[MrFlibble]

A while ago it was suggested not to confine the discussion of anything Descent to this thread, so I thought I'd follow the trend and start this topic.

I just learned that the developers of Overload have released a playable teaser today.

[deuxsonic]

Descent was actually the first PC game I ever played. A lot of the games of the early-mid 90's I didn't play in the order of their release. Between the soundtrack of the trilogy to the distinct robots to the very unique mines (how many other games had the killer soundtracks and the mines twisted into any shape imaginable and both the action and the ability to move like that), it's a trilogy I've revisited countless times over the decades and there's really nothing else like them out there. There have been other games like Forsaken and the new Descent Underground stuff but they don't really have the charm that the original games, especially the first 2, had for me. It's a game I bought basically every port of and I have multiple copies of the games (I think I ended up with maybe 3 copies of the Descent 3 install disks from having them packaged in things.) It was kind of sad with Descent 3 financially being a flop and basically sealing the fate of Outrage (this having been the final game where Parallax in both offices that would split into Outrage and Volition worked on together.) Quake came out a year after the first game but even today the 6 degrees of freedom are beyond what flight sims or shooters ever offered you, and the game kind of felt like a genre of it's own, a fusion with traits of both genres.

[Bloodshot]

took a break from my studying to try overload

https://a.uguu.se/bg...rload_menu1.mp3

The music is amazing, the gameplay is just like descent, they nailed the look, feel, sounds, everything.

Sucks that it's not gonna get funded.

[MrFlibble]

Bloodshot, on 08 March 2016 - 12:44 AM, said:

https://a.uguu.se/bg...rload_menu1.mp3

BTW, is it me, or does the menu track resemble this theme from Descent II?

As for Descent, my first experience with this game (apart from reading some walkthrough in a gaming magazine) was the music. Back when the game came out I did not have the chance to play it, but I had the impression that shooting brightly coloured low-poly robots was not as interesting as Doom style FPS games. Much later I discovered a certain website which offered MIDIs from old games for download, and in addition to music from the games I had played I also got the MIDI soundtrack for Descent from that site. I don't know why I did that, I just remembered that this was a popular title from the 90s. The music turned out to be absolutely awesome. It's a pity that the track from the very first level was never re-created in CD quality.

That however still did not prompt me to check out the game itself until a bit later, when I focussed on shareware games from the 90s that I had missed when they came out (which is, like, lots of games). I was still a bit sceptical about Descent - up until the moment I entered level 1. I immediately loved the way the screen tilts sideways a bit when you turn your craft. I can easily imagine how amazing these true 3D graphics were back when the game came out. Also the game does not in the slightest hide the fact that it is tremendously fun to play, with the six degrees of freedom not being some random gimmick but a core element of gameplay mechanics. The resulting playing experience is pretty much unique.

[deuxsonic]

I loved the robot designs of all 3 Descent games. They had a human element to them, some vaguely more humanoid than others (like the Diamond Claw from Descent II) and the briefings where some would get introduced. They all had unique warning sounds when they spot you and attack you. Having parts for eyes and guns as arms and interesting things like that. The hulks I remember had a "sleep" position and when they spot you they unfold. Interesting weapons (the fusion cannon for example, being able to charge it and have the projectiles go through robots until they hit a wall, but potentially damaging to your ship if overcharged.) It is all so distinct, like memorizing the path to the exit from the reactor and the self-destruct warnings.





Something I wished the PC version had gotten was the extra things that the PS1 port of Descent had, such as colored lighting, excellent redbook audio renditions of a selection of the music, full motion video (something that Descent II would debut on the PC along with redbook audio), a neat graphical way of selecting starting level, and the robot/mission briefings were given voiceovers. I realize the PS1 port was not without it's faults like some framerate issues and the detail levels set lower (likely to try and remedy this) but it was an extra layer of icing on what was already a great game. At one point I tried to recreate the PS1 port using the D2X-XL port's source to give it the extras that the port didn't already have, but it was difficult trying to convert from PS1's video format to the obscure MVE format used by Descent II and in order to get acceptable video quality required digging around endlessly for tools good enough to do this, but achieving the compression while having the video quality just wasn't going to happen so I ended up making the game over a gigabyte with the video that was added. With a modern mainstream codec this wouldn't have been an issue. The other problem was that I was making source changes to a copy of the source that wasn't being updated from the original so bugfixes weren't getting incorporated and eventually I gave up.

