The Supreme Topic of Miscellaneous Knowledge

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

MrFlibble

#781 Posted 19 January 2014 - 09:28 AM

A little thing just caught my attention in the Powerslave beta demo. There's a section in the first level (which might have been recycled in the full game in a later level, although I'm not sure about it right now) where there's a "true room over room" effect in the form of two walkways that the player can go both over and under:
http://youtu.be/S53QcaMdnRI?t=5m18s

While a similarly working bridge in E1L1 of Duke3D was apparently accomplished by using a separate quasi-3D object (I forgot the proper terminology for that though; or was it just composed of sprites?), these walkways seem to be a part of the level's architecture, as in Shadow Warrior (e.g. the beams under the Dojo's roof in level 4). Can anyone tell if this is the same trick in Powerslave, only used a couple of years earlier? Why wasn't it used in other Build games?

Fox

Fraka kaka kaka kaka-kow!

#782 Posted 19 January 2014 - 09:32 AM

Shadow Warrior uses room over room, which is made of one sector on top of another. Powerslave and Duke 3D use flat sprites.

MrFlibble

#783 Posted 19 January 2014 - 10:49 AM

So the walkways in the beta demo level are sprites too?

Fox

Fraka kaka kaka kaka-kow!

#784 Posted 19 January 2014 - 10:52 AM

Looks like so looking at these stretched textures. I don't see why assume it would be anything else.

Daedolon

Ancient Blood God

#785 Posted 19 January 2014 - 12:10 PM

They are sprites as expected. Sorry about the palette, I don't know how to create palette.dat files. Second screen from the full game so the sprite is a bit different.

Powerslave also uses a different scale, similar to Shadow Warrior or Redneck Rampage, pretty apparent in Mapster32 as the maps seem too large for Duke.

MetHy

#786 Posted 19 January 2014 - 01:30 PM

KareBear, on 07 November 2013 - 02:45 AM, said:

This video chronicles the development history of Powerslave and explains in detail why the PC and console versions ended up being so dissimilar.

Every time I hear about it, I find all the aspects of about the console versions of Powerslave very exgerated and the PC version very underrated. This guy in the video even goes claiming the game was revolutionnary for having even "RPG elements" just because you could get upgrades to your lifebar (literaly the only RPG element that only occurs a few times). The whole exploration and adventure aspect is greatly exgerrated as well, it's not like Metroid Prime at all where everything is a one huge world, in Powerslave it's still several relatively small levels that you choose to go back to on the world map, and unlocking new areas when going back to those works pretty much like you got a key and remembered where to use it, except it's in another level rather than the same one. It's that simple and greatly exagerrted by everybody who compares it to Metroid Prime.

Meanwhile, the PC version of Powerslave has some of the greatest (if not the greatest) "unrealistic FPS level design so characteristic of the early to mid 90's " I have ever seen, and for that alone, makes it a much better game. Sadly the gameplay is only okay because of the enemy AI that's not very interesting and the slow strafing. Had the game got better strafing and better enemy AI it would be a masterpiece, it would be better than Doom and Duke Nukem 3D.

Still I recommend to anyone who hasn't yet, to go play Powerslave on PC. It's incredible how underrated it is : you've all played Duke3D, SW, Blood, Redneck Rampage, because you love the build enigne, but I know for sure not many have played Powerslave and you're missing on fantastic and incredibly smart level design.

This post has been edited by MetHy: 19 January 2014 - 01:35 PM

Daedolon

Ancient Blood God

#787 Posted 19 January 2014 - 01:38 PM

The level design in PowerSlave is very much inspired by DOOM and is generally pretty fucking awesome. I just looked at all the maps in Mapster32 and they look amazingly detailed in 2D mode.

MrFlibble

#788 Posted 20 January 2014 - 03:50 AM

Daedolon, on 19 January 2014 - 12:10 PM, said:

They are sprites as expected. Sorry about the palette, I don't know how to create palette.dat files. Second screen from the full game so the sprite is a bit different.

Attachment

capt0000.png

Attachment

capt0001.png

Powerslave also uses a different scale, similar to Shadow Warrior or Redneck Rampage, pretty apparent in Mapster32 as the maps seem too large for Duke.

Cool, thanks for checking that!

It looks pretty awesome, those stone bridges seem indistinguishable from the regular level architecture

MetHy, on 19 January 2014 - 01:30 PM, said:

Meanwhile, the PC version of Powerslave has some of the greatest (if not the greatest) "unrealistic FPS level design so characteristic of the early to mid 90's " I have ever seen, and for that alone, makes it a much better game. Sadly the gameplay is only okay because of the enemy AI that's not very interesting and the slow strafing. Had the game got better strafing and better enemy AI it would be a masterpiece, it would be better than Doom and Duke Nukem 3D.

