Let's Play - The Daikatana Demo!

Uncle_Balsamic

Battlecruiser: 3000 AD is amazing. I haven't played that game in years.
Anyway I won't hear a word said against it even if it s pretty rubbish...

AaronKI

Einhander wrote: »

Ok, I am now on a mission. I want to play the worst that PC gaming has to offer (that my archaic system can handle). I'm running a Pentium 3 500MHz with 384MB RAM and a 16MB Rage! 128 (I mistakenly wrote a Rage! II in the op) running XP, but I can DosBox whatever won't run natively. Here is what I've got so far:

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing: 1GHz with 64MB RAM - So it's out.

Battlecruiser: 3000 A.D.: Pentium 60 with 8MB RAM and SVGA graphics - It's doable

Daikatana: requires anywhere from Pentium 166MHz to 233MHz (depending on if you look at the box or the FAQs), 32MB RAM, 4MB VRAM - Ok, in the clear here as well

Extreme Painbrawl: Pentium 90, 16MB RAM - Ok, this one's clear too

So, what other games should I put on the list, and more importantly, where can I find copies of them? Battlecruiser is the only one that was released freeware.

Nitro Family.

Spoiler:

The game has some good ideas (the dual weapon system was neat), but it's really bad. Though, it falls into the "so bad that it's good" category.

Amazing Features:
* Rage through 15 fully destructible levels and beat back 50 over-the-top enemies
* Deadly dual-hand weapon system helps you fight never-ending hordes
* Blast enemies in mid-air with streams of bullets for maximum devastation
* Go into Euphoria mode, where the action slows but the killing intensifies
* Rely on Maria, your piggy-backing partner, with her turtle-neck whip, to watch your back

The game's trailer (NSFW). The pop/punk song that plays in it is actually the first level's music. The song only lasts about a minute and 30 seconds and it loops endlessly.

Amazon has new copies for $10, but I found mine in a hardware store bargain bin for $3.

Oh... I just dug out the box and the requirements are a bit too high:
Pentium III 733 MHz
128MB RAM
32 MB Graphics card with DX9 or higher


Oh well. Someone else might want to torture themselves with it.

Kagera

Uncle_Balsamic wrote: »

Battlecruiser: 3000 AD is amazing. I haven't played that game in years.
Anyway I won't hear a word said against it even if it s pretty rubbish...

Wait, you've actually played the game? That's great!

Tell me, what exactly do you do in the game?

darleysam

I made this Christmas card for the photoshop thread, and I think absolutely no-one commented on it. Wonder if it's more relevant for this thread, anyway..

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Einhander

Oh God darleysam Romero looks like Gay Wolverine in that picture.

darleysam

You know, I didn't realise that at the time, but you're correct. Mutant broken-heart healing powers?

Uncle_Balsamic

I dunno...fly stuff and shoot stuff I suppose.

RichardTauber

Kagera wrote: »

Uncle_Balsamic wrote: »

Battlecruiser: 3000 AD is amazing. I haven't played that game in years.
Anyway I won't hear a word said against it even if it s pretty rubbish...

Wait, you've actually played the game? That's great!

Tell me, what exactly do you do in the game?

You wait for an error message and then you get to this really realistic menu that looks just like your desktop and ... hey!

Cold Koala

gilrain wrote: »

Easily the most misogynistic thing I've seen this year.

Haha. I love that you said this on December 31st.

emnmnme

Lork wrote: »

RichardTauber wrote: »

Einhander wrote: »

Ok, I am now on a mission. I want to play the worst that PC gaming has to offer (that my archaic system can handle). I'm running a Pentium 3 500MHz with 384MB RAM and a 16MB Rage! 128 (I mistakenly wrote a Rage! II in the op) running XP, but I can DosBox whatever won't run natively. Here is what I've got so far:

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing: 1GHz with 64MB RAM - So it's out.

Battlecruiser: 3000 A.D.: Pentium 60 with 8MB RAM and SVGA graphics - It's doable

Daikatana: requires anywhere from Pentium 166MHz to 233MHz (depending on if you look at the box or the FAQs), 32MB RAM, 4MB VRAM - Ok, in the clear here as well

Extreme Painbrawl: Pentium 90, 16MB RAM - Ok, this one's clear too

So, what other games should I put on the list, and more importantly, where can I find copies of them? Battlecruiser is the only one that was released freeware.

I've got the original Battlecruiser cd somewhere and while I got the game running a few times, figuring out what the hell to do after that is basically impossible. I saw a big round thing in space and I could launch small fighters and then it was over.

I figured out how to crash into a planet. I think that makes me an advanced player.

PC Accelerator magazine had the Ass Olympics a few times as a parody. Extreme Bull Rider and Splat! were big winners in '99. IGN had a funny review on Varmint Hunter a few years back, too.

