Myth: The Fallen Lords on a modern PC

[A horse of course]

Actually I did have another go and finally got it working. Turns out I was trying to run Myth unpatched. Made a seperate install, patched to 1.3, and ran thru the launcher + nglide 2.10. Unfortunately there is a very minor glitch on the cursor, and the 1.5 patch has the benefit of having proper widescreen. I think I'll probably use cutscene footage from 1.3, but gameplay footage from 1.5.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm covering Myth (1.5 version, not the Myth 2 port) for my next video!

Btw, if anyone has anyone information on the really early alpha/beta versions of Myth that featured different enemies/story elements, let me know. I've read all the old Bungie.org stuff on, for example, the vampires in forest heart (that became the shadow guys in Myth II) but it would be nice to have better citations than "Bungie.org said so".

Great to hear! Myth deserves some love! Personally I'd recommend playing the official 1.3 instead of 1.5. 1.5 has that terrible banding issue because it doesn't properly display the original 24bit graphics. As a result the game looks ugly compared to the original, much worse than it did back in '97. I always play Myth 1.3 with a glide wrapper (either NGlide or the rather ancient but well working Zeckensack's).

Unfortunately I've never been able to get 1.3 running on Win 10 (even with the wrapper), despite spending several hours on it. It was either 1.5 or the Myth 2 port. Don't worry, I'm aware of many of the differences and I'll mention it in the video.

Let me guess: You get the memory error? Not enough RAM? There is a tiny file to bypass this. One of the glorious guys at magma.net once made it for me, 15 years ago or so. I don't know why they never bothered to release it officially or to update Myth 1.5 to solve the ugly banding issue (I once told them about it and showed them some comparison pictures and they solved it for Myth 2 a long time ago). Here you can read about the issue and here I uploaded the tfl-launcher (by Melekor) for you to try.

edit: by the way, here is a comparison. See the transitions between colours on the sand. The first is the beautifully filtered emulation of 3Dfx by Zeckensack's, the second is 1.5.

Spoiler

edit2: didn't read your second post in time. So you already know the launcher? Strange about the issue with the cursor though.

edit3: oh, and by the way: You don't even need to install nglide or zeckensack. Just unzip their installer file and throw the two glide-dlls in your Myth-folder.

 

[A horse of course]

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm covering Myth (1.5 version, not the Myth 2 port) for my next video!

Btw, if anyone has anyone information on the really early alpha/beta versions of Myth that featured different enemies/story elements, let me know. I've read all the old Bungie.org stuff on, for example, the vampires in forest heart (that became the shadow guys in Myth II) but it would be nice to have better citations than "Bungie.org said so".

Great to hear! Myth deserves some love! Personally I'd recommend playing the official 1.3 instead of 1.5. 1.5 has that terrible banding issue because it doesn't properly display the original 24bit graphics. As a result the game looks ugly compared to the original, much worse than it did back in '97. I always play Myth 1.3 with a glide wrapper (either NGlide or the rather ancient but well working Zeckensack's).

Unfortunately I've never been able to get 1.3 running on Win 10 (even with the wrapper), despite spending several hours on it. It was either 1.5 or the Myth 2 port. Don't worry, I'm aware of many of the differences and I'll mention it in the video.

Let me guess: You get the memory error? Not enough RAM? There is a tiny file to bypass this. One of the glorious guys at magma.net once made it for me, 15 years ago or so. I don't know why they never bothered to release it officially or to update Myth 1.5 to solve the ugly banding issue (I once told them about it and showed them some comparison pictures and they solved it for Myth 2 a long time ago). Here you can read about the issue and here I uploaded the tfl-launcher (by Melekor) for you to try.

edit: by the way, here is a comparison. See the transitions between colours on the sand. The first is the beautifully filtered emulation of 3Dfx by Zeckensack's, the second is 1.5.

Spoiler

edit2: didn't read your second post in time. So you already know the launcher? Strange about the issue with the cursor though.

edit3: oh, and by the way: You don't even need to install nglide or zeckensack. Just unzip their installer file and throw the two glide-dlls in your Myth-folder.

