Completed Let's play Archimedean Dynasty (Completed)

[spekkio]

Tour de Aqua by Emerald "Deadeye" Flint

Topo's Asylum
Atacama City
Galapagos
Neopolis
Scranagar
Floating Bombay
Machina Antarctica / Big Fat Mama
Avalon
Red Sea
Svesda Wostock
Survion

 

[spekkio]

Hello and welcome, dear readers.

As always, with my previous LP completed, I'm gonna start a new one.
With a bit of luck it should be my final LP thread (at least for some time)...

Seeing this thread's title you probably hoped for some Wasteland, Fallout or other post-apoc-alternate-reality-US immature bullshit.

Well, not this time, people...
In this thread I'm gonna show you one of the best things that came out of Germany (not counting Wehrmaht and scat German porn of course...), the best post-apocalyptic game ever made!

Let's play Archimedean Dynasty (a.k.a. Schleichfahrt):

AD was created in 1996 by a cooperation of two German developers: Massive Development and Blue Byte Software.
This game is my "private treasure" of sorts. I've found it in the 2nd half of the nineties and immediately fell in



Mind you, I don't usually play simulation games, but this game was different.
Its rich story, believable world, high-quality writing and badass main protagonist converted even such newfag as myself into a fan of underwater simulation.

I could keep masturbating furiously over this game's greatness, but what do we have MobyGames users for...?

In the 27th century, the surface of earth has become an inhabitable, radioactive wasteland. Mankind has found refuge at the bottom of the sea, living in gigantic underwater cities, breathing artificial air, long after the last human being has seen the sun. You are Emerald "Dead Eye" Flint, a mercenary submarine captain who gets caught in-between a global conflict.

Archimedean Dynasty's gameplay is that of classic space shooters such as TIE Fighter or Elite (minus the trading), with the notable twist of all the fighting taking place underwater. While this, especially regarding the outstanding 3D graphics for its time, could be seen as merely an aesthetical difference, it is instead so much more. Motion and physics are very different from your average space shooter or air combat sim. You can feel the waves and underwater currents, gently rocking your ship and later even allowing you to perform stealth missions by cutting your engines and turning off your sonar to let yourself drift close into an enemy base without being detected.

There are 60 missions, ranging from escort and reconnaissance jobs to battles in heated war-zones. Later, war ships and freighters, literally a kilometer in size have to be protected... or destroyed. As you upgrade your ship, you get better sonars, additional turrets (which can be equipped with different kinds of auto-aiming software) and better armor. There is an astonishing variety of torpedoes as well, with varying speeds and targeting methods, EMP attacks, cluster bombs or a huge, slow missile that can bring down an entire building in a single blow. Of course, their cost varies as well, so you might think twice before sending a $400 missile after an enemy scout.

Between missions the story progresses in the form of pre-rendered cut-scenes (some featuring the rather rare, but excellent voice narration) and text-based conversations in various underwater cities of Blade-Runneresque quality or aboard huge carrier ships. You never even see any character's face, but somehow this doesn't hurt the story. To the contrary, the tons of text-based dialog help to create a truly epic story while still describing the various hardboiled characters you meet in detail. Flint himself is a rare perfect blend of bad-ass and melancholic anti-hero that is a joy to play. Over the course of the game you literally travel the whole world (well, the seas), meeting a colorful cast of warlords, pirates, politicians, scientists, merchants or simple workers telling you about their day. Each adding a puzzle piece to your picture of this dark and gritty underwater world. Archimedean Dynasty, after all, is also an outstanding piece of science-fiction. You can feel the effort that has gone into research. Little things, like black market merchants offering you special champagne that sparkles in high air pressure or the so-called Entropoint stations that allow high-speed underwater travel add to the believability of an underwater civilization.

