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Ancient DOS Games Webshow

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Reply 2660 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Ancient DOS Games Episode 194 - MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries is online!

...and I'm super tired so I'm going to bed instead of typing more stuff here. Good night! :B

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 2661 of 3343, by DracoNihil

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Wow, that was great showcasing the "Crash while exiting a mission, previous debriefing shown instead". I used to use that to skip missions in style.

Mercs was a childhood favourite though despite all it's shortcomings... But looking back at it, it sure is a mess. Even I'76 has a ton of stupid problems same with Heavy Gear 1.

“I am the dragon without a name…”
― Κυνικός Δράκων

Reply 2662 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Ancient DOS Games Episode 195 - Evasive Action is online!

...I literally only played this game for two hours; there's SO little to really do in this thing... x_x;

It's like... there's great potential for a game here, but it's missing so much that it feels more like a tech demo than an actual game. Still, it was interesting to play through the full version, having only played the demo version prior which only allows playing the 90s era.

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 2663 of 3343, by RadioPoultry

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Interesting... I thought I had played a demo of this at a relative's house, but I remember it being the space era. Either they actually had the full game, or there was another demo.

Reply 2664 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Ancient DOS Games Filler #55 - Dangerous Dave Walkthrough is online!

This... was a last-minute thing. I had a completely different video planned for this week, but it was a very negative video and the further I got into it the more I realized it was just going to upset people more than do anything productive, so I spent literally three hours of work on this filler to get SOMETHING out and I'm planning to take the good parts of what I had planned and turn that into its own filler video down the road. :B

Since Dangerous Dave is such a hard yet short game, and I play through it a couple times ever year just for kicks, I figured I was in a prime position to give a walkthrough of it along with tons of tips and tricks to surviving. :)

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 2665 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Ancient DOS Games Episode 196 - Pinball Construction Set is online!

Amazingly, despite growing up playing tables made with this program, I never actually knew much about it until much later in life, and only obtained a copy recently thanks to Trixter, who's been EXTREMELY generous in terms of helping me acquire some of these old 80s titles.

Mind you, in this case, when I actually researched how difficult it would be to get this game myself while scripting, it turned out to be one of the easier ones. ;)

I made a couple tables with it too while making the episode and have made those tables available as standalone executables on my website: http://www.pixelships.com/misc/pcs.html

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 2666 of 3343, by schlang

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I really like your game videos, especially because you can speak without brainfarting ("eeeehm") all the time - keep up the good work 😀

PC#1: K6-III+ 400 | 512MB | Geforce4 | Voodoo1 | SB Live | AWE64 | GUS PNP Pro
PC#2: 486DX2-66 | 64MB | Riva128 | AWE64 | GUS PNP | PAS16
PC#3: 386DX-40 | 32MB | CL-GD5434 | SB Pro | GUS MAX | PAS16

Think you know your games music? Show us: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37532

Reply 2667 of 3343, by Gemini000

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schlang wrote:

I really like your game videos, especially because you can speak without brainfarting ("eeeehm") all the time - keep up the good work :)

ADG videos are scripted, so... that kinda helps. ;)

...and Shovelware Diggers is cut down dramatically to reduce the amount of quiet moments.

*shrugs* :B

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 2670 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Yeah... for some bizarre reason, not long after I went to bed this morning, the pixelships.com domain name entered a non-validated state, likely due to some security updates and registar changes going on with my web host. I became aware of this just minutes after I woke up and immediately got in touch with tech support and had the problem resolved fairly quickly. :B

Anywhoo, Ancient DOS Games Episode 197 - Gladiator is online! :)

This is right on the borderline of being marked mature-rated, as there is indeed blood effects, but they're not distinct in any way and look more like red splotches than blood, so it was kinda hard to consider that "mature". :P

I kinda felt like this would turn into a longer episode, but in order to do this game justice would've taken massive amounts of gameplay and I didn't have that kind of time on hand, so I settled for a more basic episode with a quick rundown of the character classes. It does the job but this is definitely one of my less impressive episodes of ADG up to this point.

*shrugs* Oh well.

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 2671 of 3343, by SquallStrife

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I noticed that you say something like "I don't have too much to say about this game" a lot, before proceeding to talk for 10-15 mins about it anyway.

It doesn't bug me as such, but I also don't think it's necessary. Is it just something you say out of habit?

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Reply 2672 of 3343, by Gemini000

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SquallStrife wrote:

I noticed that you say something like "I don't have too much to say about this game" a lot, before proceeding to talk for 10-15 mins about it anyway.

It doesn't bug me as such, but I also don't think it's necessary. Is it just something you say out of habit?

It's... kinda weird. I say it when I have trouble thinking of stuff to talk about with a game, not necessarily because I don't have a bunch to say, but I FEEL like I don't compared to other games I've covered. Most of the time when I say that, I end up with a 5 or 6 page script. Whenever I don't, the script is 6 to 8 pages, so there is SOME potential overlap. :B

1 page of a script equates to roughly 3 minutes of video with ADG.

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 2673 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Ancient DOS Games Episode 198 - Lemmings is online!

...and I'm really freaking tired after having a super-long and busy day, so I'm going to bed as opposed to typing meaningful stuff here. :B

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 2674 of 3343, by switchblade

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Lemmings is one of those exceptions where I prefer the Amiga version over the DOS version.

Even without the color palette issues in DOSBox, the DOS version just doesn't look or sound that great compared to the Amiga version.

Reply 2675 of 3343, by ishadow

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All Lemmings ports are at least decent. Amiga version is probably the best one, but DOS is very close. I even prefer OPL2 FM music than Amiga modules in this, so I would pick DOS game.
DOS port is lacking 2 player mode and it's also has an issue with music. Each level should have it's own music, but in DOS port music works in that way, that there's a list of songs and when you finish a level, you get the next one. It would be OK, but when you lose or restart level, you will hear the first song. It's very hard to play that way, since on later levels you will mostly listen to one song all the time.

