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Classic Games (Games) First Person Shooters (Games) Entertainment Games

"Descent" Goes For a Crowdfunding Reboot (and a Linux Version) 149

Posted by timothy from the it-can-only-go-down-from-here dept.
New submitter boll writes A bunch of Star Citizen alumns have taken it upon themselves to resurrect the hit game franchise Descent, backed by a Kickstarter campaign. If you are a semi-oldtimer on the PC gaming scene, you may fondly remember how the original Descent was among the first to provide 6 genuine degrees of freedom during intense late night LAN gaming sessions." Reader elfindreams adds: It will be released as a PC/Mac/Linux game and will include a single player campaign and multiplayer with up to 64 combatants on a map! They are working with a number of members of the current D1/D2 community to make sure the flight/gameplay feels "old school" and they are updating the technology and game to a new generation.
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"Descent" Goes For a Crowdfunding Reboot (and a Linux Version) More

"Descent" Goes For a Crowdfunding Reboot (and a Linux Version)

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  • Rift support? (Score:4, Funny)

    by HornWumpus ( 783565 ) on Thursday March 19, 2015 @04:57PM (#49294971)

    For maximum bazooka barfing!

    There was no game more puke inducing than Descent 2 on the VR headsets of the day.

    • I never played Descent 2 quite as much...but the group I worked with during lunches would play Descent 1 every day...often a bit past the 1 hour mark.

      Our boss actually moved our group away from most other folks so our yelling and screaming wouldn't disturb them, and well...he wasn't that big a stickler for time clock, as long as we got code work and all done and in on time, he didn't care that much WTF we did.

      We played our own maps and took out all the monster so it was just us and weapons respawning.

      I'd

      • I played 1 to the end. But this is not a VR friendly game.

        If anybody can make descent non-pukey they will have solved the VR puking problem.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          The funny part is that the Descent series were the only PC games with native VR support for 20 years...

          • No. VFX1 support was hacked into Descent 2. Same as Janes ATF, Longbow, Falcon 3, Mechwarrior etc etc.

            They all had native head turn, which was hacked into with hardware debuggers. Patch files for the exes shipped from the VFX1 folks.

            Descent 2 also had stereoscopic graphics working. Which made it worse.

  • Just remembering that game gives me nausea.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by markana ( 152984 )

      No kidding. This game gave me a tendency towards motion sickness while looking at fast moving FPS screens that persists to this day.

      Will the VR headsets come with vacuum facemasks to keep the room clean???

  • ...with my Spaceball Avenger?

    • ...with my Spaceball Avenger?

      That would be awesome. I was never particularly good with any keyboard / mouse combination and always thought it would be better with a 3-d mouse with lots of buttons.

    • Who cares. I found my Loki Publishing copy of Descent3d a few weeks ago, and I have access to a planetarium dome projector that runs at 1600x1600 :) ....

      Gonna see if I can get it running on a current kernel w/ a relatively current (ie, only 6 year old) nVidia card, then see about at least recording and then projecting on teh screen if thats what it takes...

  • >> If you are a semi-oldtimer on the PC gaming scene

    Yeesh...I guess those of us who played Zork should be in a nursing home.

    • Three word commands, luxury.

      When I was a kid we played in squashed dodecahedral maps, and we liked it.

    • Re:If you are a semi-oldtimer on the PC gaming sce (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Chelloveck ( 14643 ) on Thursday March 19, 2015 @05:35PM (#49295345)

      Yeesh...I guess those of us who played Zork should be in a nursing home.

      Man, can you imagine how AWESOME a Zork reboot would be? Think of what you could do with it these days. User-selectable fonts, boldface *and* italics, and... dare I dream?... SUB-PIXEL RENDERING! How spooky would it be when your torch goes out to have your text dim turn by turn until you're finally eaten by that grue! To have subtle changes in typeface be a clue in the maze of twisty passages, all alike? To bask in the awe-inspiring majesty of Flood Control Dam #3 as represented by 72pt text?

      Damn, where's the Kickstarter page? I wanna pledge NOW!

      • To have subtle changes in typeface be a clue in the maze of twisty passages, all alike?

        I feel the need ... the need to tweet "Drop the bird!"

        Plugh!

  • Interplay's ENGAGE Games Online (Score:3)

    by kindbud ( 90044 ) on Thursday March 19, 2015 @05:27PM (#49295267) Homepage

    There was another version - Descent: Online - that was featured on one of the first online game services, ENGAGE Games Online, launched by Interplay in 1995. That was my second IT job. I think we supported up to 32 players in a single game, divided into two teams.

    I was more into Rolemaster: Magestorm (a multiplayer FPS/RPG from Mythic Entertainment, same studio as Dark Age of Camelot),.

  • FreeSpace (and expecially FreeSpace 2) were the better games.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by c4tp ( 526292 )

      Agreed. Both Freespace games are still ranked near the top in my lifetime of gaming experiences. I wish they get a sequel in some form (that is not Star Citizen).

  • "Star Citizen alums"? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Thursday March 19, 2015 @05:30PM (#49295289) Journal

    How the fuck can you be an "alumnus" of something THAT ISN'T EVEN RELEASED YET?

    Seriously, the dizzying anticipatory (or desperately self-justifying, depending on how you view people pouring $70+ million into the kickstarter) hype has now apparently even crossed the bounds of 'pedestrian' chronology.

    Any day now I'm expecting the nostalgic articles about how "great" Star Citizen was, along with triumphal marketing videos about how it redefined an entire genre and 'set the standard' for all the games that followed.