Dr Snofeld

My favourite part of this story is how Romero moved his studio to this fancy expensive new office with a big glass ceiling. Nobody could see their monitors. The programmers had to make little tents over their desks to get anything done.

...or so I've read.

Couscous

Dr Snofeld wrote: »

My favourite part of this story is how Romero moved his studio to this fancy expensive new office with a big glass ceiling. Nobody could see their monitors. The programmers had to make little tents over their desks to get anything done.

...or so I've read.

http://uk.gamespot.com/features/btg-daikatana/p5_04.html
It also made it hot as hell. My favorite part is when the team decided to quit.

"We had a skin for a little arrow," remembers Romero, "and it was 1300x960 pixels. It was out of control." An artist inexperienced with games had drawn the arrow, which would never take up more than a few pixels on the screen, at a higher resolution than most monitors could display at the time.

:lol:

Zxerol

Ah, I remember that Gamespot article. Written back, you know, when Gamespot didn't completely suck ass. It's a good read.

emnmnme

emnmnme wrote: »

There was a sexy parody mp3 someone made using the voice clips from Daikatana, similar to the famous Resident Evil one.

NSFW but funny as hell.
http://www.bellinghamlan.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-79070.html

Couscous

Perhaps Romero's greatest influence in the design was ChronoTrigger, a Square Soft role-playing
game for the Super Nintendo that dealt with time travel.

Haha.

emnmnme

titmouse wrote: »

Perhaps Romero's greatest influence in the design was ChronoTrigger, a Square Soft role-playing
game for the Super Nintendo that dealt with time travel.

Haha.

In the Masters of Doom book, the Daikatana was the prized weapon in John Carmack's D&D games. John Romero became determined to obtain it and eventually he did get it. Carmack then explained that by taking the Daikatana, Romero doomed the D&D world by demonic invasions or somethingarather. Carmack folded up the board and never played again.

darleysam

I just find this funny.

Gilder

I really wish that the gigantic arrow skin made it into the game. It would have been magnificent and it would be the perfect thing to use for why Daikatana is so horrible. "Why's the game so bad? Well, it had an arrow skin that was 1300x960 pixels large. Does that work for you?"

Couscous

emnmnme wrote: »

titmouse wrote: »

Perhaps Romero's greatest influence in the design was ChronoTrigger, a Square Soft role-playing
game for the Super Nintendo that dealt with time travel.

Haha.

In the Masters of Doom book, the Daikatana was the prized weapon in John Carmack's D&D games. John Romero became determined to obtain it and eventually he did get it. Carmack then explained that by taking the Daikatana, Romero doomed the D&D world by demonic invasions or somethingarather. Carmack folded up the board and never played again.

He really didn't think the naming of the game through, did he? I'm surprised he didn't name the game "The Titanic." The story is really depressing.

Kimbrell worked with the Quake source for a few weeks, and by April of 1997 the employees started arriving. Joey Liaw, a high school senior who scored a 1600 on his SAT, deferred his admission to Stanford so he could work with Romero. Sverre Kvermno, who used to clean hospital halls in Norway in the early '90s, left Xatrix Entertainment in Los Angeles so he could join Romero in Dallas. Kvermno's reason for leaving Xatrix was simple, as he told Wired in March 1998: "I really wanted to be with Romero."

Zombiemambo

Every time I see Romero, the first thing I think of is, "Man, that guy looks like such a douchebag." It's not because I hate him or anything, but it's like looking at Brett Ratner. He's just so...douchey looking.

Aselith

gilrain wrote: »

Waka Laka wrote: »

Daikatana Interview for teh lulz

Romero plays left-handed. Maybe that's his problem.

/handist

Edit: also, camera pans down from Stevie's face, focuses on her boobs, than pans back up. In mid-interview, while she's talking about level design. The filmer is just saying "Mmhm, mmhm," while she's talking. Easily the most misogynistic thing I've seen this year.

I appreciated the cameramans thoughtfulness. My eyes were already there, of course, but a better shot never hurts.

Vytae

In the Masters of Doom book, the Daikatana was the prized weapon in John Carmack's D&D games. John Romero became determined to obtain it and eventually he did get it. Carmack then explained that by taking the Daikatana, Romero doomed the D&D world by demonic invasions or somethingarather. Carmack folded up the board and never played again.

Thats such an awesome book,its one of the few hardcovers i dont regret buying. Really shows you how off the rails Romero was with such a distant grasp on reality. It also shows how ridiculously brilliant Carmack is. He is literally the Coder equivalent of Einstein except he puts his theories into practice.

emnmnme

Vytae wrote: »

In the Masters of Doom book, the Daikatana was the prized weapon in John Carmack's D&D games. John Romero became determined to obtain it and eventually he did get it. Carmack then explained that by taking the Daikatana, Romero doomed the D&D world by demonic invasions or somethingarather. Carmack folded up the board and never played again.

