Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Stealth on May 08, 2005, 11:33:51 pm
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hell yeah. anyone remember playing them?
(http://www.argonet.co.uk/ag98/reviews/descent/gfx/deb4.jpg)
(http://images.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/action_adventure/images/descent2_200405201255.jpg)
(http://www.eqp.com/pubs/id/images/idnetfsd303_ss.jpg)
what's sad is the first two pictures, i can tell you exactly level the screenshots were taken in; how to get to the point the SS was taken; and exactly what enemies you encounter getting there :-/
been a while, but i used to game those hardcore. i don't even want to TRY to run D1 on my computer, probably couldn't get it to anyway, without major modifications and such. i'm actually going to dig up one of my old systems, or build one, just to play the old classics on, like D1 and D2, duke nukem, wolfenstein 3d, etc. etc. etc.
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im like that with diablo 2 LOD and total annihilation
starsiege to
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It's actually quite easy to get D1 and D2 to run well on a modern system. The D1X 1.43 OpenGL patch for D1 works great, except that it has some trouble with USB joysticks. Even better, Diedel has been hard at work on his D2X-W32 patch for D2; he's constantly working out new bugs and adding a few new features.
Descent is the only game I'd rate higher than Freespace in terms of sheer enjoyment. Freespace has it beat by far for singleplayer, but I've never found anything that can give me the adrenaline rush of a pulse-pounding Descent multiplayer game. It's been my favorite game for several years now; as a staff member at PlanetDescent, I can safely say that I've put some substantial time into it. Once the addiction grabs you, nothing else will suffice; you keep coming back for more six-degrees-of-freedom action. :D
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Originally posted by Mongoose
It's actually quite easy to get D1 and D2 to run well on a modern system. The D1X 1.43 OpenGL patch for D1 works great, except that it has some trouble with USB joysticks. Even better, Diedel has been hard at work on his D2X-W32 patch for D2; he's constantly working out new bugs and adding a few new features.
really? last time I tried it was so fast it was absolutly unplayable :p
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If you want descent (Especially D3) Try Sectorgame. It's got a reasonable little descent community going.
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Well, the D1 screenshot looks like somewhere from Level 2, only you've got some Z-buffering artifacts there so I'm not too sure. By that time you've only really faced Class-1 and -2 drones and Small Hulks.
The D2 screenshot is from Level 1. You go through the door directly in front of you, kill the PEST, grab the homing missile 4-pack and turn around. Should be a laser near the grating at the bottom of the picture.
The D3 screenshot is from a multiplayer level and I haven't played enough multiplayer to identify the levels that easily.
So, to answer your question... yup, I remember playing them :p
I bought both games for my new Playstation recently. Plus, I'm the Descent Evangelist in the University's Computer Games Society.
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Originally posted by Nico
really? last time I tried it was so fast it was absolutly unplayable :p
Funny thing. I have the original Descent, and it works like a dream, though I do have to use a slow-down utility. Which reminds me to go back and play it some more. :nod:
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I vaguely recall playing you Stealth? But, we should definitely play D3 sometime. Whats with the poor picture? This is how D3 should look :P :
(http://sectorgame.com/upload/2108_2004/Screenshot002.jpg)
(http://sectorgame.com/upload/2108_2004/Screenshot039.jpg)
(http://sectorgame.com/upload/0708_2004/Screenshot011.jpg)
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There was D1 once on a CGW cover disk. Runs fine with XP :)
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YO Hunt :D :D :D
yeah thanks for posting better pictures, i just google image-searched for "Descent 3" :D
Yeah i played Descent 1 for about a year, i still know the first 7 levels inside and out; Descent 2 for about 6 months (i know the first 3 levels inside and out), and then quite recently (about a year and a half to two years ago) i got Descent 3. I'd had D3 for years, but i lacked a decent system to play it on :p
I played D3 online for a while, but some of those guys are GOOOOD. Anyone remember "Diablo"? (he wrote Diablo's Cookbook), i met him :D
but yeah, it's quite possible i played with you :)
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Theres a whole load of pics at Sectorgame, in the Descent forum. We used to play bi-weekly/monthly multiplayer games and post images from it.
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Hunt Smacker, do you have a Matrox card or something??? Cuz it looks like your screenshots have environment bumpmapping. Have there been any form of graphical update to Descent 3 that allows new video cards to make it look better?
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Er no, they are just screenshots taken from 1600x1200 in OpenGL with a GF3 TI500. D3 looks golden considering the engine is seven years dated.
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I had D1, but it was so scary that I lost my nerves less than a third of the way through, and I never came anywhere close to beating it.
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I had D2, awesome game. I never got D3. It looks even better though, and no more being confined to dark caverns.
