Dark Forces Out For Steam

[Brinkman]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/32400/

DEFINITELY GETTING THIS.. best in the series.. I'd even say better than the jedi games.

They also released the Jedi collection

http://store.steampowered.com/news/2828/

[Brinkman]

BTW, this is a perfect candidate for an iPhone release similar to the monkey island release.

[spindoctor]

i was planning to get outcast and academy, so i might as well get the bundle instead. not now though, too many good new games to play. probably during a sale.

they also released a bundle of their adventure games which has loom, the dig and the two indiana jones games for 10$. another pack i'll eventually get.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/2102/

[FMT]

Hmm very cool. Will wait til a sale though like spindoctor, I have too many unplayed new games atm.

[necropimp]

things to note

JK and MotS on steam still have all the problems running on newer computers that the retail versions have and on top of that the music which was originally stored as audio tracks on the CDs has been omitted from the steam releases

DF is a simple dosbox release like every other DOS game on steam (SCUMM titles excluded) so you do get the few issues that pop up from running DF in dosbox (mainly some occasional slowdown issues)

[Cosmonaut_Roger]

things to note

JK and MotS on steam still have all the problems running on newer computers that the retail versions have and on top of that the music which was originally stored as audio tracks on the CDs has been omitted from the steam releases

DF is a simple dosbox release like every other DOS game on steam (SCUMM titles excluded) so you do get the few issues that pop up from running DF in dosbox (mainly some occasional slowdown issues)

Crap, that's exactly what I was afraid of. Without technical improvements, there's just no incentive for me to buy these. I'm always talking about Dark Forces and Jedi Knight on here and how they are 2 of my all time favorite games. And I still play them all the time. And if the Steam releases don't fix any of the issues....and if I still have to run Dosbox to play Dark Forces...then what's the point?

[Fricfrac]

...and if I still have to run Dosbox to play Dark Forces...then what's the point?

If I recall correctly, Steam automatically configures and runs Dosbox for you so you don't have to setup at all. You just run the game from your Steam games list like any other game.

EDIT: And thanks for posting this Brink. I couldn't decide if I wanted JK or Outcast so I just got the whole pack lol.

[necropimp]

dosbox games on steam still need some config file tweaking to get the best results

[Sweetz]

Yeah I was sad to see that put Jedi Knight on Steam as is, but I expected it. Lucasarts isn't exactly the type to pay a team to sort through the source code of a 12 year old game - if they even still have the source code and original resource files.

[SirBaron]

Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2 working pretty well here, only issue I have is a random flicker of the windows window, but other than that no issues.

[KAC]

I can no longer get into them old games anymore...

[Neotic]

I was exicited to see this at first. Then I realized I still have all the original game discs in my possesion. Well JO and JA discs where stolen by the movers but I still have the game files on my hard drive (they're Q3 games don't need install to work)

[zebra 204]

I never needed DOSbox to run dark forces.

[necropimp]

have you ever tried running it on a system running XP or Vista?

sound is generally broken on those without using VDMsound or dosbox

[RicH(SAD)]

The feature list of that game cracks me up. I know it is an old game and all but..

*Climb catwalks, look and shoot up and down, jump off ledges, wade through garbage.

Hell yeah!

[zebra 204]

have you ever tried running it on a system running XP or Vista?

sound is generally broken on those without using VDMsound or dosbox

Your right, there is no sound. I never even noticed until now. Wow.


Dark Forces II is flawless however. No sound or graphics issues.

[sittal]

purchased

[Deaderinred]

i wonder if the darkxl works with the steam version?

[jolle]

Been playing a bit of JK2 now, pretty easy to config for widescreen with that Q3 engine in there, including FOV change.
Threw some 2x2 SSAA and 4x MSAA in there for the kicks.
really great to experience the style and sound you know as starwars from the old movies again.

Bought the whole pack btw, though I might aswell.

[Bires]

I may have to, too. With borrowing and such, I have lost track of most of my old DF/JK discs.



Makes me wonder how long steam will support Dos Box games...

[necropimp]

i wonder if the darkxl works with the steam version?

from what i've been told it does

[Deaderinred]

from what i've been told it does

awesome, and now comes the question as to why many people here are attempting to run it in dos box like morons if darkxl works.

[necropimp]

because DarkXL still has some major problems and is still just an alpha release

no secondary fire
level 4 can not be completed
problems with the music system

[Deaderinred]

hmm, i thought it was released full and that's why he moved on to daggerxl, judging by how fast hes come with that i naturally assumed he was finished with darkxl.

[javiermq]

For anyone planning on buying this from steam, here are the problems each game of the pack has:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...rn-systems.ars

See, that's one basic problem with steam. They dont test, check, modify, or do anything with whatever game they receive. They just toss it there and slap the steam client to the binary, thats it.

[SirBaron]

For anyone planning on buying this from steam, here are the problems each game of the pack has:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...rn-systems.ars

See, that's one basic problem with steam. They dont test, check, modify, or do anything with whatever game they receive. They just toss it there and slap the steam client to the binary, thats it.

Well that's not really steam's job, they distribute the game. Do you blame a retail store if your game doesn't work? No, Steam is how you get the game, they have nothing to do with the actual product them selves. Anyone who thinks that is a retard.

[jolle]

Well that's not really steam's job, they distribute the game. Do you blame a retail store if your game doesn't work? No, Steam is how you get the game, they have nothing to do with the actual product them selves. Anyone who thinks that is a retard.

