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The Supreme Topic of Miscellaneous Knowledge  "Trivia, Research, etc."

User is offline   Hendricks266 

  • Weaponized Autism

  #1009

I don't think so. Bar Music ("Mortail Wombat") is by Lee.
1

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1010

A while ago I was playing around with a programme called Executor, which is a now discontinued compatibility layer project to run Mac 68k applications on IBM PC compatible hardware. This programme has its drawbacks and not all Mac emulation features are supported, but unlike the vast majority of Mac emulators it does not require anything from Apple: no authentic Mac ROM image, no copy of MacOS etc, are needed to run Mac software.

I have found two different Mac 68k demo versions of Duke Nukem 3D: duke3d.sit.hqx and duke68kdemo.bin. Both run in Executor, however with some limitations.

I will not be describing the basic procedures of setting up Executor. Those can be found here. Duke Nukem 3D demo versions will not run if you just double-click the executable file. This may or may not have something to do with logos and intro animations shown at startup. To get the game running you need to use Cmd-click (hold Alt and double-click the executable) to bring up the startup options menu:
Posted Image
This is basically the equivalent of DOS command line options. From here, you can warp to any of the three demo levels. It seems that there was a Mac convention that a demo should have three levels. This holds true for other games such as Doom, Descent etc. Wolfenstein 3-D kind of circumvented that by making a shorter version of the shareware episode: you don't get the first three levels, you get level one, some intermediate level, and the boss battle. In Duke3D however, it's just E1L1 to E1L3.

When you warp to level 1, the game looks like this (it seems to always load default settings, although I'm not sure if this is because of some Executor limitations or a feature of the demo):
Posted Image
As many other Mac ports of DOS games, Duke3D runs by default in 640x400 mode vertically centred on a 640x480 screen. Additionally, it is capable of using scanlines to increase performance on slower machines. Scanlines can be turned off, and the game can also run in the usual 640x480 mode as well, which is identical to the DOS one. Additionally you can select 320x200 which will be centred on the 640x480 screen. Here's the graphics settings menu:
Posted Image
BTW, most control keys work as you'd expect on the DOS version. The menus however use Mac windows rather than menu lists drawn by the game itself, with the exception of the main menu:
Posted Image
The game uses the Atomic Edition font, but does not call itself Atomic Edition, because the Mac port already included all four episodes, having been released later than the vanilla DOS version.

Unlike the DOS shareware version, the Mac demo includes player AI in fake multiplayer mode, and you can set up a game with up to 8 players:
Posted Image

BTW, the Mac demo GRP file can be opened with Group File Studio, and I guess other tools as well. Executor will not run the cheat code-activated Mac 1984 commercial in E1L1 because there is no Quicktime support, but the other Mac cheat that changes the security cameras background will work fine.

If you want to try this out yourself, here's how to start the demo in Executor: Alt+double-click on the demo executable to bring up startup settings. Then press Shift+Alt+5 to open the Executor preferences menu for running the demo. Change Screen Updates to Animation, set Refresh to 5 and System to 7.0.0. Sound should be Pretend, and you can also select Newline Mapping (although I'm not sure if this affects anything). Click Save. The preferences menu will stay but you can just click the visible OK button on the demo options to start the demo. Next time you start it just Alt+double-click the executable and run the demo with the options you like.
1

User is offline   TerminX 

  • el fundador

  #1011

Neat. What does the high/medium/low detail option do? Obviously I'm aware of what it does in the DOS version, but the DOS version only had two settings.
1

User is offline   Fox 

  • Fraka kaka kaka kaka-kow!

#1012

 MrFlibble, on 16 July 2015 - 02:28 AM, said:

A while ago I was playing around with a programme called Executor, which is a now discontinued compatibility layer project to run Mac 68k applications on IBM PC compatible hardware. This programme has its drawbacks and not all Mac emulation features are supported, but unlike the vast majority of Mac emulators it does not require anything from Apple: no authentic Mac ROM image, no copy of MacOS etc, are needed to run Mac software.

