Tbh I’ve had this games for decades and I’m pretty sure I’ve never played it until last week as to test my new win98 rig.
I’ve got it up and running nicely getting used to the controls still beginning kinda confusing getting weapons and armor and health and paranoid about the jump scare.

Greywolf1 wrote on 2025-02-03, 19:18:

Tbh I’ve had this games for decades and I’m pretty sure I’ve never played it until last week as to test my new win98 rig.
I’ve got it up and running nicely getting used to the controls still beginning kinda confusing getting weapons and armor and health and paranoid about the jump scare.

You don't need to worry about the lights going out, that happens fairly early in the campaign 😀

Gaming is a great way to test the stability of your system as well, you'll swat 2 flies with a single blow! ^^

I'm very nostalgic for all these period FPS games. I really enjoyed Quake 2 at the time, and I've recently replayed it and while it could get a bit old looking for keycards in warehouses, it's still a great game and I had fun playing it again. Unreal is definitely a product of it's time as well, but it has the strong nostalgia factor for me. It's usually the fist game that I install on a fresh build and I fire it up to test out the castle flyby as a standard stability test. Silly, maybe but it's my go to.

Greywolf1 wrote on 2025-02-03, 19:18:

Tbh I’ve had this games for decades and I’m pretty sure I’ve never played it until last week as to test my new win98 rig.
I’ve got it up and running nicely getting used to the controls still beginning kinda confusing getting weapons and armor and health and paranoid about the jump scare.

I think Unreal is one of the games which is not dishing out jump scares on purpose. You have some of those dark level situations where it depends on your own mind what is considered scary. I am now halfway through and I cannot imagine that it will change its tone so drastically.

One thing that is does good by "accident" is that Skaarj are relatively silent hunters and I had one or two situations where was running somewhere and I turned around and "booh", one of them was about to strike because I did not hear the shots it fired and it was purely chasing me for my ignorance. That could be considered a "homemade non scripted jump scare".

If 1998 unreal-powered jumpscares are what you want, Klingon Honor Guard is right there.....

leileilol wrote on 2025-02-05, 12:30:

If 1998 unreal-powered jumpscares are what you want, Klingon Honor Guard is right there.....

Or those ridiculously loud events that happen in Xidia: Gold and 7 Bullets.

It’s the fact that I’m stumbling about on the first lvl not knowing how to arm myself hearing all the noises screams and explosions thinking everytime I open a door or crawl through a duct I get jumped with not even fists to fight with.
Turok 2 was good for jump scares it had distance noises that got closer or in your face when you rounded a corner

leileilol wrote on 2025-02-05, 12:30:

If 1998 unreal-powered jumpscares are what you want, Klingon Honor Guard is right there.....

I never dared to try this game because everywhere it was mentioned, it was rated as dull or a copy of Unreal just with poorer textures and stupid looking weapons. Is it any good? The test I read spoke of very big but super boring levels because there is nothing in it.

st31276a wrote on 2025-02-01, 15:47:

(...)
The low poly graphics is best played in 640x480, the grittiness of the pixels matches the poly resolution of the worlds. I have played through it on 1920x1200 on a moderner system with the high resolution texture packs, but that looks funny to me overall.
(...)

I noticed that as well. Can run it without issues at modern hidef resolutions on a modern system, it's still fully compatible. But there is something that only comes through in 640x480 on a CRT. (Well, or 512x384, which is also supported)
Even 800x600 tends to lose some of that effect. And in my PIII/GF3 setup I see basically no difference in performance between 800x600 and 1280x960, and even dropping to 640x480 won't change enough to be noticable.

I managed to finish Unreal now. I loved the Mothership from a graphical perspective. Impressive. Then boss fight however was not so impressive. I ended up using the jump boots and staying on the high plateau in the middle because it would only beam back and forth. Whenever I stayed on the ground, it launched at me and caused instant death like the boulders from giants.

I will not start the addon instantly. I need a break from this Unreal scenario now. Will save it for later.

But the pixel discussion above created a question in my mind: FPS hit boxes and game resolution about resolution VS hit boxes which I noticed when I played Unreal. I played it an 800x600 and it looked good. I wanted because of the Voodoo 2 SLI could do it. I need to see if it really looks grittier with 640x480. 😀

mombarak wrote on 2025-02-13, 11:11:

I managed to finish Unreal now. I loved the Mothership from a graphical perspective. Impressive. Then boss fight however was not so impressive. I ended up using the jump boots and staying on the high plateau in the middle because it would only beam back and forth. Whenever I stayed on the ground, it launched at me and caused instant death like the boulders from giants.

I will not start the addon instantly. I need a break from this Unreal scenario now. Will save it for later.

you could play other unreal 1 engine games 😀 nerf arena! deus ex, mobile forces

mombarak wrote on 2025-02-05, 14:56:

leileilol wrote on 2025-02-05, 12:30:

If 1998 unreal-powered jumpscares are what you want, Klingon Honor Guard is right there.....

I never dared to try this game because everywhere it was mentioned, it was rated as dull or a copy of Unreal just with poorer textures and stupid looking weapons. Is it any good? The test I read spoke of very big but super boring levels because there is nothing in it.

