[mr-edit]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to draw attention to the following community driven campaign. (hope that's alright).
This is a non-commercial limited (re)production of an old relatively unknown MS-DOS
3D shooters from Taiwan named "MARS 3D". The game was never released in the western world.
Here at duke4.net there is an own thread about the game -> https://forums.duke4...ne-by-taiwanese

The game isn't a revelation but it's a trash-pearl and the campaign is for fans and collectors.
If anybody interested in you can find more information on this website -> http://www.mars3d-game.tk

many greetings

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[NightFright]

An obscure but interesting project with quite decent level design (or so it seems). And limited to just 200 copies! Asking for 38 EUR for this is kinda bold, but what the heck. As a nostalgia fan, I have blindly placed my order, but I am not sure if they will reach the minimum of 100 preorders unless it's massively advertised somewhere.

[Sanek]

Looks very interesting. Any release dates?

[NightFright]

100 copies first. Before that they wouldn't consider shipping. So, all you can really do is...



BTW, my pre-order number is 8/100. A long way to go...

[mr-edit]

@NightFright
Your pre-order is arrived. Thanks for that. And 38,- Euro isn't so much, think about what you get, an pressed disc an high quality bigbox and so on.

@Sanek
There is no release date at the moment. its an pre-order and the minimum is 100 reservations. Under this its not possible to produce. And only when
100 reservations are there is a payment request. After all people have payed to the paypal money pool the production takes 2 or 3 month (and additionally the shipping-time).

[NightFright]

My suggestion is to advertise this in as many forums as possible, also over at Doomworld/ZDoom etc., anything you can possibly find. Otherwise reaching that 100 mark may prove a bit difficult since the game is already obscure to begin with. Still I think it's a nice idea to offer such a rare game in English after such a long period of time, especially since it really looks like they had some interesting features in that custom engine they wrote for this game. I see that there are not really that many levels (seven official ones plus a few hidden/locked in the game data files), but I am still curious enough to be willing to take a look at this.

[mr-edit]

Feel free to make advertise in some other Forums and Boards or maybe in Facebook Groups you know. Every reservation will help to reach the goal.

[Jinroh]

I am down for one, just submitted my form. :3

Looks interesting some neat art and level design from the looks of it.

[mr-edit]

Thanks for your interest @Jinroh.

At the moment there are 48 reservations from all over the world. Almost the half is done.
Not so bad for 2 days since the campaign started. Hope the goal can be reached.

I always thought the oldschool shooters are still very high in their popularity! Come one guys,
let this community campaign happen!

[NightFright]

51/100. We are getting there. We can do this! Did anybody post this over at the Doom forums already? I am currently on mobile only and it's a bit inconvenient for me to do it by myself with links and everything.

[leilei]

Seems fishy to me...

[mr-edit]

@leilei

I say that on vogons and i say that here... your statement is "fishy" too.
Do you have a problem with this campaign, ignore it. Or say exactly what in your mind are "fishy". Just this small statement is a little bit mess.

[Jimmy]

That's a terrible way to respond and makes it look like your have something to hide.

Have you guys ever released anything before?

[mr-edit]

There is nothing to hide. The thing i mean is: from this really small "sentence" from leilei i'm confused.
What did he mean? The game? The campaign? The Artwork? It's not really exact. Thats what i want to say. It's fishy too.

And yes the guys behind this community campaign release some other things before.

[Player Lin]

Okay, now this is interesting...


But for some personal reasons, I guess I can only just "bless" this project...



Also, it may be very unlikely but not sure if it still legal...
(I can't even sure the "copyright" on this game does even exists...and maybe still nobody cares, like it was...)

[NightFright]

Maybe it would help people here to see some video footage to increase reliability. Screenshots with English text are good, but can be edited. I can understand if this seems "fishy" to some here.

Don't get me wrong, I want this to happen, but maybe it'd be a good idea to provide more evidence this really exists to convince more people to sign up. What speaks for you is the fact that you are not asking for payment in advance.

Regarding concerns about selling a game made by some other entity, even if it doesn't exist any more: You could argue that you pretty much rather pay for the CD and art box. I know it cannot directly be compared to what Romero is doing with Sigil, but it somehow reminds me of it.

[Player Lin]

NightFright, on 24 February 2019 - 12:15 AM, said:

Regarding concerns about selling a game made by some other entity, even if it doesn't exist any more: You could argue that you pretty much rather pay for the CD and art box. I know it cannot directly be compared to what Romero is doing with Sigil, but it somehow reminds me of it.

Yeah, that's why I said interesting...I also feel weird since the information just not much by the looking of the site, fishy, maybe...but I don't mind since whoever has problems with this project...he/she should be from someone hold the game IP or was one of the original project members...but it's untraceable now(yes, the engine guy was here but everything else is other story).

[mr-edit]

@Player Lin
Nice to read you here. Only with your transcript on Youtube the translation of the game became possible. You are also in the credits of the new
manual as honorable mention, i saw. With all the other people who worked on this fan edition.

The question of the copyright is justified but after many re-searches the company did not have rights to many things, which is probably
the reason why it was never sold properly. And after 22 years, most rights would have expired too. Furthermore, this is a non commercial campaign.
There is no profit mind behind.

38 Euro x 100 makes 3.800 Euro. That's not much. If someone were cheating, they would want to cheat a lot more money (like "Paprium" for Megadrive).
This is a fan thing. From fans to fans. The people behind this campaign also tried to contact the original developers, unfortunately they are no longer findable.
Otherwise, you would have asked for an official consent.

And i asked for a bit video-footage. In the next hours there will be a small video uploaded.

[mr-edit]

Fast as possible
Here is the video you can see the english translation: https://www.dropbox..../mars_a_000.mp4
It's recorded with dosbox. So it's a bit fast.

