Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: TopAce on March 31, 2004, 11:25:14 am
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Does anyone know where I can download Descent 1 for free?
I tried to do a search on google, but all the links I found were dead. Do you know a good site where I can download very old games for free?
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That would be illegal, so no link for you.
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Illegal? A Descent 1 download? I thought old games like that are completely free.
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Originally posted by Woolie Wool
That would be illegal, so no link for you.
Decent 1 is abandonware
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Originally posted by Drew
Decent 1 is abandonware
Sorry, but what is abandonware?
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I'm not sure about Descent but I know where you can get Elite for free (and legal).
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Games that were commercially abandoned after they were released. Freeware if you will.
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Originally posted by ARothers
...I know where you can get Elite for free (and legal).
Wait .. I believe I know which game you are talking about. Is it an older commando game?
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Wait .. I believe I know which game you are talking about. Is it an older commando game?
No, its the first game that ever came out on PC and the the first 3D space opera and was first released on BBC microcomputer in 1990. Basically, if there wasn't an Elite, there wouldn't be a FreeSpace 2. Try this: www.iancgbell.clara.net
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I was thinking of Infiltrator. I read first time about it in a local gaming magazine's 'what happened fifteen years ago' head. I had that in mind for a reason I still don't know. Maybe both are very simple names, and it mixed my brain.
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Originally posted by TopAce
Illegal? A Descent 1 download? I thought old games like that are completely free.
Why are you suddenly speaking perfect English after having bad grammar for so long? It's kind of odd.:)
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Computer Gaming World released it on one of their CDs once, try to find it :)
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Originally posted by ARothers
No, its the first game that ever came out on PC and the the first 3D space opera and was first released on BBC microcomputer in 1990.
1984 (sorry for nitpicking).
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Originally posted by Woolie Wool
Why are you suddenly speaking perfect English after having bad grammar for so long? It's kind of odd.:)
Somebody hit me with a magic wand. ;)
But I doubt that my English became perfect. But thanks, anyway.
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Originally posted by Woolie Wool
Why are you suddenly speaking perfect English after having bad grammar for so long? It's kind of odd.:)
It is possible for him to speak it correctly, I suppose.
Anywho, it's not always illegal, before you go jumping to conclusions. :p
Edit: TopAce, have you looked on the-underdogs.org?
That is the HOTU page, right?
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Originally posted by Raa Tor'h
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Edit: TopAce, have you looked on the-underdogs.org?
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Not yet. I am now browsing it.
Found Descent II, but it is presumably not free, it has a dirty 'Buy it' icon.
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Shame really, D2 is definitely the best of the range. Although Descent was amazingly good fun as well. Level 7 pwned :D
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Check Home of the Underdogs - they explain everything.
Though IIRC, Descent I is not among their downloads - then again I could be wrong.
As for the legal turmoil - if HOTU has it, even if it's not legal you're safe to download and use it. HOTU has become quite popular, and are keen not to get in trial with any company, so whatever they have for download is pretty much as abandoned as a software can be - even freeware in several cases.
Recently thanks to several films (Bethesda - Terminator games) and "special-releases" (Hmm...Intergay 20 ect..Hmm) they had to remove several titles.
Extreme Assault is up for download! (Last time I checked). That's another classic from the action-arcade-3d-shooter genre.
It has better graphics than Descent 1/2 even if it's not 360 degrees stomach wrenching action.
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[color=66ff00]abandonware is a grey area, the owners don't publish it anymore so you can't buy it. As a response you can find it 'archived' on many websites. Hard to know where to stand on this, I personally have no problem with it but there's a lot of stupid publishers out there that don't want people sharing their old games.
Bit dumb really. :doubt:
[/color]
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The used software store up the street from my house has D1 boxed in good condition for 5.99
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well since Microsoft doesn't publish Windows 95 anymore, does anyone have a link where i can download it?
:doubt:
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Originally posted by Kalfireth
Level 7 pwned :D
let me guess. wasn't Level 7 the last level of the Descent Demo? :p Yeah, i spent so many hours playing that level, i still know it like the back of my hand. i don't know anyone that knows that level as well as me :D we should play it sometime ;)
Oh, and if you ever want any Descent game (1, 2, 3, Freespace, Freespace 2) rather than post a topic and getting in trouble with the administrators and Gamespy, rather just send me a PM :) :nod: :)
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Yeah, Descent Level 7 was the mid-point between the first half of the game and the "proper" part of the game that got progressively harder. It featured the first boss you fought against that used smart missiles for weapons and what have you. There was also an excess of shields and open space which made it a laugh.
