Frede

Hi guys,
 
I just wanted to let you know that I was asked to produce the latest edition of the podcast. Pete Toleman, my boss, is the host, but he got me to do the technical stuff.
 
He talked for at least 4 hours, about all sorts of stuff - including how the Jews run the media and why women shouldn't be allowed to be firefighters. But I managed to keep some of it on track, and I've condensed the show to 45 minutes.
 
I just wanted to say thank you to Brandon, Jess, Alan, Serena, Fred and Chris for helping me out by sending in broadcastable material for the show. I hope you enjoy it.
 
The file is with Chris Pope. Expect it to be out at some point in the next few days, God willing.
 
I also apologise on behalf of Pete. Man, I really hope he never reads this forum.
 
~ D ~

Is Broussard part of the new 3D Realms as well? The guy may have had his moment of fame, but he fell from grace with Duke Forever the only thing he‘s good for now are the comments he leaves on Hardcore Gamer about how point&clicks are totally "gay" (his words, not mine) and tweeting gems like "lol can‘t raise my arm and my speech‘s slurred haha I mighta had a stroke lol" (I wish I was kidding about that one, but sadly I‘m not.)

I‘m tempted about getting the Anthology though. Too bad it‘s $40 now and they don‘t make physical copies, the cover artwork looks absolutely awesome and I‘d gladly cough up some dough for a proper, DRM-free physical copy.

Oh well, I‘ll definitely grab a copy of Bio Menace for free. That one‘s by far my favourite from the old Apogee catalogue. I mean, the protagonist‘s name is Snake Logan.

SNAKE LOGAN.
 
Let that sink in for a while.
 


He has a mullet and a mustache and he wears a garish green shirt.

It also features the most over-the-top gore of all the old 3D Realms sidescrollers, with badly mutilated bodies strewn all over the place. And still the monsters in the game look like something straight out of a Pixar movie. It‘s one of the most apeshit insane things I ever played (and also one of the most unduly forgotten games) and it has a rockin‘ soundtrack. Do yourselves a favour and go play Bio Menace!

I have encountered people who formed attitudes about DOSBox from years ago with much slower machines and when DOSBox had much lower compatibility and never re-evaluated DOSBox. It is not unusual for people to have never touched it since. This includes pre-Intel Mac users and retro hardware freaks. PPC did not have access to the dynamic core and DOSBox was generally pretty slow on it. Many retro hardware freaks have not touched DOSBox since 0.58 and think the sound is crap. Sound accuracy is very important to Qbix and the quality of DOSBox's sound shows this. Even ScummVM uses audio code lifted from DOSBox. More often than not, there is nothing you have change with DOSBox's audio settings, but many don't realize that you have to use the game's setup to get optimal audio, just as you had to on a real DOS PC. Case in point. Many of the SCI0 to SCI1.1 games shipped with Roland MT-32 set as default. Play this through AdLib and it will sound like holy hell.
 
As MI notes, DOSBox is incredibly easy to use once you grasp the concepts of mounting. In fact, for many games it can be as simple as putting a shortcut to DOSBox on the desk top and dragging and dropping a game's EXE onto the shortcut.

Okay, finished the game now and replayed the parts I already knew from the beta. I'm glad to see that the vase "puzzle" is just as fucking retarded in the final game as it was in the beta, only with more squirrel. When Frede brought up the squirrel, I thought to myself "Thank God, they've come to their senses and added a puzzle! Maybe I'll have to toss a peanut into the vase, so the squirrel breaks it!" You know, standard-fare mundane point&click shit? But no way, Jose! It's still the same "read all the plaques to make vase explode"-"puzzle".
 
And the other new puzzles are probably even worse. Rule of thumb: If the most fun addition you came up with turns out to be the goddamn sliding puzzle, you fucked up royally!
 

 
Other than that, eh, wasn't half-bad! I don't get why they used these unbelievably ugly looking speech bubbles for the cutscenes. The cutscenes themselves look pretty damn good, but the speech bubbles really tend to kind of ruin them.

Okay, I've now tried using MUNT via the SVN Daum build of DOSBox to get MT-32 sound in GK1. That was... pretty easy, actually. Nowhere near as complex as I had feared.
 
Now to wade through all my DOS games that come with DOSBox bundled and repeat the procedure...  :)

I have no definite idea why, but Hartridge's lecture is honestly one of my favourite parts of the game. It might be because the puzzle slowly begins coming together during that scene. The brush of (mostly, I suppose) genuine research makes the story feel a lot more real too.

Oh yeah... the lecture... I guess that would explain why I never picked up on that clue... Let's just say many a left mouse button was clicked during that lecture... :P
 
Didn't have a problem with the Drei Drachen puzzle. Then again, I might've had a Heimvorteil with that one...
 
And I completely agree with Frede about GK2's tape splicing puzzle. If you have to spell out the solution for the player in the game's manual, then that should be a subtle hint that your puzzle design is all sorts of screwed up.

I was actually surprised they didn't dumb down streamline the DJ-puzzle. That was the only one puzzle from the original game that I would have changed.
 
Oh and one last word on the sketch in the Gedde tomb: That seems more useful as an acupuncture chart than as an instruction on how to cross yourself/hit a bunch of random buttons conveniently placed in a bunch of skulls.

But... there's a sketch in the corner that pretty much spells out what you have to do.
 
Which arguably makes this puzzle even dumber. It's not even particularly challenging. It's just monkey see, monkey do. And don't even ask me why the sign of the cross grants access to something linked with the darkest and most ancient voudoun...

Yeah, I noticed that sketch. It just adds insult to injury when you know exactly what you have to do and still can‘t get it right. After about three unsuccessful attempts, I figured my time would be more wisely spent complaining about the puzzle on this forum rather than actually solving it. :P

I found that one pretty easy, though. But also a bit stupid in that whether you have access to the drawer is determined by your ability to do the sign of the cross. I agree - it's just not good enough.

Motherfucker, these new puzzles! These new fucking puzzles, I hate them so! Hate! Hate! HATEHATEHATE!!!! There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for this fucking filler shit garbage at this micro-instant. Hate. Hate.
 


The fuck is this shit? Myst? Dammit, Jenna Jameson, Y U have to do this to me?!

Has it been a year already? Damn. Feels like yesterday Troels asked me to wing something about the AdLib VS the MT-32. He didn't know exactly what, because he had no idea how the format was gonna be yet. What a difference a year makes!

As repetitive as Paul's behavior has become, the idea he's denying account access to a paying client is no less hilarious to me (I mean, of course it's sad, that goes without saying). There seems to be no limit. As if he's one to talk about unprofessional behavior? Regardless, he's got to see that such methods--regardless of right or wrong--would destroy his company pretty quickly.

And what's with that change in voice from "we" to "my," and then back to "ours," in the letter? Is Paul in the 3rd grade? If he's the public relations department as well as CEO...

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but you know that death sequence in SQ5 when you dock to the wrong section of the Goliath, and use the laser cutter, and then, one-by-one, those creepy mutants peer their creepy, creepy little faces into your tight enclosure... oh... SHUDDER...

Would you be willing to pay one GOLD coin to play the LucasArts games on GOG? ;)
 
Talk to you later!
 
JDHJANUS
Josh

Not official yet, but all the evidence points to the fact that Disney is finally getting LA games going on GOG from the scrapped deal that the original LA was making with GOG before the buyout. Some more info and evidence in this post at the scummvm boards.
 
http://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?t=13744
 
EDIT: Confirmed! More info: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/tomorrows_lucasart_releases_confimed_so_far/page1
 
So far Monkey Island Special Edition, Knights of the Old Republic, Tie Fighter Special Edition, X-Wing Special Edition, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam & Max Hit The Road are confirmed. I'm not sure if the Tie Fighter and X-Wing special editions are just the CD Collector's Editions (of which I have both) or if they've been enhanced or updated in some way. I tend to the the former, but we'll find out tomorrow!
 
Joystiq article: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/27/lucasarts-classics-reach-gog-com-on-october-28/

Confirmed! More info: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/tomorrows_lucasart_releases_confimed_so_far/page1
 
So far Monkey Island Special Edition, Knights of the Old Republic, Tie Fighter Special Edition, X-Wing Special Edition, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam & Max Hit The Road are confirmed. I'm not sure if the Tie Fighter and X-Wing special editions are just the CD Collector's Editions (of which I have both) or if they've been enhanced or updated in some way. I tend to the the former, but we'll find out tomorrow! Personally, I'm very happy that Tie Fighter and X-Wing are coming. I already have them, but it's good that they're getting some love. They were two of the very best non-adventure LucasArts games ever made.
 
It also reached Joystiq.
 
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/10/27/lucasarts-classics-reach-gog-com-on-october-28/

Has it been a year already? Damn. Feels like yesterday Troels asked me to wing something about the AdLib VS the MT-32. He didn't know exactly what, because he had no idea how the format was gonna be yet. What a difference a year makes!

OHMYGODYES, please let this be true! I'll pay good money for these games!

OHMYGODYES, please let this be true! I'll pay good money for these games!

Has it been a year already? Damn. Feels like yesterday Troels asked me to wing something about the AdLib VS the MT-32. He didn't know exactly what, because he had no idea how the format was gonna be yet. What a difference a year makes!

That sounds really cool! I'll consider that; Interceptor's offices are about an hour and a half away from the city I live in. Thanks for the tip :)

Happy 1-year anniversary to the SQH podcast!