Thats such an awesome book,its one of the few hardcovers i dont regret buying. Really shows you how off the rails Romero was with such a distant grasp on reality. It also shows how ridiculously brilliant Carmack is. He is literally the Coder equivalent of Einstein except he puts his theories into practice.

Off the rails? The book made it seem like Romero was a regular Joe intoxicated with success and hype. He even had a good sense of humor when he found out his head on a pike was the final boss for Doom 2. He didn't take it out but instead added the rest of the teams' heads on pikes in the game.

gilrain

Yeah, Carmack is amazing. Last I heard, he was making cellphone games -- he still doing that? Are they good? I have a Motorola Q, and I imagine it plays games.

Couscous

gilrain wrote: »

Yeah, Carmack is amazing. Last I heard, he was making cellphone games -- he still doing that? Are they good? I have a Motorola Q, and I imagine it plays games.

The last game I remember him making was the Doom RPG.
http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3139159
It looks decent.

AaronKI

http://www.orcsandelves.com/
There's also Orcs & Elves, which has a DS version.

Sceptre

Isn't Romero still doing cellphone games too? I remember something about package delivery.

emnmnme

Did Carmack make an appearance at Quakecon in 2007?

Zombiemambo

IMO, Carmack is the reason for Romero's success. He's talented and level-headed, and I think he kind of evened out the unrestrained enthusiasm Romero had (and might still have).

Einhander

Carmack cooking outcell phone games makes me sad. I think he could really be coding some incredible stuff on next gen consoles and powerful PCs. I played Doom RPG on my phone, and it was pretty awesome, but the only option I had through my carrier was a version that expired after 3 months, and then it expired, and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $5 for it again.

I know Romero was working on mobile games for a while, but now I think he has some new FPS idea he's working on.

GUTS

Carmack/ Romero are the game industry equivalents of Francis Ford Coppola/Brian De Palma, or atleast thats what they remind me of.

As to topic at hand, i have read so many different articles and accounts of the terrible mis-management by Romero during his Daikatana days, that it still makes me wonder what the higher-ups were thinking bankrolling this madman. Still, he was involved in some truly great games and will forever be considered as a legend by me.

Undead Scottsman

emnmnme wrote: »

Vytae wrote: »

In the Masters of Doom book, the Daikatana was the prized weapon in John Carmack's D&D games. John Romero became determined to obtain it and eventually he did get it. Carmack then explained that by taking the Daikatana, Romero doomed the D&D world by demonic invasions or somethingarather. Carmack folded up the board and never played again.

Thats such an awesome book,its one of the few hardcovers i dont regret buying. Really shows you how off the rails Romero was with such a distant grasp on reality. It also shows how ridiculously brilliant Carmack is. He is literally the Coder equivalent of Einstein except he puts his theories into practice.

Off the rails? The book made it seem like Romero was a regular Joe intoxicated with success and hype. He even had a good sense of humor when he found out his head on a pike was the final boss for Doom 2. He didn't take it out but instead added the rest of the teams' heads on pikes in the game.

What? Are you thinking of Mortal Kombat? Romero's response to the head on the pike in Doom 2 was to have the sound guy (Bobby Prince I think.. I know Prince did the music but I'm not 100% if he did the sound) record Romero saying "To win the game, you have to kill me, John Romero", reverse it and add all sorts of crazy effects and digitizations to it so it sounded really creepy.

Zombiemambo wrote: »

IMO, Carmack is the reason for Romero's success. He's talented and level-headed, and I think he kind of evened out the unrestrained enthusiasm Romero had (and might still have).

Alternatively, I think Romero added a lot of personality and fun to id's games. Without him, they wound up becoming bland and uninspired, with only the technology really standing out. Carmack is a coding god, but he doesn't have the full deck when it comes to game design, IMO.

Einhander wrote: »

Carmack cooking outcell phone games makes me sad. I think he could really be coding some incredible stuff on next gen consoles and powerful PCs. I played Doom RPG on my phone, and it was pretty awesome, but the only option I had through my carrier was a version that expired after 3 months, and then it expired, and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $5 for it again.

I know Romero was working on mobile games for a while, but now I think he has some new FPS idea he's working on.

The reason Carmack likes making cellphone games is that they give him a real challenge. He enjoys trying to figure out how to get his designs to run on a mulitude of finicky platforms that have miniscule graphic and cpu outputs compared to PCs.

Couscous

This is a good interview with Carmack.
http://ds.ign.com/articles/833/833894p1.html

IGN: So I heard that you created the engine for Orcs and Elves for the DS in four days. Truth, or an exaggeration? If it is true, how the heck is that possible?

