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Retro City Rampage Getting a DOS Version

Posted by samzenpus on from the old-style dept.

jones_supa writes: There is an indie game port in works which certainly cracks a smile on one's face. Vblank Entertainment is bringing Retro City Rampage — its homage to 8-bit games and Grand Theft Auto — over to one of the influential gaming operating systems of all time: DOS! Retro City Rampage 486 is a port of Retro City Rampage DX, an enhanced version of the game featuring a story mode, arcade challenges, and free roaming. As the name suggests, if one wants to run the game natively, a beefy 486 CPU is required, along with 3.7 MB of disk space and 4 MB of RAM. But of course, DOSBox can be used as well. A release date for the DOS version of the game is not yet known.

52 comments

  1. Also you can use PCem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can set the machine to wahtever 486 you like, from a early SX to a late, "fast" fake-cache horror. Good luck with Bripro tackling on the DOS stuff though. Music would really have to be remixed in adlib for the performance to be squeezed out.

    FUN FACT: The original GTA can be run on a 486 just fine too.

    1. Re:Also you can use PCem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Star Control II had a large, open world and used MOD music and it ran just fine on a 386SX-16. In fact if you put it in frenzy mode, it ran too fast.

      The only reason Retro City Rampage could need more is because it's not optimised. The required specs they are providing are enough to run Daggerfall.

    2. Re:Also you can use PCem by Ixpath · · Score: 1

      I actually had Star Control II running on a 286.

  2. Submitter can't even plagiarize comprehensibly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Somehow "Vblank Entertainment is bringing Retro City Rampage...over to the greatest gaming OS of all time: MS-DOS" becomes "Vblank Entertainment is bringing Retro City Rampage...over to one of the influential gaming operating systems of all time: DOS!"

  3. Release date for DOS version unknown... by BusyDuckman · · Score: 1

    that makes me a little sceptical.

  4. What's new? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Since this post will obviously flush out a bunch of people who know, what's new with DOS in the last 10 years? What's been happening? Just curious.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:What's new? by dreamchaser · · Score: 3, Informative

      FreeDOS is still under active development and has many features and enhancements beyond the original DOS. It'd be easier for you to browse the site rather than list them all here, as there are quite a few of them.

    2. Re:What's new? by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      DOSbox is the best and easiest way to run DOS applications and games in modern OSs. You can even run Windows 3.1 and Windows 9.x inside of it, apparently.

  5. Linux port by spirtbrat · · Score: 5, Informative

    The game is now available for: Windows, Mac, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®3, PS Vita, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, NES and DOS. What remains is the obvious hardest - Linux port.

    1. Re:Linux port by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well since this new version is for DOS, you could just run it in DOSBox on Linux.

    2. Re:Linux port by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Linux? There's not much call for it. Not round here, sir.

    3. Re:Linux port by Black.Shuck · · Score: 1

      Linux? There's not much call for it. Not round here, sir.

      Not much ca-- it's the SINGLE MOST POPULAR CHEESE IN THE WORLD!

    4. Re:Linux port by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I thought BeOS was the way to go.

    5. Re:Linux port by SQLGuru · · Score: 1

      I thought it was AmigaOS/AmigaDOS or NextStep.

    6. Re:Linux port by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Hardest? They have got a PS4, PS3 AND Vita port! While it's probably not as simple as "./configure && make && make install" for the new platform it should be similar enough. The PS4 runs a full on BSD for goodness sake.

    7. Re:Linux port by lisaparratt · · Score: 1

      "make menuconfig" already has the Linux gaming world sewn up, no need for any other games.

    8. Re:Linux port by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I do not have the compute power to run this game. I am waiting for the VIC-20 BASIC V2 port. Also, you are an insensitive clod.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    9. Re:Linux port by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I have been playing grep for like 10 years now. I think I am winning. I did not realize there were other games.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    10. Re:Linux port by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Ha! Good one. I've actually ran "make menuconfig" on a PS2.

