DosFreak wrote on 2023-03-25, 13:16:

Is that audio from a physical CD or an emulated one?

Physical disc in a real drive.

It's a Lite-On DVD player with DMA enabled in Device Manager.

I've been playing Half-Life again for the unknownth time with RT:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/22/23611075/v … -nvidia-rtx-gpu

Also Doom RT:

https://github.com/sultim-t/prboom-plus-rt/releases

Serious Sam RT:

https://github.com/sultim-t/Serious-Engine-RT/releases

Quake RT:

https://github.com/sultim-t/vkquake-rt

Would like a Red Faction RT and Duke Nukem RT...make it happen.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-03-25, 13:02:

OTOH, I did notice a distinct lack of open areas, and given the plot of the game, that kinda makes sense

Quake engine + wide open areas = inflated surfacecache = thrashes. Half-Life already scales up the textures outdoors as it is to mitigate the lightmap thrash problems (there's 1 luxel per 16 texels just as quake). There's also CPU-heavy skeletal models that need to be culled better, and there's no better way than to do that indoors.

I've been painfully getting through TES Arena once more. I enjoy this jank, but something about the low framerate that I am forced to run the game at in order to keep things from being unplayably fast is getting to me this time around.

Finished Half-Life. Somehow, it felt shorter than I thought it would be. I was worried that the Xen levels would be problematic, since I vaguely remember jumping around those floating islands being a chore back in the day. But this time, I had zero issues with that. Probably because the game runs at a locked 60 FPS on my current system, while it really struggled in those areas on my old PC back in 1999.

Overall, I liked the game, but I had some minor nitpicks. For starters, I didn't like how NPCs kept calling the protagonist Mr. Freeman instead of Dr. Freeman. Using "Doctor" throughout the game would have further emphasized that he's a scientist, and not a trained soldier or something. Also, it took me a while to realize this, but there is only one (heavily scripted) way to progress through any given level. Maybe I'm spoiled by Deus Ex (or the more contemporary Thief: TDP) but in hindsight, Half-Life's levels felt too linear. They were still very well designed though, especially for that time.

Anyway, despite these minor misgivings, it's evident why Half-Life created a revolution in the FPS genre. I have to admit, I wasn't much of a fan back in the day, but my friends loved it, so I did play through it eventually. I think revisiting it now gave me a better appreciation of what it did for the genre and PC gaming in general. A true masterpiece indeed.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-03-26, 15:15:

Finished Half-Life. Somehow, it felt shorter than I thought it would be. I was worried that the Xen levels would be problematic, since I vaguely remember jumping around those floating islands being a chore back in the day. But this time, I had zero issues with that. Probably because the game runs at a locked 60 FPS on my current system, while it really struggled in those areas on my old PC back in 1999.

Overall, I liked the game, but I had some minor nitpicks. For starters, I didn't like how NPCs kept calling the protagonist Mr. Freeman instead of Dr. Freeman. Using "Doctor" throughout the game would have further emphasized that he's a scientist, and not a trained soldier or something. Also, it took me a while to realize this, but there is only one (heavily scripted) way to progress through any given level. Maybe I'm spoiled by Deus Ex (or the more contemporary Thief: TDP) but in hindsight, Half-Life's levels felt too linear. They were still very well designed though, especially for that time.

Anyway, despite these minor misgivings, it's evident why Half-Life created a revolution in the FPS genre. I have to admit, I wasn't much of a fan back in the day, but my friends loved it, so I did play through it eventually. I think revisiting it now gave me a better appreciation of what it did for the genre and PC gaming in general. A true masterpiece indeed.

He's not much of a scientist, he's a lacky hired to push a sample into the stream. I think the doctor part was a joke.

Shagittarius wrote on 2023-03-26, 16:08:

He's not much of a scientist, he's a lacky hired to push a sample into the stream. I think the doctor part was a joke.

In the beginning of the game, they list his PhD, along with other credentials.

And in the game's manual, it's stated that he has a PhD in theoretical physics from MIT.

I know I just think its silly since the role he plays is more like a soldier. Its not like he does anything smart that isnt just action.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-03-26, 15:15:

Finished Half-Life.
..
Also, it took me a while to realize this, but there is only one (heavily scripted) way to progress through any given level. Maybe I'm spoiled by Deus Ex (or the more contemporary Thief: TDP) but in hindsight, Half-Life's levels felt too linear. They were still very well designed though, especially for that time.

i remember the first time of playing - i hadn't read playthroughs or anything and at several points i wondered what i would have seen if I'd gone 'the other way'

the second time of playing i could see that all the alternatives were not alternatives at all, it is a very well designed game in which most of the linearity is nicely disguised

it's a game i return to now and then, i like the environments even though they are of course limited to the 'route' you as player will have to follow

Shagittarius wrote on 2023-03-26, 16:19:

I know I just think its silly since the role he plays is more like a soldier. Its not like he does anything smart that isnt just action.

