[SolidSnake27]

By the look of the compass and default controls, I'd say it's based off of a Build version similar to Powerslave's.

[Player Lin]

Sorry, posting again.



Stop trying to guess it's based on BUILD or something...



Yeah, it seems the IWAD header got changed for the "MAD format", and maybe the offsets...I wonder if the game can load PWADs of DooM or just crashed/going weird...

[MrFlibble]

MusicallyInspired, on 04 September 2013 - 07:33 AM, said:

Anyone ever play an old DOS fpa called Nerves of Steel? My dad picked it up once on CD when we were kids. Thought it might be good. It wasn't. I still might have the CD around somewhere. Don't remember who made it.

Apparently it was a company called Merit Software.

MobyGames has an entry for that game. I haven't heard about it but heard about The Fortress of Dr. Raidaki, which was published by the same company (Merit Studios, which seems to have been related to Softdisk).

The engine both games use seems to be more on the level of Wolfenstein 3-D or Blake Stone. The cover art for Nerves of Steel is kinda cool though.

[CryptKiller]

MusicallyInspired, on 04 September 2013 - 07:33 AM, said:

Anyone ever play an old DOS fpa called Nerves of Steel? My dad picked it up once on CD when we were kids. Thought it might be good. It wasn't. I still might have the CD around somewhere. Don't remember who made it.

Apparently it was a company called Merit Software.

Yes, and I even have the compilation CD with it, translated to Polish. Utterly terrible game.

MrFlibble, on 04 September 2013 - 08:09 AM, said:

The engine both games use seems to be more on the level of Wolfenstein 3-D or Blake Stone. The cover art for Nerves of Steel is kinda cool though.

The engine is beyond pathetic. No open levels, no doors (you just go through a texture pasted between walls!!!), abysmal resolution and ugly graphics.

Player Lin, thanks for releasing this incredible curiosity!

[MusicallyInspired]

I recall the sound effect for the machine gun firing would overlap causing a heavy ugly repetition reverb. Horrible.

[Jimmy]

Player Lin, on 04 September 2013 - 08:09 AM, said:

Yeah, it seems the IWAD header got changed for the "MAD format", and maybe the offsets...I wonder if the game can load PWADs of DooM or just crashed/going weird...

I tried to open it with SLADE3 and XWE. No dice. In that case, maybe someone with the know how could hack the header back to how it should be?

[leilei]

SolidSnake27, on 04 September 2013 - 07:59 AM, said:

By the look of the compass and default controls, I'd say it's based off of a Build version similar to Powerslave's.

It's not BUILD, but it's definitely Powerslave-inspired for the compass and the physics, particularly when you die. Even the underwater bit with the piranha skull fish is inspired by it. The framerate's also capped.

Also the engine has screen buffer waterwarp - something neither Doom or BUILD did or can do. I've also had no luck hexing the IWAD header or the Build group header. Pretty sure the engine is original. Here's its default key config, definitely not the Build control syntaxes you've seen, but rather Doom.

key_up 72
key_down 80
key_left 75
key_right 77
key_strafe 56
key_strafeleft 51
key_straferight 52
key_speed 54
key_use 57
key_fire 29
key_jump 30
key_duck 44

It uses the Miles Sound System. All shipped Doom engine games use DMX. Powerslave shipped with Miles, so it could be another 'inspired by Powerslave' thing there as well for their choice of audio backend...

Writing an engine inspired by either Doom or Build (and certain games of those series) isn't very unusual, and it doesn't appear to be either one of those. Even using the data formats used by Doom for a new engine isn't unusual either. It CAN load Doom IWAD/PWAD files though, so there was definitely some derived work off the doom specs (not the doom source), however it'll crash when you load a map since the wad isn't part of their new "directory" system. This will need more experimentation...

The EXE also contains strings referring to Doom things and Heretic things, most likely pulled/imported from whatever Doom/Heretic map editor they were using at the time.

I do love how it looks and feels like the bastard child of Powerslave and the early Doom alphas. However, I must stress that this is no case of "Liquidator"

[Player Lin]

leilei, on 04 September 2013 - 03:42 PM, said:

It's not BUILD, but it's definitely Powerslave-inspired for the compass and the physics, particularly when you die. Even the underwater bit with the piranha skull fish is inspired by it.

If it's Build, the jumping in this game would be much better...

I found it's so funny if player get killed in the underwater, the HUD sprite won't go lower until the dead player hit the ground...

[Lunick]

So from looking at leilei's post and something my friend said, could the Doom code that appears in this be from reverse engineering the game so they could make their own Doom clone?

[MrFlibble]

Player Lin, would it be possible for you to make and upload a scan or a photo of the game's box cover/jewel case cover and/or the manual cover (if present)?