I played the whole game with the arrow keys on my keyboard. It works, despite the controls clearly being optimized for joysticks. Generally, Archimedean Dynasty is the kind of game where it is vital to read the manual beforehand. The "h" key was my best friend, listing about 50 keyboard commands (some of which more vital than others). It might be my inner geek speaking and I am certainly a little biased (since I love this game to bits) but in a way, I liked the fact that you can control every aspect of your ship with its own key. You feel like mastering a whole cockpit with all the little buttons and switches. The HUD is plastered with information most of which turns out to be useful in battle, especially a stylish radar on the lower part of your screen. This certainly plays more like a simulation than a straight action game.

Last but not least, the sound design and music are outstanding is well. The sound of distant ships or weapon fire is muffled by the water, machinery constantly hums in the background, a metallic "CLONK!" shatters the hulls of the ship when hitting other vehicles or buildings... all this gives you a sense of being in the deep sea.

This short review above already spoils some parts of this game's lore, but I'm not gonna explain it any further - it should be presented naturally, in the LP.

People still wondering WTF is this game about should simply watch these trailers:

Official Trailer
Trailer for Beta Version

Well, before starting the game, lets begin with some...


Technical stuff - how do I run DOS Games requiring VESA 2.0 support in year 2010?


I've wanted to LP this game for some time, but wasn't able to run it in a way that would allow me to record videos with acceptable quality.
Recently I've upgraded my rig to Pentium E6500 and my dreams of LPing AD finally came true.

AD was one of the last and best looking games created for pure DOS, so it required some serious processing power back in the day.

That means it isn't easy to run it on modern systems / OSes too. But it can be done...

1) Pure DOS in WinXP

AD can be run without problems in WinXP using program called nolfb (disables linear frame buffer) and basic Sound Blaster emulation provided by XP sound drivers.
If you want better quality sound you should try VDMSound - it works great and the game still works damn fast.
There's a catch for me though - Fraps cannot record video from DOS applications.
I had to try some DOS emulators with Opengl/DirectDraw output.

2) DosBox

For the long time AD was too resource-demanding to be played in DosBox at acceptable speeds.
With recent fixes to dynamic recompiler and increase in processor speeds, it's now fully playable in DosBox.
There's another catch for me though - when I tried to record video using Fraps or internal DosBox video recorder, the game suffered from some serious slowdowns, making the whole video-recording business pointless.
Still, I'm gonna use DosBox to record ingame FMVs (more details below).

I was certain that I would not be able to overcome the problems described above, when I found another emulator...

3) SolVBE

SolVBE is a weird thing, recently updated in 2004, but still damn awesome. To quote the readme:

SolVBE is a VESA v1.2 driver for WinXP/Win2k command prompt.

What this means is that when running SolVBE, you will be able
to run some old DOS games that require VESA support on your
Win2k/WinXP PC, even if your display adapter doesn't support
it (or if the support is broken).

Additionally it enables you to run the abovementioned programs
in windowed mode.

For me, the only important thing is that it works fine with AD (~40 FPS) and allows me to record video using Fraps without noticeable slowdowns.

To sum technical things up:

a) Programs used to play & record most of the game (missions and locations):

• sapucdex - VDMSound component enabling full Mscdex support in WinXp (CD audio)
• dosdrv - VDMSound basic sound driver (HQ audio effects)
• SolVBE - see above (DirectDraw video output)

b) Program used to record ingame FMVs: DosBox 0.74

VDMSound has some problems with long sound clips (buffer size?), for example during AD's FMVs sound disappears after a minute or sth. To record FMVs in their full glory I had to use DosBox.
Of course, there was another problem: video and audio got desynchronized if the clip was over 2-3 minutes long.

After some fooling around with DosBox options I was able to fix this issue. Important settings:

output=opengl

rate=44100
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=15

sbtype=sb16

c) Program used to play the damn game: RB-Joy

AD is a simulation game, supporting analogue joystick with 2 or 4 buttons. In DosBox it can be played using any joystick/gamepad supporting DirectInput.
There is a catch of course. You can only use up to 4 buttons, even if your joystick/gamepad supports more. And since the game utilizes almost entire keyboard, you will need more!

