newtmonkey wrote on 2021-08-19, 16:24:

Spirit of Adventure
This is basically Realms of Arkania 0. It seems to use the same engine as far as I can tell, and even the style of the graphics is very similar. It was also developed by the same company (and people) who would eventually make the RoA series. The big differences here are character creation and combat.

This is one of the "zeros" I want to play.
Other ones are Crystals of Arborea (Ishar 0) and Dragonflight (Amber 0).

Lately I've been playing Firo & Klawd and Robotron X... Have owned these since I was a kid, hadn't touched them for ages though

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-08-19, 17:08:

I got back into Mass Effect, this time the Xbox 360 version. About 2 weeks ago I bought the Mass Effect Trilogy box set. I really wanted this to bypass EA Origin for ME3 which is mandatory on the PC, but absent from the Xbox version.

2 days ago I also got Alice: Madness Returns for the Xbox 360 (which it seems includes the 1st episode) and Devil May Cry 4 Collector's Edition for the PS3 and I'd also like to finally try Atom RPG so I'm in a pinch what to play next.

There's the Legendary Edition (a remaster, really) for the ME Trilogy on Steam.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-08-19, 18:54:

There's the Legendary Edition (a remaster, really) for the ME Trilogy on Steam.

I'm aware, but don't care. I don't think the game needed a remaster. It's probably also locked to Origin which I boycott. I haven't bought (or picked up for free) a game from EA released since mid-2012 when Origin became mandatory and neither intend to, no matter how good they are.

Origin is not needed at all for the remaster, that's why I mentionned it.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-08-19, 19:33:

Origin is not needed at all for the remaster, that's why I mentionned it.

IIRC, it installs a thin version of origin. Even though it's running through steam, Origin is still in the background.

BetaC wrote on 2021-08-16, 00:17:

Dimitris1980 wrote on 2021-08-15, 19:40:

Doom 2 Macintosh version on my Performa 6116CD with Roland Sound Canvas SC88 for music

How are you getting your MIDI out, if I may ask?

I used the OMS (open music system) program to connect the canvas with the Mac. Then i added the canvas at the music settings of quicktime. With this option, some games use the canvas for music and the quality is better. Some examples are:

Doom 2
Heretic
I have no mouth and I must scream
The 11th hour

A fairly pedestrian/boring game report here: I just played through Crystal Caves all 3 episodes, the first time I've played it since the 90's when the game formed part of my official Early Years Experiences. Really appreciated the level design and sweet spot of difficulty : challenging enough to require a couple/few attempts to master each level, but rarely more, with the occasional frustrating exception only making it more compelling. The simple control scheme is good, and exposes the aforementioned quality level design. The game does not use pixel-perfect jumps against the player too often - just enough to keep things interesting.

And funnily enough (after recent years of idolising and chasing various MIDI/etc devices) at no point did I think the rudimentary PC speaker bleeps and bloops detracted in the slightest. Bit of a lesson/reminder to self, there. Really enjoyed the quality time on the old DOS machine. Simpler times, dudes, simpler times.

Dimitris1980 wrote on 2021-08-19, 19:55:

I used the OMS (open music system) program to connect the canvas with the Mac. Then i added the canvas at the music settings of […]
Show full quote

BetaC wrote on 2021-08-16, 00:17:

Dimitris1980 wrote on 2021-08-15, 19:40:

Doom 2 Macintosh version on my Performa 6116CD with Roland Sound Canvas SC88 for music

How are you getting your MIDI out, if I may ask?

I used the OMS (open music system) program to connect the canvas with the Mac. Then i added the canvas at the music settings of quicktime. With this option, some games use the canvas for music and the quality is better. Some examples are:

Doom 2
Heretic
I have no mouth and I must scream
The 11th hour

In this case I meant the physical connection. I have a few old macs that could use a better solution.

I'm in the home stretch. Almost free. Up to world 494/500 in Populous. The last one was super rough though, and I wound up only advancing from world 492 to 494. If these last few are similar, it'll probably be 494, 496, 498 then 500. But I can see the end.

There were some real wonky levels in the 470's and 480's where you could only raise terrain. I think it slightly broke the AI, because those wound up being some of the easiest I'd done in a while. A couple of them were real knife fights where we started next to each other and I only had Knights to work with. I think I actually really enjoyed that dynamic.

The last few have had me start 1 to 15 walkers against a pretty tuned up AI, and we all have all miracles except I don't have Volcano. I didn't realize how dependent I'd gotten on Volcano. Also the endless waves of knights they send when they start with 15 times more towns than you is savage. I was about to give up, but then I started throwing all my spare mana into swamping his papal magnet whenever I could, and that helped take the edge off enormously. After that it was just building up where he had razed my land in preparation for the flood I was working towards. Got it off eventually, and then 3 more, and then eventually turned the tables on him with knights of my own.

494 looks almost identical to 492, so we'll see if the same strategy is at all applicable, or if I'm even further gimped somehow in starting position.

BetaC wrote on 2021-08-19, 23:41:

Dimitris1980 wrote on 2021-08-19, 19:55:

I used the OMS (open music system) program to connect the canvas with the Mac. Then i added the canvas at the music settings of […]
Show full quote

BetaC wrote on 2021-08-16, 00:17:

How are you getting your MIDI out, if I may ask?

I used the OMS (open music system) program to connect the canvas with the Mac. Then i added the canvas at the music settings of quicktime. With this option, some games use the canvas for music and the quality is better. Some examples are:

Doom 2
Heretic
I have no mouth and I must scream
The 11th hour

In this case I meant the physical connection. I have a few old macs that could use a better solution.

