clueless1 wrote:

So I'm on mission 10 in Pacific Strike. Some observations: -the framerate became unbearable on the DX2/66. :( I got to one mi […]
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So I'm on mission 10 in Pacific Strike. Some observations:
-the framerate became unbearable on the DX2/66. 🙁 I got to one mission that I could not clear because most of it was running around 5fps. So I moved my savegames over to my 200MMX. Crazy enough, while most of the time the game is pegged at 30fps, I *still* see the framerate drop into the high teens to low 20s when there's lots of action onscreen, with ships and anti-aircraft fire in the sky.
-this game is much more difficult than Wings of Glory. Even though I've got it on the easiest settings, I've had to replay a few missions multiple times. Sometimes things beyond your control randomly cause you to lose a mission. Plus, your shipmates tend to die quite frequently! So far, two main characters have died through 9 missions. I don't think a single main character ever died in Wings of Glory except one that was obviously written into the plot.
-the mission tree is much more complicated as well. There are multiple alternate branches depending on your success in each mission, and three different endings (winning path best, winning path okay, losing path).

So yeah, the criticisms of this game were valid. You needed a $5000 PC to have playable framerates when this game came out. But we have the option now of playing this game on a 200Mhz Pentium, so now it's a pretty good game. 🤣

Installed WOG on my first own pc we keep since 1995 - pentium-1/75. It looks realy beautiful !

And about Pacific Strike I've read a review it has a weak AI - is it so ?

ScoutPilot19 wrote:

Installed WOG on my first own pc we keep since 1995 - pentium-1/75. It looks realy beautiful !

And about Pacific Strike I've read a review it has a weak AI - is it so ?

Yeah, WOG should play great on a P75!

Regarding PS AI, I found a very interesting piece on Pacific Strike's bug fixing period prior to release, written by Bill Armintrout (writer/designer). He talks a bit about AI bugs and their process of chasing them down and fixing them. Here's the article:
http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue19/misc/origin.html

clueless1 wrote:

Yeah, WOG should play great on a P75!

Regarding PS AI, I found a very interesting piece on Pacific Strike's bug fixing period prior to release, written by Bill Armintrout (writer/designer). He talks a bit about AI bugs and their process of chasing them down and fixing them. Here's the article:
http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue19/misc/origin.html

Interesting story ! Also installed the Knights of the Skies on a 286/20mhz - incredibly well-looking air-sim for a 286 ! Even trees on the ground are there)

Lately, I've been playing these:
Alkalabeth/"Ultima 0," via GoG (my original Ultima Collection CD version simply *will not* run properly on my laptop through DosBox for whatever reason...)
Ultima 1, when I'm frustrated with the former^
Mega Man X collection, GameCube, with official Nintendo component cables even though that game won't support progressive scan
Final Fantasy XII, PS4 edition
Classic GLQuake, on my Orchid Righteous machine *CLICK*

I'm over halfway through Pacific Strike now -- mission 17 and I think there are 32 missions? I had some stability issues with this game that were driving me crazy. 45 minute missions that I complete, but have to get back to the carrier, and the game crashes to the DOS prompt before I can. 😒

Finally got the perfect config, and it's been running great since. EMM386 won't play engine sounds with 3072 KB, but gets unstable with anything over 4096 KB. So stick with 4096, and add D=128 to increase the DMA buffers for less buggy sounds.

Kinda like Privateer in that it won't work right with too much EMS.

Now that I finished Wings of Glory and Pacific Strike, the natural next game is Strike Commander, then Privateer. But I'm taking a little flight sim break and trying out Martian Dreams. Now that I have an MT-32, I'm giving this game a go, hopefully it sticks. I think I tried it once before back in the day and didn't get into it enough to stick with it. I must say, I'm really liking the MT-32 soundtrack so far. I'm just at the beginning, I loaded up from my ship's inventory, then marched east to the location of the previous landing site and learning what I can from Dibbs. Seems like a nice enough chap.

clueless1 wrote:

Now that I finished Wings of Glory and Pacific Strike, the natural next game is Strike Commander, then Privateer. But I'm taking a little flight sim break and trying out Martian Dreams. Now that I have an MT-32, I'm giving this game a go, hopefully it sticks. I think I tried it once before back in the day and didn't get into it enough to stick with it. I must say, I'm really liking the MT-32 soundtrack so far. I'm just at the beginning, I loaded up from my ship's inventory, then marched east to the location of the previous landing site and learning what I can from Dibbs. Seems like a nice enough chap.