    • How the fuck can you be an "alumnus" of something THAT ISN'T EVEN RELEASED YET?

      I have a similar reaction to everywhere I've read this headline today. They're Star Citizen drop-outs if their departure was voluntary, and rejects if it wasn't. The bit that they'll have most demonstrated is how to take money from folks.

      I'm a SC backer, and eagerly await its eventual release, and I'm totally comfortable with the economics involved with that product, but a team who DIDN'T bring it to fruition, who only did some immeasurable part, doesn't impress me. No, the currently released modules d

      • This isn't a school where there is a mandatory graduation/etc. People enter and leave development projects all the time. In this case life priority differences got in the way of them continuing on Star Citizen (they didn't want to move to LA). If there were problems/bad blood why would Chris Roberts publicize their new kickstarter? They are neither drop-outs, nor rejects... they are game developers who moved onto a new project.
    • So less "alumni", more "drop-outs...?"

    • How the fuck can you be an "alumnus" of something THAT ISN'T EVEN RELEASED YET?

      There are lots of Albion Online alums.

  • I loved Descent, I look forward to the return of 3D controllers again.

    However, one item concerns me about this Kickstarter - under the platforms they support, they point out all the platforms Unreal 4 supports.

    Well that doesn't really say what platforms they WILL FOR SURE support if the project is backed. Also it does not say what platforms the betas will be available in. You can guess just Windows, but who knows?

  • Sol Contingency (Score:5, Interesting)

    by apharmdq ( 219181 ) on Thursday March 19, 2015 @06:21PM (#49296035)

    I'm not particularly a fan of what they're doing with this new Descent game. Tech trees? Mining? Monetization? I know they're trying to bring it to the "Modern Age," but if they're going to change so much, I'm not so sure it will be a Descent game to me.

    Sol Contingency, meanwhile, looks great and seems to be a lot closer to a proper Descent game, being made by fans who really know what they're doing. Sadly, although Interplay showed initial interest in them early last year, it seems they weren't enough of a "AAA" developer. So Interplay sent them a Cease and Desist. Fortunately, Sol Contingency is still being worked on, albeit with changes in the assets so that it doesn't infringe on the Descent IP. I'm a lot more eager to see what comes out of that game.

  • to make sure the flight/gameplay feels "old school"

    I don't want it to feel old school. I want it to feel modern, innovative, up-to-date. And yes, I played Descent 1 and 2 and loved them. But times a'changin' and technology allows for sky-limit innovation.that's what i want, an old game reinvented, not "let's make the same thing but in HD".

    • From what I've seen, the main hosted game is going full modern AAA. However, they are talking about having a "Classic" mode for people who just want something like the originals with updated graphics.
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  • They are working with a number of members of the current D1/D2 community to make sure the flight/gameplay feels "old school" and they are updating the technology and game to a new generation.

    Which I hoped Firaxis would do with the X-COM series. Imagine, after the initial joy of seeing my shiny HD troop transport land, seeing that my guys can't pass, drop, throw or pick up an item, or do whatever the hell they want within their time. Which reminds me, I should check up on UFO:AI [ufoai.org].

  • I loved playing LAN games with the Gravis, even though most mouse/keyboard players were superior.

  • Unless someone resurrects the "Space Orb" controller, I can't see any version of Descent as being much fun. It was my old Space Orb that made the game at all *playable*.

  • These things are like water! (Score:3)

    by myth24601 ( 893486 ) on Thursday March 19, 2015 @10:14PM (#49297769)

    Back in the mid 90s, I worked at a company that built protocol analyzers. During lunch break we would sometimes play Descent (2?). One day, a couple of us took a protocol analyzer and figured out which packet to push into the network to cause more mega missiles to appear (normally, there was only one or two in existence at a time).

    When we played at lunch that day, we had a hilarious time when the biggest super weapon in the game became the primary weapon. Once the other players figured it out it became a grab/shoot/die fest.

    One of the guys we pulled this on afterwords: "I picked up one mega missile and was like 'cool' then I got another, and another and another then I thought 'Holy Crap! These things are like water!"

    Good times. Now, get back to work.

  • Kali [kali.net] is still alive even though outdated. Very fun!

  • It's too bad they seem to be building it as a 3rd person perspective.

    This would be such a great game to play 1st person in 3D-stereo on the Oculus Rift, with maybe a force-feedback controller of some kind.

    • The videos are in third person, but they have confirmed it is 1st person with VR (Oculus support).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by drkim ( 1559875 )

        The videos are in third person, but they have confirmed it is 1st person with VR (Oculus support).

        Oh, thank goodness! I got worried when I saw those 3rd person videos.

        I've been HMD gaming for about 9 years, and I'm also a big Decent fan; so this should be great!

  • I fondly remember this - it was way better than Doom, and the only game I really ever played a lot and mastered, thanks to my own customized keyboard layout that let me move in several combinations of those "6 degrees" at once.

    I assume by 6 degrees they mean the 3 ways of sliding/strafing (forward-backward, up/down, and left-right), + the 3 ways of rotating (pitch, yaw, roll).

    It just sounds funny to hear "6 degrees" - it makes me think of 1/60th of a circle - not exactly freedom.

    (Loved using the Unive

    • Yes, "Degrees of Freedom" defines the number of ways a rigid body can move in three dimensional space... so in this case rotate x, rotate y, rotate z, translate x, translate y, translate z.
  • WINGMAN is doing an AMA http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/c... [reddit.com]

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