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Ah yes...I remember D1, D1: Destination Saturn, and D2 very clearly. I never did finish D2, but I got very good at it...It got to the point where I had memorized the exact damage capacity of every robot and never fired more then exactly what was needed to destroy it. There was one point in the game I never could get past, though, where I was bushwhacked by something large and nasty...don't remember what, it's been years since I played.
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Ah D3, the best multiplayer game I have played in a while... Too bad one of the install disks got rolled over by a chair and shortly after the hard drive died...
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Originally posted by Deepblue
Ah D3, the best multiplayer game I have played in a while... Too bad one of the install disks got rolled over by a chair and shortly after the hard drive died...
fook that. how about "too bad PXO went down, taking the entire multiplayer with it"
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Thats what Kali is for.
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I beat D3 and D3: Merc not to long ago. I don't know what the difficulty was though, probably trainee. Its a shame you can't play multi with a mouse though.
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I played Descent when I was just a little child, and I played it on the Mac.
Good times. I didn't know how to strafe back then.
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Wow alot of people still duking it out in Descent 1 (D1X 1.43). Just got back from a 4 way battle in TOTAL CHAOS. FUN FUN.
www.kali.net provides all the multiplayer goodness for many old games by faking ipx connections between people. Free trial (whats lock out is still unknown to me) with no time limit that I see. Can't wait to get into an 8 way battle.
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Kali, All-Seeing Eye, KQuery, and Gamespy Arcade (*blech* :p) are all ways of finding D3 servers without PXO, as is this web-based browser (http://d3.descent.cx/tracker.d3). If you're really interested, though, I'd highly recommend Vortex (http://www.slyclan.de/), a fan-made program that incorporates a server browser, level auto-download, and D3's official IRC chat channels.
Kali's pretty much the place to be for D1 and D2 games; its IPX emulation works flawlessly with both games. If you're going to run D1 on a modern machine, you'll need to download the D1X 1.43 patch (http://www.dfiles.de/download/d1/patches/d1x143w32.zip). For D2, I highly recommend D2X-W32 (http://www.brockart.de/descent/d2x.html), a patch for D2 that is being actively worked on and frequently updated by Diedel. He just added D3-style CTF and Entropy into D2; definitely a must-see. You mentioned Kali's free trial, Omniscaper; it's actually limited to 30 days. Beyond that, you either have to get a new set of trial codes with a different e-mail address or pay the $20 lifetime fee. And when I say lifetime, I mean lifetime; some people have had their serial numbers for 10 years or so. :)
Phreak, it's highly possible to play multiplayer Descent using a mouse; in fact, some of the game's best players are mousers. It's definitely not easy, though; at least in my opinion, it has a much higher learning curve than a stick. I've never attempted to fly with a mouse myself. When you're comparing things, though, nothing is more difficult than flying all-keyboard; yes, there are actually excellent pilots out there who do so. :p
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i started with descent 2. i played that game all the time. i started modding in descent 2. had a level and a few new robots as well as a new player ship. unfortunately i lost it all in a hard drive crash back in 97'. i got descent 3 the august before freespace 2 came out. i want able to play it much because the computer i had at the time was a woping 120 mhz powerhouse with a voodoo 1 card. fortunately i got a new machine later that year and d3 ran like a charm. i was able to beat the came before i got my copy of freespace 2. after that it kinda got shelved. i liked descent 2 alot beter. i liked the dark scary feel of the game. the only modern game that comes close to that feel was doom3, and that sucked.
there were a few clones, forsaken would have to be the best descent clone, it had better multi support and ran pretty fast on my machine. there was another one by eidos, teracide i think. i played the demo that was packeged with my voodoo card it was actually prety good. it had you flying through big spaceships and the game had a space sim mode as well. unfortunately i never aquired a full version.
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I did a whole load of modding in Descent 3, most of which you can find here: http://sectorgame.com/d3/levels.php ;)
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Originally posted by Mongoose
Phreak, it's highly possible to play multiplayer Descent using a mouse; in fact, some of the game's best players are mousers. It's definitely not easy, though; at least in my opinion, it has a much higher learning curve than a stick. I've never attempted to fly with a mouse myself. When you're comparing things, though, nothing is more difficult than flying all-keyboard; yes, there are actually excellent pilots out there who do so. :p
when i played D3 on PXO back when PXO still existed, the only way you can use mouse if the axes are reversed which is bull****.
