Widescreen Gaming Forum

LucasArts was both developer and publisher of all their SCUMM adventure games, of JK1 (but not JK2), and most recently, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Yeah but the actual staff that developed them are long gone.

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JK1 is a straight up rip of the disc version, exactly as predicted... It's unfortunate, because that game severly needs updating, but trying to fix up the 12 year old source code would just be an exercise in futility. Even at $5 it seems a bit of a ripoff, especially without the music. Anyway, seriously, I know publisher practices and Lucasarts MO enough to be certain this would the case.

The only good thing about the Steam version is that due to the nature of Steam's delivery method - that the games are downloaded in an "installed" state - you can at least start the game on Vista x64 without too much hassle. The original disc version of the game uses a 16-bit installer app and you can't run 16-bit apps on Vista x64. This necessitated installing the game on the 32-bit system (or VM) and copying the game folder and registry settings over onto the 64-bit system.

Dark Forces is just bundled with DosBox, also as predicted (not that that's a bad thing since DosBox is perfectly capable).

Their forum post acts like they did some things... pre-configured a WASD option, something about window mode for menus... I guess they did what they could without a lot of investment.

The lack of music is what bothers me the most... hopefully we can fix that here like with Quake.

For $20 for all of them it is hard to feel ripped off, I expected them to charge more.

Quake is open source, so it was possible to make a version of the engine that supports ogg audio. Not so with JK1.

Their forum post acts like they did some things... pre-configured a WASD option, something about window mode for menus... I guess they did what they could without a lot of investment.

Yeah but once again all they did are things users could easily do. You could always save off your own control configurations through the in-game menu. So they just setup a WASD config and included the save file for it and the windowing is a config file tweak.

I mean don't get me wrong, I'd rather see the game made available in it's current state than not at all - but what other, smarter, better game companies would do if they had no itention of supporting a game anymore would be to release the source code with a license that allows for non-commercial modification and distribution, of the executable only of course.

Then the community takes care of fixing the game up and people still buy the game as a result of needing the content files to use with the open source executable. (Of course some people would pirate the content files too, but it's not like the game hasn't been available on pirate networks for ages anyway; making the game open source could only increase sales of it).

but what other, smarter, better game companies would do if they had no itention of supporting a game anymore would be to release the source code with a license that allows for non-commercial modification and distribution, of the executable only of course.

:3

Well they might not have fixed it or anything, but DF2: Jedi Knight works perfect in full 3D mode in 1080p. which is just... amazing.

Lousy pic I took to prove it on the Steam forums where people insist the game doesn't work at all:



Dark Forces runs fine as well, though I am not sure I can still play it as it is. I would need something like gzdoom I think.

Yup it can work; when I dug out my disk version a few months ago I got it to run ok, apart from the 64-bit install problem, but it just doesn't hold up all that well regardless, even ignoring any bugs.

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So someone on the Steam forums is saying the game's source was indeed lost - according to someone in the mod/fan community that personally spoke to a Lucasarts employee. Grain of salt and all that, but like I said it wouldn't surprise my if it's true. Big game publishers have atrocious internal organization. So many old games are lost due to lack of foresight, stupidity, and the employee attrition at these companies.

I don't know why you say it doesn't hold up well... the videos were great and the gameplay is classic FPS gaming.

It looks rough, of course, but surprisingly atmospheric... with full settings it is smooth and crisp, mostly.

I am enjoying it... pulled me away from Batman for an hour or two.

The lack of music is what bothers me the most...

that really stinks considering that they could have easily included an image of the audio CD

[quote]
Hey, how does that pic seem to be Hor+ widescreen? I thought Commando only stretched?

The helmet elements stretch, but otherwise the game is vert-, not hor+, but at least it's aspect correct.

I can't get this to work, at all now. I used to be able to get it to work, but it streched... now it just still loads in 4:3.

WTF? Hahaha.

I'll go through the process a third time.

did anybody manage to get programs such as patch commander or jklauncher to work with the steam version?

I wish they had done this right, if they had updated all the games to work on vista 64bit I would have paid $50 for it as it would be like a full game to me. However to just rerelease old stuff I will dig out my old copies in storage instead.

I loved Dark Forces the first game, it was one of the games that introduced me to "high end" computer gaming.

I used god mode to get past that little yoda-like jedi dude. Screw him, that was just insanely frustrating.

Rest of the game is ace, I'm up to the final planet. I'm playing nothing but Jedi Knight and Deus Ex IW right now, despite buying several new games recently.

Deus Ex IW

So what is your opinion of IW? When I tried the demo years ago it was so "not Deus Ex" and rough performance-wise that I dropped it and never looked back. Does it have some redeeming qualities?

On topic: I dug around and found all my DF/JK discs. I do have the whole series--happy day. :D

DXIW is crap. It's an XBox game, and it's very, very obviously one. Modern systems play it OK, but at the time it was the best example of a terribly ported horror of a game.

DXIW is crap. It's an XBox game, and it's very, very obviously one. Modern systems play it OK, but at the time it was the best example of a terribly ported horror of a game.

That's pretty much what I remember. I think IW was one of the first games that fostered my hatred for postfx, bloom in particular.

Deus Ex IW is just like Deus Ex if you castrate everything that was good about it for the sake of console accessibility.

Deus Ex IW is just like Deus Ex if you castrate everything that was good about it for the sake of console accessibility.

Except in IW even the plot sucked. If the plot had gripped me and kept me on edge the way the originals did, I could have forgiven a lot. However, it wasn't. Nothing about that game was redeemable. :(

I like Invisible War. Is it as good as Deus Ex? No. Are the small areas with loads in between annoying? Yes.

Neither of those things mean the game is bad though, at least to me. Besides, in a time like now where pretty much every game is a console port, IW does not stand out in that regard anymore.

To play it right, max the resolution, force massive amounts of AA on it and turn off bloom completely. Then, download the texture pack made by John P, which is excellent. You can also shrink the HUD, which works well and makes the game look smoother, I also suggest you turn off the useless HUD elements which you can do in the options.

Do all that, don't expect something as "PC" as Deus Ex, and then play the game. You might really enjoy it, I know I do.

Of course, my love of cyberpunk and that genre's almost extinction might have something to do with that.

The consoley interface and graphics and HUD are minor annoyances, but what really kills it for me is the lack of the skill system. 90% of the awesomeness of Deus Ex revolves around the skill system. Without it, it's not much more than a mediocre stealthy shooter.