Possible Dos game port project

[BigusSchmuck]

So I got to thinking, there are so many open sourced projects out there today of a lot of our favorite dos games and seeing how we saw some pretty good ports to the Turbo like Might and Magic, Prince of Persia, Lemmings, Loom, Wizardry and a few others, I thought to get other people's opinion on where to begin with on porting some other games over. I'm not exactly an expert in any way, I have only used HuC lightly a few years back and about the furthest I got was a scrolling demo, but I'm more than willing to learn more of the ins and outs of the program in order to get some decent dos games on our beloved system. So without further ado what do you guys think?

[nat]

Keen, hands down.

And while I'm a huge fan of episodes 5 and 6, I think Dreams would benefit the most from the Turbo treatment. Mainly because the game was originally released without the intended music, simply so it would fit on a single 5.25" disk.

Now I just did a rant on the other board about how much I dislike tampering with someone else's vision, but Dreams was actually meant to have a soundtrack.

A 1:1 graphical port of Keen Dreams, with an original soundtrack would be awesome.

Of course, beggars can't be choosers.

[CGQuarterly]

I agree with Nat.  Keen all the way.

Chris

[Mishran]

While I had enjoyed playing the keen games when they were first released, I still give the Ultimas a run through on occasion since it's one of my favorite series. My vote goes to Ultima. Civilization would be a great candidate for a port as well.

[spenoza]

If you focused on a type of engine you might be able to port multiple games with minimal effort. A platform engine might get you more than one Keen game. Making a Gold Box engine port would get you several D&D games more easily.

[Arkhan Asylum]

While I had enjoyed playing the keen games when they were first released, I still give the Ultimas a run through on occasion since it's one of my favorite series. My vote goes to Ultima. Civilization would be a great candidate for a port as well.

I already called dibs on Ultima ][.


My vote is Keen Dreams also.

I can help with the soundtrack. 

and the vegetables.

[Keranu]

Other: Mysterious Song!

[Arkhan Asylum]

Other: Mysterious Song!

lol, you're such a retard sometimes.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Other: Mysterious Song!

lol, you're such a retard sometimes.

Sometimes 

[BigusSchmuck]

You know I thought that was the name of a game, but upon googling it came up with some interesting results. ^^ I'm quite surprised no one voted for Monkey Island, I guess people are adventured out. Or even stranger yet: Zork. Or perhaps something more obscure in the mid nineties: Dominus. Too bad Dominus isn't open sourced though.

[spenoza]

Zork, eh? With what keyboard, exactly?

I'm still surprised there isn't more love for the D&D Gold Box games. I think they'd be rockin' on the PCE.

[Mishran]

Elder Scrolls: Arena 

That would be better suited as a CD game. Would likely be very hard, if not impossible, to port that massive game over though.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Elder Scrolls: Arena 

That would be better suited as a CD game. Would likely be very hard, if not impossible, to port that massive game over though.

It's not really possible to do that game on PCE CD. It doesn't support the resolution needed, or the lighting/crap. 

and it would have to load constantly.  It'd be rough.

[roflmao]

I almost voted for Keen.  I have a lot of fond memories playing those games bitd.  There are a lot of good options listed.  I had to go with Civilization though.  The first time I pulled an all-nighter playing a game was with Civilization.  I bet it would have a HUGE save file, though.

...now I want to go play Civ4.

EDIT: Kind of off the subject, but I would LOVE to see some sort of Tower Defense game on the PCE/TG16 (Like Gemcraft or Defense Grid).

[incrediblehark]

I voted for Ultima, (Ultima VI with the voiceovers from the fm towns version would be awesome) but would be happy with any of these games really. I've been thinking for a while now someone should make a compilation of old abandonware games for newer consoles but hey if they're on the pc engine thats fine with me

[Senshi]

Elder Scrolls: Arena 

That would be better suited as a CD game. Would likely be very hard, if not impossible, to port that massive game over though.

It's not really possible to do that game on PCE CD. It doesn't support the resolution needed, or the lighting/crap. 

and it would have to load constantly.  It'd be rough.

That sucks. I would love to see that as well above all the rest.

[Arkhan Asylum]

well, doing a raycast engine on PCE is pretty ambitious.

Even commercial raycast games on consoles from this era were not so good.  Look at DOOM on SNES...

Faceball on PCE...

The PCE doesn't have the resources necessary to do a free roaming game like Arena.  Anyone who says the PCE can do it should get punched in the teeth.