Additional catch for me: I'm not gonna use DosBox...

Of course, if you're such an elite PC-individual as myself, you will always find a solution to your game-related problems...



AD can be played using the keyboard, with directional arrows acting as digital buttons.
Since analogue movement control is for space-sims fans fags, all that's required to use a modern joystick/gamepad to play this damn game is a program that converts joystick/gamepad signals into keyboard input.
The best one currently available is called RB-Joy and was written by a nazi german author in 2006 (last version).

As you can see, it's extremely user-friendly...

But when properly configured, it allows me to register 22 different keyboard commands to my Dual Shock gamepad, connected via USB adapter (14 buttons + 2 analogue sticks).

To sum technical thingies up once more:

• video emulation: SolVBE
• sound emulation: VDMSound
• joystick emulation: RB-Joy

Kind developers also prepared a 3dfx patch for this game, leading to massive graphical nerdgasm back in the day:

Sadly, no 3dfx wrapper currently supports this game, so I will have to use Software Mode.

Just for you to know: I'm such an ancient graphixwhore that I recently assembled a rig with Celeron 300 MHz and VooDoo2 just to play old games supporting Glide...

PC gaming 4 lyfe, motherfuckers!

Now it's time for some info about the LP itself...


How is it gonna be?

• I'm gonna use screenshots for everything except missions and FMVs, mainly: locations and some dialogues,
• Missions and FMVs will be presented via videos, uploaded to MediaFire. As with my previous SS2 LP, the video quality will be set to sth close to: 1 minute of the clip = 10 MB,
• The game doesn't use any portraits for characters, which can be a bit confusing at times. I'm gonna fix this to increase your immershun, using random avatars in dialogues,
• AD utilizes such last-gen features as nonlinearity and dialogue options (a.k.a. vertical dialogue wheel). I'm gonna use following avatar for dialogue options that won't be selected:
  
  
  
  
  
• I'm not gonna add extra stuff like witty commentaries, funny pictures, fake dialogues and other shit to this LP. The writing is so good, that it won't be necessary. (Almost) everything posted in this LP will be taken straight from the game.

That's right, you fuckers! No silly bullshit in this thread, FFS!

Oh, right. Initially I was going to use this avatar for Deadeye:

But Flying Spaghetti Monster used it in his Deus Ex LP!

Nigga stole my avatar!



So I had to come up with something different...

Anyway, meet Emerald "Deadeye" Flint:

The one and only!

 

[marooned]

You're on fire!

Never heard of this game but it looks impressive. Gonna have to keep an eye on this one.

 

[Black]

Let's play the best post-apocalyptic game ever made!

There already is FO3 LP.

 

[ghostdog]

You truly have no life, Spekkio.



This one seems like a very interesting game. Carry on !

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Fuck, I thought that it's going to be a LP of Killa .

 

[spekkio]

Alright, let's get this LP started!

Video 01 - Intro (61 MB) YouTube Mirror

Aha! EMERALD "Deadeye" FLINT himself. And alive!

Shut your yap, PERRY!

Yeah, I heard you were in a really good mood.

Small wonder, the way you and EL TOPO set me up!

No one set you up. You screwed up the mission, that's all.

That's between me and EL TOPO. Besides, anybody can have a bad day once in a while.

For you it seems more like a couple of bad months, FLINT.

I had a cheap boat. EL TOPO was stingy and it cost him.

Save it. He'll be calling any minute - you can tell him yourself.

Be glad to.

That's our first location:

In the Crew Room we can chat with some people:

Hangar is empty, there's an arms dealer near the Dock:

Let's start with the black thing in the lower right corner. This is our Notebook.

First two options should be self-explanatory. If you're interested, here are some game options:

I'm gonna turn all three types of "autopilot" movies on for the 1st mission, to show you how they look.
After that, I'm gonna turn them off for good - watching them takes too much time (and bandwith).

