Goggles2114

http://www.tribesuniverse.com/ The current rights-holders to the Tribes franchise are giving away most of the franchise. There doesn't seem to be Stella 7, Cyberfront, or a few others, but while Tribes 1 and 2 were made free as a tribes Vengeance promo, Earsiege and Starsiege are now also available. Curiously they're going with ISOs of everything rather than attempting to incorporate community patches, meaning you're kinda on your own where actually getting things to work are concerned. Also as of the time of this post the Tribes 1/Starsiege combo ISO only has Starsiege. That may get fixed in the future. I THINK the two earthsiege games are good, but Starsiege, Tribes 2, and Vengeance need a little work to get going. Following instructions are courtesy of Reddit. Earthsiege: After installing DOSBox you can then use the Sierra installer to get Earthsiege I to work. I can confirm that it works. The page also has a link to run Earthsiege II on modern 64bit systems. I could run it but ran into an audio issue, something about _INMM.DLL. Starsiege: http://mossbackgeezers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&p=7252: How to get working on a modern box (instructions are for windows 7.) Mega link (advise that this gets mirrored.) No-CD Patch Replacement Master Server. Tribes 1: Frankly you're better off going with PlayTribes. Playtribes is an update that was in progress after Dynamix had bought back the franchise rights from Sierra and had intended to launch a quake-live like service that let you play the original tribes 1 from a browser window. This version includes better support for higher resolutions, OpenGL, and other minor things or possibly not so minor because I dunno what they are. Sadly the project got scrapped... when Hi-Rez bought the franchise. However someone leaked the code for what was done, which was basically everything workable so far as I'm aware of, and put it on the internet. This is the superior version of tribes 1. Tribal War thread about PlayTribes: http://www.tribalwar.com/forums/archive/t-630310.html Tribal War thread about the 1.141 'after hope' patch: http://www.tribalwar.com/forums/archive/t-663331.html If those do not do anything useful please discuss, will edit as I can find new information. It is weird o'clock here. Tribes 2: http://tribesnext.com/ will have both game, and patch to get going with the community master server. That site's version is the installer distributed as promo to tribes vengeance whereas the tribes universe link is for an ISO. Areal Assault: This is a PS2 game. I'm not sure why they're releasing the ISO and i have no idea if a community server exists. If anyone knows how to rip assets from this please share your wisdom since this is basically the ps2 version of tribes 2 with a few different vehicles, different turret behavior, and a different set of tutorial missions. Tribes Vengeance: http://tribesrevengeance.com/. That site will have basically everything you need to get going between setup, general tutorials, and I think they've got mapping utilities up it's been awhile. Reddit Thread about game lore. Edit: The Exiled's Wiki is back up and functioning proper. Also as a note their site offers downloads for Playtribes, Tribes 2, Vengeance, and probably others. This wiki covers everything the franchise has to offer. I'm serious it is the most exaustive document I've found on the web about the in universe as well as out of universe material on the franchise all in one place. This needs backing up if it hasn't been already.

Calling it now. Next game is Darkstalkers.

A really weak game, but interesting the guy never stopped selling any of them. Honestly that's the most interesting thing at play here, beyond possibly the fact this guy hates children's programming so much he wants to throw them into a hellpit.

Does come with the 'classic' version you can play under dosbox or even an actual dos system if you have a retrobox set up. So you're not ultra-screwed. It's just the windows wrapper doesn't have the fact SHOAN's behavior is tied to cpu cycles taken into account.

Something I'd discovered. Til it gets patched the last fight against SHODAN is unwinnable. It'll get fixed, but if you can't win don't feel bad. And if you CAN win... YOUTUBE IT! You are freaking awesome.

