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Wasteland inXile's Wasteland 1 Re-Release

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
According to this writeup at NMA by Scott Campbell, the 90s rerelease of Wasteland was actually a new version, recompiled from a scavenged version of the source code:

Another fun title that came my way was Interplay’s 10th Anniversary. It was to have 10 of Interplay’s classic games; one a year, from 1983 to 1993. It seemed like fun, and an easy enough task - until I actually tried to get the games. I remember walking into one of Interplay's co-founder's office and asking to see the code archives. He pointed to a three drawer cabinet in the corner. The first drawer contained financial file folders. The second drawer contained cables and various old hardware cards. In the third drawer was a few handfuls of 5.25 and 3.5 floppy disks. I say handfuls because they were literally in loose piles – many unsleeved and unlabeled. After scouring each disk, it appeared that most of the code, let alone the actual GAMES were not there. To make matters worse, the older games would no longer run on modern machines. There were just too many changes in operating systems (DOS 2.0 to Dos4GW) and hardware (VGA, sound cards instead of PC speaker, etc.) There would have to be extensive code changes to get these to even run.

All would have been lost if it weren’t for Burger Bill. Luckily, he had personal backups of all of the games Interplay had made, and most of the code archived as well. There were three games he didn’t have the code for: Mindshadow, Tass Times in Tone Town, and Wasteland. Bill proved to be an assembly ninja. He reverse engineered the game executables of Mindshadow and Tass Times back into C++ code. He also used his elite h4x0r skills to remove the copy protection for the other games, but Wasteland still remained a problem.

Bill and I went around the company, talking to everyone who had been affiliated with Wasteland, trying to find lost code. Finally, Mike Quarles, the programmer of the C-64 version, still had a stack of floppies that filled in the last of the holes. To make the required changes to the game, the code needed to be recompiled, and after a long search, the backup of the ancient Borland C++ compiler was found, and the new executable was authored. I still shudder to think that the entire code to Wasteland was so close to being lost forever.

I assume that the version of Wasteland in The Ultimate RPG Archives compilation from 1998 was this same version.

So the question is, were there any important differences between the scavenged C64 code used to rebuild the game in the 90s and the code of the game's original 1988 release?

I assume inXile will be releasing the newer one. I wonder if they have that source code?
 

octavius

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Surprised Burger Heineman didn't have the source code for Tass Times, since that was Burger's baby...
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
You know they are just going to get it off an abandonware website and slap dosbox on it, right ?

I'm not sure about. inXile didn't use the DOS versions of the Bard's Tale games when they rereleased those together with The Bard's Tale, even though that was probably the easiest way to go. And since Wasteland was similarly planned to be launched a menu from within Wasteland 2 at first, it's not out of the question that they have something special planned.
 
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How is this a good idea, I mean this game's UI is terribly frustrating and oblique, it's just going to be a heavily discouraging experience for 98% of the people who try it, I bet most won't last beyond 10 minutes.
 

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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Tbh I was hoping for some more substantial updates than just the music and portraits, but I guess that wasn't exactly realistic of me.
 

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Crisper portraits? Why would they fuck with those if anything?

What I'd like is the game to be modified so that all text is in-game, not in the booklet. That's really the only thing this game needs and is probably the biggest deterrent to new players, not how the character portraits look. :roll:
 

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If I recall correctly, there are subtle differences between the different platform versions of Wasteland.

How is this a good idea, I mean this game's UI is terribly frustrating and oblique, it's just going to be a heavily discouraging experience for 98% of the people who try it, I bet most won't last beyond 10 minutes.

What are you talking about?

It's all keyboard. Any programmer worth his salt (adept at vi or emacs) should love it. It's almost all arrow keys and numbers, and even features a very cool (and ahead of its time) programmable macro system that you can map to the function keys.

At least you don't have to memorize a bunch of obscure keyboard commands like the old Ultimas.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
If I recall correctly, there are subtle differences between the different platform versions of Wasteland.

