Hello!

Freespace runs fine on my Win98-Box, which has the following specs:

PIII 1,4 GHz
ASUS TUSL2-C
512 MB RAM
Graphics: Voodoo5
Sound: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Graphics: The game makes use of Glide drivers, but will also run on Direct3D hardware. It supports both graphics APIs quite well, but I usually prefer Glide. On my setup it runs completely smooth, no frameskip or tearing or (noticeable) lag whatsoever. You rarely get to see that in PC games, especially Windows games.

Sound: It has support for EAX sound hardware (e.g. Sound Blaster Live!), although I really can't say, the reverb effects do the game any good. Sounds rather exaggerated to me, so I usually disable EAX effects.

If you have a joystick, gameplay will greatly benefit from it. A joystick with twist function like the Saitek Cyborg 3D or Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 is even better.

By the way, Freespace isn't that picky. It will also run on modern hardware and under WinXP. It doesn't have any problems with fast CPUs, I know of, so you might as well provide it with some CPU performance. I think 500 MHz and up wouldn't hurt. Be sure to install the latest patch AFTER you installed the mission disk (if you have it).

You made a great choice of game, if you ask me. In my opinion, Freespace and its sequel are among the best of space combat simulations available for PC, ever. They can even compete with Tie Fighter and X-Wing Alliance. Sadly, Freespace 2 also was one of the last of its genre, if not THE last space combat sim.

locutus

I have a system that I've been playing Arcanum on that has a 900 MHz Duron, which is supposed to equate roughly to a 750 Athlon. If the slower "Retro" machine turns out to be too slow, I can use that one instead. I've never set up any joystick on that system, but I can't imagine it will be that much of a problem.

As I recall, it has an MSI MB with a Via KT-266 chipset. The other socket 7 motherboard that is working for me is a Soyo that I planned to run at 500 MHz. It's the one with a Via MVP3 chipset and a Creative SB PCI 128.

The Logitech Wingman joystick does have twist-grip "rudder" control. Your reference to a Mission Disk went over my head. There were three CDs, the install disk, a Play disk, and the expansion disk. The install disk had already been patched to the latest version, but the expansion wasn't patched that far, so I'll need to apply the patch after all, although I haven't done so so far.

I'll play without the SCP improvements from Freespace II at first, if that's where the "Mission" disk usage comes from.

If you have a v1.06 Freespace installation, installing the mission disk ("Silent Threat") will revert the version to v1.04. Make sure to start the game once before you re-apply the v1.06 patch. Not doing so, left me with some patching errors. If you plan on using EAX, make sure you have updated to v1.06 earlier, since the EAX patch is meant for v1.06. You might have to try different region patches. There are US, UK and european, I believe. Which one to use depends on your Freespace distribution.

That's all I have to say about patching. 900 mhz should do fine, even 500 mhz ought to be enough. I believe official requirements for the game resolve around 166 Mhz, but I would estimate that at full detail and in a combat involving enough enemy vessels and large ships, things can get slow with a 166 Mhz CPU.

locutus

Kiwi wrote:

I have a system that I've been playing Arcanum on that has a 900 MHz Duron, which is supposed to equate roughly to a 750 Athlon.

Well... Thats an understatement. As the matter affect, difference between a duron spitfire and old thunderbird clock for clock isnt really that great in real life performance. In this case, 900 Mhz duron might be max 5% slower then Athlon of equal clock.

First notable difference between Duron and Athlon family came with Duron Morgan (~1.4Ghz) and Athlon XP and that one almost only because of 133Mhz FSB of Athlon (which could be fixed on duron with help of a graphite pen).

Locutus wrote:

things can get slow with a 166 Mhz CPU.

I've played the first Freespace fine on 100MHz MMX-lacking Pentium with a Voodoo2 (12mb) on Windows 98. I did not have any major slowdown problems, even taking on capital ships is possible.

Also, I recommend a human partner. Freespace cooperative must be experienced.

That might be a fun option, but you have to understand that I am what you must realize my own age-mates consider an aberration. I've never met a fellow PC game player in my age group. I've never met a PC system builder hobbyist in my age group. Occasionally, I run across some middle aged people (my kids' ages) who are one or the other, but it never seems that we have a single other thing in common.

Incidentally, I have the "reluctant" oldie PC hooked up right now, the one with the better-acting of my two Asus P5A MBs, K6-2/350 down-clocked to 266, 384 MBs of PC-100, a 40 GB Hdd jumpered to show up in the BIOS as 32, with a TB Santa Cruz, and a Radeon 7500 video card. The joystick isn't plugged in, and it did take notice of its USB keyboard (last time I ran it, I had no keyboard as far as it was concerned, but I did have both the joystick and keyboard plugged in).