John Carmack: It is true that I wrote the 3D code in four days, but I had a good setup for it. The Fountainhead team had gone through the initial learning curve of working with the DS dev tools, so the game was basically running when I got it. They had also done some test models and a first cut at a non-tile based level model, so I had data to work on the new functionality with.

Once or twice a year I go on "working retreats", where I lock myself in a hotel room for two weeks with no internet connection for completely focused work. I tackled the DS work first this time. I had read the reference guides, I understood what the hardware did, and I had a pretty good idea how I was going to structure everything. Fortunately, I didn't hit any blind alleys, and the implementation went pretty much as I expected it to. After four days, all of the low level functionality for displaying the general purpose 3D levels and moving around models and sprites was implemented, and the Fountainhead team took it back over to finish all the detail work of the game.

IGN: Since this is your first Nintendo DS project, what was it like poking at the hardware?

Carmack: It was probably the most fun platform that I have personally worked on. The early consoles that I worked on (SNES, Genesis-32X, and Jaguar) had fun hardware and full documentation, but a lousy development tool chain. A lot of later consoles had much better development tools, but they started playing secretive with the exact hardware specs, at least around console introduction time.

While there are a few nooks on the DS that aren't documented, they weren't things I cared about, so to me it was almost perfect. It is a shame that homebrew development can't be officially sanctioned and supported, because it would be a wonderful platform for a modern generation of programmers to be able to get a real feel for low level design work, to be contrasted with the high level web and application work that so many entry level people start with.

darleysam

Einhander wrote: »

Carmack cooking outcell phone games makes me sad. I think he could really be coding some incredible stuff on next gen consoles and powerful PCs. I played Doom RPG on my phone, and it was pretty awesome, but the only option I had through my carrier was a version that expired after 3 months, and then it expired, and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $5 for it again.

I know Romero was working on mobile games for a while, but now I think he has some new FPS idea he's working on.

You do know id are working on other stuff too, right? Rage, for instance? Go look up 'megatextures', he's still busy with some impressive stuff.

themocaw

Nitro Family

Any game where I play as a massive musclebound man with his wife riding on him piggy-back should be great. I say should be.

Legba

themocaw wrote: »

Nitro Family

Any game where I play as a massive musclebound man with his wife riding on him piggy-back should be great. I say should be.

The trailer looks awesome.

Xagarath

Einhander wrote: »

Ok, I am now on a mission. I want to play the worst that PC gaming has to offer (that my archaic system can handle). I'm running a Pentium 3 500MHz with 384MB RAM and a 16MB Rage! 128 (I mistakenly wrote a Rage! II in the op) running XP, but I can DosBox whatever won't run natively. Here is what I've got so far:

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing: 1GHz with 64MB RAM - So it's out.

Battlecruiser: 3000 A.D.: Pentium 60 with 8MB RAM and SVGA graphics - It's doable

Daikatana: requires anywhere from Pentium 166MHz to 233MHz (depending on if you look at the box or the FAQs), 32MB RAM, 4MB VRAM - Ok, in the clear here as well

Extreme Painbrawl: Pentium 90, 16MB RAM - Ok, this one's clear too

So, what other games should I put on the list, and more importantly, where can I find copies of them? Battlecruiser is the only one that was released freeware.

You want Big Brother: The Game, Plumbers don't wear ties, and Star Trek: Starship Commander 1 and 2.
Oh, and as many Lula games as you can cope with before imploding.

Stupornaut

Legba wrote: »

themocaw wrote: »

Nitro Family

Any game where I play as a massive musclebound man with his wife riding on him piggy-back should be great. I say should be.

The trailer looks awesome.

Was I hallucinating? Was that actually a Japanese-developed FPS*?

*not going into the whole Metroid Prime FPS-or-not semantics

Daedalus

Stupornaut wrote: »

*not going into the whole Metroid Prime FPS-or-not semantics

You don't need to; Metroid Prime was developed by Texas-based Retro Studios.

Now, Lost Planet was a Japanese-developed FPS.

AaronKI

Stupornaut wrote: »

Legba wrote: »

themocaw wrote: »

Nitro Family

Any game where I play as a massive musclebound man with his wife riding on him piggy-back should be great. I say should be.

The trailer looks awesome.

Was I hallucinating? Was that actually a Japanese-developed FPS*?

*not going into the whole Metroid Prime FPS-or-not semantics

Wasn't Metroid Prime was developed in the US?

Anyway, yeah. I believe the team was Japanese. When I bought the game, I started searching for info about it and I came across an interview with the lead designer. The developer webpage (Delphieye) seems to be gone now, but I seem to remember that he had a Japanese name. He basically said that it was an homage to Serious Sam. (Also, it's running on a modified version of the Serious Engine)

http://www.gamershell.com/download_5261.shtml

Here's the demo of it if anyone is interested. There's some fun to be had if you look past all of the flaws. Though, it might be worth playing just to see how absurd the game is.