The original 90's game is for sale complete with voices, cutscenes, and all. NightDive, unlike last time with Shock2, actually worked with the community rather than simply swiping the hard work of community members and claiming their 'expert tech ninjas' did the job. http://www.gog.com/game/system_shock_enhanced_edition NightDive sent a takedown notice to SystemShock.org to get rid of System Shock Portable since that was the full game plus dosbox. In that notice they basically explained they own the franchise rights to System Shock. All of it. Not just digital distribution. This means we will not ever have a shitty EA backed mobile game that's microtransaction hell. Version Features: - the game runs natively under windows, no (slow) dosbox emulation - toggle able mouselook mode (smart, auto-disables itself when the player is interacting with objects) - higher resolution support, up to 1024*768 (able to set custom ones as well, even widescreen) - windowed mode - scaling smoothing/filtering - remappable keys - no resolution changing when entering full map - resolution and other settings now stored outside the savegames, eliminating the need to always set them anew once a game is started - storing the settings externally also allows the log audio to be enabled by default - can make screenshots by hitting printscreen (stored in \res\gen) - couple of fixes to scaling, brightness and onscreen text They offer mp3 and FLAC versions of the soundtrack, but both use really poor soundfonts so I wouldn't bother. Better to grab the MIDI and find a good soundfont to make your own. Discuss, please!

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.

I thought the industry had switched fairly quickly from having special 3d cameras to doing it all in software with normal high def cameras because it was cheaper and the equipment fucked up less. I dunno though. I'm one of those people the 3d effect never really worked right on because something about my eyes and i can't tell distances worth shit. I've tried both the red/blue and the newer polarized lenses glasses and frankly I have little hope occulus will work on me.

For me it's the fact there's just enough story to have a world, but enough wiggle room. It's a real shame that there aren't things like intentionally unused assets, and the like for mod makers to sink into. Then again the loss of the source code on top of releasing between Quake and Duke Nukem 3d that buried it. There's a handful of fan missions, and most are actually pretty good, but nothing compared to doom. What bugs me is sixish months after it came back there's been no new maps. We have tools (at least for windows) to take advantage of the new features. There is a multiplayer mode but... nothing really big. It's Doom plus a lot of other stuff. I do wish the mauler's shotgun mode had more... oomph. Compare it's 'ooomewy' noise to the doom's shotgun or supershotgun. Shottty feels a LOT more satisfying.

Hey Quasar. Look personal opinion is things could be better, but the feel I get from doomworld, the steam forums, and elsewhere is you ran out of money so NightDive moved on. Am mildly disappointed at nobody making use of the source provided but eh. It exists. It is a Thing. Most importantly you left the original wad files as is.

Mostly because I wanted a wallpaper for my laptop I did a bit of copy/paste/crop/add black to the edges to make up size difference. the strife image at 1280x800. Actual image resolution is like 1239x800 though.

DAT alt-ending! In all seriousness. Take what time you need to recharge and not go crazy on us. It's been a good run and I'd be very happy to see what other projects you have in store for us. Of course now I'm waiting to see who splices all of the episodes together so it's all one seamless thing minus the .5 episodes. It'll be awhile because of how many there are, and I'm not sure it really can be done any not look like crap, but you never know I guess. Personally I'm looking forward to original work out of Ross. Something not constrained by existing setting or characters.

Question: Doesn't Source Film Maker make things less headach-y or are you at this point not caring what tools pop up and just want a different engine to use?

NightDive has, somehow, gotten at least digital distribution rights for Strife: Quest for the Sigil. Because the source was lost they could have gone with a dosbox port, but instead got the community to help out by getting them a modified version of Chocolate Strife that has added features like pixel smoothing, bloom, colored lighting, an ogg version of the soundtrack as processed by a Roland setup, and pdf's of the manual and other physical goodies. Currently on Steam and likely going to get put on GoG before too long. Because the engine is based on chocolate strife the soce other than the bits that interface with steam itself will be made open source at some point. Given there was a Game Dungeon video awhile back I figured folks here would want to know if they didn't already. DoomWiki Article for anyone interested in who from the doom community should be thanked.

Depending how money rolls might get one at the end of the week. Will do a review then.