No files required and no long ass tutorial which anyone would eventually fail to make it work. :)

 MrFlibble, on 16 July 2015 - 02:28 AM, said:

This is basically the equivalent of DOS command line options. From here, you can warp to any of the three demo levels. It seems that there was a Mac convention that a demo should have three levels. This holds true for other games such as Doom, Descent etc. Wolfenstein 3-D kind of circumvented that by making a shorter version of the shareware episode: you don't get the first three levels, you get level one, some intermediate level, and the boss battle. In Duke3D however, it's just E1L1 to E1L3.

That's quite not right. The first episode of the Mac version got the 30 levels of the Snes/Jaguar ports, and the boss is on the third level. So indeed it was just a third level demo. :D

This post has been edited by Fox: 16 July 2015 - 05:22 AM

1

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1013

 TerminX, on 16 July 2015 - 02:45 AM, said:

Neat. What does the high/medium/low detail option do? Obviously I'm aware of what it does in the DOS version, but the DOS version only had two settings.

That's a good question. It appears that the Mac version indeed has three levels of detail settings:
  • Low:
    Spoiler

  • Medium:
    Spoiler

  • High:
    Spoiler

Additionally, on Low and Medium you can turn on scanlines, while on High scanlines are disabled.

 Fox, on 16 July 2015 - 05:07 AM, said:

That's quite not right. The first episode of the Mac version got the 30 levels of the Snes/Jaguar ports, and the boss is on the third level. So indeed it was just a third level demo. :)

Right, I forgot that.

 Fox, on 16 July 2015 - 05:07 AM, said:

No files required and no long ass tutorial which anyone would eventually fail to make it work. :D

Not sure what you mean?

[Edit] Here's the MacDuke page at MacSoft website (Wayback Machine copy):
http://www.wizworks.com/macsoft/duke3d/duke_01.html

The description says,among other things:

Quote

SPECIAL FEATURES IN THE MAC VERSION
  • Digitally-recorded music
  • Switch keyboard layout on the fly
  • Record your own taunts
  • Play against Macs or PCs
  • Play head-to-head against any Mac via the Internet
  • Play over any Macintosh network
  • Switch screen resolution on the fly

I wonder what the music format is used in the Mac version, and if not CD Audio whether it can be extracted from the GRP.

[Edit 2] Here's a video of someone running the Mac version on a PowerMac:
https://youtu.be/KkvAEAq4oto?t=6m12s

Unlike the demo, the full version apparently calls itself Atomic Edition in the main menu. Also notice that the menu allows to go up to 1024x768 resolution, while the demo is locked at 640x480 max (although this might be because this is the Mac 68k demo and not the PowerMac demo). The list of possible resolutions depends on the resolution of the monitor, which can also be set in the graphics options - at least, in the newer demo (v1.2):
Spoiler


This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 16 July 2015 - 08:04 AM

0

User is online   oasiz 

  • Dr. Effector

#1014

MAC version has MIDI in it, I think it either uses some Quicktime libraries to do that (Like it probably uses it for the hidden video in E1L1) or their own playroutine.
I remember seeing some samples somewhere when I last had a look.

Should fire mine up again actually.

Low: 4x4
Medium: 2x2
High: 1x1
it's a nice novelty feature to stretch the image by padding with scanlines instead of pixel doubling in Y.

Doom had something similar where it halved X resolution instead (as 320 -> 160 instead of 200/240 -> 100/120).

EDIT: Managed to find the full version of this. Seems that it has a rich selection of MP options and the config file has mentions of "two scren mode", I guess this was mean that you could have left/right/rear viewports mapped to other screens. Kinda cool.

This post has been edited by oasiz: 18 July 2015 - 02:21 PM

1

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1015

Found a couple more videos on YouTube showing actual Mac gameplay:



It seems that only the demo versions do not have the word(s) Atomic (Edition) in the title.

Also it seems from the videos that Executor pretty accurately reproduces how the game plays on actual Mac hardware, sans sounds and the intro sequence that is.
0

User is offline   Hendricks266 

  • Weaponized Autism

  #1016

I only recently realized that XXX-Stacy is pronounced "Triple Ecstacy".
11

User is offline   Radar 

  • King of SOVL

#1017

Thanks for the insight. :) Had no clue myself.