I remember Strike Commander. But I never quite got into it like Wing Commander so I never really finished the game. What's your impression of SC vs WC and how does the MT-32 sound in both games? I would think WC is the winner but see SC came out later maybe they had a bigger budget for musicians.

95DosBox wrote:

I remember Strike Commander. But I never quite got into it like Wing Commander so I never really finished the game. What's your impression of SC vs WC and how does the MT-32 sound in both games? I would think WC is the winner but see SC came out later maybe they had a bigger budget for musicians.

I did finish SC back in the day. Very good story and characters that you grow fond of, just like WC. But not quite as good as WC, IMO. There was just something magical about WC1 and 2.

Regarding MT-32, SC's music is amazing. Probably the best MT-32 music I've ever heard in terms of how creative the composer was with the instrument set. But again, WC's music is just magical in how it moves the player, even if the instruments are more traditional sounding.

clueless1 wrote:

95DosBox wrote:

I remember Strike Commander. But I never quite got into it like Wing Commander so I never really finished the game. What's your impression of SC vs WC and how does the MT-32 sound in both games? I would think WC is the winner but see SC came out later maybe they had a bigger budget for musicians.

I did finish SC back in the day. Very good story and characters that you grow fond of, just like WC. But not quite as good as WC, IMO. There was just something magical about WC1 and 2.

Regarding MT-32, SC's music is amazing. Probably the best MT-32 music I've ever heard in terms of how creative the composer was with the instrument set. But again, WC's music is just magical in how it moves the player, even if the instruments are more traditional sounding.

Wow, glad to hear it has a better sound track. I'll have to revisit this game in the future. Did you test this out in DOSBOX? I think what I liked most about WC was it took place in space and the music and sound effects definitely added to the storyline. There was also that orchestra intro with explosive fireworks. I can't remember if SC used the same one. I do recall the multiple floppies I had to install back in the day.

95DosBox wrote:

Wow, glad to hear it has a better sound track. I'll have to revisit this game in the future. Did you test this out in DOSBOX? I think what I liked most about WC was it took place in space and the music and sound effects definitely added to the storyline. There was also that orchestra intro with explosive fireworks. I can't remember if SC used the same one. I do recall the multiple floppies I had to install back in the day.

I'm using real DOS (though I bought SC on GOG.com, so it is installed on my Windows PC with DOSBox, I just haven't checked it out much). I have a 486DX2-66 and a P200MMX. The 486 has the MT-32. The Pentium has a DreamBlaster. Sounds great on both, but in this particular game, I give the edge to the MT-32. 😉

No orchestra intro for SC. They used that on WC1/2, Ultima 6, Martian Dreams, and Savage Empire. Here's its intro with MT-32:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_VwfRgYPY

clueless1 wrote:

95DosBox wrote:

I remember Strike Commander. But I never quite got into it like Wing Commander so I never really finished the game. What's your impression of SC vs WC and how does the MT-32 sound in both games? I would think WC is the winner but see SC came out later maybe they had a bigger budget for musicians.

I did finish SC back in the day. Very good story and characters that you grow fond of, just like WC. But not quite as good as WC, IMO. There was just something magical about WC1 and 2.

Regarding MT-32, SC's music is amazing. Probably the best MT-32 music I've ever heard in terms of how creative the composer was with the instrument set. But again, WC's music is just magical in how it moves the player, even if the instruments are more traditional sounding.

I have great memories of finishing Strike Commander back in the day as well - I remember being captivated by the story and excited by the dogfights. I think I might have preferred it to Wing Commander 1 & 2, but it might have something to do with the machines I used at the time - for WC1 & 2 I had a 386SX16 with 1MB of RAM and Sound Blaster 1.5, whereas for Strike Commander I upgraded to a 486DX50 with 4MB of RAM and an SCC-1. I remember the 386SX being a bit slow for Wing Commander, and I was struggling to enable EMS to gain access to additional sound and visual effects in game. The 486DX50 on the other hand ran Strike Commander like a charm which made for a great playing experience (when it didn't hang 🤣 ). I used a Thrustmaster FCS and I managed to break two of them before switching to a CH Flightstick Pro which still works to this day.

Regarding the music, I think Strike Commander had no GM support, so I played it with the SCC-1 in emulated MT-32 mode. I never found this to give such good results in games, and a lot of instruments often sounded off to my ears. As a result I don't have such good memories of the soundtrack - I would need to revisit the game (and also Wing Commander) with a real MT-32 soundtrack.

