Quoting: DuncThat looks interesting. I like the idea of “lost“ games. :)

But the whole CGA palette thing... sure, the vivid magenta and cyan really scream “'80s” (albeit early/mid- rather than late-'80s), but it was a total joke at the time. By 1987, you could pick up a better games machine than an “IBM compatible” for a fraction of the price. Meanwhile the ST and Amiga had just broken through to the mainstream, and this [External Link] is what computer games [External Link] actually looked like [External Link] in 1987 [External Link]. (That said, Dedale is right: CGA could do much better... provided you had an NTSC monitor. Its 16-colour “mode” relied on a property of the NTSC colour signalling - really a flaw, as far as “real” TV is concerned - that doesn't exist in PAL or SECAM.)

Now get off my lawn, ye young whippersnappers.

I was thinking 'what's up with the Amiga quality sound, but CGA graphics?'
Friend of mine who owned an Amiga since 87 or so, came over last weekend and we were playing games on my A4000. Unlike some nostalgia where you remember it looking better than it actually did... the Amiga still very much stands out as looking awesome.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuySo they've got "hardcore tactical components"? Well, good to see they're not messing around with any lousy softcore tactical components.

We all know what that means for pr0n, but what does it mean for tactical components.

Is that like D&D vs GURPS.

For those that don't know about either. D&D is usually 'roll your too hit chance, okay you hit, roll your damage.'

GURPS is 'roll your skill. Okay, enemy rolls their dodge. Failed dodge, roll damage. Okay, he has leather armor, subtract 2 from your damage. You rolled a 4 with an impaling sword thrust, so 4-2 for DR, is 2, and times 2 for impaling, he takes 4 damage. Not quite half of his Health, so doesn't need to roll to see if he is stunned. Next round.'

Now that is softcore vs hardcore :)

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Quoting: g000h

Quoting: slaapliedjeUnfortunately at this stage (for me) innoextract fails to extract the freespace game. I'm pretty sure this is because GOG has changed their installer, which is why the setup file is now a newer version than when game-data-packager was written. Not sure how to find the older version of the GOG download..

I've noticed this for a few GOG titles as well (and I presume the problem could be a lot more than "a few", as I haven't been testing everything).

Does anyone (e.g. Shmerl) know an alternative way to use innoextract for extracting GOG Windows titles when the regular innoextract technique seems to fail? For reference, this is what I get when I try to run innoextract on Doom II + Final Doom [External Link]:

/Downloads/doom$ innoextract setup_doom_ii_with_master_levels_1.9_\(28044\).exe 
Warning: Unexpected setup data version: 5.6.2 (unicode)
Warning: Unexpected Auto Boolean value: 19
Warning: Unexpected Auto Boolean value: 20
Warning: Unexpected trailing byte in UTF-16 string.
Warning: Unexpected data while converting from UTF-16LE to UTF-8.
Warning: Unexpected trailing byte in UTF-16 string.
Warning: Unexpected data while converting from UTF-16LE to UTF-8.
Warning: Unexpected data while converting from UTF-16LE to UTF-8.
Warning: Unexpected trailing byte in UTF-16 string.
Warning: Unexpected data while converting from UTF-16LE to UTF-8.
Stream error while parsing setup headers!
 ├─ detected setup version: 5.6.2 (unicode)
 └─ error reason: basic_ios::clear: iostream error
If you are sure the setup file is not corrupted, consider 
filing a bug report at http://innoextract.constexpr.org/issues
Done with 1 error and 10 warnings.

innoextract -v
innoextract 1.7
Extracts installers created by Inno Setup 1.2.10 to 5.6.0

For me, some installers extract fine and others fail. Avoiding the use of WINE to run the actual installer is my preference. Maybe there is a source tarball of innoextract I could build and use that instead?

I found the repo on opensuse build system for Arx-liberatis that has a newer version of innoextract, but not sure if it works with the newer freespace 2 installer.

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Quoting: kurp

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: kurpThanks for letting me know about FSOpen project, however it looks like a bit complicated process to use it.
Anyone tried the game just under Wine?