[Player Lin]

MrFlibble, on 08 September 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:

Player Lin, would it be possible for you to make and upload a scan or a photo of the game's box cover/jewel case cover and/or the manual cover (if present)?

You're the second guy who ask me about this...

Well, sadly, I forgot "do" some requests to the owner when I got the ISO image copy of the game...but I'm trying to contact that guy again, and waiting for his(?) response about that...

[MrFlibble]

Hopefully your friend will answer, thanks for your efforts!

[torridGristle]

My friend Mozai recently cracked the MAD format and turned it back into a WAD.

http://mozai.com/temp/data/MARS.WAD and mirrored at http://ge.tt/9r7pWDs/v/0

There's a lot of cool sprites and textures in here.

Here's the Python script he wrote for the process. http://pastebin.com/k0kLczLF

[Lunick]

I guess the sounds/music didn't come out properly from that extraction?

We can also see this bad boy properly now too:

[torridGristle]

Lunick, on 14 September 2013 - 08:30 PM, said:

I guess the sounds/music didn't come out properly from that extraction?

The sounds and music didn't need to be ripped--they're in the game directory outside of the MAD.

[Player Lin]

Great...now I guess it's GOOD idea to "releasing" the game out...

Lunick, on 14 September 2013 - 08:30 PM, said:

I guess the sounds/music didn't come out properly from that extraction?

Yeah, the cutscenes(.ANMs) , sounds(.WAVs) and music just on the game directory without any packaging. I guess for some reasons, they were not put those files into the MAD archive...

EDIT: Opened the WAD file with SLADE 2... I noticed it actually has more levels than original 7 levels(E1M1 to E1M7), there are E2M1 to E2M9 and E3M1 to E3M4... maybe they were not completed yet when the game got "released"... or it was planned for more levels/further episodes to be made......

EDIT2 : I opened it with SLADE 3 and found more interesting things...like the MP score board texture... And nice, it had all player sprites(ROLE*)...and even gibbed ones...
(Guess it was designed with MP part but not happened on this version...)

[Nieh]

Hi Everybody,

I unexpectedly find some people to discuss Mars 3D here. I am pleased that everybody discuss the 3d engine.

I created the 3d engine in 1996 . The engine Inspired by doom and duke3d and WAD File format.

The engine was created by me using C/ASM.

The level is use third-party doom editor to create ( I forgot which name) .

This is a low-budget game.

The Mars 3D Game only published in Taiwan in 1997 .

The Company ended in 2002.

[Lunick]

Oh wow, that is pretty amazing that you found us here.

Do you have any kind of source files or any other kind of files that haven't already been posted?

[Dynamo128]

Good to see you man! As Lunick said, it'd be nice if there were more files and information on this game you could provide us (cheat codes also), or other games your company worked on... Or other obscure but good taiwanese game we are not yet aware of Many of us really enjoy discovering these relics from the past.

[Nieh]

Unfortunately ,I did not keep any source files or resource .

3dhero Here is another game using this engine to development. but just picture ...



MARS cheat codes

God mode j62u6
display map  2u4wj6
unlimit ammo j3fu4

[Lunick]

Oh, that's a shame. Thanks for the cheat codes!

Did you make any other games? Actually, I'd be interested in anything you say about it.

[torridGristle]

Nieh, on 11 October 2013 - 03:19 AM, said:

3dhero Here is another game using this engine to development. but just picture ...

>but just picture

[Player Lin]

What a shame about losing source... at least it's good to know the engine is totally original.


So, for those screenshots of 3dhero, it seems like was related about the three kingdoms, but too bad it never come out......

[Nieh]

Player Lin, on 13 October 2013 - 10:10 PM, said:

What a shame about losing source... at least it's good to know the engine is totally original.


So, for those screenshots of 3dhero, it seems like was related about the three kingdoms, but too bad it never come out......

3dhero was published on August 1997 in Taiwan.

[Player Lin]

Nieh, on 19 October 2013 - 02:53 AM, said:

3dhero was published on August 1997 in Taiwan.

OK, I guess it's my problem...I never heard this game until now...

After google-ing with the Chinese name of the game, and I found some results...and a "warez site" in korea had this game's image can be download...well, at least looks like this one was "better" than MARS 3D.
(Not means the game itself, but the information...)

[Lunick]

You managed to find it? I couldn't find it due to its generic name.

[Player Lin]

Lunick, on 20 October 2013 - 03:03 AM, said:

You managed to find it? I couldn't find it due to its generic name.

This English name is TOO generic, but its Chinese name isn't, also due it's a game related the three kingdom(well, only the Shu Han), and for the TW market, it's a good theme so it's not too hard to found the game if it ever got proper released...

