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Ancient DOS Games Webshow

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Reply 2720 of 3343, by mr_bigmouth_502

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Does a dual OPL2 setup have any advantages over an OPL3? Would it be possible to patch a game that uses dual OPL2s so that it can use an OPL3 instead?

Reply 2721 of 3343, by carlostex

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mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Does a dual OPL2 setup have any advantages over an OPL3?

Technically speaking an OPL3 is as capable as a pair of YM3812's, in fact OPL3 is still more capable technically as it has improvements vs the YM3812, but all depends how games are programmed. I think its safe to say that games never pushed OPL2 or OPL3 to the max of their capabilities. One can hear Space Quest III with FM sound and think FM sucks while others might hear Dune with an AdLib Gold and have total opposite opinion.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Would it be possible to patch a game that uses dual OPL2s so that it can use an OPL3 instead?

I have no idea how to program for OPL2/3 so i can't answer that question. If it was easy i assume Microprose would have done a better job in the games that OPL3 doesn't sound as good as OPL2.

Reply 2722 of 3343, by Gemini000

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*facepalm* ...I TOTALLY MISSED the section above the SB Pro 1.0 specific stuff, because I didn't know the PAS did Dual OPL2 as well. XD

That's definitely a correction to add into the video description. :P

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

Reply 2723 of 3343, by Great Hierophant

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carlostex wrote:

I was having trouble researching this and I found two different things, both a blog and a post here on VOGONS, which only listed the two games mentioned in the video as having 2xOPL2 support.

The blog, which i assume is Nerdly Pleasures, must for sure list the games i mention. If not, it's a terrible flaw.

They were all on there, so I guess the blog isn't flawed in that way.

carlostex wrote:

BTW, i confirm that F-15 Strike Eagle III also supports dual OPL2 from both the Sound Blaster Pro 1.0 and Pro Audio Spectrum.

I'm always happy to add new entries. Glad I could contribute to the video.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog

Reply 2724 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Ancient DOS Games Filler #60 - Ants (Peter System Game) is online, marking the last Season 4 ADG video! The next video will be Season 5, 1080p, a new look as with every season, and hopefully some higher quality audio! (Gonna be ordering some audio foam soon... FINALLY...)

But as for this filler, I was originally going to do some fractal animations but I didn't realize just how much CPU power it would take to render them, especially given the kind of stuff I wanted to do, so I was cutting the timing extremely fine in terms of being able to put together a decent-length video showcasing some... so when things started going wrong and I started losing hours worth of work it just wasn't possible to make the video work out. I still wanna do it, but it's gonna have to wait for the first filler of Season 5 in February. :/

Thus instead, I'm looking at an old computerized card game I used to play a ton of... which I discovered while making this video was actually supposed to be an example program included with a graphical programming language I never heard of, so... yeah, actually learned quite a bit about that in preparing this video. ALSO learned that the gateway for purchasing said programming language isn't completely secured (at least, not the name+address portion which was as far as I was willing to test things when I noticed that) so... anyone interested in that thing may wanna bug Gemtree (the creators of Peter and the Ants game I covered) to secure that part of it. :P

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

Reply 2725 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Just wanted to update everyone that between this video going up and now there's been a LOT of updates to the additional information section in the video description on YouTube, the most important one being that the Peter System actually went freeware just a few years back, but the Gemtree website was never updated to reflect this, as all things related to the more recent releases of Peter, including the freeware release, are on a different website entirely. :o

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

Reply 2727 of 3343, by Gemini000

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awgamer wrote:

Avast detects the peter 2.50 full installation download as filled with viruses.

It's likely related to file reputation, meaning there's no actual viruses it just hasn't been downloaded enough by people to be considered a normal download, or you have the sensitivity set too high and it's generating false positives that way. I just downloaded it again to confirm and Avast on my side of things is showing no issues.

Unfortunately, most virus scanning software err on the side of caution and instead of telling it how it is, they instead call files with minimal downloads a "threat" instead of simply "low rep" or whatever. Microsoft SmartScreen is the same way, making it VERY difficult for indie developers to release things on their own without going through third parties. :/

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

Reply 2728 of 3343, by carlostex

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Great Hierophant wrote:

They were all on there, so I guess the blog isn't flawed in that way.

Don't take it the wrong way, nobody is perfect. Your blog is an excellent source of information.

Great Hierophant wrote:

I'm always happy to add new entries. Glad I could contribute to the video.

Well you can also add Formula One Grand Prix and Fleet Defender. Fleet Defender supports both PAS and SB Pro 1 but F1GP seems to be only supported by the SB Pro 1. I haven't managed to get dual OPL2 sound from my PAS on F1GP, in fact there's only options for AdLib, Sound Blaster and MT-32. If someone knows how to get dual OPL2 sound on F1GP please let me know. I'm interested. 😎

Reply 2729 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Season 5 of Ancient DOS Games has begun! :D

And so, the first ADG video of the year, Episode 201 - The Dig, is now online!