Yeah, but this is about the original PC release versus the PC rerelease. Problem is I can't find anybody who actually has the former.

I hope this isn't another case of Heineman exaggerating his/her work.
 

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If I recall correctly, there are subtle differences between the different platform versions of Wasteland.

Yeah, but this is about the original PC release versus the PC rerelease. Problem is I can't find anybody who actually has the former.

I hope this isn't another case of Heineman exaggerating his/her work.

Well, according to the article they pulled code from the C-64 version too. So it might be some kind of...mutated hybrid version...see what I did there?

Yeah, but this is about the original PC release versus the PC rerelease. Problem is I can't find anybody who actually has the former.

Perhaps I misunderstood you.

Before all the Wasteland 2 hype, The Wasteland Ranger HQ-Grid was the Wasteland website. You might find some good info there:

http://wasteland.rockdud.net/wasteland.html
 
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Also:

If you are looking to buy the PC version, there are several available sources:
  1. Purchase Interplay's 10 Year Anthology CD
  2. Find a November 1996 or October 1997 issue of Computer Gaming World. Wasteland was included on the CD that came with each of these issues.
  3. Purchase The Ultimate RPG Archive, put out by Interplay under their DragonPlay line. Available from CD-ROM Access.
  4. Search on the news group comp.sys.ibm.games.marketplace.
  5. Ebay.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Perhaps I misunderstood you.

Uh, I don't think so.

I haven't seen any evidence that the rerelease PC version described in the OP is a "mutated hybrid version" or any different from the original in terms of game content...but it is possible that nobody actually remembers how the original played.
 
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Regarding differences between ports, I could find this bit:

While all versions were nearly identical in terms of gameplay, the EGA PC port had upgraded graphics (there was also a CGA version), although the C64 boasted the best sound. The PC version differed by having an additional skill called "Combat Shooting" which could be bought only when a character was first created. The PC version differed by having an additional skill called "Combat Shooting" which could be bought only when a character was first created.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasteland_(video_game)
http://wasteland.wikia.com/wiki/Wasteland
 

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The PC version differed by having an additional skill called "Combat Shooting" which could be bought only when a character was first created. The PC version differed by having an additional skill called "Combat Shooting" which could be bought only when a character was first created.

The PC version differed by having an additional skill called "Combat Shooting" which could be bought only when a character was first created.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Yes yes, the differences between the ports for different platforms are well-documented. What isn't documented is whether anything was actually changed between the original 1988 version and this early 90s re-release version, both on PC.
 
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Couldn't you just go through the diaries of gamers from that time and compare their impressions?
 
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The re-release of a older game in the future being literally scavenged from left-over code... Hilariously post-apocalyptic. :lol:

I bet everyone involved gained a new level just by finding it.

Also, LOL at the way interplay handed their source-code. "Just leave that shit in a cabinet somewhere, bro."
 
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Yes yes, the differences between the ports for different platforms are well-documented. What isn't documented is whether anything was actually changed between the original 1988 version and this early 90s re-release version, both on PC.

Why would they change anything other than making it compatible on newer systems? It wasn't like today back then, eg. Beamdog fiddling with actual game content to make Baldur's Gate fit their own vision or Lucas screwing original masters for his deluded kiddie versions.
 
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Yes yes, the differences between the ports for different platforms are well-documented. What isn't documented is whether anything was actually changed between the original 1988 version and this early 90s re-release version, both on PC.

Why would they change anything other than making it compatible on newer systems? It wasn't like today back then, eg. Beamdog fiddling with actual game content to make Baldur's Gate fit their own vision or Lucas screwing original masters for his deluded kiddie versions.

They may have been something legally objectionable in the game files, like the Hot Coffee stuff in GTA:SA.
 

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I'm guessing it will be compiled to run without DOSBOX, with the end experience being almost exact copy of Wasteland running in DOSBOX. Which will be a waste of time, of course.

There's only so much time that should be dedicated to gimmicks like these - the first game's interface REALLY didn't age well, and how many backers are REALLY going to bother replaying it?
 

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