Development Info Newcomer - Serious Incline for the C64

[Jason]

Tags: Newcomer

<p>Oldschool RPG &amp; Commodore 64 fetishists have something to be grateful for this year as <a href="http://www.protovision-online.de/games/newcomer.htm" target="_blank"><strong>Ultimate Newcomer</strong></a> went gold after only 20 or so years of development.</p>
<blockquote>Newcomer is part classic adventure game and part roleplaying game: It contains situations and encounters like those found in adventure games and tabletop roleplaying. The game interface and controls are similar to oldschool computer "RPGs".<br /><br />In Newcomer the emphasis is on interacting with a large and diverse cast of characters, exploring the game world, developing a wide range of in-game and real life skills, and solving complex puzzles and mysteries.<br /><br />Features:
<ul>
<li>180+ characters you can interact with, each with his/her own portrait graphic</li>
<li>10+ people who may join you, to make a team of up to 6 members</li>
<li>...or try it on your own, in the extra challenging Solo game mode...</li>
<li>50+ different areas to explore, created with 30+ different graphic sets</li>
<li>100+ cutscenes/situational graphics in-game, that make you feel like you are there</li>
<li>180,000+ words of ingame text, mostly interactive conversations</li>
<li>No random encounters</li>
<li>Thousands of puzzles and situations to encounter and solve</li>
<li>Complex, non-linear gameplay with multiple levels of endings</li>
<li>Months or weeks of immersive gaming until you "complete" the game...</li>
<li>...but there will still be a thousand situations, resolutions and encounters you have not seen yet, and 2 more game modes to complete!</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p><br /><a href="http://www.newcomer.hu/" target="_blank">Keep your eyes peeled</a> for the free release as well as a boxed version. Catch up on the game's history at <a href="http://playthisthing.com/project-multiple-dev-generations-igf-2011" target="_blank">Play This Thing</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><em>Thanks to JudasIscariot for pointing this out</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

 

[Secretninja]

However, solving the game will be much easier if you make friends with everyone who is not a complete b*tard!

/b/tards, /b/tards never change.

 

[MessiahMan]

*Drool*

I can't believe this thing is even out! I remember looking at it a year or so ago, thinking it was too cool to be true, but here it is.


This is what I call news!

 

[Yeesh]

I assume an actual C64 isn't required to play this, but the occasion has me wondering how many of them are still out there in functioning condition. Surely they must be dying one by one, parts failing with no replacements available?

 

[Forest Dweller]

Wow how pointless.

 

[Konjad]

Why pointless?

I doubt many players will use C64 for it but it does work on Linux, MAC and Windows so it's not a big deal.

 

[mondblut]

Looks fucking epic. How about a Windows version though?

20 years in development, hey, Cleve now has an example to aspire to!

 

[Ancient]

graphic's are sooo ugly fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

 

[janjetina]

This IS like that thing Cleve was talking about.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Ha, nice.

 

[zeitgeist]

Interesting mission statement on one of the Newcomer-related sites:

The project is for proving a few facts mostly neglected in the CRPGs we have seen so far:

1. High levels of interactivity could be implemented in computer games for good, with no need for heavy computing resources, but for time and effort by the designers.
2. High level, dedicated scripting languages are a key feature to develop sophisticated adventure and role-playing games, and such dedicated scripting languages could be implemented on, and be used for serious development in extremely memory-constrained, 8bit computing environments. The need for such a language is to empower the game/level designers, so that they could enhance and detail the game as much as they want, on their own, with no intervention by lesser life forms (i.e. programmers).
http://call.of.cthul.hu/~hoild/ENCscript-xmpl.html
3. Storyline non-linearity and interactivity as well as interaction with NPCs could be developed to the extreme, while still keeping a coherent storyline and playable gaming environment – we think that "sandbox game design" and "Physics Is The Game" are just attempts to reduce development cycles and at creating games by mere programmers rather than game designers and storytellers.
4. Not even an enermous plenty of in-game items, levels and eye candy can replace the feeling of catharsis at the end of, and during hundreds of hours of smart, advancing, progressive gameplay. Yet all the above could be implemented at the same time.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

So nobody played the Enhanced Edition(already released)?
I'm beginning to have doubts of the game quality when barely anyone heard of the game or tried it.

 

[Andhaira]

Looks interesting. However, it seems there is no magic in the game. That's kind of a dealbreaker.

 

[ghostdog]

Looks interesting. However, it seems there is no magic in the game. That's kind of a dealbreaker.

...For morons.



The game looks awesome. My main concern is a bad translation. What is their nationality ? The English used in the presentation isn't of a very good quality.

 

[zeitgeist]

The game looks awesome. My main concern is a bad translation. What is their nationality ? The English used in the presentation isn't of a very good quality.

Most if not all people involved in the development of the game are Hungarian. It does seem to need a bit of editing, at least from the promo screenshots. I wonder what format their text is in, if it can be converted into an easily editable/replaceable format, they could just outsource the work to an internet volunteer or two. In theory at least.

 

[MicoSelva]

Ultimate Newcomer went gold after only 20 or so years of development.