It could do Wolfenstein, but not Doom.  If it did do Doom, it would not be anywhere near as good as it should be.


Wolfenstein has single level/no lighting, so it's worlds simpler.  Doom has slopes/multi levels/lighting.
Arena has that and more. 

there are just too many reasons why it can't be done and shouldn't even be attempted.

[NecroPhile]

Faceball on PCE...

Not so good?!?  Don't make me punch you!

[Arkhan Asylum]

Faceball on PCE...

Not so good?!?  Don't make me punch you!

Well, its ok for Faceball.. but you can see in that game that something like arena won't be happening lol

[esteban]

I'm still surprised there isn't more love for the D&D Gold Box games. I think they'd be rockin' on the PCE.

Heck yes!

Sorry, Commander was fine in the early PC days, but D&D will always be where my heart is. I love the "gold box" games. So divine!

This is law.

[Keranu]

How about Bouncing Babies?

Not sure how well the PCE could handle this one though...

[Arjak]

I voted for D&D so that we can get a remake of one of the greatest RPGs of all time...

That's right! Heroes of the Lance!

Seriously though, I'm of course referring to the Gold Box games. I've become interested in playing them recently, so it would be nice to see them get an update!

[Arkhan Asylum]

Why an update?  They'd be fine as is.   

I'd put the Goldbox games at the bottom of the list.  OotG is good enough.  Commander Keen is more important

[ParanoiaDragon]

well, doing a raycast engine on PCE is pretty ambitious.

Even commercial raycast games on consoles from this era were not so good.  Look at DOOM on SNES...

Faceball on PCE...

The PCE doesn't have the resources necessary to do a free roaming game like Arena.  Anyone who says the PCE can do it should get punched in the teeth.

It could do Wolfenstein, but not Doom.  If it did do Doom, it would not be anywhere near as good as it should be.


Wolfenstein has single level/no lighting, so it's worlds simpler.  Doom has slopes/multi levels/lighting.
Arena has that and more. 

there are just too many reasons why it can't be done and shouldn't even be attempted.

You really think it could do Wolfenstein??  Part of me would like to see that, just to see it done, but another part of me wouldn't really care about it.  If I wanted to play Wolfenstein, I already have the definitive version on 3DO....not to mention the Jag version.  It's not the greatest game ever, though, I consider it an important part of gaming history.

[spenoza]

I'd put the Goldbox games at the bottom of the list.  OotG is good enough.  Commander Keen is more important

OotG is a poor man's Gold Box game. Champions of Krynn was my favorite. I think that one needs a retouch. Mostly for the graphics.

I never liked the Commander Keen games. They were weak sauce.

[esteban]

It's good to see spenoza and Arjak know that the D&D games crush poor little Keen.

This is law.

[Edmond Dantes]

This was a hard vote for me, between Keen Dreams, Ultima and D&D.  While I would love to see all of those Turbofied, ultimately I had to choose Keen.

[Arkhan Asylum]

You really think it could do Wolfenstein??  Part of me would like to see that, just to see it done, but another part of me wouldn't really care about it.  If I wanted to play Wolfenstein, I already have the definitive version on 3DO....not to mention the Jag version.  It's not the greatest game ever, though, I consider it an important part of gaming history.

yeah, there's a nice homebrew Z80 MSX2 game showing a wolfenstein like engine, with no slowdowns.  They put a janky port of Doom on the ZX Spectrum, and there are some other demos showing that it could be done.

Wolfenstein is a much simpler engine than Doom.  No lighting, no multiple levels.. it's just raycasting and stupid enemies.


OotG may be poor mans GoldBox, but it beats no goldbox.

and, I'd love to see Curse of the Azure Bonds redoned.

[CrackTiger]

I voted for Ultimas, but I'm not familiar with too many computer games.

As for Zork, isn't its gameplay similar to the 100+ digital comic/adventure/dating games already on PCE? I'm guessing that Return to Zork for PC-FX doesn't require a keyboard. Wouldn't straight ports of Ultima require text input? No matter what, even if faithful non-upgraded ports are what some people have in mind, I'm guessing that some sort of compromising will have to be made.


Doesn't Wolfenstein 3D for SNES run without any special chips? A perfect port might not be possible for PCE, but a custom version should be possible for any hardware. It just depends on how much needs to be altered vs how worthwhile the endcresult would be. The Genesis did a decent job pulling off a few real time fps games.