For the connection of the Roland with the computer, you need a midi interface. I use the Macman Macintosh midi interface and two cables. One serial cable which is connected on the modem port and one midi cable which is connected on Roland device. Then you copy the Apple midi drivers in the system folder, restart the Mac and you are ready. Sierra online is the only company that supports Roland and general midi on some games for Macs so the drivers are inside game's folder.

For the previous that i mentioned before regarding OMS and quicktime, it was an idea that came to my mind because I've been told that Macs use quicktime for midi music where is licensed by Roland. So, i started playing with OMS and quicktime and it worked.

Well, that was peculiar. I positively stomped Populous world 494, WEAVUSPERT, and it took me to world 0, SHISODING, which was identical to GENESIS. I guess I was expecting some sort of victory screen, but alas.

I now consider myself free of Populous. I only slightly regret hacking the game to get over a few hurdles.

Pretty much abandoned Zelda:Twilight Princess(HD) halfway through.

Dungeons in general, and certain locations, were good, sometimes great. Dungeons in particular, really really fun and just-right level of novel and challenging. But the endless periods of annoying slog to get between them. And the inescapable feeling of comparison to it's superior predecessor WW(HD). Both left me with that going-through-the-motions which never truly went away: I would rather (but won't, because there are other games) go back and play WW again, than continue another 20 hours of slog through these tedious overworlds and formulaic wolf levels. The NPCs aren't the most universally charming, either.

So, while I don't begrudge the game it's hovering-around-90%-review-scores, I do feel perfectly justified in not playing through the whole thing. Especially since I have Breath of the Wild waiting in the wings. ....and a whole galaxy of non-Zelda games to tackle, before the world and myself gets too much older!

Stalker Clear Sky

Was lazy and tried to play the GOG ver but....
Had to run it as admin otherwise the settings would never save
Had to run as admin otherwise wouldn't load SRP
When SRP installed unable to move?

Said screw the above and used my retail copy of Clear Sky, patched to the latest version, updated OpenAL and installed SRP.
Set res to 3840x1600 and maxed all details. No issues for 2hrs so far

I can agree with that take on Twilight Princess. I think it's aged better than Skyward Sword, but it definitely benefited enormously from Wii hype. I know it was the one game I got with my Wii launch night, back before the novelty of waggle controls became cause for mockery all on it's own.

It's truly a shame Nintendo listened to fans and didn't lean harder into Wind Waker's art style for future Zelda's. Although Breath of the Wild is more of a hybrid art style, so perhaps they never quite gave up on it.

Spirit of Adventure (DOS)
I took my first step out into the wilderness, but the encounters are MUCH more difficult, even around the town. After just three battles my whole party was dangerously low on HP and several members were poisoned, so I headed back to town for healing. I was able to earn enough gold, however, to equip everyone with the best weapons and armor available at that point in the game, so I should now hopefully stand more of a chance in the wilderness.

The wilderness map is pretty interesting. It's just a single screen showing a map, with your party represented as a crosshair. No locations (other than the starting town) are shown on the map, until you discover them by walking into them. It reminds of Fallout in a way. I found one tiny village, finished a small quest there, but then got wiped out by a very tough random encounter. My next goal, then, is to run in there, complete the quest, then run right out!

Lords of Xulima (PC)
Just some light exploring and combat. The game has really opened up quite a bit, as defeating the first Prince clears all the fixed encounters with difficult soldiers posted around the map.
If there's one thing that's really annoying about this game, it's how infrequent random encounters are. I know that sounds crazy, but let me explain. In LoX, certain areas have random encounters in addition to the fixed encounters visible on the map. However, you can eliminate the random encounters in any given area simply by winning enough of them; doing so also gives you an additional EXP bonus. If you want to clear those encounters, it means LOTS of running back and forth waiting for encounters to pop (this of course also uses up your food). The game should have had a skill you can use to immediately start a random battle, imo.

Well... I wrapped up Day of the Tentacle. That was shorter than I remember. Then again, many of the puzzles were much easier than when I was a child. I also only ever played it at a friends house in middle school over several weeks in short burst.

I ended up needing to look up 4 hints. 1 of which was for an item I missed that I was likely never to eventually spot. 3 were for object/verb combinations I had overlooked to solutions I had figured out, but couldn't quite make work.

I was a bit curious what's going on with DOTT these days, and somehow missed that it had a remaster. With achievements. Because everything must be ruined.

Had the same sentiment the other day when playing Crystal Caves HD in order to access the new/4th episode. There are Achievements for different ways of dying. "I'm so great, I didn't even win them all".

Not bad though, that 4th ep. At first glance the difficulty seems juust half a notch higher than the retro episode 3 had been, but after a few levels your stride is quickly hit and within a couple of hours (give or take) it's all done-and-dusted. With hero Mylo, naturally, totally attaining his original goal and riding off into the sunset completely satisfied on all counts.

As is customary.

I blame carmageddon for starting stuff like that with things such as the stunning*cough* cunning stunt bonus.

Namrok wrote on 2021-08-24, 03:33:

Well... I wrapped up Day of the Tentacle. That was shorter than I remember. Then again, many of the puzzles were much easier than when I was a child. I also only ever played it at a friends house in middle school over several weeks in short burst.

Hah, still talk to that friend? I do - I offered him to build a 286 on our quarter-century friendshippaversary but he was like, "nah, vodka and diapers, please." He was never into the PCs as much as I was. Cars is debatable 😉

As for games, Dune II extended on my 486. I just discovered this thing in mid July (random YouTube vid), I finished it off early August. Great game, replayability is meh, some of the Fremen and Sardaukar texts (the last 2 missions on each) are repeats of the Atreides and Harkonnen, respectively, but overall, yeah I could't stop.