories of the game), I've spent the last couple of weeks reverse engineering the data formats for Quarantine into a little custom (C++/cross-platform) engine I've been working on. I'm not sure what this will amount to, if anything, but I certainly have ideas...

 

I'm essentially done with decoding the audio-visual assets and gameplay data at this point - at least everything useful (by my estimation anyway).

 

Here are some quick shots of the first level:

Spoiler

 

One of the boss vehicles (colour palette isn't set up as it would be in-game):

Spoiler

 

I've also figured out the animation formats - the format used for those quick "plug in/out" animations upon entering/leaving a shop/exit was a real head-scratcher. Especially because it's only used for four animations in the whole game (two of which are just reversed versions of the other two).

Spoiler

 

 

Here's a sample of decoded passenger text - note the names, which are never seen in-game.

Spoiler

 

An overview visualisation of (part of) the first level:

Spoiler

 

One of the many "blocks" which are used (sans objects) - each map cell seen in the previous image specifies which one of these to use. Figuring out how to decode these took by far the longest...

Spoiler

 

[AllTinker]

On 5/21/2019 at 5:46 AM, RaTcHeT302 said:

The map is made out of blocks? That looks really tedious to work with.

 

Also I'm getting a StarCraft vibe from the store fronts.

I'd love to see the original editors they used to make them and so on, but sadly those seem likely to be - along with the game source code - long gone. (I can see the StarCraft vibe too; quite a similar grungy tech look.)

 

I'm very close to the point now where I could make a new block/map editor for the original game... Although that's not the direction I'm going, since I'd rather work towards a new version which runs on modern OSes and lets me fix bugs/issues and generally tweak things.

 

I probably shouldn't spam the thread with crap about my random hobby project, but I'll just drop a quick video I recorded today showing a "drive" through parts of each of the five levels:

Still very early days, just having fun with it. Rendering at twice the resolution of the original game in that demo; I actually think a little chunkiness suits it. Also the FOV is significantly wider than the original... Anywho.

[BTGBullseye]

I'm actually very interested... Especially if you can get it to run with Vulkan and use some of the newer post processing effects available.