Downwell is quite a fun little NES-style/vertcial falling platformer/roguelike game. It's a little addicting unlocking game palettes. I like the C64-like one (pastel).

badmojo wrote:

Still working my way through Skyrim, re-configuring my mods slightly as I go. I've switched to a couple of different flora mods and have used TESGenLOD to generate much nicer distant terrain. All these mods that people have slaved away on is mind blowing and this game has no business looking so good:

Looks awesome! Did you use Nexus Mod Manager or you installed 'em in the good old fashioned way? I find it funny how can games look so great whilst being devoid of today's use and abuse of post-processing. That color palette looks so natural. 😀

Can you also give us a screenshot of your launcher so we can see the list of mods you have installed. I am trying to do the same thing as you.

Kadath wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

I installed and played about 30 minutes of The Witcher just to check it out. Pretty fun! But I'm in the middle of Ultima VII: Serpent Isle, so back to that. 😀 Currently trying to get out of the Mountains of Freedom...

Once you've seen and enjoyed Ultima VII, you'll never go back. Masterpiece - I can tell you I've passed a month or two on it, playing main storyline, every side quest and every released expansion... I miss that atmosphere, that graphic - my only regret: I've played the Exult version, so I've been able to install Italian translation unofficial patch. Have a fun and epic journey, Avatar.

Thank you, sir. It's definitely an experience. Back in the day, I played nearly every Ultima to completion. Serpent Isle was one I never finished, though, so it's been great going through it again. Determined to finish this time. I'm already further along than I'd ever gotten when it came out.

subhuman@xgtx wrote:

Looks awesome! Did you use Nexus Mod Manager or you installed 'em in the good old fashioned way? I find it funny how can games look so great whilst being devoid of today's use and abuse of post-processing. That color palette looks so natural. 😀

Yep just the old fashioned way - I like the process of copying the files over, perfecting the load order, etc. I'm not using many mods really but have tried lots over the course of my trial and error, there are a couple of INI tweaks that improve the look noticeably too. Frame rates are generally a solid 60 on my GTX970, with dips to ~50 occasionally in heavily wooded areas or big cities.

@vladstamate

Here's my list and ini files - I'm using SKSE too but only for a lip syncing mod. And note that the flora mod I'm using the vurts 2b without grass. And I really recommend using TESGenLOD - it's very easy and makes a big difference to the otherwise blurry LOD. I used the billboards provided by the TESGenLOD guy and vurts one too. So the process would be:

- back up your 'data' folder so that you can easily restore vanilla if you need to
- get all mods listed as 'subscribed' in my screenshot below from the Steam workshop.
- get and install the rest from the nexus - install order doesn't really matter.
- copy the LOD billboards into the data folder, run TESGenLOD
- copy in my INI files to the Documents --> My Games --> Skyrim folder (back up originals first)
- run the game, using my mod order as a guide.

Turok 2, but the CD Audio isn't working because the image I used didn't burn correctly. I can install and play it and I can use the Console to force the game to use an audio CD I burned so I have the background music, but none of them are cued properly or repeat.

Thank you badmojo, I finally set my my copy of Skyrim with the addons you have.

Also I am now playing Final Fantasy XV !! Love it until now.

Shadowrun Returns on Android tablet.

I've been playing Starbound for the past few weeks, and been finding it slightly disturbing that I have to use "Poison" to craft batteries and other materials. I wonder if that's a reference to something...

Been playing some Dark Reign on my good ol' Packard Bell Corner PC lately. Always wrote the game off cause of the screenshots on the box but it's actually quite a cool C&C clone. 😁

King_Corduroy wrote:

Been playing some Dark Reign on my good ol' Packard Bell Corner PC lately. Always wrote the game off cause of the screenshots on the box but it's actually quite a cool C&C clone. 😁

Haven't played that one but am a big C&C fan, will have to look it up.

I've been going through an id games phase thanks to a re-read of Masters of DOOM, which finally appeared on the AU kindle site. Been playing a lot of DOOM but that's nothing new; just today I've broken out my 486 for some Keen (kids are playing # 4 as we speak), and of course Wolf3D. Those id boys were rowdy little maniacs by all reports but the games they produced were such polished products from the get go; they'd been making games for years by that point I guess.

Sorcery! 4 on Android, oh yeah!

I've been working my way through Ultima VII: Serpent Isle for a couple of months now, but I am mixing in a little Descent II here and there. Currently on level 12. Now that I have a keyboard scheme that works for me, the game is much easier to succeed on. That was the main reason I never finished the game back in the day.

Ok, I think I need an intervention here. I just got Ultima VII complete from GoG. Never played any Ultima games before, had no clue what to expect. And man, the game is....not good. I know I am going to be torched for this but hear me.

1) The font is horrendous. I mean the dialog and text are pretty damn good, too bad the delivery is so bad. But I fixed that with a custom font.
2) Movement. On my Win10 machine it moves too fast so I extracted the game and moved it to my 386DX40 (since the game seems to require 386SX25) and it is too slow. What is the speed requirement for this game?
3) Interaction with objects is...broken. In Black Gate the very first house you enter in, has a body inside which next to is a key. The first house! Yeah, I cannot pick up that key. I think you can "use it" as the mouse cursor changes but it is on the floor, and I cannot see a door nearby. I still have no clue how to pick up items. Can that even be done in this game?