I'm going to have a look at these now, thanks. I actually decided to check the issue you mentioned with colours myself (I was thinking to myself "did the maps always look this shit?") and holy crap does it look bad in some parts, especially Siege of Madrigal with all the shadows. Here's 1.3 (zoomed out a bit, but that's not important)

and here's 1.5

Ignoring the cursor and interface bug, the map in 1.3 looks much better. It's ridiculous that nobody has pointed this out on all the sites recommending 1.5. Perhaps most people just use the Myth 2 port and are unaware of the issue.

The crash I got in 1.3 was just a random crash to desktop during Crow's Bridge, no error message or anything.

 

[A horse of course]

Out of curiosity, I installed Myth 2 with all the project magma patches and TFL addons that I'm aware of (not the HD pack or whatever) to check out how the maps look, and it's definitely fixed in OpenGL now:

Unfortunately I still have a few minor quibbles - the flavour text for warriors actually uses one of the Myth 2 versions (Mauriac and the victory over Balor) and the blood effects are still closer to Myth 2, with a sort of "spurt" rather than a "splatter". Regular players won't notice this but it meant that Myth TFL looked a bit gorier, with blood more spread out rather than all hitting the same little spot next to the entity.

I'm not sure whether to continue using 1.5 (more faithful to Myth TFL, but ugly maps) or switch to Myth 2 TFL (small differences but proper colour maps). Even if I could fix the weird interface/cursor bug in 1.3, it'd be in 4:3, which I've used for a lot of previous videos and I think it's worth using widescreen for Myth. If 1.5 had fixed colour maps, it would be almost perfect for me

 

[Sunri]

I wish this game got remaster i never played it but the narrator gives me chills

Spoiler

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Out of curiosity, I installed Myth 2 with all the project magma patches and TFL addons that I'm aware of (not the HD pack or whatever) to check out how the maps look, and it's definitely fixed in OpenGL now:

Yes, they fixed the problem for Myth 2 a long time ago after I mentioned it to them. OpenGL now properly supports the 24bit graphics (a 3Dfx specific thing).

Unfortunately I still have a few minor quibbles - the flavour text for warriors actually uses one of the Myth 2 versions (Mauriac and the victory over Balor) and the blood effects are still closer to Myth 2, with a sort of "spurt" rather than a "splatter". Regular players won't notice this but it meant that Myth TFL looked a bit gorier, with blood more spread out rather than all hitting the same little spot next to the entity.

Yes, there are definitively some differences to the original TFL. I also mentioned these to the Magma-crew. Their recreation is fantastic, but there are not only optical differences but I also always had the impression that gameplay specific things are different too. For example the dwarves don't seem as unreliable as in TFL. And how I miss the terrain shattering effect of detonations from TFL!
As for the GUI-issues there are mods on magma.net to give Myth 2 the proper TFL-appearance.
And I think you are right about the gore effects, I never really liked those from Myth 2.

I'm not sure whether to continue using 1.5 (more faithful to Myth TFL, but ugly maps) or switch to Myth 2 TFL (small differences but proper colour maps). Even if I could fix the weird interface/cursor bug in 1.3, it'd be in 4:3, which I've used for a lot of previous videos and I think it's worth using widescreen for Myth. If 1.5 had fixed colour maps, it would be almost perfect for me

It's a shame they never bothered to update 1.5. I played some mods on 1.5 but never got over these ugly banding issues. I for myself could never play this glorious game in this atrociously disfigured version but I certainly understand your point.

 

[catfood]

Out of curiosity, I installed Myth 2 with all the project magma patches and TFL addons that I'm aware of (not the HD pack or whatever) to check out how the maps look, and it's definitely fixed in OpenGL now:

Unfortunately I still have a few minor quibbles - the flavour text for warriors actually uses one of the Myth 2 versions (Mauriac and the victory over Balor) and the blood effects are still closer to Myth 2, with a sort of "spurt" rather than a "splatter". Regular players won't notice this but it meant that Myth TFL looked a bit gorier, with blood more spread out rather than all hitting the same little spot next to the entity.

I'm not sure whether to continue using 1.5 (more faithful to Myth TFL, but ugly maps) or switch to Myth 2 TFL (small differences but proper colour maps). Even if I could fix the weird interface/cursor bug in 1.3, it'd be in 4:3, which I've used for a lot of previous videos and I think it's worth using widescreen for Myth. If 1.5 had fixed colour maps, it would be almost perfect for me

Dude stop being a sperg and switch to Myth 2 TFL.