It seems you didn't bothered to read anything from the link posted, because setup is straightforward via knossos...

I don't think we share the same understanding of being straightforward. However, indeed, knossos seems to be the easiest way to launch the game at least.

sudo apt install freespace2-launcher-wxlauncher innoextract lgogdownloader game-data-packager
lgogdownloader
lgogdownloader --download --game freespace_2
cd freespace_2
cp -rv /usr/share/games/freespace2-open/packages/* .
mv 'setup_freespace_2_1.20_(32720).exe' setup_freespace2_2.0.0.8.exe
dpkg-buildpackage -b -uc

Unfortunately at this stage (for me) innoextract fails to extract the freespace game. I'm pretty sure this is because GOG has changed their installer, which is why the setup file is now a newer version than when game-data-packager was written. Not sure how to find the older version of the GOG download..

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Quoting: dreamer_

Quoting: slaapliedjeIsn't there something like GamesDB that does this for DOS? I know there is for practically every other platform out there. Definitely would be useful, but man there are a lot of DOS games and a lot that require anything from CGA 8086 to SVGA Pentium 3.

If you know any, let me know :) The closest I got was DOSBox wiki (but it's closed off and contains outdated info) and PCGW (but it's inappropriate for turning into machine-readable configs, and contains windows-specific - non-portable - info).

And yeah, there are a lot of DOS games out there, but it's "fixed target" - there were only 2 new (real) DOS games released in last ~20 years, and I think there's fewer than 1000 (maybe fewer than 500) DOS games that are culturally relevant - it would be ok to focus on these games first.

Funny thing is, there are probably more homebrew games for the Atari Jaguar and some other 'failed' systems than there are for DOS in the last few years. Pretty sure most of that is because, while DOS games were okay for the time, I'm not sure how many people have the nostalgia of trying to actually get DOS games working, it was always a pain. Unlike say, a C64, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Amiga, etc.

So much so that some games, like Ultima VII have been ported to new platforms because getting the DOS version to work required a specially crafted boot disk.

thegamesdb.net was the one I was thinking of. Not sure if they have an API you can use, but they definitely have DOS games on there.

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Quoting: dreamer_

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: levellordAdded non-Steam game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and it is not working, while it is working fine with DOSBox. Is there some additional set up for non-Steam games?

This needs to be easier. I have seen some things for it (can't remember, but I think the name was called Ice stream or something to do with ice), but to have a script that adds in non-steam games into your library would be sweet.

For GOG games, Boxtron includes a script "install-gog-game", as for non-Steam, non-GOG games… there are no magic solutions - someone needs to write .conf file describing autoexec procedure for DOS game, there's no way around it. Some games can get away with invoking old exe file (which is translated by DOSBox into 4-line autoexec script), but only tiny minority of games properly works this way :(

It *would* be cool to have dosbox database of supported games detected via e.g. checksum on exe file (like ScummVM does it), but it would require pretty massive community crowdsourcing effort.

Isn't there something like GamesDB that does this for DOS? I know there is for practically every other platform out there. Definitely would be useful, but man there are a lot of DOS games and a lot that require anything from CGA 8086 to SVGA Pentium 3.

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Freespace (1 & 2) are games I keep meaning to give a proper play through. Even bought the first one for the Amiga. Never have gotten more than the Demo to load though....

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This sounds awesome. Wonder if they'll throw in the nice 1000 years or so between 12,000 and 11,000 years ago, where many now think a comet broke up in fragments and caused massive flooding and made many species extinct.

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Quoting: levellordAdded non-Steam game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and it is not working, while it is working fine with DOSBox. Is there some additional set up for non-Steam games?

This needs to be easier. I have seen some things for it (can't remember, but I think the name was called Ice stream or something to do with ice), but to have a script that adds in non-steam games into your library would be sweet.

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So basically any online store would be subject to this, and that would be Microsoft, Apple, Google, Playsration, etc. Also, what about selling off the DLC with the game. That is one thing that even if you have a physical copy of a game, the DLC doesn't transfer if you sell it right now.

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