The fourth option in the notebook is a SeaMap:

As you can see, Flint is currently in the Argentine Basin area and has four locations available.

Let's speak with Linda Krull.

Light! You're a mercenary?

Yeah. EMERALD FLINT!

I'm LINDA KRULL! I heard about your, uh...accident.

Who hasn't? I'll bet it's on the data channel.

Relax, I'm a mercenary too. If one of us gets in trouble it doesn't stay a secret long.

What else have you heard?

That "Deadeye" FLINT is the best.

That's true. How's the situation down here?

Worst thing is the shortage of decent food. Plus we had a few attacks from the Tornado Zone.

Anything serious?

Not particularly. I hear the Anarchists from BORIS SANTIAGO hate EL TOPO.

You think they're looking to push out into the Atlantic?

Looks like it. The Argentinian Basin is strategically important.

How tenacious are they when the heat's on?

You better discuss that with CROSSHEAD. He leads the guards.

Where can I find him?

He should be somewhere on VESPUCCI.

Thanks for the tip, LINDA. Will we be seeing each other again?

Don't think so. I'm on my way to the Macquarie ridge. Good luck, FLINT.

Yeah, you too, LINDA. And here's hoping we meet again.

Merchant is next.

Light, stranger. May I interest you in the finest smoke-free cigarettes? No one else can get them for you here in MAGELLAN station.

Get away from me. I've smoked the real thing in the Malayan Archipelago!

You have been to the Leisure Complex?

Yeah, and believe me, they've got it all. Surface simulation, sea level air pressure, oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Even simulated daylight.

A poor tradesman cannot afford these things.

Maybe you should change jobs. I was there hunting oxygen smugglers for the Clansunion.

A wretched gang. Who would need contaminated oxygen from the surface?

Yeah, they're a worthless bunch. They used the oxygen to make a decomposing breathing gas that they sold to diggers and clay builders.

Perhaps, if you would buy my cigarettes, one day I too could...

Sorry, don't have the time OR the money. A colleague of yours took my last money for a bunch of scrap he called a "boat". I needed that more urgent than cigarettes!

Now the Worker. Here we have some dialogue choices for the 1st time:

Light, Man! What's up?

Whatever I haven't sent to the bottom!

Very good! What are you after here in the Argentinian Basin?

Peace, quiet, friendship and a beautiful woman.

EL TOPO! You know him?

Hahaha! Plenty of peace and quiet here, but there isn't really a surplus of women, my friend.

Pity. How are things going down here?

I'm not worried. I usually get what I need.

About what you would expect, considering we've all got seaweed rage.

Don't you get anything decent to eat?

Garbage! Because of Settlement Day all the delicacies are going to NEOPOLIS. All we get is nutrient concentrates!

Yeah, that's why the gourmets in the capital have problems with the Gibraltar pirates! By the way, what do you do around here?

I drive a sediment caterpillar. Extracting opal and calcium sediments.

When Flint tries to leave the Crew Room, he gets a call from El Topo:

Light, FLINT!

Light, EL TOPO. Sorry I made a mess of it, but....

Can you imagine how SORRY I am? That simply won't do!

I'll make up for it!

You'll have your chance. Right now my secretary, PERRY LASALLE, needs an escort. He's on VESPUCCI.

An escort? Well, sounds like a job for me.

That's not a job, it's an order. But watch out, FLINT. The mob from the Tornado Zone have been making the streets unsafe.

Right. So, where do you want him?

Bring PERRY to me, in the ASYLUM. And promptly!

Aye aye, Sir!

We can speak with station master Fisher in the Hangar now, but he doesn't have anything interesting to say (no Sidequest/Lore related stuff).

Let's check out the Arms Dealer. Our current boat is called Hiob:

Here we can repair our ship and buy/sell equipment. There are four types of equipment currently available.