Wow, they should've changed the title to something like Duke Nukomer Forever.

 

[hanssolo]

I assume an actual C64 isn't required to play this, but the occasion has me wondering how many of them are still out there in functioning condition. Surely they must be dying one by one, parts failing with no replacements available?

always fpga clones like http://c64upgra.de/c-one/

 

[Cynicus]

I'm not sure which version this is from, but the intro can be seen here. There's no actual gameplay footage unfortunately.

Also, I downloaded the enhanced version from one of the links in the other thread and noticed this in the comments section:

User Comment
Submitted by Hoild on 1 April 2009

Isildur: Glad you are interested in our game. Some info for you and others with the same questions:

This is a story based game, not a combat-oriented one. There is fight in it, but there are no random encounters and combat action results (hits/misses and how much damage is caused by a hit) are 95% determined by weapons, attack mode, protective gear, Attributes and Skill levels.
-The fights we placed into the game are just part of a system of "valves" to control the flow of the story -- if you can't defeat some hostiles by any tactics and weapons at your disposal that means you did not reach the required progress level in the story yet. Everything is well tested and calibrated by now, we are working on the Ultimate revision of the game at the moment.

Give a try to the now-obsolete Enhanced version to get a taste of our game design. We hope the Ultimate version can revive interest in C64 gaming once again. \;]>

It sounds like it could be interesting but more like an adventure game than an RPG.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I assume an actual C64 isn't required to play this, but the occasion has me wondering how many of them are still out there in functioning condition. Surely they must be dying one by one, parts failing with no replacements available?

My original C64, disk drive and monitor all still work perfectly. Built in the UK in 1984. I have a number of 'spare' C64's and drives that are there for parts, all work fine as well. Fortunately, I haven't had to strip any of them for parts just yet.

Now, it is very easy to just emulate a C64 with many good emulators around. If not, I hear they are packaging it to work on Windows, etc anyway, but this doesn't really matter to me; I will be playing on a real C64, or perhaps my C128.

As for Newcomer, I have played it years ago, and it was a very enjoyable game. I wouldn't call it my favourite ever, but an excellent game indeed; especially for storyfags I might add. Since it does have some decent combat and skill use however, I enjoyed it for what it is. It is certainly the most advance C64 game in existence, even when originally released (in a quite buggy condition I might add), but something would be a bit off if it wasn't...

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

So nobody played the Enhanced Edition(already released)?
I'm beginning to have doubts of the game quality when barely anyone heard of the game or tried it.

It was released right when the death rattle of the C64 was heard, which was mainly mainland Europe (Germany, etc, released games for the platform longer than anyone else). That is why hardly anyone ever heard of it. I only bought the original because I still hunt C64 games down even today. Most other people, especially English speaking countries, had moved on to Amiga's, or more likely given how late this game came to English speaking shores, PC's with dos and 3.1 by the time of Newcomer's (original) release.

 

[Roguey]

Sounds too good to be true, I hope this is real and it lives up to its impressive feature list.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Sounds too good to be true, I hope this is real and it lives up to its impressive feature list.

What sounds too good to be true? Not sure I follow you here...The graphics are incredible for a C64 game, but apart from that, other games had similar lists of aspects and gameplay. I suppose it is too good to be true that a game like so many of the late 80's and early 90's games is being released today...but apart from that..?

 

[Abelon Blanchetourbe]

Looks interesting. However, it seems there is no magic in the game. That's kind of a dealbreaker.

 

[Roguey]

What sounds too good to be true? Not sure I follow you here...The graphics are incredible for a C64 game, but apart from that, other games had similar lists of aspects and gameplay. I suppose it is too good to be true that a game like so many of the late 80's and early 90's games is being released today...but apart from that..?

Thousands of puzzles and situations to encounter and solve
Complex, non-linear gameplay with multiple levels of endings
Months or weeks of immersive gaming until you "complete" the game...
# ...but there will still be a thousand situations, resolutions and encounters you have not seen yet,

I think it's the "thousands" part that's getting to me. I could see hundreds, but thousands is a damn lot.

 

[commie]

Why make it for C64? Wouldn't it be much more limiting and unnecessarily difficult?

Ok, there's the "I'm so fucking hardcore cause I took the C64 to the fuckan limit with this game" thing, and the mission statement is all very nice and all but still....

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

What sounds too good to be true? Not sure I follow you here...The graphics are incredible for a C64 game, but apart from that, other games had similar lists of aspects and gameplay. I suppose it is too good to be true that a game like so many of the late 80's and early 90's games is being released today...but apart from that..?

Thousands of puzzles and situations to encounter and solve
Complex, non-linear gameplay with multiple levels of endings
Months or weeks of immersive gaming until you "complete" the game...
# ...but there will still be a thousand situations, resolutions and encounters you have not seen yet,

I think it's the "thousands" part that's getting to me. I could see hundreds, but thousands is a damn lot.

Well, that does sound a bit funny. You know what these Central European types are like though. I can say that the game is very good; the original anyway. I don't see why the Super Ultimate Edition wouldn't be better.