Oh you definitely missed out on something (at least IMHO)! Klingon Honor Guard is probably one of the more memorable FPS experiences I've had.

Some maps are really generic, but then there are the standouts that take place on starships and space stations that are actually IN SPACE!!! And no, it's not just window dressing, but rather you can don a space suit, seamlessly exit the airlock and fight enemies outside in a true Zero-Gravity environment! Complete with magboots that can be activated,and deactivated at will, with recoil and explosions that will ruin your day, by sending you hurtling into deep space, if you're not careful.

As for the weapons, there is you usual assortment of pistol, rapid fire, rocket launcher and sniper style weapons, etc. But the game also features melee combat, which is a blast to get into. You have D'k tahg's (knives) that can be used to rapidly attack an enemy, or you have the mighty two-handed Bat'leth that is a little slower but hits like a truck. For extra badassery you can even throw them!!!

There's nothing quite as awesomely klingon as cutting down a couple of enemies with your Bat'leth and then hurling it accross the room and burying it in the chest of the third one that was reaching for his disruptor!

Ehem, needless to say, I'm quite a fan of this Unreal-powered game. 🤤

mombarak wrote on 2025-02-13, 11:11:

I managed to finish Unreal now. I loved the Mothership from a graphical perspective. Impressive. Then boss fight however was not so impressive. I ended up using the jump boots and staying on the high plateau in the middle because it would only beam back and forth. Whenever I stayed on the ground, it launched at me and caused instant death like the boulders from giants.

I will not start the addon instantly. I need a break from this Unreal scenario now. Will save it for later.

But the pixel discussion above created a question in my mind: FPS hit boxes and game resolution about resolution VS hit boxes which I noticed when I played Unreal. I played it an 800x600 and it looked good. I wanted because of the Voodoo 2 SLI could do it. I need to see if it really looks grittier with 640x480. 😀

That last boss fight was a bit of a let down, I remember having the same experience back in the day. Not terrible or anything, but nothing really noteworthy.

gerry wrote on 2025-02-13, 14:42:

mombarak wrote on 2025-02-13, 11:11:

I managed to finish Unreal now. I loved the Mothership from a graphical perspective. Impressive. Then boss fight however was not so impressive. I ended up using the jump boots and staying on the high plateau in the middle because it would only beam back and forth. Whenever I stayed on the ground, it launched at me and caused instant death like the boulders from giants.

I will not start the addon instantly. I need a break from this Unreal scenario now. Will save it for later.

you could play other unreal 1 engine games 😀 nerf arena! deus ex, mobile forces

I also liked Rune. A bit different as it was third person.
Also worth mentioning was Wheel of Time, I didn't personally love it at the time as it bastardized the source material (books) quite badly.
And if you can't tell from my avatar I'm a big fan of those books.
But it's really not a bad game taken at it's own merit.
Plus, that abomination of a TV show Amazon shat out really upped the ante on bastardizing the source material.
What a puke pile, makes the game look like a true shining star.
Sorry, /rant.

Been meaning to play Wheel of Time for ages. From what I remember it flew under the radar at the time, but is apparently a decent game.

Here you go:

My exact feelings the second I've got out of the Vortex Rikers ship. I remember the moment very vividly. Just little colored. And before my first 3D accelerator.

Just jaw-dropping/Unreal.

Edit about resolution: And for those who weren't lucky enough to own some fancy Voodoo², 512x384 pixels and dither on. This is the only right way (I remember [512x384] as default after installation) to play this game. Use xrandr and nearest filter to enjoy it as back in the day.

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-02-17, 18:06:

Been meaning to play Wheel of Time for ages. From what I remember it flew under the radar at the time, but is apparently a decent game.

It's a solid game with an interesting story. Stand alone as well, you don't really need to know anything of the lore of the books to enjoy it.
As a matter of fact you would probably enjoy it more, going in cold.

It was interesting from a technical standpoint but as a game I did not like it at all - I was pretty disappointed by its style & aesthetics.
Only thing I really like about is the flyby at the beginning... that was really cool.

The flyby is probably what sold it to me first back in the day. I remember just sitting watching it with my cousins, who also enjoyed the game intensely.

The boss fight is always a let down for me, I tend to enjoy the game part of a game more.

512x384 is also a great resolution to play in. I am playing it in 512x384 software rendering on my laptop. It has a 1024x768 panel, so that the scaling happens by just doubling the pixels. Not that it cannot run it in 1024x768 (it is a Northwood 2.8/1GB DDR/Radeon IGP) but the lower resolution looks better to me.

The software renderer of Unreal is fantastic. Especially if you enable all the quality settings in the ini file. It even does some sort of dithering on the textures when you look close.

I had to comment on this thread.

I will have to say that the original unreal is probably my favorite game. I got a demo version with a diamond video card (monster fusion I think) that someone gave me, and I was hooked. In no time at all I got bought the full game.

I love everything about this game - especially the atmosphere and the music.

I remember reading a review somewhere a long time ago, that the minute you stepped off that ship, it was groundbreaking, and I agree.