VOGONS


First post, by jwt27

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Just found this on reddit. There's a new dos game on the horizon 😀

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/06/ms-dos- … ty-rampage-486/

It's a port, apparently. The game is already out on Windows and consoles. Looks a bit like a pixelated GTA clone: http://www.retrocityrampage.com/

Reply 2 of 19, by Jorpho

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I thought this was a joke, at first.

I bought the game a while ago, and even though I was really looking forward to it I still haven't gotten around to playing it. The thing spent over seven years in development, if I'm not mistaken. The article doesn't mention that the design actually started with the NES version, which might explain why a 486 version is vaguely feasible.

Reply 3 of 19, by leileilol

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Sadly the game itself is just an incomprehensible 'hey!!! look at this vintage reference!! u just earn achievment for shoting a ninja turtle's' mess which also inundates the whole plotline. If it weren't for that i'd really enjoy it. It's *really* pandering to the younger "i wish i born in 80s" crowd. If there's a mod that rewrites and replaces all of that with something far more subtle and is actually clever/funny and still obeying the Nintendo of America standards and guidelines (as the faux NES cartridge it is), that would be great. Hell even turning it into an early Rozner labs "port" would be great.

Also, a 486 can handle GTA (at least the VGA version, 3dfx version too probably)

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Reply 4 of 19, by jwt27

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leileilol wrote:

Sadly the game itself is just an incomprehensible 'hey!!! look at this vintage reference!! u just earn achievment for shoting a ninja turtle's' mess which also inundates the whole plotline. If it weren't for that i'd really enjoy it. It's *really* pandering to the younger "i wish i born in 80s" crowd. If there's a mod that rewrites and replaces all of that with something far more subtle and is actually clever/funny and still obeying the Nintendo of America standards and guidelines (as the faux NES cartridge it is), that would be great. Hell even turning it into an early Rozner labs "port" would be great.

Also, a 486 can handle GTA (at least the VGA version, 3dfx version too probably)

Seems a bit similar to Hotline Miami, which (aside from the nausea-inducing fullscreen "look at me I'm retro" strobe effect), was actually a really fun game. I think I'll check this out when they finish the dos port.

Now I wonder if they'll go with opl3/gm/mt32 instead of boring pcm music... 😀

Reply 5 of 19, by leileilol

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It's less about the faux-retro styling (which is actually far better done than any allegedly 8-bit throwback game these days) and more about the lazy "REMEMBER THIS?!" writing.

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long live PCem

Reply 7 of 19, by King_Corduroy

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Hell yeah! If this comes out I'm totally buying a copy to play on my vintage systems. Hell, we should all petition him for a limited run of big box copies. 😁

Check me out at Transcendental Airwaves on Youtube! Fast-food sucks!

Reply 8 of 19, by VileR

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I wonder if it's really PC speaker only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbMH8pk4qVE

Also, sort of surprised that a game like this is too much for a 386 to handle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qOt_ESmI-U

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Reply 10 of 19, by leileilol

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Am I seeing non-doublescanned BILINEAR FILTERING on the pixels in the "386" video? How about that 8linetext in the 486 video?

Skeptical. That "retro pc" screams of DOSBox.

EDIT: Videos are now marked private. I wonder why 🙄

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Reply 11 of 19, by leileilol

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It's released via update to RCR btw. You should find a zip file in your RCR folder if you used Steam today.

If you own RCR show that faker who's boss with your real retro PCs!!! 😁

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long live PCem

Reply 13 of 19, by switchblade

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I actually bought Retro City Rampage a few years ago on a Steam Sale, and I forgot that this 486 DOS port was even released! I decided to try it out in DOSBox for some shits and giggles. To be honest, I'll admit that the game just screams "Look at me! I'm making a bunch of obvious retro, vintage, references from the 80's! Aren't I cool?!" It tries too hard to be retro and old school, but ends up feel patronizing at times. Still, it's a fun little game and a nice time waster at that.

I gotta say though, I'm actually quite impressed the devs managed to squeeze an entire game like this into less than 4 megabytes, even though it requires a 486 and 4 MB of RAM to run at playable speeds. At least it's an actual port that can run on DOS, which is something that is literally non-existent these days.

Here's some in-game shots:

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    This shot has the color palette in EGA from it's Settings options. Just so it matches with the PC Speaker effects ;)
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Reply 16 of 19, by Jorpho

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As per the above, I suspect it uses the same color palette as the NES version. I wonder how much of it might just be emulated 6502 code?

(The NES prototype ROM is also buried somewhere inside the Steam distribution; it's also playable from within the game itself.)

Reply 17 of 19, by SpooferJahk

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Despite the reference based humor I really liked this game very much since it is a 2D GTA clone that is much more playable compared to the older ones. 😜 The DOS port is very welcome since it is a section of gaming that goes a bit unnoticed by many people and seeing this happen is just nothing but good for that scene.

Reply 18 of 19, by Gemini000

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Jorpho wrote:

As per the above, I suspect it uses the same color palette as the NES version. I wonder how much of it might just be emulated 6502 code?

Both the original release and the DOS port support a massive array of palette choices from the settings menu, several of which are named after the retro systems they're emulating the palettes of. Heck, you can play the entire game in CGA graphics! :D

(Not REALLY CGA graphics, just mock CGA, but still...)

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