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that was the easiest boss ever.
in the end, when i mastered the level, i could beat that ***** with level 1 lasers and 6 concussion missiles :p
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I never said it was hard, just that I enjoyed it :p
Actually, the one that really got to me was the level 4 boss of D2 (I think it was 4). It fired flash missiles and ended up pinning me with them so I couldn't see where the hell I was supposed to go to avoid it.
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well yeah, i never said it was hard either, i'm just saying that i mastered the map :P
yeah, Descent 2 had some pretty unique bosses.
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D3 owns. Period.
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oh hell yeah it does!
i'm still mastering the slide up/down left/right controls... i've never really used them in Descent 1 and 2, because there's not many open spaces in D1 and D2, but D3 is a lot different.
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You know, I've got D3 sitting here, never installed. Was it good?
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Yes. Especially for multi-play.
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Rebuttal originating from the wisdom of mikhael
Thou know, I've got D3 sitting here, never installed. Was it good?
It was bloody excellent. I never finished it, tho, coz I got sent to a secret level at some point, and that stupid secret level I could not beat ( it was full of "accelerating" areas, you know, you enter a corridor and bloooof! you're catapulted at high speed at the other side... where frag missile and gauss turrets await you... at the begining, was smart, I was dropping mines and stuff, but hell, there was not enough of those so I ran out of 'em :( ).
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I remember that level, was a bit hard to get out of, there was like a key you had to get and it was in some no dicript place, and guide bot was about as useless as... a pooh stick
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Mmh, I remember trying playing it on multi when I was on dialup :p
I could never play, I was dead BEFORE I respawned, every time :p Now THAT was lag :D
Too bad, coz I owned when I was playing D1 on local network :(
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Hmmm, I need a good game to distract me during the Easter break. I'll see if I can borrow D3 from a friend of mine. :)
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Originally posted by Nico
It was bloody excellent.
I might install it then.
Am I correct in assuming the engine allows for full six degrees of freedom (pitch, bank, yaw, strafe left/right, strafe up/down, forward/reverse)? If so I'll have as much fun programming the stick and throttle for it as I will playing it. ;)
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yup, that's Descent's trademark, controles so complex it takes longer to set up your stick than it does to play the first level (literaly) I didn't like were the cutscenes went, but the game it's self was great for the most part. I think the bosses were too easy especaly the last one, I liked D2 better in this respect especaly,
in D2 the boss levels were an extention of the boss, and you were freak'n terifyed of the boss by the time you got to it, usualy I steaked out near the entrence of the boss areanas and just lobbed guided missles at them untill I saw they were in a good atack position, then I'd jump at 'em and unload as much ordenence as I could before ducking back out and seeing the wall that was behind me explode in a huge collom of fire
one thing you'll be happy about no more theifes on every level, I hated those things in D2, like a little mini-boss that was always my first priority, kill the theif, now there is only one particularly memorable instance with a theif bot in D3, you'll probly find it interesting
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I have absolutely no idea what you just said.
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The thief bot. A darn thing that hunts you down ( Now THAT is AI ) through the whole level, slips behind you, and steals a handfull of your equipement. Which can be very annoying if it's the energy to shield converter, for exemple :p
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Of course, when you kill it you get most/all the stuff it stole back.
I always found the cheat to make the Guidebot crazy quite cool - it started firing Mega Missiles at everything it saw. Usually taking you out with it.
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You know, the people who are saying they can beat the Level 7 D1 boss easily... what difficulty level is this?
*has yet to beat the game on anything other than Rookie and Trainee
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MMm, admitedly my highest was medium. I don't like to lose ;)
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you know, i really should reinstall D1 again
*has gotten free from a PCGAMER Disk*
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Originally posted by Nico
The thief bot. A darn thing that hunts you down ( Now THAT is AI ) through the whole level, slips behind you, and steals a handfull of your equipement. Which can be very annoying if it's the energy to shield converter, for exemple :p
I've heard that if you're using the God Mode cheat, it will take that too.