Defensive stuff (Armor/Sonar/Buzzers):

Generators (plus additional stuff later on):

Guns (there are more gun turrets available for better boats):

Torpedoes (plus Magazines for them)

We don't need anything ATM plus Flint is piss-poor.

Our current Tasks/Hints:

Let's go to Vespucci.

(Autopilot movies go there, I'll show them in 1st Mission Movie)

Let's start with the Hangar. Two people there.

First one is some Worker:

Time is money, stranger. I gotta get to QA for opal sediments!

Hey, I'm just looking around....

Look, my pal on the MAGELLAN station already told me you're a friend of EL TOPO's.

What do you do around here?

I'm in charge of drilling here at VESPUCCI station. We're mining bio sediments.

Hey, don't you have a bar here?

We make do with the crew assembly rooms. From time to time EL TOPO throws a big party in his "Asylum".

Good enough. See you around.

The other guy is Crosshead:

Yes?

How are you?

Not too good...by the way, I'm CROSSHEAD!

Nice to meet you, CROSSHEAD. I'm EMERALD FLINT.

Interesting name. Done too many drugs, eh?

Yeah, LINDA KRULL told me about you. She sounded a bit nervous....

That's just the way women react to me.

Breathing Helium17 has some funny side effects.

Ah, I see you're a man of imagination!

So, do you need a man around here?

Always! But EL TOPO has the last word.

Fine. Tell me, how strong are the anarchists at the moment?

Well, they aren't particularly tough because they're poorly trained. But why don't you ask TERRY THE BLASTER. He lives for battle statistics.

Thanks for the tip.

I'm headed out on patrol now, but you can probably find Terry somewhere here on VESPUCCI.

Let's go to the Dock. Two persons available.

(If you piss Crosshead off, he will tell you to GTFO and Terry won't be available)

Neru:

Salaam. I'm NERU, importer of merchandise and illusions from the Clansunion. I am also rather busy.

Salaam. EMERALD FLINT. What sort of things do you have, Neru?

The miracles of the world, my friend. Cigarettes that can imitate a glowing tip in Helium17, perhaps?

That's old news. What else?

A bottle of SPARKLING chemo champagne. A real rarity at thirty-bars pressure.

Really? Champagne bottles that pop normally weigh 25 kilos!

Not this one. The pressure is equalized with an extra cylinder.

Interesting. What else?

A water organ. Put it in the water behind a boat and you get wonderful music.

How extravagant.

Perhaps a culture of luminous fungi. Light for the bedroom.

Impressive.

How about a holographic recording of the "FLOATING-BOMBAY-Ballet"?

Look, do you have anything that's actually useful?

Well,...I happen to have a few drops of Carfentanyl. Enough for at least 300 wonderful journeys into Dreamland.

I need to be alert at all times, NERU.

Ah, Flash Nine was invented for just this! A neurological miracle - you'll never have to sleep again!

Seems like today is not your lucky day, Master NERU. I have to move on.

May the market guide you, EMERALD FLINT.

Terry:

A lot of very boring people have wasted my time today. You make the seventeenth!

You actually keep count?

You must be FLINT, eh? CROSSHEAD warned me that you might come. I am TERRY THE BLASTER!

What can you tell me about the attackers from the Tornado Zone, Terry?

They are poorly armed! Most of them use VENDETTAS, only a few have MAXIMUM IMPACTS.

Hmm, my weapons aren't much better.

In that case you should outmaneuver them. They are poorly trained!

I love the smell of PROTIPS in the morning... Let's go to the Crew Room.

(Merchant shows up after you've spoken with Neru)

Merchant:

Light. I am the head of the traders. How can I help you?

By NOT trying to sell me something.

You are the miserly mercenary NERU told me about. You have already turned down TWO of my traders!

Right. And what do YOU have to offer me?

Look, pal - if I don't need anything, I'm not buying anything. Period.

I am selling the latest and finest software for updating your ship's computers!

Ha! I'm not falling for that! Find some other fool!