Its a handheld console that made a bit of a splash last year. OK fine it was funded about the same time the ouya was so got drowns out by that thing. Still it has funding and even though there were delays its a thing. Friend of mine owns one. I've got one on order. It does console emulation ranging from 8 bit Atari up to the 16 bit era (it could do PlayStation and Dreamcast but not a lot of effort is going there so while proof of concept emulation is a thing it isn't very good.) I don't advocate software piracy but there are some interesting homebrew titles out there and hacks that turn what was commercial material into something so different it might as well be original. Emulation is a thing. Like it, don't... Its there even if all you want to do is stick to the open source/homebrew software. Ok fine it emulates stuff so what? Completely open toolchain based on Linux, has SDL 2 (though 1.2 is more stable at this point) and some other standardized libraries like python. There are also a few doom ports (odamex and chocolate are the two that come to mind,) as well as eduke32, decent, quake, and an assortment of homebrew games like powder, dink Smallwood, blockrage, open born, streets of rage remake, and other stuff being developed. The key here is its an open console anyone can do stuff for. Want to be gonzo and port abiword to it and bang out a draft on your handheld plugged into a TV with a computer plunged into its OTG adapter? You can! What about dosbox? Already done! And yes it will run the original dungeon keeper. Poorly but it runs! It has WiFi, an fm radio, tilt sensor (nice for playing decent), HDMI and av out (sorta kinda not working all the way but eh. Give it time, its supposedly almost done.) http://gcw-zero.com Main page and also leads to store links if you want to buy one from thinkgeek or other non us based retailers. However thinkgeek is your best option. Recentish YouTube review. Please note most of their software is in the forums linked to from the main site. The curse of a low numbers compared to the glut of Chinese tablets.

Dangit now I've got this idea in my head to see if guy I know that has money could be helpful in tracking down who owns the rights to see if they could be bought. Sure it won't sell like system shock 2 did but at $5 on stea! Or Gog it'd make its money back just dumping it in a dosbox wrapper knowing anyone that buys will put it in a source port. I dunno if they'll be interested though, it is a long process with uncertain payout. Anyone know if the current owners of the liquidated velocity/rouge IP rights can be found?

Oh! One thing I remembered. Harris? Guy warned about having a trap you can't avoid? There actually is a warning but you have to talk to the prisoner in the dungeon you're storming.

Well the source to system shock got lost.

Personally I was hoping Doomguy's Mind would be a yearly thing.

Well as mentioned before Blackbird (your mission control type when you're out playing insurgent) mentions it when you see a second one after you beat one of the game bosses. So less spoiler and more likely 'its been so long since playing with the original engine I'm going to be careful here.' What bugs me is how few addon maps there are. Granted sure losing the source and having to build the thing from scratch sucks, but it's been playable for about what six? Eight years? I know Kaiser from doomworld has done a few things but that's about it. Edit: and you can't even use 'but we didn't have the source' as an excuse even if you don't count that guy who's name I can't spell building a workalike in vavoom and letting everyone else build off of that. Why? Six years after system shock 2 came out it had several damned good fan missions, weapon mods, texture updates, and unlike the doom engine even having fan missions is a bit of a hack exploiting how the game looks for assets so it uses the new material instead of the official. Oh sure now it's as easy as dumping in a directory but NewDark is a literal game changed adding in proper support for a lot of things that had been hacked up bits the fan community had been using to keep the party going. Ditto with Tron 2.0. It's even worse in that there's a hard limit of how much stuff you can add in and there's still an entirely new single player level set, assets from the Xbox version, and all kinds of stuff added to a game that isn't just mod unfriendly but actually if anything mod-hostile. So yea given we not only have something based off doom but at least ever since 2008ish or so doombuilder supports Strife mapping, so there literally is no excuse. Well aside from the fact my own attempts have looked like mangled goat and I didn't want to share.

Oh by the wat, Ross? As much as I like freeman's mind you gave it a good resting point and game dungeon is pretty awesome. Plus I totally respect your opinion about doom. Sorta disagree but that's mostly because I tend to play level packs over the actual game precisely because of the levels being annoying and pretty much just want to kill things with a shotgun.

I found this one a few years ago and yes there is annoying level maze design I wish somebody would go back and fix I have to say strife is one of my favorite fps games. Then again it falls in that timeframe when I could tell what was going on screen and thanks to codemonkey awesome from fans has a not backward control setup (looking at you system shock.) Now if only someone could redo the levels or at least fix the doors that always trigger alarms and bots that are constantly on alert status..... On the bright side I have managed to avoid triggering alarms simply by exiting the conversation tree andcstabbing people in the face with the punch dagger. Thanks for shining light on this underrated and overlooked gem Ross.