Downloads at 16 KB a second for me. XD

Maybe you get faster downloads if you're actually logged in. *shrugs*

But yeah, interesting to see this available for free now... Considering it's the only entry under a "Classic Games" header, this might be a sign of things to come! :D

Now they just need to release Warcraft II and Diablo. WC2 shouldn't be too hard to run under DosBox, though Diablo may require some tweaking to run on newer systems.

Anyway, just tried the Blackthorne download, are the files really this minimal in the original DOS version? I see no way to change the sound device or anything. I want to see how this sounds on OPL3, not the windows MIDI softsynth.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Now they just need to release Warcraft II and Diablo. WC2 shouldn't be too hard to run under DosBox, though Diablo may require some tweaking to run on newer systems.

Don't forget Warcraft 1 and The Lost Vikings.

Anyway, just tried the Blackthorne download, are the files really this minimal in the original DOS version? I see no way to change the sound device or anything. I want to see how this sounds on OPL3, not the windows MIDI softsynth.

I don't remember (I'm sure I have a copy somewhere but I'd need to dig it up), but I was wondering the same thing. I didn't get a chance to test it to see what it's even configured for, although I did notice a flash of text at the start that credited someone for General MIDI OPL timbres.

That's just the usual "FM TIMBRES BY GEORGE ALISTAIR THE FAT MAN SANGER" message.). Of course the FM isn't used so that's just spam in this release..

This version from blizzard reminds me how terrible the default MIDI sounds in this game!

Seriously: Blackthorne gains HUGELY from MT-32. Setting up Munt maybe involve quite alot of tinkering but it's really worth it alone for this game!

I was wondering about that. Wikipedia doesn't like Blackthorne as an MT-32 game, but Mobygames does. As a result, I'm confused that Blizzard would configure it to use the default Windows softsynth unless the game has been patched for General MIDI support?

HunterZ wrote:

I was wondering about that. Wikipedia doesn't like Blackthorne as an MT-32 game, but Mobygames does. As a result, I'm confused that Blizzard would configure it to use the default Windows softsynth unless the game has been patched for General MIDI support?

I don't know about the new version, but in the original setup.exe of blackthorne you can only select "General MIDI" anyways.
If you set your Dosbox to use windows crap synth (probably midiconfig=0) the game sounds like less then stellar but if you set your Dosbox to use MT-32 emulation or the real hardware (midiconfig=3 in my case), you get original awesomesound (tm)

That's terribly confusing. MT32 is not a GM synth.

Blizzard has added The Lost Vikings and Rock 'n Roll Racing to their list of free Battle.net games: http://www.blizzpro.com/2014/05/02/download-b … acing-for-free/

excellent news, thanks for the heads up!

https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

RnR Racing is the SNES version and runs via Blizzard's custom ZSNES binary. Reportedly missing the music from original version along with demo levels only (confirmed that the music is different on 1st lvl).

Lost Vikings is the DOS version, but Blizzard's custom dosbox build is necessary to bypass the game's copy protection.

Amusing no Software Creations logo either.... and Blizzard used some real awful sound settings 🙁

Still great that they still have the source code to a SNES game

truth5678 wrote:

RnR Racing is the SNES version and runs via Blizzard's custom ZSNES binary. Reportedly missing the music from original version along with demo levels only (confirmed that the music is different on 1st lvl).

I read this too. Sounds like they originally licensed some music, so crippling the game was probably easier than figuring out how to get permission to redistribute the original game version. It really disappointing from a historical archive perspective, though, but I'm sure the original ROM is floating around out there.

Lost Vikings is the DOS version, but Blizzard's custom dosbox build is necessary to bypass the game's copy protection.

That's weird. There must have been a cr**k made for it back in the day, which ironically is what's generally used these days by the current rightsholders when they produce digital download re-releases.

truth5678 wrote:

https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

RnR Racing is the SNES version and runs via Blizzard's custom ZSNES binary. Reportedly missing the music from original version along with demo levels only (confirmed that the music is different on 1st lvl).

Lost Vikings is the DOS version, but Blizzard's custom dosbox build is necessary to bypass the game's copy protection.

i wonder what kind of talks they had to go through with Nintendo, since AFAIK every officially-licensed game on the SNES used the same sound library, and a fair number used default Nintendo-created samples as well. I know Nintendo's attitude on emulation isn't the greatest, but then again, EA did manage to get the SNES versions of a couple of its games on EA Anthology, which was a PSP release.

truth5678 wrote:

https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

RnR Racing is the SNES version and runs via Blizzard's custom ZSNES binary. Reportedly missing the music from original version along with demo levels only (confirmed that the music is different on 1st lvl).

Thanks for the heads' up 😀

Bambo wrote:

This version from blizzard reminds me how terrible the default MIDI sounds in this game!

Seriously: Blackthorne gains HUGELY from MT-32. Setting up Munt maybe involve quite alot of tinkering but it's really worth it alone for this game!

Blackthorne's General MIDI support actually sounds pretty good if you use a Sound Canvas or a Yamaha DBX50 synth. I do imagine though that the MT-32 support sounds fantastic as well.

Anyways, aside from the Rock 'N Roll Racing freeware download, the Lost Vikings and Blackthorne releases are great, even if the customization options are left out.

I wonder if the decision to release Rock 'n' Roll Racing was motivated at all by Motor Rock, that unauthorized remake that was very briefly for sale on Steam?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxMajqcff10

truth5678 wrote:

Reportedly missing the music from original version along with demo levels only (confirmed that the music is different on 1st lvl).

"Demo levels only"? Does that mean most of the content is missing?

leileilol wrote:

Still great that they still have the source code to a SNES game

Did they say somewhere that they used the original source? Because killing the music would be relatively easy to do just by editing the binary. On the other hand, considering they did release that GBA version of The Lost Vikings, maybe they do still have the source on hand.

truth5678 wrote:

https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

RnR Racing is the SNES version and runs via Blizzard's custom ZSNES binary. Reportedly missing the music from original version along with demo levels only (confirmed that the music is different on 1st lvl).

Lost Vikings is the DOS version, but Blizzard's custom dosbox build is necessary to bypass the game's copy protection.

Well thank goodness it's not the Sega Genesis version of RnR Racing. The graphics on the Genesis are tolerable, but the audio is scratchy and choppy. It's painful to listen to.

As evidenced below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKnwcGu4PeI

Find it interesting they used zsnes. Personally prefer zsnes because of the assembler (older 1998 releases). Why not use Snes9x? It's more compatible and portable isn't it (can't you port it to PowerPC, whateverdoesn'texistyet, etc?)