  6. Since when was DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "one of the [most] influential gaming operating systems of all time" exactly? It was a poor DOS, and to grace the primitive and archaic MS DOS with the title "operating system" is a bit funny.

    1. Re:Since when was DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aside from Windows, there were more games made for DOS than for any other operating system or game console.

    2. Re: Since when was DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing funny about it if you spent all the years using it. And yes it is a real OS.

    3. Re:Since when was DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      umm you know DOS is an Acronym don't you? or are you a whipper snapper?

  7. heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have my old P166 with win98 second edition, I hope it will run it smoothly...

    1. Re:heh by sabbede · · Score: 1

      With MMX?

    2. Re:heh by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      Probably. I thought that starting with the P166 ones they were all MMX but then I could not be remembering things correctly since that was around 20 years ago. And now I feel old.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    3. Re:heh by sabbede · · Score: 1
      Yeah, I know exactly what you mean...

      Damn. That does make me feel old.

    4. Re:heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They only tacked on MMX in 97. Pentiums have reached 200mhz MMX-free in 1996.

  8. How about a link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not even in the fucking article. Bunch of fucktards.

    http://retrocityrampage.com/

  9. Quake 2 DOS port here by citizenr · · Score: 0

    here is a Quake 2 DOS port:
    http://virtuallyfun.supergloba...

    --
    Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
    1. Re:Quake 2 DOS port here by Pi+Is+A+Rational · · Score: 1

      epic ween

  10. ESRB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rated M for mature. Banned in australia.

  11. Complete with coked-out grammar? by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

    Frankly, if a PC game doesn't require a Sound Blaster 16 card and arrive on 25 floppy disks, then I don't want know.

    Sounds rightfully 80s to me. Really, though, the most important line - at least, if it is true - comes later in the article:

    if you already own a copy of either the Windows or Mac version of Retro City Rampage, you can pick up the new port for free.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  12. NES vs. DOS by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

    That proved to be quite the challenge considering the NES only had 10KB of RAM, 32KB of program ROM, 256KB of background graphics ROM, and 4KB of sprite graphics ROM.

    While the MS-DOS version isn't anywhere near as limited in terms of resources, it remains to be seen just what corners have been cut in order to get the game working.

    Seems funny when I think about games on DOS vs. NES. Most of the time, NES games seemed much better. I guess as time went on, and DOS advanced to games like DOOM and Descent, it left NES behind. But by that time, SNES was already out, and again, the games were much better on SNES for the most part.

    At the time, NES didn't seem very limited. IT had plenty of great games that played quite well.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    1. Re:NES vs. DOS by blazer1024 · · Score: 1

      You're probably right if you're considering the 80's. PC hardware was pretty awful... but in the 90's things really changed. Sure, your SMB, Zelda, Contra, etc type games were better on the SNES... but what about Sim City (and 2000), Civilization, Command and Conquer, Warcraft 1&2, Star Control 2, Ultima 6-8, Wing Commander, X-wing and Tie Fighter? All of these were amazing DOS games, and either didn't have console versions, or if there were, they weren't quite the same (the SimCity,Civilization and Wing Commander for SNES come to mind) Anyway, my point is there were many more games for DOS than just DOOM and Descent in the 90's. Maybe you didn't experience them, but there was a lot of good stuff.

      I actually felt the opposite from you those days. I felt a lot of the SNES games were pretty much just rehashes of old stuff, maybe with a slightly better gameplay, but there really wasn't much original going on there, and I was generally bored pretty quick. Then again, I was a teenager, so take this with a grain of salt :)

    2. Re:NES vs. DOS by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Sure, your SMB, Zelda, Contra, etc type games were better on the SNES... but what about Sim City (and 2000), Civilization, Command and Conquer, Warcraft 1&2, Star Control 2, Ultima 6-8, Wing Commander, X-wing and Tie Fighter? All of these were amazing DOS games, and either didn't have console versions, or if there were, they weren't quite the same (the SimCity,Civilization and Wing Commander for SNES come to mind)

      Those later DOS games should be compared to PSOne games, not SNES.