Well, alright. If it's not too expensive.

Suit yourself. The oceans swim with fools these days.

Gwendolyn:

What a honey! I hope I can do something for you, sailor!

Thanks, no. I've got all the infections I need.

Well, I didn't know EL TOPO allowed independents around here?

Who do you think you are, sailor? We've got a doctor checking us out every month!

Well, that's different. Tell me your name.

Forget it. I'm sure you're as clean as the bottom of my boat.

GWENDOLYN. Lady of the Islands.

And I'm "Deadeye". I hit EVERY time.

I'm curious about how much you're exaggerating, but I have to run. I'm meeting a businessman, and he is a GREAT customer!



Oh well, let's speak with Perry...

So, what'd EL TOPO have to say?

I'm supposed to take you to him.

Great, let's go! I hope you actually plan to make an effort on this mission!

Consider yourself lucky I'm in the boat with you. We better get to the Dock - EL TOPO wants to see you. He told me he needs his emetic.

Alright, we should buy a new sonar and visit Magellan again. It's time to kill some bad dudes!

Stay tuned!

 

[Trash]

Man, I loved this game back in the day. Along with subwar 2050 it constitutes a genre of its own.

 

[SCO]

Can't you use dos32a?

As a extender it is considerably faster than the alternatives, turning even such titles as Syndicate Wars, Daggerfall, Albion and others much faster.

 

[Gondolin]

Jesus, I remember playing the demo at work back in 1998. My home rig wasn't good enough for it. Never played the full game. Thank you for LP-ing this.

 

[lightbane]

Never knew about this game, there aren't many futuristic submarine simulations games, besides this one there were Subculture, Aquanox 1 and 2... And that's it I believe (never played any of these though).

 

[JoKa]

i really liked its successors, Aquanox...never tried Schleichfahrt but this LP makes me want to play it =)

 

[ghostdog]

This game makes me wanna install freespace 2

 

[laclongquan]

Considering it's in Dos era, it's super awesome. how come I never heard a whiff of it.

Still, gotta finish my Baldur Trilogy first.

 

[JoKa]

Considering it's in Dos era

die, heretic!

 

[spekkio]

Can't you use dos32a?

AD is so cool that it doesn't even use DOS4GW (at least regular .exe doesn't). You can use special .exe file that will launch the game with DOS4GW support, but it doesn't affect speed in my case.
Switching DOS4GW with dos32a also does nothing. 40 FPS is max.

Aquanox 1 and 2...

Both games are sequels to AD, made by Massive Development alone and of inferior quality.

i really liked its successors, Aquanox...never tried Schleichfahrt but this LP makes me want to play it =)

I've played all three games, AD is 100 times better than both sequels.

So, uh, where is the autopilot movie?

Below.

Considering it's in Dos era, it's super awesome. how come I never heard a whiff of it.

It's in my top 5 or 10 for sure. Along with SS2, Deus Ex, Xcom 1/2, Fallout 1-2, etc. Same level of quality/enjoyment.

 

[spekkio]

Mission 01 - Attack A (64 MB)

Except of Hong Long's intervention this battle was quite pathetic...

I've used it to show you how some things work. Successively:

• targeting
• external views
• switching targets
• MFD (switched to armor state)
• guns
• help system (key input)
• briefing
• history (communication log)
• switching sonar off/on (affects the noise level)
• switching engine off/on (affects the noise level)
• turret command menu (we don't have any equipped ATM)
• MFD (switched to guns - we have limited ammo)
• MFD (switched to torpedoes - we can change them)
• changing torpedoes
• auto-pilot

Oh, one more thing: the HUD.

From top to bottom:

MFD (showing armor state)

autopilot(currently off),

sonar (on),

armor (all green),

compass,

various info, from top to bottom: depth, distance to the floor, speed, noise level, time of the mission, navigation points, buzzers

depth gauge (in kilometers and meters)

attitude indicator

energy level indicator

sonar - 2d view

sonar - 3d view

It's simple as fuck actually...