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Originally posted by Mongoose
Phreak, it's highly possible to play multiplayer Descent using a mouse; in fact, some of the game's best players are mousers. It's definitely not easy, though; at least in my opinion, it has a much higher learning curve than a stick. I've never attempted to fly with a mouse myself. When you're comparing things, though, nothing is more difficult than flying all-keyboard; yes, there are actually excellent pilots out there who do so. :p
I wouldn't call myself excellent... but I fly FS keyboard-only. Any idea where I could get D3 reasonably cheap?
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Descent? PLAY PONG!
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EDIT: Never mind.
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Yes, pxo is down. However, it hasn't really hurt the descent community. On the contrary, things are actually a little better without pxo. We now have much more efficient game trackers that look and work better. The only drawback is that new players need to go to descent websites to figure out how to play multiplayer.
You actually don't even need to download anything (besides the patch and whatever level's being played) to play descent 3 online. Just go here to see all the games that are up. But obviously, it's alot better with game trackers that have autodownload and such.
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Annorax, you could probably find a copy pretty cheap on eBay or Amazon. I've also heard that Fry's Electronics stores sometimes carry copies, so if you've got one in your area, check it out.
Phreak, you're getting reversing the axes confused with mouselook; they're too separate things. You can choose whether or not to reverse the Y-axis in your controller config. (Personally, I can't stand playing any game with a non-reversed Y-axis, espeically after playing Descent and Freespace for all these years. The first thing I do in any console game that requires the use of the stick is to reverse that axis; it just feels much more natural that way. :)) Mouselook, on the other hand, allows a mouse user to completly spin the ship 180 degrees by moving it to the left or right, similar to most FPS games, unlike the normal steering motion that the keyboard and joystick use. This is obviously a pretty cheap option, since it allows a mouse user to spin around at a moment's notice. Just about every D3 server has always blocked people with mouselook enabled; you can disable it in one of the config menus.
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Originally posted by Mongoose
Phreak, you're getting reversing the axes confused with mouselook; they're too separate things. You can choose whether or not to reverse the Y-axis in your controller config. (Personally, I can't stand playing any game with a non-reversed Y-axis, espeically after playing Descent and Freespace for all these years. The first thing I do in any console game that requires the use of the stick is to reverse that axis; it just feels much more natural that way. :)) Mouselook, on the other hand, allows a mouse user to completly spin the ship 180 degrees by moving it to the left or right, similar to most FPS games, unlike the normal steering motion that the keyboard and joystick use. This is obviously a pretty cheap option, since it allows a mouse user to spin around at a moment's notice. Just about every D3 server has always blocked people with mouselook enabled; you can disable it in one of the config menus.
well why didn't anyone tell me that existed :)?
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Ah the memories of one of the greatest games ever.
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hey hunt, where do i remember you from? name sounds familiar.
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As "Hunt Smacker?" Uh. Hmm. I only ever used "Hunter" in Descent and various aliases. VBB? Eve online?
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I lost the Descent 3 CD that came with my Voodoo3. :(
Is there any place to get old games like this?
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Ebay :)
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Either that or Amazon. From what I've heard, Fry's electronics stores often have bargain-bin copies, so try there if there's one in your area. You might also get lucky and find a copy of one of the Descent games in the bargain bins of your local game stores; I've seen D2 several times in my local Electronics Boutique, and I managed to find both of the PS1 Descent releases in GameStop. Other than that, there are always...other...methods of obtaining things. :nervous:
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it musta been the vbb, never played eve
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yeah he was pretty prominent in the VBB :)
hey anyone up for a few games later tonight or something?
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I saw Descent playing in one of the computers in a super store called Incredible Universe. I bought it for him and watched him play it ever night.
(I was about 8 or 9 then)
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Wow, I remember that store. They've been gone for a long time. If you really want to find a copy of Descent, it shouldn't be that hard. It's not like you're looking for Freespace 2.
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Originally posted by JR2000Z
I saw Descent playing in one of the computers in a super store called Incredible Universe. I bought it for him and watched him play it ever night.
(I was about 8 or 9 then)
watched "who" play it?
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Originally posted by EtherShock
Wow, I remember that store. They've been gone for a long time. If you really want to find a copy of Descent, it shouldn't be that hard. It's not like you're looking for Freespace 2.
With how hard it is to find copies of D3, you might as well be. Interplay screwed over D3's marketing just about as badly as they did FS2's. :p
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Descent 3 is going for $1
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/B00000K2YD/all/ref=dp_pb_a/102-1699213-5076147
D3 Merc going for a penny :wtf:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000302KC/qid=1116181550/sr=2-3/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_3/102-1699213-5076147
FS2 goes for about $80
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/B00002EPYV/all/ref=dp_pb_a/102-1699213-5076147
FS2 SOTY goes for insane amounts of money
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/B00004KHB0/all/ref=dp_pb_a/102-1699213-5076147