[Lunick]

Looks like Scott is seeking Patreon funding to create an enhanced version of Raptor for modern consoles and mobile https://www.patreon.com/scotthost

[jkas789]

I have heard of this game. Hope it gets the backing it needs.

[Jimmy]

Seems like an unrealistic venture but I wish him well. No guarantee on the PC version is going to really hold it back.

[Sledgehammer]

Probably worth mentioning the DotEmu version released back in 2015.

https://store.steamp...__2015_Edition/

[K1n9_Duk3]

I'm not sure about the 2015 edition, but I happen to own a physical copy of another DotEmu version (copyright notice on the case says 2011 and the installer is dated 2011-08-05). That version was playable but the music quality was complete garbage (11kHz).

I just hope that this new "enhanced edition" will be less of a downgrade compared to the original Apogee release for DOS.

[Phredreeke]

I thought Nuke was working on a Raptor port

[MrFlibble]

I never dug deep into this, but the original Raptor developer, Mountain King Studios (previously known as Cygnus Software), still sells the Windows/Mac/iPhone version of the game:
http://www.mking.com/raptor_game.html

Previously they had a downloadable Windows demo, identical in content to the DOS Apogee shareware version, which you can still get elsewhere, e.g. here. It's the same 320x200 resolution IIRC. Not sure about the sound quality, or how it compares to the DotEmu release.

[NY00123]

Phredreeke, on 16 December 2020 - 05:58 PM, said:

I thought Nuke was working on a Raptor port

He was indeed working on one. He uploaded a video demonstrating the port back in August:

What I think is safe to say now is that, Nuke.YKT and Hendricks266 started to be in contact with Scott Host at some point after uploading this video. I'm not entirely sure if Scott was interested in making his own Raptor port beforehand, but I think it's clear that he had the interest after becoming aware of Nuke.YKT's work.

One important thing to add is that, based on chat from the Raptor Discord, DotEmu might have the say when it comes to new PC and Mac versions. This is probably why other platforms are currently covered.

For reference, among other few individuals, Nuke.YKT and Hendricks266 are currently listed as coders in the Raptor Discord. I think that it's clear why would Nuke.YKT be. For Hendricks266, I don't know the details, but I suspect that it's related to multiple instances of technical assistance, even if not by the way of directly coding for the port.

As for Nuke.YKT's port, while he eventually didn't finish it, he did upload reconstructed source code that others may get: https://github.com/nukeykt/raptor/

[NY00123]

Adding the following update.

1. First of all, the remixed edition is effectively a new game at this point, differing from the original game of the 1990s. This remixed edition hasn't yet been released, due to Scott Host having to give priority to his mother's health. In the meanwhile, following a suggestion to port his other game, DemonStar, he's been working on an SDL port of it. It was stated at the time that this could help funding continued development of the remixed edition of Raptor later on. To quote from the initial live stream of June 10, 2023:

Spoiler

I am going to TooManyGames convention in Oaks PA. I signed up for a booth to Demo Raptor REMIXED, but with me dealing with my mom's health issues I never got it working in time. I told them to cancel my booth because of my time being taken up by my mom's care, but then Mike Strollart said "Hey can you port DemonStar by then to put in the arcade games section", and Im like "YEAH". I will put Raptor REMIXED cards by it.

I will also sell it on Steam and GOG and could help advertize and fund Raptor REMIXED development!

2. Secondly, a DOS version of Raptor has recently been open-sourced:

Spoiler

This started with Host sending files to Nuke.YKT so he could be prepare a release. I also joined a bit later. The original code base as received depends on Paul Radek's DMX sound library, also used in Doom Engine games for DOS. Albeit multiple DMX sources and binaries were leaked, they aren't properly licensed. As an alternative, this release uses the Apogee Sound System, with the assistance of Nuke.YKT's APODMX wrapper. Other than that, Nuke.YKT and I were doing reconstruction works, so outside of DMX, the released sources should match (registered) version 1.2 in behaviors.

https://github.com/skynettx/dosraptor

[TornadoMusician]

NY00123, on 22 October 2023 - 08:19 AM, said:

2. Secondly, a DOS version of Raptor has recently been open-sourced:

Spoiler

This started with Host sending files to Nuke.YKT so he could be prepare a release. I also joined a bit later. The original code base as received depends on Paul Radek's DMX sound library, also used in Doom Engine games for DOS. Albeit multiple DMX sources and binaries were leaked, they aren't properly licensed. As an alternative, this release uses the Apogee Sound System, with the assistance of Nuke.YKT's APODMX wrapper. Other than that, Nuke.YKT and I were doing reconstruction works, so outside of DMX, the released sources should match (registered) version 1.2 in behaviors.

https://github.com/skynettx/dosraptor

This is pretty cool. Any chance on some more backstory on the files? Are the files in the GFX folder and SOURCE the original files as sent by Scott Host? I see there is some Windows source code included. Did Scott provide the source code for the Windows build or the DOS build (or both)?