    3. Re:NES vs. DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe Tie Fighter, C&C and Warcraft, since the PSOne (1994/95) came out around then. The rest are pretty much early 90's games (SNES was released in 1990/91)

    4. Re:NES vs. DOS by keith_nt4 · · Score: 1

      It's funny you mention Civilization and SNES in the same sentence. I rented that game for SNES and then rented two more weekends in a row. I was quite obsessed with it and had never even heard of it before. After returning to it to the store the last time I bought Civilization 2 (a new release at the time) for Windows which started a whole new obsession. You might even say Civilization for SNES was my "gateway drug" converting me from a console gamer to a PC gamer. I don't think Command and Conquer, Warcraft 1&2, Star Control 2, Ultima 6-8, Wing Commander, and/or X-wing and Tie Fighter came out for SNES, you may be thinking of Sega CD, Turbo (PC Engine to some) Graphix CD (Turbo Duo, whatever) and/or 3DO.

      Doom, Out of this World and Flashback did come out for SNES (and I thought they were quite fantastic). Although Doom without multi-player is kind of pointless.

      --
      "UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
    5. Re:NES vs. DOS by Sigma+7 · · Score: 1

      Seems funny when I think about games on DOS vs. NES. Most of the time, NES games seemed much better.

      Around that time, the PC was rather simplistic and not designed for gaming. Graphics were usually EGA (or worse, CGA), and didn't have any sprite support that other systems in that area liked to use. Sound was a cheap internal speaker that was more annoying, especially with lack of volume control.

      It took until the 386/486 era before PCs started becoming strong, but developers around that time still needed to think about less powerful systems as opposed to knowing that each system could at least handle a minimum quality of graphics.

      Once PCs became modern - VESA, Soundcards, and breaking 1MB barrier, consoles were mostly in catchup. It took until 2000 before game consoles had an internal hard drive.

      At the time, NES didn't seem very limited. IT had plenty of great games that played quite well.

      Also around that time, programmers were much more skilled at optimization tricks - and didn't have to worry about the operating system.

    6. Re:NES vs. DOS by Tapewolf · · Score: 1

      I don't think Command and Conquer, Warcraft 1&2, Star Control 2, Ultima 6-8, Wing Commander, and/or X-wing and Tie Fighter came out for SNES

      Ultima 8 was AFAIK DOS-only. There was a SNES version of Ultima 7, but it was largely considered a joke. For one thing, Nintendo couldn't stomach the plot, which was about investigating a series of rather gruesome murders, which somehow mutated into 'kidnappings' in the SNES version.
      The original game was about 20MB all told, pushing the limits of what was technically feasible on the PC at the time (it used "unreal mode" which allowed the 16-bit game engine to access a 32-bit address space, but couldn't work under Windows or EMM386). As a result it was chopped down significantly, losing the ability to recruit party members or even select the player's sex.

      AFAIK they never even attempted to port Serpent Isle, aka Ultima 7 part 2. Given the apocalyptic ending I can't say I'm surprised.

      Although Doom without multi-player is kind of pointless.

      Depends. If you've got a hundred odd add-on levels for it it's got a lot of staying power. 'Course the console versions didn't have that either.

    7. Re:NES vs. DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mortal Kombat for DOS was the best home version at the time (1992). The SNES and Mega Drive versions were complete crap in comparison. Also Star Control II came out in 1992, not 1993.

      You're also missing the following DOS games:

      Elite (1984)
      Space Quest (1986)
      Starflight (1986)
      Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge (1987)
      MechWarrior (1989)
      Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon (1989)
      Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula (1989)
      F29 Retaliator (1990)
      Loom (1990)
      The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)
      Wing Commander (1990)
      Another World (1991)
      Elite Plus (1991)
      Falcon 3.0 (1991)
      Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991)
      Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (1991)
      Catacomb 3-D (1991)
      Lemmings (1991)
      Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers (1991)
      Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1991)
      Alone in the Dark (1992)
      Flashback (1992)
      Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
      Doom (1993)
      Frontier: Elite II (1993)
      MegaRace (1993)
      Star Wars: X-Wing (1993)
      The 7th Guest (1993)

      ...and on and on. Most of those games simply could not be done on any console and the ones that were either were vastly inferior to the DOS version or came out years later.