This post has been edited by Sgt. Rarity: 03 August 2015 - 09:31 AM

0

User is offline   Richard Shead 

  • "Dick Nasty"

#1018

 Hendricks266, on 02 August 2015 - 09:30 PM, said:

I only recently realized that XXX-Stacy is pronounced "Triple Ecstacy".



Posted Image
6

User is offline   MetHy 

#1019

 Fox, on 15 April 2015 - 01:46 PM, said:

According to the magazine, Ministry of Fear is based on "Beverly Hills VIII" (I am not sure if that's movie, TV series or place, possibly an alternate name in French). Independence Day and Aliens is also mentioned as the inspiration for the new levels, which probably refers to Alien Rendezvous. So that's good to know.

Edit: The magazine mentions there are 6 new levels in the PSX version, however there are 7 in the final version if you including Quirk of Fate. And Quirk of Fate should count, since the magazine mentions the game has a total of 44 levels, which is only possible if you include Butt Kicking Zone. But if you include Butt Kicking Zone it makes a total of 45 levels. So one level was not made yet, which was Trackside Tragedy, Gates Motel or Quirk of Fate.



It says "six" at the top right of the second page, but in the text it says "around ten" (he uses a word that's like "dozen" except for the number 10, no equivalent in English)

Basically this is just another "video game reviewer" talking out of his ass because he didn't play the game.

I've never heard of Beverly Hills VIII. At first I was thinking of that old TV show with teenagers and young adults in Beverly Hills, but that must not be it since the writer of the article says "Joe Le Porc" (Joe The Pig) has a caricature in the level.

edit :

 Fox, on 05 April 2015 - 10:29 AM, said:



This one says they only played a "a one level demo, first level of the game, and there was 11 weapons in it". It also says the N64 version should have "Lightsourcing" "mip-mapping" "anti-aliasing" and "lightsourcing" again. he also keeps calling it "Duke Nuke'm"


Quote



This one says the PS1 version has 44 maps total, including 11 exclusive ones. It also says there is a quicksave option (not sure if this is true, i never played the PS1 version)

Quote



This one says DN3D is a lot better than Hexen because Hexen wasn't innovative and was pretty much a "medieval Doom". It also says DN3D uses a "3D engine".

I wonder how 3DRealms/GT Interactive paid those reviewers. Actual hookers, perhaps?

This post has been edited by MetHy: 04 August 2015 - 05:35 AM

2

User is offline   Fox 

  • Fraka kaka kaka kaka-kow!

#1020

Thanks for the translations.

 MetHy, on 04 August 2015 - 05:15 AM, said:

It says "six" at the top right of the second page, but in the text it says "around ten" (he uses a word that's like "dozen" except for the number 10, no equivalent in English)

Basically this is just another "video game reviewer" talking out of his ass because he didn't play the game.

I've never heard of Beverly Hills VIII. At first I was thinking of that old TV show with teenagers and young adults in Beverly Hills, but that must not be it since the writer of the article says "Joe Le Porc" (Joe The Pig) has a caricature in the level.

I already realized they took that info from the poster on the wall (which was removed in the final version). The poster itself is a parody of Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy. They are probably wrong about the level being based on that movie.
0

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1021

This magazine scan has one pre-release shot from Shadow Warrior and one from Powerslave:
http://download.aban...81995-07%29.jpg
1

User is online   oasiz 

  • Dr. Effector

#1022

Interesting, that Duke shot might be one of the few shots from before LD. Has some texture changes and lacks that ventilation "secret" near the start from the looks of things.
LD doesn't have a pistol sprite there, only gives you ammo.

I wonder, is this the earliest public footage of d3d aside from the recent video ?
1

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1023

There's a Blood preview in this French mag. Not sure if there's anything new or rare there, but there's a couple of shots of high-res character models.
0

User is offline   MetHy 

#1024

There is also a part of Redneck Rampage, Shadow Warrior, an interview of Frederic Raynal... great stuff!

What is this level in the two bottom right pictures? I don't recognize it
http://download.aban.../Page%20099.jpg
Two old SW enemies at the bottom picture
http://download.aban.../Page%20100.jpg

The start of the part about Blood says that during the game, the character gradually becomes a beast and you end up being one at the end. I heard the boss of The Plasma Pack episode was supposed to be a character, so this might be connected. I'll read it all later and tell you if there is anything else interesting.