[MrFlibble]

Overload playable teaser has been updated a bit:

Quote

We've switched the joystick system for the latest playable build. This means *many* more joysticks will be recognized correctly, *multiple* joysticks can be used at the same time, and axes/buttons that weren't mapping properly before now will. The only downside (if you download this build) is you'll have to remap both the joystick and keyboard/mouse settings. Let us know whether this build fixes your joystick issues or not.

In addition to the input system change, we've also made a few other tweaks:

• Challenge mode can now have up to 7 robots at once (at 100 kills).
  
• Debris no longer stays around forever
  
• Vortex uses 20% less energy
  
• Robots get slightly less stunned at higher difficulties
  
• Changed build number

[deuxsonic]

Played it a little bit and it's quite impressive.

[Juris3D]

4 hours left on "Overload" Kickstarter, and money is now 285.000 of 300.000 ! Anyone can help a bit more? Please? I sure did.

"OVERLOAD" IS FUNDED !!

[deuxsonic]

This should have got the Descent name, not Underground. It has Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas working on it, who were the duo who conceived Descent in the first place. They've more than earned the right to use the name I think and all the staples of Descent like shield and energy pickups with their distinctive look, all the weapon names, PTMC, the Pyro, and all of that, not to mention that this is closer to the Descent of old than Underground is.

[MusicallyInspired]

Nice!

[Carl Winslow]

deuxsonic, on 11 March 2016 - 06:12 AM, said:

This should have got the Descent name, not Underground. It has Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas working on it, who were the duo who conceived Descent in the first place. They've more than earned the right to use the name I think and all the staples of Descent like shield and energy pickups with their distinctive look, all the weapon names, PTMC, the Pyro, and all of that, not to mention that this is closer to the Descent of old than Underground is.

To be fair, nobody's actually sure who owns the rights to the Pyro GX design, if i remember right. I think it might have defaulted to the artist who created it, whoever that might've been. (that or parallax owns it still.)

[deuxsonic]

They should bring it back then.

[MrFlibble]

Personally I think it's better if the game is different from Descent, while keeping the core gameplay and design principles, than if it's a straight 1:1 recreation.

As for the use of the name/brand, Descent: FreeSpace isn't really much similar to Descent. Neither is Descent to Undermountain, even though it uses the same engine.

[deuxsonic]

MrFlibble, on 12 March 2016 - 04:17 AM, said:

Personally I think it's better if the game is different from Descent, while keeping the core gameplay and design principles, than if it's a straight 1:1 recreation.

As for the use of the name/brand, Descent: FreeSpace isn't really much similar to Descent. Neither is Descent to Undermountain, even though it uses the same engine.

Right, I don't want a remake of the original games. Descent 3 itself deviated quite a bit from the first 2 games and it's still one of my favorite games.

Descent: Freespace was a result of the name Freespace having already been taken, and Descent to Undermountain was because it used Descent's portal render engine.

There are certain Descent things that I like seeing, like the familiar shield and energy pickups, the name, the distinctive fonts the games used, the awesome soundtracks and SFX, the Pyro...

[MusicallyInspired]

If Freespace was already taken, why is there a Freespace 2?

[deuxsonic]

There was never a disk utility by the name freespace 2.

[Person of Color]

I just got done beating the Overload teaser and I literally have tears in my eyes because I am so happy. It was that fucking good.

Except for the lack of a "Slide on" key and a cockpit view it was perfect.

It felt EXACTLY like Descent 1 if it was rendered on modern hardware. It's everything I have ever wanted for the past 20 years.

[icecoldduke]

Person of Color, on 15 June 2016 - 08:55 PM, said:

I just got done beating the Overload teaser and I literally have tears in my eyes because I am so happy. It was that fucking good.

Except for the lack of a "Slide on" key and a cockpit view it was perfect.

It felt EXACTLY like Descent 1 if it was rendered on modern hardware. It's everything I have ever wanted for the past 20 years.