Yes, I'm using it right now to write this reply.

you shouldnt be playing freespace 1
you should be playing fsport under freespace2 open as long as you have a modern machine

On modern hardware, I play Fallout 3 some, and NWN2's Storm of Zehir. Half the fun I expect to be having with 1998 games is playing them on hardware no more than a couple of years newer than the games. I will eventually do as you suggest, of course.

I never played Starlancer or Freelancer or Independence War when those were all new. I owned the first two from then, but never played them. I found a copy of XWA for Windows to add to the sextet, with Privateer Deluxe, or whatever the W32 version was called. I want to at least know what they were like in their own era on hardware similar to what someone with a fat wallet might have been able to use on them.

You mention Privateer Deluxe. By that, do you mean the sequel "The Darkenning" or is there really a Windows version of the first game?

I have Freespace on original CDs. A friend gave it to me years and years ago, cuz he wasn't into space sims but got it with some video card I believe. I've never played it. 😀

Is it any good? There are some pretty negative reviews on Mobygames. How does it compare with the sequel?

I was always, first and foremost, a fan of turn-based, party oriented, PC Role Play games. I don't know which one I played first for certain, nor even what early computer platform it ran on. But the only times I've tried other types, such as strategy or simulation, has been when there were no CRPGs to play / replay again.

Shooters never held any attraction for me, and I never personally included a Japanime variety game of any sort in the class of games I would try, nor were the Diablo / Dungeon Seige "action" RPGs to my liking. Then my last employment dwindled down and stopped with never any official retirement party, gold watch, ceremony, or goodbye.

I have more interests than income to cover it, by a much larger margin than ever before, which is why I looked up lists of old games I never played, and this next block is from a file of mine for the period in which the first of the Privateer games was current. I combined my game list, which was set up more along the lines of performance requirements, with a list created from two other lists.

The hardware release dates were sequential, and since the game list was not, at least not on an individual game basis, there are games that seem "out of order" now.

--> Intel's 80486 DX2/66 released August, 1992

X-Wing ... 386 /33... __2 MBs.. 486 /33.. __4 MBs .... VGA ....... 1993 . MoSlo

--> Intel's Pentium P1/60 released, 1993

WC-Pvt ... 386 /33... __4 MBs.. na GHz .. na KBs .... VGA ....... 1993

WC-Pvt* .. P-1 /60... _16 MBs.. na GHz .. na KBs .... VGA ....... (1996 Win95)

--> Intel's 80486 DX4/100 released March, 1994

Tie Ftr... 486 /66... __8 MBs.. na GHz.. na MBs .... SVGA ....... 1994

My game list had two separate entries for Privateer, with two different performance levels (I've moved the newer Privateer entry into this spot somewhere along the line; it used to be in 1996's stuff).

As to where Freespace ranks in terms of space fighter sims, I have never seen a negative review of it, and the consensus I have arrived at is that it sits atop its entire genre as the best of its kind ever made. That's how good it is supposed to be.

Locutus wrote:

You mention Privateer Deluxe. By that, do you mean the sequel "The Darkenning" or is there really a Windows version of the first game?

Instead of "Deluxe", it was the "GOLD" edition:

http://www3.shopping.com/xPO-Wing-Commander-P … er-Gold-Edition

People rave about Freespace 2 (the sequel), not the original game. I don't think I've ever seen someone talk about the first in the series.

BTW, I've never actually completed Freespace 2. I get bored about halfway through every time. 😀 I think it's a good game, but as usual it's one of those games that's overrated and called perfect and "the definition of the genre" and such nonsense. No game is the definition of its genre IMO. Freespace just takes what other games before it did, does it pretty well, and adds some cool extras.

I've always found it curious that it has "Descent" in the title. Interplay was trying to weave the somewhat popular Descent game brand into a few different genres towards the end of the company's run. Was kinda dumb I thought.

Kiwi wrote:

or Independence War when those were all new.

Hail the greatness....

intro pt1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7AsRQXOUSY&feature=related

intro pt2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw1m2ZW1u84&feature=related

swaaye wrote:

People rave about Freespace 2 (the sequel), not the original game. I don't think I've ever seen someone talk about the first in the series.

Of course - because the first one wasn't made available for download from the same source they started raving about FS2 from 😜 Many games *there* (i'm not even going to mention it, you know what site I mean) had the same fan-wannabe effect as soon as they were downloadable there, like Blood.

Descent: Freespace was actually well distributed. I know it came in full OEM on many force feedback joysticks in 98.

Yeah I have an OEM copy of Descent: Freespace that a friend gave me years ago because he wasn't interested in the game. It's two CDs. I've only played it a little.