I agree, the levels in the game are very detailed and nicely done. Even the first level of the full game alone feels like a complete adventure on its own. Honestly I've hardly played past level four, and later levels seemed a bit repetitive to me, but none the less I'd say Powerslave has exemplary level design on the whole. Barring some engine limitations (which mostly concern level geometry), one could say that quite a few of the more recent games haven't surpassed Powerslave in this respect.

I've never played the console versions, and while from the gameplay videos it's apparent that those are much more fast-paced and action-oriented than the PC version, however even with the true 3D engine (which is quite impressive TBH) the level design looks rather bland and underdetailed.

This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 20 January 2014 - 03:51 AM

Player Lin

#789 Posted 07 February 2014 - 01:11 PM

OK, I don't know if someone still had interest about the "updated" version of Lof7P... I've found a copy of that thing(of course, it come from a shovelware disc with shitload of full version games, you know...), and it runs fine on my new system...

This version had 2 new features added, some map fixes and something I don't know and...NO, THIS VERSION STILL HARD AS FU*K...

Warning : Warez in spoiler...check for your own risk.

Spoiler

0. This version only updated 4 files, it looks like the patch was came with 2 EXE (PATCH75.EXE and PATCHL1A.EXE) and 1 BAT(PATCH.BAT)...
The batch file will delete A, M, T - the 3 L?ART000.DAT files, then run the PATCH75.EXE to create the patched ones, and then run PATCHL1A.EXE to patch L1ART000.DAT...

(Sadly, it looks like patch L1ART000.DAT will changed the timestamp so its time of last change doesn't really the actual date, more like when it was made for the shovelware...)

Other files didn't changed at all...you can check yourself.

1. Oh, now we have the crosshair, thank god...

Posted Image

Well, it helps but still, the game has no autoaim so......

2. A fucking Automap, well, it looks so shitty... and more like the BUILD editor but missing status messages, and it doesn't draw the map if you're moving when automap activated, you have close then re-open it...

Posted Image

Oh, you can use Kp-Enter to activate or deactivate it.

Also, you can open Main Menu in automap, but it will cause display glitch...

Posted Image

It looks like the in-game texts still draw when automap activated...

3. Your screen will go dark and more if your health goes very low, which is very annoying...get killed so often when I'm low of health and can't even see shit...(It should be exist on original version I guess)

Posted Image

4. For some reasons in this version, when I mess around in Setup.exe, I found SB, SB Pro, SB 16 and Adlib setting for Music are doesn't works on my end, give me FM chip ERROR when run the game, but the Sound are fine, I used MIDI for Music and it works...whatever...

Well, it looks like I totally sucked at this shitty game... I use a cheating program to locked the goddamn health value(if you want to know what's the max health...it's 160, and sometimes it only give 100 when you respawn...) to complete levels...

This post has been edited by Player Lin: 07 February 2014 - 01:26 PM

Hendricks266

Weaponized Autism

#790 Posted 07 February 2014 - 01:15 PM

Thanks for sharing!

Man that automap is hilarious.

Corvin

King of the Lamers

#791 Posted 07 February 2014 - 05:00 PM

Which CD did this "latest" losp come from?

Do you have the original files how they where packaged?

Player Lin

#792 Posted 07 February 2014 - 10:50 PM

Corvin, on 07 February 2014 - 05:00 PM, said:

Which CD did this "latest" losp come from?

Do you have the original files how they where packaged?

Actually the updated Lot7P game should came from some of these illegal shovelware CDs, but many of them just lost by whatever reasons, you know, it's long time ago and not everyone would like to keep them...also copyright problems still exist...

The CD I got this copy of Lot7P, contained many of Chinese games, some DOS/V(Japanese DOS system)games and a little of English games which I never heard at all...not to say, that "installation interface" on the shovelware CD are Chinese too.

Yeah, I still have that ISO file of that shovelware CD, but it's not really useful for you guys at all, unless you're mean something else.
(What files in the shovelware is the same as the one I uploaded so I don't think you needed that shovelware CD, also the patch files already on the package that I uploaded, I just didn't tested at all.)

This post has been edited by Player Lin: 07 February 2014 - 10:52 PM

Corvin

King of the Lamers

#793 Posted 08 February 2014 - 01:24 AM

Well, if you can post the original files and the patches, that be ideal. I'd like to see what they did and how they did it.

Player Lin

#794 Posted 08 February 2014 - 02:58 AM

Corvin, on 08 February 2014 - 01:24 AM, said:

Well, if you can post the original files and the patches, that be ideal. I'd like to see what they did and how they did it.

I guess you're not check my spoiler tag on original post at all...original version of Lot7P and the patch files are in package of "updated" version of Lot7P, link to the SkyDrive for hosting those files should works, if not just blame your ISP or something.

This post has been edited by Player Lin: 08 February 2014 - 03:00 AM

Corvin

King of the Lamers

#795 Posted 08 February 2014 - 12:49 PM

Okay, the patches are in the second archive, I guess I didn't look hard enough. Thanks.