Edit : I've never played Bloodbath so I don't know if it's true, but it says in the final game there should be an option so that respawn aren't triggered to close to the player who just killed you (or to other players); and also there is a crystal ball allowing you to see the field of view of your opponent on a corner of the screen.

There is a part praising enemies AI, which is right, Blood's AI are great, but it says some enemies should be able to "see you" before you see them. This doesn't happen in the game but I think we can all guess why, due to how it'd make the game an unfair mess.

Other than that nothing interesting is said really, except the reviewer claiming the game is super hard.

This post has been edited by MetHy: 15 September 2015 - 10:38 AM

1

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1025

Thanks for summarising the texts! I have only very limited knowledge of French and couldn't be bothered to try working through the articles themselves.

Again, not sure if this is anything special, but some very large 3D models of Shadow Warrior monsters:
http://download.aban.../Page%20150.jpg
http://download.aban.../Page%20151.jpg
4

User is offline   The Kins 

#1026

View PostMetHy, on 15 September 2015 - 09:11 AM, said:

The start of the part about Blood says that during the game, the character gradually becomes a beast and you end up being one at the end. I heard the boss of The Plasma Pack episode was supposed to be a character, so this might be connected. I'll read it all later and tell you if there is anything else interesting.
Yeah, the developers talked about this in the past (most recently in Retro Gamer Magazine's making-of article). Long story short, you could transform into "The Beast", who would need to constantly kill enemies with powerful melee attacks to avoid reverting back into Caleb. It was "sort of working" but it was cut pretty late in development because frankly, it wasn't very fun. One of those "better on paper" ideas, apparently.
0

User is offline   XxMiltenXx 

#1027

View PostThe Kins, on 19 September 2015 - 10:52 PM, said:

Yeah, the developers talked about this in the past (most recently in Retro Gamer Magazine's making-of article). Long story short, you could transform into "The Beast", who would need to constantly kill enemies with powerful melee attacks to avoid reverting back into Caleb. It was "sort of working" but it was cut pretty late in development because frankly, it wasn't very fun. One of those "better on paper" ideas, apparently.


Some of these HUD-Sprites are still in the game. Few weeks ago I unpacked all TileArts and noticed some HUD-sprites where he had demonic hands. The first few frames are a transformation from the normal hands to the demonic ones. The attack frames are some sort of claw-attack, a 2nd animation (only a guess) looks as if he is throwing something and in the third he turns his left hand inwards and towards himself.
I found these in TileArt #9
0

User is offline   OpenMaw 

  • Judge Mental

#1028

A lifetime ago someone had sent me a zip file that contained a bunch of artwork related to Duke. Chiefly among them was all the artwork and concept artwork for the RESAURUS figures.

Anyone know where I can find that? Been looking around and I can't find it anywhere.
0

User is offline   Fox 

  • Fraka kaka kaka kaka-kow!

#1029

Some BETA footage of Total Meltdown and Duke 64...
https://youtu.be/xst...rp0E?t=1h16m16s
2

User is offline   MetHy 

#1030

I was going through Duke It Out in DC and Caribbean Life in "Damn I'm Good/Pistol Start/get rid of all enemies bodies" when I realized something.

When you start the game on Come Get Some (probably is the same with all other skills I haven't tried), and then use "DNSKILL5" to switch to Damn I'm Good, enemies actually won't respawn.
You will get enemies tagged skill 4 though, because in the original game and in the add-ons, there are actually quite a few enemies per level which only appear on Damn I'm Good.

Anyway for those who like a little extra challenge but hate the respawns, this is a good way to have a few more enemies per level.

I'm not sure if Damn I'm Good changes enemies behaviour though
I remembering reading on these forums some enemies were less aggressive on skill 1 or 2 but I can't prove that and I don't know if there is any difference between Damn I'm Good and Come Get Some on that level. Also perhaps, just like the respawn factor, that aggressiveness difference doesn't trigger if you change skill using DNSKILL.