I would definitely put Lemmings in my TOP3 games of all times. This game is just perfect. Great level design, flawless lemming skills, and pixel perfect accuracy of the mechanics. There is just one problem: controls. Game lacks an active pause feature. You can't even change current ability when paused. In DOS port at least you can use F1 to F12 to quickly select skill, and they even work in pause. So at most intense moments you press F11 scroll, setup mouse, set skill, press F11 and click. On Amiga or Atari ST ports it isn't possible to do something like that.

But nowadays we have a modern ports made by community. The best by far is Neolemmix: http://www.neolemmix.com/ It retains classic look and feel, but improves everything:
1. There's an active pause in game. You can change skills, or use them on lemmings while in pause. You can even skip time frame by frame.
2. There's fast forward in two variants:
- simple fast forward that speed up the game - good for times when lemmings have to walk a long way.
- press button to skip 10 seconds or rather time for building one bridge. When you start building, press button, and your builder lemming is laying his last two blocks.
3. Other improvements:
- bomber explodes instantly, no 5 seconds wait.
- instant replay - when you played for a several minutes and made a mistake. Press ESC and start again. Game will replay your moves from the last time until you make some new action. Good for those long levels. When you missed something on the last obstacle you don't need to do whole level again. Restart, use fast forward and play correctly.
- directional select - use arrow keys on keyboard to choose left/right facing lemmings only.

With this improvement game is way more playable and you can really enjoy harder levels.
The game learning curve is amazing and game engine is precise. Later levels were designed acknowledging that. There are several ways to slow down or turn around lemmings without blockers. Later levels require that. Unfortunately it's really hard to discover these mechanics on your own. Back in the day there was a hint book. Now you can watch all the levels solved on youtube.

Last year I actually finished all the levels for the first time. Reading ending screen you will clearly see that developers were aware that very few people will finish Lemmings 1.

Lemmings community is still alive. New level packs are made every few months. There are thousands of user levels from all those years since game was released.

I would myself do some levels, but unfortunately I can't get neolemmix editor to work on any of my computers. Anyway it's a longtime goal on my lifetime TO DO list, so sooner or later I will find a way to make my own lemmings levels:)

Reply 2676 of 3343, by SquallStrife

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ishadow wrote:

- bomber explodes instantly, no 5 seconds wait.

That's a game changer, part of the challenge of bomber use is knowing where he'll walk to by the end of the countdown. Some levels even depends on it, and removing the countdown makes those levels easy-mode.

The other improvements seem OK, I'd argue that frame-by-frame advance, and active pause verge on being cheating. The puzzles would have been designed with the existing UI in mind. They are certainly solvable in the base game.

It would be like hacking Dark Souls to make you respawn before the current room, instead of sending you back to the bonfire and respawning everything. Sure it makes it "easier" but the game isn't about being easy.

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Reply 2677 of 3343, by schlang

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Lemmings 2 (the tribes) was far superior on Amiga as well.

PC#1: K6-III+ 400 | 512MB | Geforce4 | Voodoo1 | SB Live | AWE64 | GUS PNP Pro
PC#2: 486DX2-66 | 64MB | Riva128 | AWE64 | GUS PNP | PAS16
PC#3: 386DX-40 | 32MB | CL-GD5434 | SB Pro | GUS MAX | PAS16

Think you know your games music? Show us: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37532

Reply 2678 of 3343, by ishadow

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SquallStrife wrote:

That's a game changer, part of the challenge of bomber use is knowing where he'll walk to by the end of the countdown. Some levels even depends on it, and removing the countdown makes those levels easy-mode.

It's not just a simple change. As far as I remember at least one mayhem level was changed to retain it's difficulty. Also, bomber is least useful skill since you are killing your lemming in the process and most of the time you are aiming for 100% saved. On lemmings forum there is a thread about best solutions. Most levels had 100% lemmings saved even if they required less.

schlang wrote:

Lemmings 2 (the tribes) was far superior on Amiga as well.

Actually no. Lemmings and Oh No More Lemmings on DOS lacked digitalized samples and it was their main flaw. Lemmings 2 on DOS got pretty much everything done right. Static screens are using full 256 color palette, on Amiga it's rather 16 colors due to limited 3 disk space. PC version was almost 4 MB on HDD, Amiga was less than 3 MB. Gameplay on both versions is 16 color - like Lemmings 1. The main difference is if you like Amiga MOD music or OPL2 FM/MT32 in DOS. In most cases I prefer FM music, because it's unique. Amiga mods are sounding rather bad with limited sample sizes and primitive way of changing pitch affecting tempo. In my opinion FM music aged better than MODs. Later PC games like Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and Unreal Tournament also used MODs, but with dozens of MB in RAM and faster CPUs they used 20+ channels and high quality samples. EAX based cards like SB Live! could also do many channels in hardware also adding environmental effect.

Lemmings 2 came out when PC DOS gaming started taking over the computer market. 386 + VGA + SB were common and fast 486 were gaining popularity. Amiga users waited for next model and they never got it. There were plans of a new Amiga with awesome GPU supporting 16bit color and 3D hardware acceleration. It could be really awesome to see stock Amiga with power of Playstation, but we never got it. Homebrew improvements and turbo cards weren't enough. Last Amiga games that used those features sold in few thousand copies, not enough to even cover development costs.

Reply 2679 of 3343, by leileilol

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Having played the DOS version first i've never had the issue with hearing "boingboingboingboingboingboingboing". I've heard the yippee's first with the SNES Lemmings (which is actually an OK port for home consoles considering it had both 2 player and the special levels that got excised in later ports)

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