So basically a lot of frustration for seemingly bad game design. Now I understand why this game is seminal and why it can really be a good game, but it seems I need help to get into it. So that gets me to the thing below:

clueless1 wrote:

I've been working my way through Ultima VII: Serpent Isle for a couple of months now, but I am mixing in a little Descent II here and there. Currently on level 12. Now that I have a keyboard scheme that works for me, the game is much easier to succeed on. That was the main reason I never finished the game back in the day.

Wait, there is a keyboard scheme that works? Please share it 😀

vladstamate wrote:

Ok, I think I need an intervention here. I just got Ultima VII complete from GoG. Never played any Ultima games before, had no c […]
Show full quote

Ok, I think I need an intervention here. I just got Ultima VII complete from GoG. Never played any Ultima games before, had no clue what to expect. And man, the game is....not good. I know I am going to be torched for this but hear me.

1) The font is horrendous. I mean the dialog and text are pretty damn good, too bad the delivery is so bad. But I fixed that with a custom font.
2) Movement. On my Win10 machine it moves too fast so I extracted the game and moved it to my 386DX40 (since the game seems to require 386SX25) and it is too slow. What is the speed requirement for this game?
3) Interaction with objects is...broken. In Black Gate the very first house you enter in, has a body inside which next to is a key. The first house! Yeah, I cannot pick up that key. I think you can "use it" as the mouse cursor changes but it is on the floor, and I cannot see a door nearby. I still have no clue how to pick up items. Can that even be done in this game?

I agree with the font (Serpent Isle does improve on a lot of your complaints). According to Great Hierophant, the ideal CPU for Ultima VII: The Black Gate is a 33-40Mhz 486. I think you should read that article before you play. 😀 Back in the day, I played it on a 386sx-20 with a 14" monitor. The small monitor made the fonts more tolerable. I'm not sure how I ever beat the game on that CPU though. I guess I had nothing to compare it to, so it was self-defined as normal. A lot of the enjoyment of the games for me is the continuation of the storyline from previous Ultimas. For example, lots of "old friends" make appearances from previous games in the series, completing story arcs that were years in the making. It's much more satisfying if you've played at least some of the previous games. Also, don't be shy about walkthrus or Let's Plays. They can often get you through the learning curve of the controls much more quickly.

The speed issue is one of many things fixed in Serpent Isle. I'm currently playing through it on a DX2-66 and the built-in frame-limiting makes it perfect.

Regarding picking up items, you should just be able to clck-and-drag to your character, then let go of mouse button to drop. Or open inventory first, then click-and-drag to inventory. Read the included Reference Card! Inventory management is another thing that was improved in Serpent Isle, but it's still pretty cumbersome. I sometimes take 30 minute inventory management sessions, where I drop all my stuff for all characters on the ground, then start sorting like items into their own bags, like potions in one bag, reagent in another bag, scrolls in another bag, currency in another bag, etc. Then I decide who carries what. Honestly, from an OCD standpoint, this is kind of satisfying for me. 😀

vladstamate wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

I've been working my way through Ultima VII: Serpent Isle for a couple of months now, but I am mixing in a little Descent II here and there. Currently on level 12. Now that I have a keyboard scheme that works for me, the game is much easier to succeed on. That was the main reason I never finished the game back in the day.

Wait, there is a keyboard scheme that works? Please share it 😀

Going from memory, I believe it's more-or-less like so:
W-forward
S-backward
A-strafe left
D-strafe right
arrow keys-directional turning
R-up
V-down
Q-rotate left
E-rotate right
F-flare
C-missiles
spacebar-main gun

Thank you for all the explanations!

There's also quite a bit of discussion around the speed issues of Ultima 7 in this thread:

The ultimate Ultima 7 machine

Now I playing first Gothic Enchanced Edition, it`s harder than normal game but better and it`s only in my language, nobody translated it to english now. I also added to game two texture packs and all run good without problems, there is also fourth guild to join - Bandits and here is screenshot of some little hunter camp:

badmojo wrote:

King_Corduroy wrote:

Been playing some Dark Reign on my good ol' Packard Bell Corner PC lately. Always wrote the game off cause of the screenshots on the box but it's actually quite a cool C&C clone. 😁

Haven't played that one but am a big C&C fan, will have to look it up.

I've been going through an id games phase thanks to a re-read of Masters of DOOM, which finally appeared on the AU kindle site. Been playing a lot of DOOM but that's nothing new; just today I've broken out my 486 for some Keen (kids are playing # 4 as we speak), and of course Wolf3D. Those id boys were rowdy little maniacs by all reports but the games they produced were such polished products from the get go; they'd been making games for years by that point I guess.

And that boys from ID implement option to save game at any time to almost all their games. I don`t like today savepoints in any game, I want to save when I want.

Hi all, newly joined Vogons after watching a load of PhilsComputerLab and decided why not sign up.
Recently built up a Windows XP Gaming PC and started playing some Fallout 3 today for first time having previously played a bit of Fallout 4.
Got a load of old DOS and Win9x CD games stored away so planning on building up something similar to Phils 4in1 Retro build.
On the lookout for Socket 7 hardware but prices on Ebay in UK are too high for me.
Anyone in UK have any recommendations on where to look other than Ebay?