While that is true, its their name that gets dragged in the mud when a game bought on that system doesnt work right.
So in their own best interest, maybe they should have some QA that games must pass before they put it on the service, obviously that would introduce added costs and some delay before a product can be made available though.
But it IS their forums that fill up with angry people in the end.

[SirBaron]

While that is true, its their name that gets dragged in the mud when a game bought on that system doesnt work right.
So in their own best interest, maybe they should have some QA that games must pass before they put it on the service, obviously that would introduce added costs and some delay before a product can be made available though.
But it IS their forums that fill up with angry people in the end.

Then why don't Retailers have the same restriction? Yes it would be nice but why should Valve have to pay out money to test the games they sell when other retailers don't have to?

You have the same problems with these games on direct2drive yet steam get's blamed?

[jolle]

Then why don't Retailers have the same restriction? Yes it would be nice but why should Valve have to pay out money to test the games they sell when other retailers don't have to?

You have the same problems with these games on direct2drive yet steam get's blamed?

How it should be, and how it really is, are two different things though.
Its not really valves fault, but they´re getting the heat (probably by customers buying on Steam, the D2D customers are probably raging at D2d).
So if they DO get the flak for other companies products on their service, maybe they should do something about that.
They cant do anything about people not reading the warning about how these old games might not work well (or reading it, thinking it cant happen to them, then get angry when it does), or being morons in general, but they CAN do something about what they allow on the service.
if they HAD a stricter QA policy, they could just hand the bill to the publisher of the product for the QA.. well, you´d think they could atleast..

On the other hand, that would probably lead to less publishers putting up old titles on the service, if they had to pay a QA fee, and have to rummage around ancient source code to guarantee it runs right.

[Bires]

So far...

Dark Forces runs fine, albiet ...WOW..pixels are 2mmx2mm! (makes it hard to see things)

Jedi Knight runs fine, but I had to reconfigure a lot of controls and settings. Also, anytime I go to the menu/force powers/external map, the game goes windowed (640x480). Also, FMVs are windowed.

I'm pretty sure Outcast and Academy will run fine since I've been playing those with my club for years.

[necropimp]

Dark Forces runs fine, albiet ...WOW..pixels are 2mmx2mm! (makes it hard to see things)

that's because the game runs at 320x240

[Bires]

that's because the game runs at 320x240

Yup. Hard to believe we used to play games at that resolution. Brings me back though...winter of 1994. Dark Forces: CD game I copied (back when blank CD's were $12 each!)

What's really wild: I played through the Nar Shadda level of Jedi Knight, and remembered where all six of the secrets were.

[Sweetz]

While that is true, its their name that gets dragged in the mud when a game bought on that system doesnt work right.

Meh, only from a few vocal idiots on forums and people with anti-Steam hardons who will use any little thing as an excuse to complain about the service (I think we're familiar with a few of those...).

I think the majority of Steam users understand that they're ultimately just a store like EBGames and it's still up to consumer to actually do a little research on what they're buying.

In this case, it should be obvious to people that running a 12 year old game made during the formitive years of DirectX might be troublesome on modern systems.

It sucks that Lucasarts did nothing to update the game and if some forum posters are to be believed, they can't update the game because the original source code is lost. However, the way I look at it, I'd rather have the game available, even in it's decrepit state, than not at all.

What's really wild: I played through the Nar Shadda level of Jedi Knight, and remembered where all six of the secrets were.

It's crazy what things can get deeply ingrained in your mind, especially if you played the game during formative years. I still remember most of the Talan language from Outcast

[Fuku2]

Meh, only from a few vocal idiots on forums and people with anti-Steam hardons who will use any little thing as an excuse to complain about the service (I think we're familiar with a few of those...).

I think the majority of Steam users understand that they're ultimately just a store like EBGames and it's still up to consumer to actually do a little research on what they're buying.

In this case, it should be obvious to people that running a 12 year old game made during the formitive years of DirectX might be troublesome on modern systems.

It sucks that Lucasarts did nothing to update the game and if some forum posters are to be believed, they can't update the game because the original source code is lost. However, the way I look at it, I'd rather have the game available, even in it's decrepit state, than not at all.


It's crazy what things can get deeply ingrained in your mind, especially if you played the game during formative years. I still remember most of the Talan language from Outcast

Vary in formative.

[GanjaStar]

necro time

I encountered a bug on the Ice level. this is the steam version the only difference is I updated dosbox from 0.73 to 0.74.

If i stop (and i do mean stop, not step) on the slippery ice surface, I cannot move on ice anymore. Well, i can, but it takes 5 mins to cover a few feet.

And once this occurs, as soon as i touch any slippery surface again without a restart, same thing happens.

This is my config if that means anything.

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=1680x1050
output=ddraw

[render]
scaler=hq2x
aspect=true

[cpu]
cycles=auto

[mixer]
rate=49716
blocksize=4096
prebuffer=30

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=49716

[joystick]
joysticktype=none

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[autoexec]
@echo off
mount c game
c:
dark
exit

Any ideas would be appreciated

[GanjaStar]

cycles=60000

that fixed it. so I guess it's like outcast. fast cpu will cause slow movement

[theshadowcult]

interesting. did not know that. thanks for the heads up, i was thinking of playing these again!

[GanjaStar]

yeah, im going through the whole jedi knight collection on steam... jedi academy excluded

no kyle katarn= no love from me

It took me a while to research and downloading everything needed to make them all work properly though, so you have been warned. besides Jedi outcast, the first two games require tweaking.

[SubCog]

i would love to get a really decent source port for dark forces. also a controls update for shadows of the empire.

[spindoctor]

try cycles=60000. i think that should fix it