 

[Humbaba]

Dude stop being a sperg and switch to Myth 2 TFL.

Or just play Myth 2 which is way better than 1

 

[BlackGoat]

Game looks way better with texture filtering off, imo

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Why are the right holders being so retarded and not re-releasing the games on GOG?

 

[catfood]

Why are the right holders being so retarded and not re-releasing the games on GOG?

You've just answered your own question.

 

[Humbaba]

Why are the right holders being so retarded and not re-releasing the games on GOG?

Why would you want that? As abandonware it's free.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Why are the right holders being so retarded and not re-releasing the games on GOG?

Bungie is now a serious developer associated with proper high value entertainment, they don't want to remind anyone that they used to work on loser shit like myth.

 

[catfood]

Who owns the rights to myth series?

Bungie, and therefore Microshit. Microshit almost never releases any of their old titles. The only games I can think of that they re-released were the AOE games and I think some Halo games as well, but in general they don't care about their backlog.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Game looks way better with texture filtering off, imo

It had a special charme without filtering back in the days. Especially the blood stains look more realistic. But today it looks terrible imho, because of said dithering/banding issue.

 

[A horse of course]

I'm fairly certain Myth is owned by Take2, not Microsoft. Microsoft only cared about Halo (i'm not sure who owns the Minotaur/PiD/Marathon rights). Take2 treated Myth like shit even before it was a dead franchise.

By the way, I realized the bug with 1.3 was due to setting the resolution to the highest it would go at 4:3. Myth 1.3 runs fine at native res, albeit very pixellated. If it were just me doing a regular playthrough then I would stick with 1.3, but for the sake of the video (widescreen + higher res) I think I'll switch over to the Myth 2 port.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I'm fairly certain Myth is owned by Take2, not Microsoft. Microsoft only cared about Halo (i'm not sure who owns the Minotaur/PiD/Marathon rights). Take2 treated Myth like shit even before it was a dead franchise.

By the way, I realized the bug with 1.3 was due to setting the resolution to the highest it would go at 4:3. Myth 1.3 runs fine at native res, albeit very pixellated. If it were just me doing a regular playthrough then I would stick with 1.3, but for the sake of the video (widescreen + higher res) I think I'll switch over to the Myth 2 port.

You could try other glide wrappers to see if the mouse pointer bug still happens. The two I had good results with are, as I said, nglide and zeckensack's. The latter hasn't been updated since 2005 but works fairly well. I never had any problems with it.
I'd approve of you playing The Fallen Levels instead of 1.5 though - it just does the original more justice graphicwise. I still remember the feeling of sheer awe when I first played Myth back in 1997, the graphics and the ability to watch the battlefield from every side was just so unparalleled in quality.

 

[A horse of course]

I'm fairly certain Myth is owned by Take2, not Microsoft. Microsoft only cared about Halo (i'm not sure who owns the Minotaur/PiD/Marathon rights). Take2 treated Myth like shit even before it was a dead franchise.

By the way, I realized the bug with 1.3 was due to setting the resolution to the highest it would go at 4:3. Myth 1.3 runs fine at native res, albeit very pixellated. If it were just me doing a regular playthrough then I would stick with 1.3, but for the sake of the video (widescreen + higher res) I think I'll switch over to the Myth 2 port.

You could try other glide wrappers to see if the mouse pointer bug still happens. The two I had good results with are, as I said, nglide and zeckensack's. The latter hasn't been updated since 2005 but works fairly well. I never had any problems with it.
I'd approve of you playing The Fallen Levels instead of 1.5 though - it just does the original more justice graphicwise. I still remember the feeling of sheer awe when I first played Myth back in 1997, the graphics and the ability to watch the battlefield from every side was just so unparalleled in quality.

Oh I fixed the bugs, I just felt showing Myth at 640 x 480 with black bars is a bit unfair to Myth, at least in a video where you're not actually drawn into the game and able to appreciate everything alongside the graphics.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I'm fairly certain Myth is owned by Take2, not Microsoft. Microsoft only cared about Halo (i'm not sure who owns the Minotaur/PiD/Marathon rights). Take2 treated Myth like shit even before it was a dead franchise.

By the way, I realized the bug with 1.3 was due to setting the resolution to the highest it would go at 4:3. Myth 1.3 runs fine at native res, albeit very pixellated. If it were just me doing a regular playthrough then I would stick with 1.3, but for the sake of the video (widescreen + higher res) I think I'll switch over to the Myth 2 port.