The Chinese name called "三國志:蜀漢英雄傳 San Guo Zhi: Shu Han Ying Xiong Zhuan [Records of the Three Kingdoms: Heroes of Shu Han]"

http://hg101.proboards.com/post/201421

(Warning: This site has link to the Korea warez site and can be download the CD image of the game.)

I downloaded and got it works on my DOSBox(except CD-music due my new computer is Win7, but I guess it's not big problem), it basically a different version of MARS 3D(I don't know it's prior or late than MARS 3D...?), but with a totally different game, artworks, sprites, sounds all different.

The player can be choose one of 6 heroes for Shu Han(like the RS:Lot7P, but the 6th female one is a totally original character), they're all has different HP, DF(defend point), MP, attack power and speed values with their own short-range weapon...when start a new game, it showed a world map for level selection. 3rd person perspective by default with full ani. sprites for all playable characters.(Don't know how to change to 1st person one, no help screens in this game...)
Weapons are spells, use MP as ammo, plays like MARS 3D but without guns, looks like not so special than it...well, it's still has fun if you don't really care. xD

Loading message artwork glitched on my end(shows main menu sprites which looks funny), still has automap, cheats that working on MARS 3D didn't works on this game... and heard some DN3D sounds in this game too. LOL

Oh, that's good to see the full name of author who made the engine on this game's installer...

On the CD, it also has a demo version of MARS 3D in the MARSDEMO directory.

[Ronin]

Player Lin, on 20 October 2013 - 07:01 AM, said:

This English name is TOO generic, but its Chinese name isn't, also due it's a game related the three kingdom(well, only the Shu Han), and for the TW market, it's a good theme so it's not too hard to found the game if it ever got proper released...

The Chinese name called "三國志:蜀漢英雄傳 San Guo Zhi: Shu Han Ying Xiong Zhuan [Records of the Three Kingdoms: Heroes of Shu Han]"

http://hg101.proboards.com/post/201421

(Warning: This site has link to the Korea warez site and can be download the CD image of the game.)

I downloaded and got it works on my DOSBox(except CD-music due my new computer is Win7, but I guess it's not big problem), it basically a different version of MARS 3D(I don't know it's prior or late than MARS 3D...?), but with a totally different game, artworks, sprites, sounds all different.
The player has 6 heroes can be choose, like the RS:Lot7P, they're all has different HP, DF(defend point), MP, attack power and speed values with their own short-range weapon...when start a new game, it showed a world map for level selection. 3rd person perspective by default with full ani. sprites for all playable characters.(Don't know how to change to 1st person one, no help screens in this game...)
Weapons are spells, use MP as ammo, plays like MARS 3D but without guns, looks like not so special than it...

Oh, that's good to see the full name of author who made the engine on this game's installer...

On the CD, it also has a demo version of MARS 3D in the MARODEMO directory.

That's kind of interesting, I wonder can you use Cao Cao and Lu Bu. I would like to see this in action (I'm sort of a Dynasty Warriors fan), any videos that you know of?

[Player Lin]

Ronan, on 20 October 2013 - 07:14 AM, said:

That's kind of interesting, I wonder can you use Cao Cao and Lu Bu. I would like to see this in action (I'm sort of a Dynasty Warriors fan), any videos that you know of?

Sorry, no Cao Cao and Lu Bu, when they were not part of Shu Han.

The 6 characters who can be control by player :
status - HP/DF/MP/Attack/Speed

1.孔明 [Zhuge Liang / Kongmin] - 100/20/253/5/9
Weapon : Feather Flap
2.關羽 [Guan Yu / Yunchang] - 160/100/54/25/12
Weapon : Green Dragon Crescent Blade
3.張飛 [Zhang Fei / Yide] - 200/250/34/22/9
Weapon : Serpent Spear
4.趙雲 [Zhao Yun / Zilong] - 140/80/103/21/16
Weapon : Blue Spear
5.黃忠 [Huang Zhong / Hansheng] - 120/80/133/20/10
Weapon : Long Bow
6.關鳳 [Guan Feng] - 120/50/182/18/14
Weapon : Thin Blade Sword
(Well, she is Guan Yu's daughter according wikipedia...but I guess this character created just for game and fun...)

Sadly, not found any of gameplay footage video for this game...
I'm still busy so I don't have time to do one...maybe someone will later when I already give out the warez site link...

[Nieh]

Nieh, on 19 October 2013 - 02:53 AM, said:

3dhero was published on August 1997 in Taiwan.

Another game Chinese name called "人間道之少年燕赤霞" ,English name "TAO" published in 1998,Taiwan.