Other: Mysterious Song!

Maybe if you upgraded the gameplay, menus, music, battle bgs, rest of the tiles and sprites, extended the game and piled on a bunch of special features... But that would be a lot of work. 

[Arjak]

It's good to see spenoza and Arjak know that the D&D games crush poor little Keen.

This is law.

Now wait just a minute! I LOVE Commander Keen! It's one of my favorite DOS game series! However, Keen is easily playable through DOSBox, and easily downloadable from almost every old game website.

The Gold Box games, are a little more hard to play, especially when you consider that they require a lot of pack-in materials that came with the game to play, much less appreciate them. I think that there is a lot that could be done to update them.

BTW, how hard would it be to make it so that if you beat Pools of Radiance for PCE, that it would save a file to memory that could be read by Curse of the Azure Bonds for PCE to import your characters?

[spenoza]

I don't think the TG memory scheme uses any sort of security rules for saves, so I don't know that this would be a problem.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I voted for Ultimas, but I'm not familiar with too many computer games.

As for Zork, isn't its gameplay similar to the 100+ digital comic/adventure/dating games already on PCE? I'm guessing that Return to Zork for PC-FX doesn't require a keyboard. Wouldn't straight ports of Ultima require text input? No matter what, even if faithful non-upgraded ports are what some people have in mind, I'm guessing that some sort of compromising will have to be made.

Ultima 1, 2 and 3 can be done with no text input, and as it stands, Ultima IV, V, VI, and VII were all ported to NES/SNES and had no text input required.  They simplified the communication for console releases.

Ultima 3 and 4 for NES are pretty awesome ports of the game.  They got the Dragon Quest treatment to them.  They are worth the time.

Doesn't Wolfenstein 3D for SNES run without any special chips? A perfect port might not be possible for PCE, but a custom version should be possible for any hardware. It just depends on how much needs to be altered vs how worthwhile the endcresult would be. The Genesis did a decent job pulling off a few real time fps games.

Yeah Wolfenstein doesn't require special hardware.  It would be fairly doable on the PCE.  Look at faceball. It's practically Faceball.   I'd say it's doable ,but highly ambitious/time consuming.

Now wait just a minute! I LOVE Commander Keen! It's one of my favorite DOS game series! However, Keen is easily playable through DOSBox, and easily downloadable from almost every old game website.

The Gold Box games, are a little more hard to play, especially when you consider that they require a lot of pack-in materials that came with the game to play, much less appreciate them. I think that there is a lot that could be done to update them.

BTW, how hard would it be to make it so that if you beat Pools of Radiance for PCE, that it would save a file to memory that could be read by Curse of the Azure Bonds for PCE to import your characters?

It would be perfectly doable.  The games share an engine anyways, and have identical character data.  That's why you can just use a character disk for Curse, that you used in Pool. 

That would be an interesting setup

[BigusSchmuck]

Considering you can do this with the Wizardry games, I don't see much of a problem there. The biggest hurdle to any of this is finding the source for some of these games especially those gold boxed D&D games. Keen, Ultima, Civilization (Freeciv) however, are open sourced and shouldn't be too much of an issue.

[Arkhan Asylum]

The problem with Ultima is that the open source stuff uses the original data files, so you still have that issue to deal with.

But, like I said, Ultima ][ is a plan of mine for some day.  So maybe we can scratch that off the list for now


The goldbox games have Unlimited Adventures engine, that could be screwed around with maybe.

[spenoza]

The goldbox games have Unlimited Adventures engine, that could be screwed around with maybe.

By the time Unlimited Adventures had been released the engine had been upgraded somewhat. It would probably need to be stripped back down a little to work on the PCE, especially given that UA was a slightly larger game and might need to hold a bit much in RAM. I think if you work from the original Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance games (3 each) you've got a robust enough engine for basically 6 games.

[Keranu]

Other: Mysterious Song!

Maybe if you upgraded the gameplay, menus, music, battle bgs, rest of the tiles and sprites, extended the game and piled on a bunch of special features... But that would be a lot of work. 

Pfft, sounds like 5+ year project. Like anyone would go through that sort of effort!

[HercTNT]

I voted for other. Personally i would love to see the original simcity or even better simcity done up Bonk style.  Instead of a giant lizard stopping through your city it could be bonk. I dont think it would be to ambitious of a project, and the Pce could handle it nicely with better graphics and sound. Would love for it to support save game and mouse as well. Just my two cents.