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Actually, there's no god-mode per se, rather, you just get invulnerability. But since it's an "item" the thief bot can steal it (luckily it doesn't become invulnerable itself).
I hate the thiefbot, it kept me looking over my shoulder all the time ready to it the proximity bomb button. It's so annoying when you're moving along, thinking you're so cool with the fusion cannon and gauss cannons fully loaded and ready to bear and then it goes and steals them and you find youself using the spreadfire eating its exhaust.
It was always so satisfying to kill that thing.
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and it had that creepy hum sound
and for a garbege scow the thing was damn manuverable
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It was the funniest foe, tho, never any other game made me run after an enemy like that. Some awesome chases :)
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i shoulda gotten descent 3 when i had the chance, i missed out on so much :blah:
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Originally posted by ChronoReverse
You know, the people who are saying they can beat the Level 7 D1 boss easily... what difficulty level is this?
*has yet to beat the game on anything other than Rookie and Trainee
Insane, of course. It's not hard... Smart missiles are slow, and so are their projectiles. Just duck inside the center tower deal each time and you'll be fine.
The real trick is killing all of his support bots as well, without losing a single shield point. :)
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Originally posted by ARothers
No, its the first game that ever came out on PC and the the first 3D space opera and was first released on BBC microcomputer in 1990. Basically, if there wasn't an Elite, there wouldn't be a FreeSpace 2. Try this: www.iancgbell.clara.net
more accurately: if there wasn't Wing commander there wouldn'y by X-wing, or FreeSpace 2, or Starlancer, or Free Lancer, etc
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yeah, like if there wasn't any of those game, nobody would have thought of "hey, would be cool to fly spaceships like in starwars" :doubt:
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Nico: Wrong, it was the success of Wing Commander 1 that launched the genre to the forefront for nearly a decade
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Kaz is right Venom. Sure, people might have wondered what it would be like to fly around like in Star Wars. The thing is, Wing Commander did two very important things, and did them very successfully. First, it showed that computers were capable of being full fledged story telling machine and pulling the player into that story. Second, it showed that space combat can be a compelling backdrop upon which to hang a complex interactive story (not a chain of events, a plotted story). Without Wing Commander's success, the genre would not have taken off like it did. Lucasarts wouldn't have gone out on a limb with Xwing.
As for Descent: This game is hard as hell! :) You gotta really adjust your brain to the controls big time. I had to ditch the analog throttle and just go with forward/reverse slides. I also had to seperate the 'roll' keys off by themselves so I wouldn't accidently hit them. Its kinda hard to get used to the movement and combat with more than four 'bots is tough. I suppose I'll get used to it, though. I'm not sure how much I like it yet, but I'll at least give first several levels a try.
I swear, I spent ten minutes tweaking the controls for every minute I played the game. :wtf:
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Originally posted by mikhael
I swear, I spent ten minutes tweaking the controls for every minute I played the game. :wtf:
Originally posted by Bobboau
yup, that's Descent's trademark, controles so complex it takes longer to set up your stick than it does to play the first level (literaly)
:)
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Indeed, you did warn me. :)
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you know I played that game with just the keyboard (D2), forward thrust was num_5 up,down,left,right were on the num pad, I used the directional (arrows) keys for slideing, pad_enter was reverse, and pad_del for bomb dropping, took me two months to get that down.
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Originally posted by Kazan
Nico: Wrong, it was the success of Wing Commander 1 that launched the genre to the forefront for nearly a decade
I didn't say it wasn't the case, I said that even if WC never existed, there would still be space sims. As was said before, Elite came first, for exemple, not WC ( Elite, 1986, WC, 1990 ). One year after WC2 ( 1991 ) , we got Epic ( 1992 - I can't believe nobody remembers that one, it was in full 3D, had a cool plot, and even had ground missions ), but maybe people remember its sequel, Inferno? I dunno how it was in your countries, but both were really hyped down there, I just can't figure out how they got forgotten like that :doubt:
But mainly, there was that one game I can't remember the name to save my life ( very frustrating ), it was at about the same time, it had cool "Starship Troopers like" cutscenes ( TV news flash ), a cool plot, etc. But I can't find it back, hargh.
As for Descent, I played both 1 and 2 with keyboard only, started 3 with joystick but went back to keyboard+mouse :p
used tab for primary, q for secondary, z and s for pitch up down, and about everything else was on the num pad. worked very well :)