    8. Re:NES vs. DOS by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I miss A Train and Sim Ant. For the Sega I miss Mutant League Hockey and Mutant League Football. They were wonderful games, all four of them. I have not gamed much since the days of Fallout 2.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    9. Re:NES vs. DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DOS version was meh compared to SNES.

      But don't take my word for it! Here's a lets-compare:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Note the extensive amount of MIDI and lack of voices on the DOS version. This doesn't show the lack of buttons that the PC suffered from, and certainly assumes that you actually have two gamepads capable of playing the game.

      I think they fixed the sound thing (but am not positive) on a later version, but that's not really a fair comparison.

      I picked the DOS games based on the OP who was listing a few. While I won't point by point your list, I'll point out that some of them (Wolfenstein, Lemmings) had console ports that were generally superior, and a huge number of them played to the PC's advantages and generally had a genre to themselves at the time, while none of them play to or compete with console strengths. A few of the games on your list also are old enough to compare with NES or Master System, so they aren't really a straight compare, but I would argue they don't exactly shine overall there much either.

      I think the biggest point is: For every game on your list, you could list several excellent console games of equivalent awesomeness. For 2015, no way. I liked DOS games plenty, but it was obvious that they couldn't compete in overall entertainment compared to the consoles, as the power that PCs could bring to bear didn't really touch what consoles could do with specialized and cheap implementations. Many of these games were using really excellent PC industry development tools with very small teams, while the consoles had custom and generally weaker tools, but much larger and more dedicated teams. Star Control II is a great example: if Ford and Reiche could have had access to a team and budget the size of the one that made even Super Mario III a few years before, that game could be even MORE legendary (if possible).

    10. Re:NES vs. DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong.
      Mortal Kombat comparison

      The Mega Drive version looked and sounded horrible. The SNES version was low resolution and didn't even have blood or fatalities. The DOS version was about as close to the arcade as you could get, short of actually owning an arcade cabinet.

      Every game on my list was utterly impossible to do on the consoles of the time, although they tried and failed for a few of them (Wing Commander and Doom on SNES springs to mind).

    11. Re:NES vs. DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The discussion has always been about Mortal Kombat II, your argument is invalid!

      The SNES version had all fatalities and blood.

  13. Crickets chirping for DOSBox by jones_supa · · Score: 1

    In a recent LateBlt video, there's some interesting rambling about DOSBox and its forks. Long story short, the development of the main branch has halted a long time ago, although it works pretty well already. However the DOSBox Daum fork is alive and offers things like save states.

  14. Link to source? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not only does the summary not link to the sourced, the linked article doesn't even link to the source?

    Strangely, http://retrocityrampage.com/ says nothing about it - so where is this info even coming from?

    1. Re:Link to source? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Retro City Rampage DX, an enhanced version of the game featuring a story mode, arcade challenges, and free roaming."

      This sentence in particular has me sceptical and asking for the source - anyone who has played the fucking game knows all of those things are in the non-DX version.

      The What's New in 'DX' trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuVrtMQUBxw says exactly what has changed, and lists:
      *Retro mode
      *8-bit mode
      *New Zoom modes
      *Re-worked missions
      *REWORKED arcade challenges
      *Rebalanced weapons
      *Purchase weapons from supply trucks
      *Kill all cops on the screen to lose the cops
      *New HUD
      *New weapon select menu
      *New vehicle animations
      *More dynamic camera
      *Park vehicles in Garages - a la Saints Row, rather than GTA
      *New interactive Map
      *New music player
      *Remastered borders
      *Remastered and new colour modes
      *(and some PS specific stuff)