And here is a test video that the multiplayer mode from the game is working: https://www.dropbox....ars_mplayer.mp4

@Player Lin
I remember that you don't know that this mode already works. If you see, he worked. But he is very buggy. I think the developers
had not so much time to polish it. In the new setup that was extra written for the fan release you can start all hidden mulitplayer maps too.
There is one map, the developers copyed a quake 1 level, just in bad. Really weired

EDIT: (the hidden quake map)
https://www.dropbox..../mars_a_001.mp4

enjoy

[Player Lin]

Well, I feel weird for some reasons but still thanks for credit me...
(BTW, the guys who originally gave the image file of his physical copy to me had been disappeared totally and the account has been removed so I guess it's not matter if you guys still credit the guy who release the image...I didn't know who actually he(?) was but now untraceable too...whatever.)

Oh good, looks like you guys do changed something in-game...does that still runs original exe, right?

mr-edit, on 24 February 2019 - 01:11 AM, said:

@Player Lin
I remember that you don't know that this mode already works. If you see, he worked. But he is very buggy. I think the developers
had not so much time to polish it. In the new setup that was extra written for the fan release you can start all hidden mulitplayer maps too.
There is one map, the developers copyed a quake 1 level, just in bad. Really weired

enjoy

I found related textures in the converted WAD file when make the translation text file(it's not perfect I guess but it's good to make your "own" implementations about the plot/lore if you guys like), and the MP maps does exist too just not finished so it's fine if it's very buggy.

(Maybe the game just cancelled but the publisher still try to make some money hence it did still released with boxes but very unknowingly, it explains why the whole game just buggy and looks unfinished...oh and then nobody cared, even the publisher never said they did had this game after a while, but they cannot lie to me since I found the texture about a game boxart that from the publisher[it was a Chinese game too, strategy turn-based RPG, like...uh...Final Fantasy Tactics I think] LOLOLOLOL...but whatever, too. )

I'm not sure but the engine guy(who did came here) did said they converted some DooM maps to test when made the engine, so I'm not really surprised the shitty Quake map existed. As the engine used idtech1-based spec and levels from Quake may can be converted but the result just not good as their engine may not supported something Quake maps needed.

[mr-edit]

It is a modified orignal * .exe that is running. Only a few things have changed in the code.
The story in his original was really confused, so they added some new parts to make more sense.
The main character also has a new name, now he called: JET HUNTER That sounds cooler like DUKE NUKEM.
And some sound effects (voice) are changed. "Kiss my ..." for example.

After the research, no one has yet seen a real boxing version of the game. But the guy who gave you the disc image,
made some pictures from the manual and the title of it. A talented artist then re-painted the cover (and he hit the retro look so good).
I really love it, You see the DOOM Marine and the DUKE lying on the ground. That's so overly cool

[mr-edit]

sorry, double post

[Player Lin]

JET HUNTER...okay, that's...fine.

mr-edit, on 24 February 2019 - 01:56 AM, said:

After the research, no one has yet seen a real boxing version of the game. But the guy who gave you the disc image,
made some pictures from the manual and the title of it. A talented artist then re-painted the cover (and he hit the retro look).
I really love it, You see the DOOM Marine and the DUKE lying on the ground. That's so overly cool

Yes, I remembered the original guy did put some pictures from manual when give me the link of image but I just forgot...
I see the repainted the cover and looks really put a lot of efforts on it, nice job.

Does anything else also changed too, like the SP maps?

[mr-edit]

All textures and animations with chinese font are changed, the mainscreen changed also, and if you finished the game the end sequence has some credits from the translators (you are also named there).

[Player Lin]

mr-edit, on 24 February 2019 - 02:09 AM, said:

All textures and animations with chinese font are changed, the mainscreen changed also, and if you finished the game the end sequence has some credits from the translators (you are also named there).

Okay, understood...so sounds like it's still faithful to original game with some minor changes.

Well, tell the truth, I never completed the game at all, I did actually burned out when recorded my videos, the game frequently crashing(not sure if it's DOSBox or my installation still sucked that I cannot fixed) really annoyed me and I never played it again(maybe the original game's keyboard control also annoyed me too)...and then I just had no time for that game anymore...

[mr-edit]

Yeah, the game has bugs, and it's miles away from a good game. But i see it as an relict from the old times, and as a collector too I love the thought to hold it once in my hands. But at the moment it does not look like.

Just for info: The people behind the campaign also have another project for the future (if this campaign will be a success). And with this they have the official OK of the original developers. Can't tell you more but its about an old shmup from Taiwan.

[Player Lin]

mr-edit, on 24 February 2019 - 02:26 AM, said:

Just for info: The people behind the campaign also have another project for the future (if this campaign will be a success). And with this they have the official OK of the original developers. Can't tell you more but its about an old shmup from Taiwan.

Sounds like......w...wait, what?!


Shoot 'em up game from Taiwan? Now I'm really think it's interesting...but, no... don't tell me until it'll happened for sure.

[The Ultimate Doomer]

What company exactly will be manufacturing the boxes and pressing the CDs?

I think the English translation needs a little more work. It's understandable...to a degree, but it's far from perfect.

[mr-edit]

There are several companies from Europe, not just one.
Hmmm ... many good English speaking people worked on this translation. I can not believe that she is not so good.
And remember: In the game engine there are various restrictions. Chinese speaks less than English, so sometimes it is not possible to write too many words. In this case, the translation has to be a bit easier and maybe not perfect.

[Marphy Black]

As long as the enemies still say "Kissu my ass!", then that's all the understandability we need.

mr-edit, on 24 February 2019 - 01:56 AM, said:

And some sound effects (voice) are changed. "Kiss my ..." for example.

HERESY OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE!