OpenXcom 1.0 Released
It's a small class of video games that still draw interest or inspire an active community 20 years after their first release — even if we're now 40 years into the era of commercial video games. Games like Doom, the several iterations of Civilization, and the Mario Brothers franchise will probably be around and played in some form many decades hence. The X-COM family of games fits, too, having inspired various spiritual successors since its release in 1994. Now, an anonymous reader writes that the open source (GPL) " OpenXcom 1.0 is finally released, after 5224 commits, 1843 days, and 606 resolved issues since v0.9. 20 years of X-COM — XCOM oldschool lovers enjoy!"
Why not leave everything exactly as it is but up the resolution? Is it because it's hard to find people who would redraw the sprites?
How about some textures for 4k monitors?? !
How about enjoying a fucking classic ?
Otherwise you can play the 768th COD shit on your 4k monitor.
.... you could just buy XCom.
You need a copy of the game to use this. This project is to resolve the difficulty running the original game on modern hardware, fix bugs in the original game, etc.
I've got several copies, the original, a CD re-release over 10 years ago that I could NEVER get to run properly due to speed issues, and it's outright incompatibility with using nvidia graphics cards; and I now own it on steam as well (but it came with Enemy Unknown and I haven't actually tried the steam one yet) -- I did get the re-release version working in DOSbox but it still had its issues etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the steam one has its flakiness as well... a proper modern remake is a good thing.
I personally didn't care for any of the sequels that followed XCOM/XCOM:TFTD - none of them seemed to capture that sublime perfection that is the gameplay of the original, most seemed like cash-ins on the IP. So, I was very surprised to find that the current Firaxis title was actually surprisingly, surprisingly good. I learned that recreating the original game in the engine they built was their first step in creating the new title, and clearly it was created with love. So, I say this for any fans who may have been like me, and avoided the titles strictly because historically the sequels stunk to high heaven.
Having said that, it still doesn't completely scratch that itch that only a game of nice, classic Xcom. Dosbox has always been an option of course, but Xcom has bugs, and while using "XcomUtil" (http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=XcomUtil) can fix many of these problems, the work of the OpenXCOM to give us such a wonderful, expandable, moddable version of such a giant of PC gaming is simply astounding. As I read over the documentation, I can't wait to give this a shot. Really want to thank these guys for such a wonderful job - my memories of the summer of 94 and this game are very fond indeed.
Difficulty of running the original game? I suppose perhaps they started their project before the age of Dosbox. I mean, you can even buy the original XCom's on Steam these days.
What would be really nice is if they now started improving on the original. And what would just be incredibly awesome is, if they would merge XCom and Terror From the Deep into one game with both assets, land and sea bases... extreme X-Com awesomeness in a single package.
It's better to walk to Boston then work all day for a train ticket.
A very good time to be an XCom fan.
Another release is that of Xenonauts, to be finally released next week. I think it's a must-have for fans of the classic XCom. Xenonauts is a modernized remake, but it keeps the same fundamental game mechanics (unlike the Firaxis version). Time units, multiple bases, great freedom in soldier inventory and other things from the original, and there's a huge amount of balancing and subtle improvements. I have played several indie and small-studio successors, such as UFO: Aftermath, UFO: Extraterrestrials, and UFO: Alien Invasion, but none of those have, in my opinion, captured the original's feeling, while Xenonauts managed to.
I suppose perhaps they started their project before the age of Dosbox. I mean, you can even buy the original XCom's on Steam these days.
Yeah, I like dosbox as much as the next classic game fan, but you are way off base here. Still all kinds of glitches and stuff that affect lots of people (too fast, too slow, unsteady framerate issues, sound or graphics corruption -- joystick woes (not so much for xcom but lots of other titles); and spending hours teaking dosbox config files to try and resolve them is tiresome.
And as this is moddable, it sets the groundwork for being able to run a version with modern hi resolution graphics instead of dealing with upscalers and antialiasing as your only option to play with a window larger than 2.5".
Even 4K textures wouldn't make that crap playable.
