WHAT GAMES ARE YOU PLAYING THESE DAYS

[Gil_Hamilton]

I'm too spoiled to play Doom in Dosbox now. I must have my hardware 3D rendered nonsense with dynamic lighting, free look over ledges that actually shows you what's below you, and maybe some decent fan made replacement models of the monsters and weapons.

Graphics Whore!

My half brother got me into zdoom or jdoom a couple of years ago, and while I found it quite novel and fun(and it was cool that the music was like it was in dos and not that shitty midi music they used for windows doom), I prefer to play doom in dos.

Uhhh.... DOS DOOM used MIDI for the music. How it sounded was ENTIRELY down to what MIDI hardware you had.

[Rashidi]

to be fair, that midis sound much better there as it was designed to be played on OPL chipset sound cards.
however, when such midi played on MPU-401 clone alike (M$ approach since win98 or later), it sucks.

[Gonzo]

Uhhh.... DOS DOOM used MIDI for the music. How it sounded was ENTIRELY down to what MIDI hardware you had.

Really? Fuck, the music always sounded awesome to me in DOS, but the windows doom music sounded so bad in comparison that I thought they had just done shitty midi covers of the originals for the windows version.

[kode54]

That depends on what MIDI driver you used. The original DOS version of the game had a OPL2/OPL3 MIDI driver that featured a layered instrument set, where most General MIDI instruments had paired two operator instruments that played for each key, although there was only a limited number of voices that could play at once, so that was a polyphony of 9 keys at once. (Although it was presumed that the player dropped the secondary key sounds of older notes to make room for new notes.)

Windows had no such note layering with its OPL MIDI driver.

Of course, by now, you should have been able to compare with Windows on a decent MIDI driver with wavetable synthesis capability. Or you could use the ripped MUS (or converted to MIDI) files with a proper player as well, such as foo_midi using a large SoundFont bank, or the Yamaha S-YXG50 VSTi version, which, unlike its system MIDI driver equivalent, works on Windows Vista and newer.

[Gil_Hamilton]

to be fair, that midis sound much better there as it was designed to be played on OPL chipset sound cards.
however, when such midi played on MPU-401 clone alike (M$ approach since win98 or later), it sucks.

MPU-401 was an interface. It didn't make sound, merely provided access to things that did.
In fact, starting with the SB16, your standard Sound Blaster card had MIDI access through an MPU-401-compatible interface(only in "dumb" mode, but no one really cared about "intelligent" mode at that point anyways).


Certainly, the General MIDI synth Windows uses is shitty, and likely NOT what the files were designed to be played on(I dunno if the Win port used new compositions or the original music data), but let's get our terminology right, please.

[Agozer]

Finished Uncharted 2 on Hard. Managed to beat the final boss just as I was about to get two grenades in the face.

[sweener2001]

Red Dead Redemption (yay black friday)
also lego batman

[ReRuss]

Bust-A-Move & Neo Bomberman on my neo cab

[Gil_Hamilton]

Tyrian in DOSBox
Split/Second on my 360.

[magitek369]

Picked up Arkahm Asylum on clearance for $15. I might be cheap, but at least I have good taste.

[sweener2001]

Tyrian in DOSBox
Split/Second on my 360.

tyrian 2000 is a free download at gog.com for their christmas blowout.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Tyrian in DOSBox
Split/Second on my 360.

tyrian 2000 is a free download at gog.com for their christmas blowout.

Tyrian 2000 is a free download full-stop. The original developers made it freeware.

They even gave the source to a group of individuals to make an open-source C++ version that works on modern systems.
And if OpenTyrian had aspect correction, I would've kept playing that instead of bothering with DOSBox.

Furthermore, I ALREADY legally own a copy, though the CD split in two,much to my consternation(dammit, I LIKED the bonus CD soundtrack)

On the other hand... free soundtrack, in a convenient location and format?
Praise Zinglon!

[mudlord88]

That depends on what MIDI driver you used. The original DOS version of the game had a OPL2/OPL3 MIDI driver that featured a layered instrument set, where most General MIDI instruments had paired two operator instruments that played for each key, although there was only a limited number of voices that could play at once, so that was a polyphony of 9 keys at once. (Although it was presumed that the player dropped the secondary key sounds of older notes to make room for new notes.)

Windows had no such note layering with its OPL MIDI driver.

Of course, by now, you should have been able to compare with Windows on a decent MIDI driver with wavetable synthesis capability. Or you could use the ripped MUS (or converted to MIDI) files with a proper player as well, such as foo_midi using a large SoundFont bank, or the Yamaha S-YXG50 VSTi version, which, unlike its system MIDI driver equivalent, works on Windows Vista and newer.

Or with zdoom, you have the added bonus of Ken Silverman's OPL2/3 emulator, or Blargg's emulator for playing back SPC music. But then that doesn't support pure 3D unlike Doomsday....
Alas.