@MMaximus - I just double-checked and Strike Commander does have GM support. The options are:
Ad Lib
Roland/LAPC-I
General MIDI
Sound Blaster
Wave Blaster
Pro Audio Spectrum

clueless1 wrote:

@MMaximus - I just double-checked and Strike Commander does have GM support. The options are: Ad Lib Roland/LAPC-I General MIDI […]
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@MMaximus - I just double-checked and Strike Commander does have GM support. The options are:
Ad Lib
Roland/LAPC-I
General MIDI
Sound Blaster
Wave Blaster
Pro Audio Spectrum

Weird. I remember playing the floppy version - maybe it's the one that didn't have GM? Or maybe they originally composed the Soundtrack for MT-32, and then hastily remapped it for GM without properly re-arranging it? I remember needing to enable MT-32 mode on the soundcard using the Roland software... but maybe it wasn't for this game after all?

edit: I just checked with the version I have on my hard disk, and it has indeed no GM support... this is why I was using my SCC-1 in emulated MT-32 mode at the time. Here is a screenshot of the setup program:

clueless1 wrote:

I'm using real DOS (though I bought SC on GOG.com, so it is installed on my Windows PC with DOSBox, I just haven't checked it ou […]
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95DosBox wrote:

Wow, glad to hear it has a better sound track. I'll have to revisit this game in the future. Did you test this out in DOSBOX? I think what I liked most about WC was it took place in space and the music and sound effects definitely added to the storyline. There was also that orchestra intro with explosive fireworks. I can't remember if SC used the same one. I do recall the multiple floppies I had to install back in the day.

I'm using real DOS (though I bought SC on GOG.com, so it is installed on my Windows PC with DOSBox, I just haven't checked it out much). I have a 486DX2-66 and a P200MMX. The 486 has the MT-32. The Pentium has a DreamBlaster. Sounds great on both, but in this particular game, I give the edge to the MT-32. 😉

No orchestra intro for SC. They used that on WC1/2, Ultima 6, Martian Dreams, and Savage Empire. Here's its intro with MT-32:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_VwfRgYPY

Glad to hear it. I watched the video. Damn no orchestra fireworks. 🙁

That was the best part of the intro on Origin games.
So it sounds like the GOG version somehow had extra MIDI support than the Floppy version. I think I bought the GOG version just haven't had time to check out all my purchases.

The GOG version is just the CD version. 😉

MMaximus wrote:

edit: I just checked with the version I have on my hard disk, and it has indeed no GM support... this is why I was using my SCC-1 in emulated MT-32 mode at the time. Here is a screenshot of the setup program:

Weird! That must be a floppy version thing. My version is from GOG and is the CD version.

clueless1 wrote:

The GOG version is just the CD version. 😉

Check what I wrote in the Doom 1/2 Thread regarding SQ6.

I got it squeezed down to 548MB. This should fit on a CD.

But I need some more troubleshooting info answered on what was going on your end not working.

I also am working on including options to choose which MIDI output between Sound Blaster or MT-32 MIDI to see if works.

I also don't have a set up 486 or older system with a CD-rom hooked up to do any testing at the moment or a 528MB restricted hard drive. So I recommend any testing be done with a CD-RW disc in case it fails you won't be making coasters.

I've recently installed Monster Truck Madness (1) on my Windows 95 gaming rig, pretty impressive visuals for 1996 if I do say so myself especially with the Direct3D acceleration on the Rage Pro Turbo card working perfectly.

Done some racing around on the first three circuit tracks with 4 CPU-driven trucks and I've naturally gone first place thanks to playing its sequel back then, I've heard there's a way to transfer the MTM1 tracks onto MTM2 so maybe I'll try that on my Windows 98 rig and see how the experience goes there.

I've been going through a C64 phase lately and having a great time - Defender of the Crown, Maniac Mansion.

And last night I broke out my Atari 2600 and enjoyed some Space Invaders and California Games, both of which are surprisingly enjoyable despite the 2600 feeling impossibly primitive in this day and age. A couple of things which help to make it more user friendly (I find) is an SMS controller instead of a joystick, and the composite mod I did a couple of years ago:

A little Atari 2600 love is not so bad. I have one too. It's awfully hard to spend any real time playing on it though. Pitfall is fun, and E.T. is great for some historical perspective. Nice job on the composite mod. 😀

Still playing Martian Dreams. Not a bad game, but I definitely need walkthrough help on this one. This game requires manual note-taking, and I'm not doing that. Looking up coordinates via walkthroughs, cluebooks and such.