This was actually a highly requested game, which is why I decided to kick off the season with it, but I think this is a case of a game which is remembered much more fondly than its gameplay would make it out to be. The graphics and music are extremely well done, but unless you've beaten this game before, there's many serious quirks with the gameplay which can make the game a nightmare and exceedingly tedious to try to play through.

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

Reply 2730 of 3343, by SKARDAVNELNATE

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The Dig can definitely get tedious. It gives you a lot to do but so little of it leads to any progress in the story. The worst part for me was the light bridges. Click and drag for the bones was something Windows does yet back in the DOS era I can see how that would have been an advanced control scheme. But what responds to holding down the button in place for a length of time?

Reply 2731 of 3343, by Gemini000

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SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

The Dig can definitely get tedious. It gives you a lot to do but so little of it leads to any progress in the story. The worst part for me was the light bridges. Click and drag for the bones was something Windows does yet back in the DOS era I can see how that would have been an advanced control scheme. But what responds to holding down the button in place for a length of time?

The click and drag thing would've made perfect sense if the bones actually triggered the mouse highlight. The other puzzle with clicking and dragging DOES show a highlight. :P

Holding the mouse button is actually done for the light bridges you mentioned. If you just click the bridge button it fails to function even though it produces a reaction, making the player think they don't actually HAVE to hold the button down, since NO other puzzles in the game use this mechanic, unless you count clicking and dragging. :|

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

Reply 2732 of 3343, by SKARDAVNELNATE

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I know the light bridges well. What you described is what I was referring to. I'm thinking more in terms of basic knowledge on how to use a mouse. Point and click are common practice. Click and drag may not have been as common but did have examples at the time. It's less a matter of no other puzzles in the game use the hold in place mechanic. It's more a matter of NOTHING uses the hold in place mechanic with a mouse.

I didn't ask what in the game uses hold in place. I asked what, anywhere, uses it. The only thing that comes to mind to have something close to that input method would be tablet touch screens.

Reply 2733 of 3343, by Gemini000

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SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

It's less a matter of no other puzzles in the game use the hold in place mechanic. It's more a matter of NOTHING uses the hold in place mechanic with a mouse.

I didn't ask what in the game uses hold in place. I asked what, anywhere, uses it. The only thing that comes to mind to have something close to that input method would be tablet touch screens.

Uhh...

...umm...

...No Man's Sky? 8D

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

Reply 2735 of 3343, by Gemini000

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kolano wrote:

Is the extracted dig.la0 file identical to the original, or was it modified in some way?

That's... actually a good question. Given the fact that the extracted file works with the DOS executables included with the Steam release, which are VERY old, I'm going to guess if there were any modifications it would've been minor fixes only. I unfortunately have no way to check this as I don't own a physical copy.

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

Reply 2736 of 3343, by skitters

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I have a physical copy
The md5 of dig.la0 is d8323015ecb8b10bf53474f6e6b0ae33
The md5 of dig.la1 is 3f0c5483b0786391fa82231c51732448

The sha1 of dig.la0 is 5d1fe07a2679486e664df2e9302026e974d365b0
The sha1 of dig.la1 is 0d7c456398deeb45b18e96bb7a6c0f4045774a80
Both dig.la0 and dig.la1 have the date 11/07/95 01:25 PM

Reply 2737 of 3343, by Gemini000

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Ancient DOS Games Episode 202 - Star Wars: Rebel Assault is online!

Yeah, no one thought I would review two LucasArts titles back-to-back, except my original plan for starting off the year was to contrast a good one with a bad one because I thought The Dig was gonna be a good one... ^_^;

Interestingly enough, despite its major gameplay issues, Rebel Assault was a commercial success, partly because these kinds of FMV games were still pretty new at the time so people were willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because of its novel gameplay... but, time has DEFINITELY not been kind to this one. :P

Also, the ports play a LOT better than the DOS original. Go figure. :|

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

Reply 2738 of 3343, by DonutKing

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I got Rebel Assault for Christmas in 94. I used to play it on my 486-25, with 2x CD ROM. I remember my friends and I found it incredibly frustrating!

I agree with the issues you raised. We also had another issue - my PC, even though it exceeded minimum requirements, would drop frames in scenes with several targets. I didn't notice much of this happening in your video, but it seems to really mess with the joystick movement. Presumably due to the buffering effect you mentioned, the 'buffered' movement for the dropped frame is lost as well. It makes the game MUCH harder, as you have to wrestle with changing joystick sensitivity on top of the other control issues.

Later, when I got a Pentium 2, it didn't drop frames at all and was MUCH easier as a result. We could now breeze through levels that we used to get stuck on all the time!

If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.

Reply 2739 of 3343, by Gemini000

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DonutKing wrote:

Later, when I got a Pentium 2, it didn't drop frames at all and was MUCH easier as a result. We could now breeze through levels that we used to get stuck on all the time!

Admittedly, the game gets easier the more you play it because you begin to gain muscle memory for dealing with all the different things in each chapter, as there's no random aspects to any of it, but a game should be fun the FIRST time you play it, not the forty-second-hundredth time. :P

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