That said, playing:
Just Cause 2
Warcraft II (Which I hacked to work under Windows 7 with no colour issues)
Star Wars Rogue Squadron (Which I hacked to work under Windows XP > Windows 7)

Wanna play:
Star Wars Battle for Naboo
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer

[sweener2001]

Tyrian in DOSBox
Split/Second on my 360.

tyrian 2000 is a free download at gog.com for their christmas blowout.

Tyrian 2000 is a free download full-stop. The original developers made it freeware.

They even gave the source to a group of individuals to make an open-source C++ version that works on modern systems.
And if OpenTyrian had aspect correction, I would've kept playing that instead of bothering with DOSBox.

Furthermore, I ALREADY legally own a copy, though the CD split in two,much to my consternation(dammit, I LIKED the bonus CD soundtrack)

On the other hand... free soundtrack, in a convenient location and format?
Praise Zinglon!

makes sense that they would give away a free game for free.

i did hear that tyrian2000 has an extra level or something or other that opentyrian doesn't have. i haven't investigated any of this myself.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Tyrian in DOSBox
Split/Second on my 360.

tyrian 2000 is a free download at gog.com for their christmas blowout.

Tyrian 2000 is a free download full-stop. The original developers made it freeware.

They even gave the source to a group of individuals to make an open-source C++ version that works on modern systems.
And if OpenTyrian had aspect correction, I would've kept playing that instead of bothering with DOSBox.

Furthermore, I ALREADY legally own a copy, though the CD split in two,much to my consternation(dammit, I LIKED the bonus CD soundtrack)

On the other hand... free soundtrack, in a convenient location and format?
Praise Zinglon!

makes sense that they would give away a free game for free.

i did hear that tyrian2000 has an extra level or something or other that opentyrian doesn't have. i haven't investigated any of this myself.

Yeah. OT doesn't support the T2K data files yet. They're obfuscated to a degree to prevent hacking.

The 5th episode isn't really that great. It's short, and there's no secrets. The story is also kinda flat. Some of the datacubes are an absolute blast, though.

[kode54]

Or with zdoom, you have the added bonus of Ken Silverman's OPL2/3 emulator, or Blargg's emulator for playing back SPC music. But then that doesn't support pure 3D unlike Doomsday....

Not to mention that MAME's OPL2/3 emulator is more accurate than Ken Silverman's, except for maybe the one that's been modified for the newer and slower OPL2/3 emulator in DOSBox. Oh, and there's also the fast default OPL2/3 emulator in newer DOSBox, which seems to be just as accurate as the MAME emulator, if not more so, again with the advantage of being the fastest emulator yet. My foobar2000 port of AdPlug defaults to it.

Also, for the most accuracy, it's best to set the output frequency to exactly 50KHz for either the MAME or fast emulators in AdPlug, since they default to a OPL3 style base clock that's an even multiple of that, so certain modulation effects should sound correct that way, I think. Of course, that doesn't much affect most games using simple General MIDI like instrument banks.


Recently played:

The UnderGarden. (Runs nicely even on my laptop's integrated Intel HD Graphics shit. Casual shit, introduced to many through the Steam Treasure Hunt achievement requiring players to do little more than launch the demo version.)
Just Cause 2. (Oh hell yes. Although I didn't find hooking random drivers or their cars to the street as fun outside of the second story mission's chase sequence, though.)
Zombie Driver. (Easy peasy. Although the controls take some getting used to, and I'm not sure what the bindings are supposed to be mapped to, since I guess they default to XBox360 controller, and I don't have one of those connected, and I don't really want to bum one off my brother, who has two of them sitting unused from that Live Club crap from years ago.)

[sweener2001]

i couldn't get over the camera in zombie driver.

i beat the main campaign in RDR, and am moving on to The Witcher. i need to beat it before the sequel hits.

[adventure_of_link]

Gosh it's been awhile since I've posted here... that being said, here's my grocery list of gaming goodness that I've been into, in no particular order:

1. Dissidia: Final Fantasy
2. Final Fantasy 3 (NES)
3. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
4. Super Mario RPG
5. Illusion of Gaia
6. Smart Bomb
and 7. Sonic and the Secret Rings

At some point, I'll get to the other games that I got for x-mas. Ugh I hate when I get a big mass of games at once.

[badinsults]

I'm still playing Donkey Kong Country 2. Damned Animal Antics level is making me want to throw my controller at the wall.

[magitek369]

I'm still playing Donkey Kong Country 2. Damned Animal Antics level is making me want to throw my controller at the wall.

Good times.

[kode54]

Batman: Arkham Asylum. Unquestionable kickassitude.

[magitek369]

Batman: Arkham Asylum. Unquestionable kickassitude.

Agreed. Usually games based on comics or movies are terrible, but Arkham really broke the mold.

[diminish]

Starcraft
Starcraft II
Warcraft 2 Battle.NET Edition
Dead Space
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Burnout Paradise
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
Goddamn Batman Arkham Asylum

[magitek369]

Goddamn Batman Arkham Asylum

Having fun with Challenge Mode are we?

[diminish]

Nah, not yet.