[NY00123]

TornadoMusician, on 25 October 2023 - 06:23 AM, said:

This is pretty cool. Any chance on some more backstory on the files? Are the files in the GFX folder and SOURCE the original files as sent by Scott Host? I see there is some Windows source code included. Did Scott provide the source code for the Windows build or the DOS build (or both)?

The files are mostly based on originals from Host but there were modifications. To bring a few examples:
- GFX lacked a makefile. It's also possible that Nuke.YKT and I couldn't build a compatible exe for another reason that I don't recall, if any.
- With the assistance of reconstruction works (similar in idea to repositories under gamesrc-ver-recreation), we managed to recreate sources matching registered version 1.2 in behaviors.
- For the release itself, we replaced the proprietary DMX sound library with the Apogee Sound System, while using Nuke.YKT's APODMX compatibility wrapper. This sound system and DMX both cover a bit more than sound and music playback; There are also routines for timer task scheduling and DPMI memory management.

I've asked Host about GFX. This code was used not just for Raptor, and chances are it was used for internal tools. Either way, it should have routines for interaction with the system (outside of sound / timing), GLB file access, 2D UI drawing and more. I see no code made for Microsoft Windows. Rather, there's code for 2D window drawing, if that's what you've referred to.

To briefly describe the directories: GFX is as written earlier, SOURCE covers the Raptor game itself, APODMX is the aforementioned compatibility wrapper, and audiolib has modified Apogee Sound System sources as currently available from here: https://bitbucket.or...a134aabd3ac973/

Things were a bit different in the beginning. Back in mid-2020, Nuke.YKT was reverse-engineering a Raptor executable, while lacking access to Raptor or GFX sources. Most we had was the leaked DMX binaries and sources.

The latter eventually leaded to Nuke.YKT and Hendricks266 getting in contact with Scott Host. I also got in contact later. Fast-forward to late 2021, Nuke.YKT received original sources from Host, so an open-source release could become a reality. I joined him with the preparation of the sources at least a bit later. Due to differing internal circumstances, the release was postponed. Earlier in this month, due to a combination of factors including related interest of Nuke.YKT at the time, it happened.

GitHub user skynettx is a moderator in the Mountain King Discord, and from what I can see, he was maintaining a repository initially based on Nuke.YKT's earlier reverse-engineering work of mid-2020. As for the proper open-source release itself, Nuke.YKT and I didn't know that it'd be published by skynettx as eventually done. My guess preceding the release was that Nuke.YKT would finalize the details, possibly with Host. This should explain, e.g., my replacement of the GFX makefile.

skynettx was the one to reuse the audiolib dir from gamesrc-ver-recreation. There was actually a separate private branch of Nuke.YKT from 2021 replacing DMX with APODMX, albeit without a copy of the Apogee Sound System itself. The aforementioned GFX makefile that I brought to the public release should be more similar to the one in this private branch.

The version of the Apogee Sound System in use from gamesrc-ver-recreation was 1.09; The released sources from 2002 were identified as 1.12, and I more-or-less recreated 1.09's sources for Shadow Warrior. 1.09 was also the version I chose for use with APODMX at the time, due to being the last to support the PC Speaker for Doom. Coincidentally, this also turned out to be useful for Raptor.

[TornadoMusician]

NY00123, on 25 October 2023 - 12:54 PM, said:

The files are mostly based on originals from Host but there were modifications. To bring a few examples:
- GFX lacked a makefile. It's also possible that Nuke.YKT and I couldn't build a compatible exe for another reason that I don't recall, if any.
- With the assistance of reconstruction works (similar in idea to repositories under gamesrc-ver-recreation), we managed to recreate sources matching registered version 1.2 in behaviors.
- For the release itself, we replaced the proprietary DMX sound library with the Apogee Sound System, while using Nuke.YKT's APODMX compatibility wrapper. This sound system and DMX both cover a bit more than sound and music playback; There are also routines for timer task scheduling and DPMI memory management.