His university degree probably didn't have many classes covering those kinds of activity.

Time to finally revisit WarCraft 3. Haven't played this in ages, but I did replay the first two games a couple of years back, when I got back into retro PC builds.

When I first got this game, I vividly remember being blown away by the cinematics. They hold up well to this day, though their compression method is pretty outdated. Kinda reminds me of DivX and XviD from way back. Anyhow, I can finally play this at 1600x1200 with all settings fully maxed out. Something that I could only dream of back in 2002. Surround sound and EAX2 are enabled as well, so it should be a much better experience than what remember. That said, I never particularly liked the graphical style of this game, it just looked weird in 3D. On the other hand, I loved the 2D sprites of the previous WarCraft games, and especially those from StarCraft. But technology had to move forward, I suppose.

Gameplay wise, I remember this being a bit more complicated than the past entries, with a bigger focus on heroes. I have to admit that I'm not as big of a fan of the RTS genre anymore (too much clicking) but I'm willing to endure some of it for the sake of nostalgia. Don't remember a whole lot about the story, except for the stuff with Arthas. That was memorable enough to stay with me throughout the years I guess. Anyway, time to find out how well this game holds up.

I never got into Warcraft, but I do like World of Warcraft and keep it installed, though I haven't played it in over ten years.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2023-03-28, 13:34:

I never got into Warcraft, but I do like World of Warcraft and keep it installed, though I haven't played it in over ten years.

Heh, I'm the opposite I guess.

Never got into WoW (MMOs are not my thing) but I did follow the story for a bit, out of sheer curiosity. It was interesting to see what happened to Arthas and the others, albeit through wiki pages and YouTube videos. I kinda lost interest after the WotLK expansion though. Maybe I'll read up on the lore once again after I'm done playing this.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-03-28, 12:25:

Kinda reminds me of DivX and XviD from way back.

I only realized how much "way back" it is, when I discovered that my 2021 OLED Smart TV does not play many DivX variants (which the 2010 model plays fine).

Been meddling with Xims Star Wars mod for Doom via Gzdoom. Never ceases to amaze me what these modders can do!

Could anyone guess?

Deployment.

Diplomacy.

Attacked by enemy dragons.

The battle.

That has got to be War of the Lance!

How is it? I've always been fascinated with this game, ever since seeing it in an SSI catalog that came with some game I got back in the day.

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-04-01, 17:52:

That has got to be War of the Lance!

That's correct! 😁

I actually played the game a little bit late. It was a 1990 game (DOS version), yet I played it somewhere in 1992. Of course it felt very primitive compared to other games I played during that time, but so engrossing!

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-04-01, 17:52:

How is it? I've always been fascinated with this game, ever since seeing it in an SSI catalog that came with some game I got back in the day.

How is it? I'm actually trying to play the game while cheating using hex editor. Yes, Whitestone's initial position is much weaker than that of Highlord, but I wonder how Highlord AI would react when bogged down against armies that never end.

Demetrio wrote on 2023-03-22, 08:18:

Took advantage of Steam spring sales. […]
Show full quote

Took advantage of Steam spring sales.

Bought Star Wars: Dark Forces at 1,74€

I was never a fan of the series, but I loved the games: used to play a lot of Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005) with my friends 🥲

When I discovered this DOOM clone Star Wars themed game, I wanted to buy the original CD release, to play it on my Pentium MMX build, but then on Steam they discounted it so much that I preferred to buy it digital and move the game files to the retro PC.

Did a test today: it plays and feels great 🙂

And just like any DOOM like game, I got lost (at the first level 😅)

Got out of the first level and continuing to play.
I'm finding it really fun 🙂

During my walkthrough, I discovered how to activate functionalities such as the flashlight, and how to crouch 😁

I'm also liking the plot videos, pretty rare for a mid '90s shooter.

The only minor complain is the difficulty: I find it too easy at medium, but I played the first parts so maybe difficulty will increase as I progress.

I was also impressed by the fact that the keys are bound for the WASD schema, and the mouse feel is really good for 1995: don't know if it is some predefined setting for the Steam version.

WASD isn't present in the original release. I have the physical "LucasArts Collection" edition from way back. 😀