Fox

Fraka kaka kaka kaka-kow!

#796 Posted 19 February 2014 - 06:40 PM

A image from Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown with an unknown level.

Spoiler

Edit: IGN pictures are also from an early version.

Posted Image

There is no "T" for the Tripbomb in the HUD and the font is blue like in the PC. Also there are only dark-blue troopers around in the final version.

This post has been edited by Fox: 20 February 2014 - 09:19 AM

Mikko Pekkola

#797 Posted 05 March 2014 - 09:03 AM

Take a look at these screenshots

Posted Image

There's exactly something, that looks similar in these two screenshots.

Besli

#798 Posted 08 March 2014 - 09:56 AM

Robert G. Depew did the Duke Nukem II and the Alien Carnage (a.k.a. Halloween Harry) artwork.
I found a blog where you get some nice edition of this artworks:
http://ronniesmithart.com/?p=54

Lunick

#799 Posted 08 March 2014 - 02:56 PM

Hocus Pocus :blink:

Daedolon

Ancient Blood God

#800 Posted 09 March 2014 - 12:36 AM

Looks like they changed the slope and the texture, I don't see anything else? Maybe the ammo amounts.

MrFlibble

#801 Posted 09 March 2014 - 04:27 AM

Mikko Pekkola, on 05 March 2014 - 09:03 AM, said:

Is that from some existing level? Seems like something from Ep.2 but I can't be sure right now.

Micky C

Honored Donor

#802 Posted 09 March 2014 - 04:36 AM

Yeah you shouldn't just post screenshots like that and not explain where they came from and why they're relevant.

Mark

#803 Posted 09 March 2014 - 04:46 AM

I see differences in the slope, shading, texture alignment and HUD. Whats the point?

Jimmy

Let's go Brandon!

#804 Posted 09 March 2014 - 12:22 PM

One of them is just an older shot of the same area. Nothing we haven't seen before either. Who knows with Pekkola?

MrFlibble

#805 Posted 09 March 2014 - 03:02 PM

On a completely unrelated note, I've just been browsing through archived pages of www.shadowwarrior.com and realised that in the screenshots section are some shots that are not featured on the 3D Realms Shadow Warrior pages:

http://www.shadowwarrior.com/img/screenshots/shot12.jpg
http://www.shadowwarrior.com/img/screenshots/shot15.jpg
http://www.shadowwarrior.com/img/screenshots/sw0128.jpg
http://www.shadowwarrior.com/img/screenshots/sw0225.jpg

MrFlibble

#806 Posted 12 March 2014 - 11:52 AM

3D Action Gamers' Archive used to put up monthly updates of Shadow Warrior screenshots. The Wayback Machine has preserved part of their file archive, with the following screenshot packs:

sw0396.zip
sw0496.zip
sw0596.zip
sw0696.zip
sw0796.zip
sw0896.zip
sw0996.zip
sw1096.zip
sw1196.zip
sw951115.zip
sw961115.zip
swhires.zip
swshots.zip

Most of that stuff are just copies of screenshots from the update pages at the 3DR website, but some apparently have not been featured elsewhere (I think). There's also a clean version of the official slideshow (no BBS comments or third party FILE_ID.DIZ).

[Edit] As the Wayback Machine currently blocks access to snapshots of the 3D Action Gamers' Archive, I have re-uploaded the previews here.

This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 21 May 2016 - 03:03 AM

Jimmy

Let's go Brandon!

#807 Posted 12 March 2014 - 01:17 PM

Good eye, Flibble, there were a few shots in there I didn't have.

MrFlibble

#808 Posted 13 March 2014 - 04:41 AM

As a matter of fact, there are similar screenshot packs for Blood:

blud0696.zip
blud0796.zip
blud0896.zip
blud0996.zip
blud1096.zip
blud1196.zip
blud951115.zip

The Blood folder at 3D Action Gamers' Archive also contains a couple of videos too.

[Edit] As the Wayback Machine currently blocks access to the file archive, I've re-uploaded those screenshot packs here.

This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 21 May 2016 - 03:02 AM

Daedolon

Ancient Blood God

#809 Posted 13 March 2014 - 06:51 AM

MrFlibble, on 13 March 2014 - 04:41 AM, said:

The Blood folder at 3D Action Gamers' Archive also contains a couple of videos too.

Those were the official teasers available on Blood.com at some point.

Mikko Pekkola

#810 Posted 14 March 2014 - 07:45 AM

Jimmy, on 09 March 2014 - 12:22 PM, said:

One of them is just an older shot of the same area. Nothing we haven't seen before either. Who knows with Pekkola?

Of course! That screenshot with that area, that i've posted is from "Alpha core" made by "Fernando Márquez". Now, that's the thing i've noticed and that looks similar to one
in that beta screenshot, when i played "Alpha core" map some time ago.