[nat]

I voted for other. Personally i would love to see the original simcity or even better simcity done up Bonk style. 

SimCity has been done and done. The SNES has a perfectly fine version of SimCity already. But a BONK SimCity isn't a half-bad idea. I'd remake the entire game to take place in the Bonk universe. Bonk creatures, Bonk buildings, Bonk economics. As the game progressed into the future, the buildings/technology would evolve into the Zonk era.

[Mishran]

Hmm... Maniac Mansion?

[ParanoiaDragon]

I voted for other. Personally i would love to see the original simcity or even better simcity done up Bonk style.  Instead of a giant lizard stopping through your city it could be bonk. I dont think it would be to ambitious of a project, and the Pce could handle it nicely with better graphics and sound. Would love for it to support save game and mouse as well. Just my two cents.

How bout' instead of a giant lizard, it be King Drool?   And yeah, Maniac Mansion would be cool!

[Edmond Dantes]

Ultima 1, 2 and 3 can be done with no text input, and as it stands, Ultima IV, V, VI, and VII were all ported to NES/SNES and had no text input required.  They simplified the communication for console releases.

And by "simplified the communication" you mean "turned VI and VII into freaking Zelda games."

Although, a port of Ultima Eight would be interesting (that was practically a Zelda game anyway...)

[HercTNT]

Nat you have my vote on that. I know simcity has been done and done, but i'm a fool for the game. Redo it the way you said would be outstanding. Having king drool stomping through bonkville like down town tokyo would seal the deal for me as well. If i can't have that though, I will take a Halloween harry remake featuring Zonk characters.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Ultima 1, 2 and 3 can be done with no text input, and as it stands, Ultima IV, V, VI, and VII were all ported to NES/SNES and had no text input required.  They simplified the communication for console releases.

And by "simplified the communication" you mean "turned VI and VII into freaking Zelda games."

Although, a port of Ultima Eight would be interesting (that was practically a Zelda game anyway...)

I try to ignore the SNES releases of Ultima games.   They're tarded.




Spenoza: The only real upgrade to the engine over time was the graphics.  the rest of the engine stayed the same.  Pools of Darkness plays just like Pool of Radiance, except VGA is all over that motherbitch.

[incrediblehark]

Hmm... Maniac Mansion?

Would love to see this too, i loved the nes version but on pce at least I'd leave the kids cd players on instead of playing in silence.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Hmm... Maniac Mansion?

Would love to see this too, i loved the nes version but on pce at least I'd leave the kids cd players on instead of playing in silence.

screw that crap.

what's next? Zak McKraken and the Boringassgame. ?

[esteban]

Nat you have my vote on that. I know simcity has been done and done, but i'm a fool for the game. Redo it the way you said would be outstanding. Having king drool stomping through bonkville like down town tokyo would seal the deal for me as well. If i can't have that though, I will take a Halloween harry remake featuring Zonk characters.

What? Hell no, Nat is spewing crazy talk.

What he intended to say is that we need to take the existing PCE version of SimEarth and update all the sprites/landscapes with their analogues from the Bonk universe.

And to this idea—putting the Bonk in SimEarth—I heartily say, "Hell yes!"


Typographical corrections (as Nat intended) in bold:

SimCity has been done and done. The SNES has a perfectly fine version of SimCity already. But a BONK SimCity SimEarth isn't a half-bad idea. I'd remake the entire game to take place in the Bonk universe. Bonk creatures, Bonk buildings, Bonk economics. As the game progressed into the future, the buildings/technology would evolve into the Zonk era.

[BigusSchmuck]

Like I said before, I'll go for open sourced projects first. Hacking Sim Earth, however is yet another can of beans I don't think I want to tackle anytime soon. Baby steps here ^^

[Arkhan Asylum]

If you want baby steps, Keen is your answer.  It's a simple platformer.

Ultima introduces the concept of first person dungeons and space-shooterthingy (Star Raiders ripoff).

[BigusSchmuck]

As indicated in the poll, thats probably what I'm going to attempt. Once I feel comfortable with that, will move on to bigger projects.

[Arkhan Asylum]

As indicated in the poll, thats probably what I'm going to attempt. Once I feel comfortable with that, will move on to bigger projects.

Even if you were to start smaller, with like a single LEVEL of Keen, I'm sure people would get erect from it.