Anyway - as a result I missed the secret level of Life's A Beach and can't actually play it with respawns unless going through map 1 and 2 again. How do you use the warp level command of eDuke32? "changelevel <volume> <level>"
volume? level? i tried "changelevel 308" "changelevel 3 08" "changelevel 3 8" "changelevel" "E3L8" and got no result...

This post has been edited by MetHy: 27 November 2015 - 02:21 AM

1

User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#1031

View PostMetHy, on 27 November 2015 - 02:16 AM, said:

"changelevel 3 8"


That is the correct format and I got it to work, but if you put in invalid numbers it just repeats the command description back at you. I noticed that it does _not_ use the internal numbering. So, for example, the second level of episode one would be "changelevel 1 2", and not "changelevel 0 1" as I would have expected.
0

User is offline   MetHy 

#1032

Ah thanks, that worked ! Not sure why it didn't last time I was sure that's what I typed...

Finally I could beat the last level remaining on Damn i'm Good pistol start.
0

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1033

View PostMrFlibble, on 30 August 2014 - 02:56 AM, said:

Recently I've noticed that MobyGames entries for Duke Nukem II and Duke Nukem 3D have these little bits of information:

Quote

"Duke Nukum II" -- Working title

Quote

"Duke Nukum 3D" -- Working title

While I suppose that the claim for the Duke Nukem II working title is somewhat plausible, based on the information in the Apogee FAQ (specifically, where it is mentioned that the name Duke Nukem was discovered to be not copyrighted during the development of Duke Nukem II), the information for Duke Nukem 3D's working title seems erroneous to me.

A correction would be in order, however I'd like to first get more info from you guys. Is there any evidence to "Duke Nukum 3D" ever being a "working title"? More importantly, is there any positive evidence against this claim?

View PostHendricks266, on 30 August 2014 - 11:02 AM, said:

From 1994-04-16:

Posted Image

The approvers at MobyGames just sent my correction for Duke Nukem 3D back to me, with the comment that originally Duke Nukum 3D was submitted as a working title based on this post by Joe Siegler:

Quote

The earliest build I have was way WAY back when it was still called "Duke Nukum 3D". This is the earliest build I have in our archives, and had actual "Coca-Cola" cans. There was some talk about then bout contacting them for an official license, but that died out.

I would be very grateful for any information on whether such build really exists and whether the title was ever spelled like that.

Or at least, please tell if Joe's statement should be given any benefit of the doubt. If yes I'll retract my correction altogether.
0

User is offline   Hendricks266 

  • Weaponized Autism

  #1034

The earliest build Joe has is the one that the image I linked and the footage I recorded for 3DR in 2014 comes from:



There is no trace of "Nukum" anywhere. However, the video shows "Duke Nukem IIID", but I would treat that as Todd's personal nickname for the project, not a working title. ("Duke Nukem IIID" survived as a comment in LameDuke's GAME.CON.)

The evidence suggests Joe was mistaken. He may have been thinking of "Duke Nukum II", which definitely existed as you can see from my post in the Beta thread.
4

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1035

Hendricks266, thank you so much for the clarification!
1

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1036

Aaand correction approved. Man, that was fast. Thanks again for the valuable info and clarifications!
0

User is offline   Frenkel 

#1037

Thanks a lot. You've lowered my MobyGames score. :) :dukeaffirmative:

I'm now contributing the cheat code that let's you play the demo level of Duke Nukem 1.
(Run the game with command line argument asp and at the main menu press Alt+F6.)
This way I hope to surpass the magic limit of 1600 MobyGames points.
1

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#1038

Oh. I'm sorry! But accurate documentation is more important than points, right?

[OFFTOPIC]Personally, I stopped caring about MobyPoints a while ago when I realised that the easiest way to spam them is to just submit screenshots (especially with the generally lax moderation of those), while much more demanding research like finding/detailing out obscure release dates, websites that only exist in the Wayback Machine or particular bits of info such as this working title issue is meagrely rewarded with only a handful of points.

Even with screenshots, there's no bonus for submitting them for an entry that is lacking shots. You get an equal amount of points regardless of whether the game had none or there were already a dozen or two on file.[/OFFTOPIC]
0

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