I agree. I rarely say this, but that was a good game. So its going to be released next year?

[deuxsonic]

What if they could bring back the musicians that did the soundtrack too? All 3 Descent games had excellent soundtracks. Jerry Berlongieri did an awesome job on the third game's music and SFX even though his Psytrance style was different than what previous games had used. Dan Wentz did the 6 MIDI music tracks for Descent II who is doing the score for "Descent Underground". The first game's music and the redbook audio of the second game had Brian Luzietti, Charles Deenen, Johann Langlie, Larry Peacock, Brad Cross, Leslie Spitzer, Bob Brown, Mark Morgan, Mark Walk, Ogre Nivek of Skinny Puppy, Ron Valdez, Type O Negative, Ken Allen, Tim Wiles, and Jim Torres. That's a long list of musicians for a game and probably has something to do with why the soundtracks were so awesome.

[MusicallyInspired]

I know Ken Allen quite well. I imagine he'd love to be involved, after he's done with SpaceVenture.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Edit: I confused Ken Allen with Ken Williams.

[Person of Color]

deuxsonic, on 16 June 2016 - 03:07 AM, said:

What if they could bring back the musicians that did the soundtrack too? All 3 Descent games had excellent soundtracks. Jerry Berlongieri did an awesome job on the third game's music and SFX even though his Psytrance style was different than what previous games had used. Dan Wentz did the 6 MIDI music tracks for Descent II who is doing the score for "Descent Underground". The first game's music and the redbook audio of the second game had Brian Luzietti, Charles Deenen, Johann Langlie, Larry Peacock, Brad Cross, Leslie Spitzer, Bob Brown, Mark Morgan, Mark Walk, Ogre Nivek of Skinny Puppy, Ron Valdez, Type O Negative, Ken Allen, and Jim Torres. That's a long list of musicians for a game and probably has something to do with why the soundtracks were so awesome.

Descent 1, in my opinion, has the greatest OPL soundtrack ever. Nothing else I've played even comes close.

[deuxsonic]

[Tea Monster]

deuxsonic, on 12 March 2016 - 04:08 PM, said:

There was never a disk utility by the name freespace 2.

On that note, sad, because there are too many tards on the interwebz, but true... www.scandisk.com

[DustFalcon85]

Should I get Sublevel Zero on Steam for $10.04 on Stream? It's a Descent rouge-like game.

[Master O]

Question for anyone here who owns "Descent 1 and 2: the Definitive Collection:"

What version of Descent 1 is included in it? 1.4 or 1.5?

[deuxsonic]

Master O, on 28 June 2016 - 02:14 PM, said:

Question for anyone here who owns "Descent 1 and 2: the Definitive Collection:"

What version of Descent 1 is included in it? 1.4 or 1.5?

The latter.

[Person of Color]

That's not always true. I bought my copy back in 1998 and it's 1.4a. It also adds some neato user maps that the original release lacked, like Earth Strike.

The 1.5 version of it loses it's music after level 7. They patched it from 1.0 to 1.5 before shipping and there needed to be an interim patch.

There should be a workaround somewhere.

[Person of Color]

DustFalcon85, on 26 June 2016 - 07:07 PM, said:

Should I get Sublevel Zero on Steam for $10.04 on Stream? It's a Descent rouge-like game.

It sucks. The flying is good but the inventory management is clumsy bullshit (Why it even needs an inventory system is beyond me), the atmosphere sucks and the levels are procedurally generated, which is a cop out for every game ever except No Man's Sky.

Also, it suffers from Doom 3 Syndrome. Why do you play Doom? To shoot shit and unleash hell. Why do you play Descent? To rain fiery death on your enemies.

SO WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU FORCING ME CONSERVE AMMO 24/7

5/10. Would not recommend. Game is a hot mess.

[deuxsonic]

I don't recall having that problem with it. I've had multiple copies of all 3 Descent games over the years.

http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/
http://www.descent2.de/d2x.html

A couple ports to check out. The first stays close to the original games where D2X-XL is more like the EDuke32 of Descent/II.

If it's still doing it and you need a binary that I know works then I'll just share mine.