It's nice to see that there's still people interested in the *original* XCOM games - and not the utter junk that's been released since TFTD.
Some 13 years ago (wow, time flies), I was delighted to see a Windows re-release of the XCOM games (the "Collectors Edition"), since the DOS version was indeed pretty troublesome to get running under Windows - this was before the luxury of DOSBox. However, the fine developers who did the port didn't know the difference between "pitch" and "width", and thus it was unplayable (on a wide range of graphics cards, apparently). I was put down by this, but my friend who was visiting that evening said "well, you usually fix... bugs... in programs, so can't you fix this?".
One frantic night of reverse engineering and beer-drinking and reminiscing about chryssalids and tentaculats laters, I had a bugfix loader running. XCOM once again! The CE port in general wasn't perfect, the XCOM1 intro only had MIDI music but not the muton screams and other sound effects, there were stall-for-a-second issues when changing soundtrack on many soundcards, et cetera.
When XCOM1+2 were re-released on STEAM, they initially used my bugfix loaders (I'm told they use DOSBox nowadays - that's a more authentic experience). Didn't even contact me about it. When I reached out to the people in charge (took a while, the rights to the brand had been shifted around quite a bit), I was told that the source code no longer existed - apparently, at the end of days, it had existed on a single laptop that had been stolen or destroyed or whatever.
So, with the above in mind, it's nice to see that people are trying to re-create the legacy of one of the best games I've ever spent countless hours with.
Coffee-driven development.
I tried Firaxis's XCOM as soon as I could, seeking the flexibility of the first two games; the devilish plays you could pull when in a tight spot (prime alien grenade - toss at buddy - buddy picks it up - buddy lobs at alien), shooting or running as your speed (TUs per turn) allowed, switching equipment on the field, breaching walls for your teammates... all were fond memories worthy of revisiting with a modern engine.
The first cinematic of the landing scene gave me a huge grin, and it was mostly disappointing from then on. Its walk-shoot-shoot; you die with the gear you brought; you can't shoot at walls because they've done nothing to you. I played four missions and didn't get to experiment with classes or see whether you could ever learn Mind Control.
My hopes are now on UFO: Alien Invasion. Bit rough around the edges but coming along nicely. If you share my feelings, give it a go.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Well it's a stupid fucking saying.
Linux anno 1994 when X-COM was released wasn't really suitable for games.
I play all the old microprose games on linux all the time. With dosbox.
I bought the version from Steam a year ago to play it again. It runs in DOSbox and they seem to have worked out all the issues because it worked great on modern hardware. It was five bucks. More power to them but I hope they do something make the game better because I don't see the point otherwise since the steam version is just like playing back in the day.
Yea, we are living in the age of games that pander to spoiled, stupid kids with attention deficits.
Games that make you think are too "boring" for today's mass market.
Do so now.
The Firaxis reboot was good, but with the EW expansion it is amazing, probably the best turn based tactical game of all time. They hit the right balance of simplicity of mechanics and complexity of strategy, kept everything nice and balanced, gave you a lot of different valid strategy options and so on.
I've been extremely pleased with it and spent a shit ton of time playing it.
No, X-COM just sucks.
You mean something like no more Groundhog Day bug, native multiplatform support, mod support, tons of bugfixes, a replacable soundtrack (with Amiga and PSX and Cydonia's fall, oh my!), three-dimensional explosions, no more Groundhog Day bug, all sorts of XcomUtil-type fixes/mods optionally available, TFTD-style battlescape controls (like being able to open doors without walking through them), strafing, radar ranges displayed on the geoscape, Apocalypse-style persistent soldier equipment, no more Groundhog Day bug...
And did I mention that they added support for shotguns? Because they added support for shotguns. They're fun.
Seriously; the original XCOM was great but OpenXcom makes it better. If you think about starting up DOSBox to run the original try OpenXcom instead. You'll like it. (And no, I'm not affiliated with the project; the closest I came to that was to think about a mod that completely replaces the aliens' equipment. Because the world needs space AK-47s. Alas, I lack the time.)
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Netrek (http://www.netrek.org/) would like to have a word with you.