Darklands

[unseeingeye]

it was on 19 disks

so why mobygames says it was on 11 (5.25" disk version) and 10 (3.5" disk version)???

https://www.mobygames.com/game/darklands/cover-art

mobygames is correct, at least regarding how many 3.5" disks it came with, I have a boxed copy at home with the manual and the map and all the other inserts it came with and I still have the disks in two piles of 5 disks banded together. It is one of my favorite older games and definitely one of the most fun packages to look at and read through. My copy of Ultima Underworld is also cool but I don't think I own any boxed games with better inserts than Darklands.

 

[Gamezor]

Maybe reduce the combat volume

Did you play it with PC speaker audio or did you go to the effort of emulating the MT-32 sound module? Playing the game with proper audio and music makes it considerably more enjoyable.

I played with whatever GOG gives you out of the box in its dosbox. Did sound like shit admittedly. I just put on some other fantasy music. I don't think it would have helped the lack of variation in gameplay.

 

[Funposter]

Maybe reduce the combat volume

Did you play it with PC speaker audio or did you go to the effort of emulating the MT-32 sound module? Playing the game with proper audio and music makes it considerably more enjoyable.

I played with whatever GOG gives you out of the box in its dosbox. Did sound like shit admittedly. I just put on some other fantasy music. I don't think it would have helped the lack of variation in gameplay.

GOG wouldn't be able to distribute this. You'd want to download Munt which is the emulator, and then find the MT-32 ROM independently. You run Munt in the background while you play your game through dosbox. This is good advice for many DOS games, actually, if you can find the MIDI controller that the soundtrack and SFX were designed to work with.

Shitty PC Speaker version



MT-32 version

 

[LarryTyphoid]

There are also versions of DOSBox which'll automatically use Munt to play music, as long as you've got the MT-32 Roms. I think Staging and DOSBox-X have this feature. You can also patch this feature in yourself if you're compiling DOSBox from source by following the instructions on Munt's GitHub page. The roms can be a little tricky to find but I think they've got some on archive.org.

 

[Jigby]

Dosbox-ECE is also compiled with munt support.

 

[Funposter]

There are also versions of DOSBox which'll automatically use Munt to play music, as long as you've got the MT-32 Roms. I think Staging and DOSBox-X have this feature. You can also patch this feature in yourself if you're compiling DOSBox from source by following the instructions on Munt's GitHub page. The roms can be a little tricky to find but I think they've got some on archive.org.

iirc you only need to trawl through a couple of pages of Google search. It's not THAT bad.

 

[Nutria]

If you just remade this with more content, more stuff to find in each city

I totally get where you're coming from. Arnold Hendrick said this was like 1/4 of the actual content he wanted to include. It was like a quarter of Germany's mythology from the southwest of it or something. I dunno, read the Steam conversation with him. It's way over my head. But they get credit because they tried and nobody has EVER tried that hard in 30 years.

 

[Baron Tahn]

Thought I would necro the most recent Darklands thread I could find rather than attempt to start a new thread as I just wanted to ask:

Anyone heard of any sneaky remakes/cool mods/remasters of this in the works?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Thought I would necro the most recent Darklands thread I could find rather than attempt to start a new thread as I just wanted to ask:

Anyone heard of any sneaky remakes/cool mods/remasters of this in the works?

Not a one.
The guy who made the original game himself estimated that a remake today would cost 10 mill easy.

 

[Baron Tahn]

Yeah I did follow some of his last ditch attempts to get one up a while ago. As I recall he has passed on now. Shame, if there is one game highest on my list to get a remaster/sequel like he envisaged with expanded europe etc....It would be this one.

Then again, these days, maybe it's best to leave it where it lies.