You could try other glide wrappers to see if the mouse pointer bug still happens. The two I had good results with are, as I said, nglide and zeckensack's. The latter hasn't been updated since 2005 but works fairly well. I never had any problems with it.
I'd approve of you playing The Fallen Levels instead of 1.5 though - it just does the original more justice graphicwise. I still remember the feeling of sheer awe when I first played Myth back in 1997, the graphics and the ability to watch the battlefield from every side was just so unparalleled in quality.

Oh I fixed the bugs, I just felt showing Myth at 640 x 480 with black bars is a bit unfair to Myth, at least in a video where you're not actually drawn into the game and able to appreciate everything alongside the graphics.

Why play in 640x480? Those wrappers give you the ability to chose your resolution. With Zeckensack's you can even use anisotropic filtering and making it look even smoother. Anyway, Myth 2 The Fallen Level certainly isn't the worst way to play TFL either.

 

[A horse of course]

I'm fairly certain Myth is owned by Take2, not Microsoft. Microsoft only cared about Halo (i'm not sure who owns the Minotaur/PiD/Marathon rights). Take2 treated Myth like shit even before it was a dead franchise.

By the way, I realized the bug with 1.3 was due to setting the resolution to the highest it would go at 4:3. Myth 1.3 runs fine at native res, albeit very pixellated. If it were just me doing a regular playthrough then I would stick with 1.3, but for the sake of the video (widescreen + higher res) I think I'll switch over to the Myth 2 port.

You could try other glide wrappers to see if the mouse pointer bug still happens. The two I had good results with are, as I said, nglide and zeckensack's. The latter hasn't been updated since 2005 but works fairly well. I never had any problems with it.
I'd approve of you playing The Fallen Levels instead of 1.5 though - it just does the original more justice graphicwise. I still remember the feeling of sheer awe when I first played Myth back in 1997, the graphics and the ability to watch the battlefield from every side was just so unparalleled in quality.

Oh I fixed the bugs, I just felt showing Myth at 640 x 480 with black bars is a bit unfair to Myth, at least in a video where you're not actually drawn into the game and able to appreciate everything alongside the graphics.

Why play in 640x480? Those wrappers give you the ability to chose your resolution.

Anything higher than 640x480 (e.g. 1280 x 960) causes that bug with the cursor and the 2d interface. Tested it with both Zeckensnacken or w/e's wrapper and the nglide wrapper.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Ah ok, I thought you've solved this specific bug. Ok, then Myth 2 The Fallen Levels is the way to go. But on Legendary difficulty. =)
Here is the TFL-Interface-mod by the way.

 

[A horse of course]

Ah ok, I thought you've solved this specific bug. Ok, then Myth 2 The Fallen Levels is the way to go. But on Legendary difficulty. =)
Here is the TFL-Interface-mod by the way.

No worries, already got all that stuff and restarted my playthrough. Also added the terrain deformation plugin. Still bothers me seeing the "spurt" or "bleed" effect rather than TFL's bloody splatter. Ah well.

 

[A horse of course]

FUCK trow

I did a no casualties run back in the day, no way am I savescumming my way through another one. Legendary is enough for the review.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

FUCK trow

I did a no casualties run back in the day, no way am I savescumming my way through another one. Legendary is enough for the review.

Yeah, I know how it is. I attempted the same thing once - legendary and no casualties. But I lost nerves in The Watcher. There are some missions that are almost impossible to beat with zero casualties.

 

[A horse of course]

FUCK trow

I did a no casualties run back in the day, no way am I savescumming my way through another one. Legendary is enough for the review.

Yeah, I know how it is. I attempted the same thing once - legendary and no casualties. But I lost nerves in The Watcher. There are some missions that are almost impossible to beat with zero casualties.

I actually managed to do it on Bagrada after abusing the Journeyman heal to freeze the trow, surrounding them with zerks, and breaking their pathfinding for a few seconds of hacking. Haven't done Shadow of the Mountain yet, but I remember carefully stockpiling every single dwarf satchel charge on the level and blowing the Trow general skyhigh back in the day. Doing a no casualty - let alone no damage - run on Legendary has always just been a big cheese/metafest.