We're back at Magellan. After doing some repairs:

It's time to go to Topo's Asylum.

Surprise, surprise!

Mission 02 - Attack B (10 MB)

(autopilot's movies turned off)

Well, what can I say... Poor bastard.

Video 02 - El Topo's Fortress (22 MB) YouTube Mirror

We're at the Topo's Asylum:

We can take a look at some sweet stuff that we're not able to buy ATM:

There's some ronin in the Hall:

I am TOSHIRO BUDJOW! Identify yourselves!

Wow, a real monarchist! Did you run away from the Shogunate, or did they throw you out?

You are not answering my question. Who are you?

I'm EMERALD FLINT, and I'm wondering how YOU got here!

I escaped from the penal colonies in the Sea of Okhotsk. Does that answer your question?

No kidding! I was a prisoner there myself for nearly a year! Is that swine AKIRA still alive?

General AKIRA was transferred for disciplinary reasons. He did some crooked things but I don't know any details. I escaped during a transport. EL TOPO offered me asylum!

A Ronin named HONG LONG helped me escape. She was beautiful....

HONG LONG? I know her - she works all over Aqua. There are many who would pay much to see her dead!

And I'll wager nobody gets her. Nice talking to you, TOSHIRO, but I better not keep EL TOPO waiting.

Well, no point in delaying this, let's talk to the Mole:

Good to see you still alive, FLINT. When someone screws up an important job for me, I like to have the opportunity to kill him myself.

Your concern for my health really chokes me up.

What's wrong with you? You used to be one of the best, FLINT! Does "Deadeye" need glasses now?

Maybe I do. Think BENTHOS UNLIMITED will take me on as a night watchman?

You'll lose that stupid sense of humor when I kick you out of an air lock without a suit on!

And you'll lose any chance of getting your sulfur back.

A meaningless Warlord from the Tornado Zone bested you! It was a routine job and you choked on it like you had the craze!

And you lied to me. There's plenty of sulfur in the Tornado Zone - you don't need to ship any there! And the boat you gave me was complete crap. What'll I have next time? Swim fins?

You failed me!

Because you didn't tell me everything! Why should HONG LONG waste time with sulfur? And why give me that toy boat? It didn't have enough fire power to boil a liter of water!

It was cover for the mission. Anything more powerful would have drawn attention.

Well we drew plenty of attention! And it was the kind that tells me they knew more about that shipment than I did!

All right! Somebody blew our cover! They knew what they were looking for! Now, you'll simply have to repair the damage.

I'll do it if you tell me what they were looking for!

Papers.

Papers.... You mean like notebooks? Journals? Toilet paper?

Papers! Digital recordings! Plans! And... a black box, which just happened to contain the answer to the most guarded secret in all Aqua!

Wow! You got the complimentary pass codes for the Pleasure Domes?

Stop being an ass! I'm talking about all of EnTrOx's expertise! Everything, including every last damned detail about their jump-ship technology! Do you understand, FLINT?

Maybe...

MAYBE? Whoever owns those plans rules over Aqua. I was just one step from having the VAN DER WAAL gang on their knees, and you messed it up! Can you comprehend what's at stake here?

I don't suppose it's got anything to do with the well-being of mankind.

Don't give me any of your moralizing! You know me better than that.

People change. Hey, look at me!

Don't kid yourself. You're still the same ass you've always been. The only difference now is your best days seem to be over. But I'm willing to give you one last chance.

That's very big of you.

When you get those papers back for me, the surface will be the limit for both of us!

Great. We'll be right up there with the radioactive waste and the rest of the dead vegetables.

If you fail me again, you will wish you WERE a vegetable.

Ok, ok. I'll bring your precious papers back to you. Just give me a boat that's up to the job.

Unfortunately, for the time being you must stay here on guard. Those freaks from the Tornado Zone have become adventurous recently, and hardly a week passes without them dropping in to try to take us over.

