First Alpha Release of Darkages Version 2.0
The first alpha of Darkages: The Continents has been posted. Grab it from the links on the DA1 page. For the first time, the game plays
natively in Windows environments. I’m not exactly sure which ones :) - I use Windows 7, works on that. Probably works from XP to 10, too.
Linux and source code coming soon.
Modernizing a 20-year old DOS game to work on today’s computers has been an unusual experience. Part of me wanted to keep it as exactly original
as possible. But on the other side of the argument, it’s hard to justify not using at least some of comforts of modern computers. In the end I
did keep the game as original as possible, with the idea of overlaying mods in future versions to modernize the game.
The most obvious differences are quite noticeable. Foremost among them is the new title screen. I just couldn’t keep the original PowerPoint (!)
title screen. I’m not even sure if I’ll keep the new one. Most definitely, it will be polished up some more. But I tried to keep that 8-bit NES
aesthetic, including the bulky, pixelated font. More on that down below. From the very first step in the game, you will now notice pixel scrolling
instead of tile scrolling. This was actually difficult to pull off because at 320x200 resolution, pixel scrolling is SUPER CHUNKY on a 24-inch
computer monitor. The solution, in the end was to scale the tiles from 20x20 to 40x40. It gives the appearance of scrolling through half pixels.
It’s tolerable now, but perhaps I’ll double down again for smoother scrolling. After all, I’m getting almost 3000 FPS. Finally, I couldn’t help
modernize the interface just a little. Text boxes and menus are now translucent. I just love the effect. Menus are operational from the cursors,
instead of typing in numbers like on a PC console. The remainder of changes are even more minor, including more descriptive battle text that
everyone will probably just click-through without ever reading. But I feel it is these small touches that count.
There were times as well that I went out of my way to keep the game the same. The font is the best example. I actually created that font from scratch to look identical to the original game. It turned out so wonderfully old school, I’ll need to release it to the public domain. It’s nearly impossible to find old clunky fonts; most are actually too good looking to be true minimalist. The quirky quests, such as guessing the name of the hermit in the mountains is still there, including typing it the name from the keyboard. I’ll probably change that eventually, likely to a selectable menu, so that the game can be played with a gamepad.
Speaking of which, there are a few features missing from the alpha. The gamepad is a new feature I added, but have not finished yet. But it is essential for that classic console feel. Maybe alpha 2 will have it. Also missing is the music. That might be a good thing. I was able to convert the old midi files to sheet music, and can remaster them to ogg, but I should probably rewrite them as well. At the very least, I can now use console-like sounds instead of midi instrument samples.
So stay tuned in the next few weeks. I’ll keep blogging my progress. And expect to play on Linux soon.