I've asked Host about GFX. This code was used not just for Raptor, and chances are it was used for internal tools. Either way, it should have routines for interaction with the system (outside of sound / timing), GLB file access, 2D UI drawing and more. I see no code made for Microsoft Windows. Rather, there's code for 2D window drawing, if that's what you've referred to.

To briefly describe the directories: GFX is as written earlier, SOURCE covers the Raptor game itself, APODMX is the aforementioned compatibility wrapper, and audiolib has modified Apogee Sound System sources as currently available from here: https://bitbucket.or...a134aabd3ac973/

Things were a bit different in the beginning. Back in mid-2020, Nuke.YKT was reverse-engineering a Raptor executable, while lacking access to Raptor or GFX sources. Most we had was the leaked DMX binaries and sources.

The latter eventually leaded to Nuke.YKT and Hendricks266 getting in contact with Scott Host. I also got in contact later. Fast-forward to late 2021, Nuke.YKT received original sources from Host, so an open-source release could become a reality. I joined him with the preparation of the sources at least a bit later. Due to differing internal circumstances, the release was postponed. Earlier in this month, due to a combination of factors including related interest of Nuke.YKT at the time, it happened.

GitHub user skynettx is a moderator in the Mountain King Discord, and from what I can see, he was maintaining a repository initially based on Nuke.YKT's earlier reverse-engineering work of mid-2020. As for the proper open-source release itself, Nuke.YKT and I didn't know that it'd be published by skynettx as eventually done. My guess preceding the release was that Nuke.YKT would finalize the details, possibly with Host. This should explain, e.g., my replacement of the GFX makefile.

skynettx was the one to reuse the audiolib dir from gamesrc-ver-recreation. There was actually a separate private branch of Nuke.YKT from 2021 replacing DMX with APODMX, albeit without a copy of the Apogee Sound System itself. The aforementioned GFX makefile that I brought to the public release should be more similar to the one in this private branch.

The version of the Apogee Sound System in use from gamesrc-ver-recreation was 1.09; The released sources from 2002 were identified as 1.12, and I more-or-less recreated 1.09's sources for Shadow Warrior. 1.09 was also the version I chose for use with APODMX at the time, due to being the last to support the PC Speaker for Doom. Coincidentally, this also turned out to be useful for Raptor.

Thanks for the clarification! You are right, I skimmed through the filenames and saw WINDOWS.H and though it was related to the Windows port.

[MrFlibble]

NY00123, on 24 December 2020 - 01:16 AM, said:

As for Nuke.YKT's port, while he eventually didn't finish it, he did upload reconstructed source code that others may get: https://github.com/nukeykt/raptor/

I discovered today that the same user who put up the original source code also has an engine recreation/port based on the reverse-engineered code as well (comes packaged with the shareware data):
https://github.com/skynettx/raptor

[NY00123]

MrFlibble, on 02 November 2023 - 03:18 AM, said:

I discovered today that the same user who put up the original source code also has an engine recreation/port based on the reverse-engineered code as well (comes packaged with the shareware data):
https://github.com/skynettx/raptor

Interesting, did you figure it out independently of my preceding forum post? The post in question is indeed a bit long, so here's a snippet;

NY00123, on 25 October 2023 - 12:54 PM, said:

GitHub user skynettx is a moderator in the Mountain King Discord, and from what I can see, he was maintaining a repository initially based on Nuke.YKT's earlier reverse-engineering work of mid-2020. As for the proper open-source release itself, Nuke.YKT and I didn't know that it'd be published by skynettx as eventually done. My guess preceding the release was that Nuke.YKT would finalize the details, possibly with Host. This should explain, e.g., my replacement of the GFX makefile.

[MrFlibble]

NY00123, on 02 November 2023 - 11:45 PM, said:

Interesting, did you figure it out independently of my preceding forum post? The post in question is indeed a bit long, so here's a snippet;

Honestly, I've not followed this thread closely, I learned about it from the Open Source Game Clones website.

[NY00123]

Quoting this bit of info from the Mountain King Discord. Also brought up in a comment to Civvie's video published about 18 hours ago, "Strife - The Big Score":

Quote

here is a litle bit of it i just tweeted

Little known back story. ID basically paid for the development of Raptor Call of the Shadows. Strife started as my game and I wound up trading the rights to Strife for the money owed on Raptor and I moved back to Chicago.

By the way, the aforementioned Demonstar port is expected to be released very soon. Will this warrant a new thread, or the current one will be repurposed? We'll see.