next »

[Christian Knudsen]

Hi everybody,

I released my textmode ascii game, Privateer: Ascii Sector, on the 14th, but I've only just discovered this site.

As the name of my game suggests, it's an ASCII version of the classic Wing Commander: Privateer. It runs in Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (32 and 64-bit). You can download it at the below link:

www.asciisector.net/download

[Guert]

I'd like to try this game out but before I do, I'll wait 'till ya got like 5 or 6 posts. I'm not even sure if you are around here anymore

Later!

[Christian Knudsen]

I'm still around here...

[Guert]

Ok then. I'll wait till ya got a couple more posts around here. Others are welcome to comment btw! I know for a fact that alot of you guys enjoy de-makes...

Later!

[Pacian]

I downloaded this when it was first posted, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and seriously play it.  My first impressions:

It took me ages to work out which of the many moving dots was actually the one I was in control of.  I know that it is flashing, but the screen is so busy, it's easy to fail to notice it.  Perhaps you could start the game in a smaller location (a bar or something), so that the player can immediately see, "Hey, I'm a blinking green dot!  Mother was right!"

Also, I had to look in the manual to figure out how to quit.  Escape, Alt+F4 and clicking the little cross don't work.  Alt+X isn't obscure, but it's not what most people are used to.

Good luck with this, I'm a big Wing Commander fan, and I loved Privateer.

[Christian Knudsen]

It took me ages to work out which of the many moving dots was actually the one I was in control of.  I know that it is flashing, but the screen is so busy, it's easy to fail to notice it.  Perhaps you could start the game in a smaller location (a bar or something), so that the player can immediately see, "Hey, I'm a blinking green dot!  Mother was right!"

You're not the first to have a problem with this. Originally your dot didn't blink, but I added the blinking effect hoping it would make it easier for new players to figure out which dot they were. Obviously it's not enough. I think I'll add a circular "wipe-in" effect for the beginning of a new game, so that the screen will be black, then there'll be a small circle displaying your dot next to your ship, and this circle will expand to show the entire base. Maybe that will help.

Also, I had to look in the manual to figure out how to quit.  Escape, Alt+F4 and clicking the little cross don't work.  Alt+X isn't obscure, but it's not what most people are used to.

ALT+X is from the original Privateer, but you're right -- it's not at all intuitive. I'll consider having ESC and a "Really quit game?" screen work as well.

Good luck with this, I'm a big Wing Commander fan, and I loved Privateer.

Thanks! And thanks for the feedback!

[can-o-spam]

Ok, I'd been meaning to try this for a while. Privater was one of my all time favorites back in the day.

I just gave it a whirl on my Mac Cube G4 (@ 455 Mhz) in the latest version of DosBOX under OS X. It is impossibly slow. (No surprise there, but I thought I'd try it.)

Maybe tomorrow I'll try it on my G4 Mac Mini at the studio. It is a considerably more powerful machine. I think it is still gonna lag though.

Hope it is playable!

[Christian Knudsen]

Yeah, it's pretty processor-heavy when running in DOSBox. I've done a few code optimizations for version 0.2, but I'm not sure how noticable an effect they will have in DOSBox.

Let me know how it plays on your G4 Mac Mini!

[can-o-spam]

Ok, I tried it on my other machine.
It is a lot better (ie. I can actually get into the game) but it is still too slow to really play. Walking around the surface was a chore. That being said, it seems great with lots of depth in reproducing the systems from the original. Are some aspects even more detailed? My memory of the original is getting a little foggy.

Maybe sometime when I have access to another Windows based machine I'll try again. Or a more powerful machine to handle the emulation.

Sorry I can't be of more help. I would really like to be.

[Tommunism]

Certainly looks interesting and I wasted soo much of my life playing Privateer back in the day...I'll check it when I get back home.

Tommunism

[Christian Knudsen]

That being said, it seems great with lots of depth in reproducing the systems from the original. Are some aspects even more detailed? My memory of the original is getting a little foggy.

Well, in the original, you didn't 'walk' around on bases in the same way and you couldn't interact with the populace. This meant that all your missions were given through mission computers (except those given to you by characters related to the plot). There weren't fixer characters with random missions for you, so generally speaking the variety of missions was much smaller in the original Privateer.

For version 0.2, which I'll release within a few days, you'll also be able to hire a wingman to fly with you and give orders. You couldn't do that in the original.

As to things that have more details, the original game didn't have all the information about commodities that you'll find in Ascii Sector (such as price histories, what you paid for a commodity and what you'll earn by selling it, what the universal price is, and so on).

[can-o-spam]

Ah, ok. That makes sense. Impressive work, makes it hard to classify it as a de-make.

[rhys_vdw]

It would be nice to get the mouse to work in the combat mode.
I like the roguelike-ness of it. It does run frustratingly slowly though... Slower than it should. Still, cool idea, could do with a bit of work.
(I've never played the original wing commander)

[Christian Knudsen]

I'll look into adding mouse control for combat. As to the speed; did you run it in DOSBox?


EDIT: I've now released version 0.2 of the game. The most important changes are 5 new systems, 8 new bases, and the ability to hire a wingman from a bar.

Download it here:

www.asciisector.net/download.html

[rhys_vdw]

Ah, sorry mate, I wasn't playing it in DosBox, but I was playing in a window. It runs fine full screen.

[Christian Knudsen]

Okay, that's good to hear.

[Christian Knudsen]

I've released version 0.3 of Privateer: Ascii Sector. There's a lot of bug fixes and additions, the most important of which is the ability to engage in ground combat with other characters. The combat system is inspired by that of roguelikes -- it's turn based and divided into ranged and melee combat. Let me know what you think and be sure to let me know if you encounter any bugs.

PS: I'm also currently working on compiling my code in FreePascal with the SDL library, so the code will be platform independent and able to compile for both Win32, Linux and Mac.

www.asciisector.net

[Christian Knudsen]

Privateer: Ascii Sector v0.3.1 released!

www.asciisector.net/download.html

- Fixed bug with missions to Trou in the Bastille system.
- Fixed bug with the commodity market of Daedalus in the Icarus system.
- Added a new system and a new base.

[Hideous]

Any idea how well this works on DOS? I have my DOS computer standing there doing nothing at the moment.

[Christian Knudsen]

DOS is actually the best environment to run this game in, as it is compiled for DOS 16 bit Protected Mode.

I'm currently working on compiling for Win32, Linux and Mac, but the current version is a DOS game.