Why?

They want my fortress because it would give them an ideal outpost in the Atlantic. MY fortress! I suppose at the very least this will let me see if you're still worth anything to me. And I WILL be watching you, FLINT.

Fine. You'll see plenty of results.

Good. Get to the dock, and you can start on garbage patrol up North. There's a lot of wreckage floating around up there, and you can atomize all you want...if you can still hit anything, that is.

I'm supposed to shoot garbage??? That's a joke!

Until you have regained my trust, it is you who is the joke, FLINT. Now get on with it, and report to me afterwards!

It's time to take out the trash!
That's the training mission of course.

 

[Cenobyte]

Never heard of this game before. Seems to be interesting and since I'm currently not playing any other game, I'll perhaps look into this one.

Spekkio, if you have any info on this, which version is better, the original German or this English one?

 

[spekkio]

Well, the english translation is great, and about the original version - something that I've skipped earlier:

Maybe I should add that this is one of the few games I play in my native German language, since it is originally developed by a German studio, thus making it the most authentic version. I can't comment on how much of the dialog's wittiness might have been lost in translation for the English version.

Good luck with finding the german version, though.

*Edit: to my surprise it's available on UndergroundGaymer. Verdammte Krauts!

 

[SuicideBunny]

i really liked its successors, Aquanox...never tried Schleichfahrt but this LP makes me want to play it =)

the english language lacks words to properly convey just how much better schleichfahrt is than the two aquanox games... it had that genuinely dark and oppressive atmosphere that managed to make you feel as if you drive a sub under tons and tons and tons of water that could crush your tiny ship any moment now... as opposed to the lighthearted arcadey disneyworld ride feeling of the sequels.

 

[Cenobyte]

Thanks Spekkio, I guess I'll catch the German version then.

 

[spekkio]

I was going to postpone this update till August, but what the hell, enjoy...

Mission 03 - Clear the Debris (53 MB)

Teaser:

After the mission Flint goes back to El Topo as ordered.

Ah, the garbage terminator! You must be proud to have completed such important work.

Well, I don't think anybody tipped off the garbage that I was coming.

Don't be insolent. You still have much to prove to me.

So what's it going to be now? Mop up the sea floor?

You're not up to it yet. Make some patrols and see if you can do something about those freaks from the Tornado Zone who are making a nuisance of themselves.

All right! Fresh meat!

You'll get 1,500 credits for the job. Keep your eyes open and report back to me after the patrol.

Alright, that's our 1st real mission (which means that a fuckup is possible).

Mission 04 - Patrol El Topo's Asylum (118 MB)

Teaser (with some bomber vs. bomber action):

Once again, Flint has to report back to El Topo after the mission.

FLINT! Things are getting hot! Two freaks from the Tornado Zone are attacking the small mining station VESPUCCI!

Aye, Sir! I'll send them to the deep! How much will I get this time?

It's worth 1,600 credits. You'd better get it right! I'm watching you!

Forget it! They're dead already!

I've turned the volume of audio effects a little bit down staring from Mission 03 - it was too loud before. Same with the CD-Audio.
Let me know if everything is all right.

 

[Gondolin]

A true patriot. Respect.

 

[lightbane]

I dunnot if it's just my case, but there is a little problem with the synchronization of the sound with these videos, the sound has like 3 seconds of delay or so. Still, keep the good work.

PS: Is it possible to attempt to take over that base by yourself? I have nice memories of Privateer 2 where I outmaneuvered and killed uber-heavy-cruise type ships with the shitty ship you're given when you start the game.

 

[ghostdog]

I dunnot if it's just my case, but there is a little problem with the synchronization of the sound with these videos, the sound has like 3 seconds of delay or so. Still, keep the good work.

The sound is synchronized as far as I can tell. Maybe it's the media player you're using.


@Spekkio:
Atmospheric game, keep it up !