Nightdive Studios, SNEG, Ziggurat, Piko Interactive and others rereleasing classic games

[Infinitron]

What are you talking about - a future where Windows backward compatibility for, say, Win95/Win98 games completely breaks? I'm not sure that's ever going to happen, but even if it does, those games are already available on digital distribution. I don't think they're going to take them away.

Actually, even now, there are games available for sale on Steam that don't work on Windows 7, but did work on XP.

This is probably a case of severe optimism vs severe pessimism, with the answer somewhere in the middle. The only certain thing about the future is that it's uncertain.

MS holds all the cards, it's totally up to them what happens with games that are dependant upon Windows. And I'm talking about ALL Windows versions, and I'm looking several decades down the road, not just the next couple of years.

MS-DOS was simple enough that it could be reverse-engineered, currently Windows needs to be tricked with a simulated environment to get a number of early/mid-90s titles up and running. And while MS is being forgiving and offering support for backward compatibility right now...how long will that last? Actually...reading Astral Rag's post, that time may already be up.

As long as these games' raw data remains available for sale, we're okay. Buy the game, pirate the OS.

I guess what might happen someday is that Steam does a clean sweep of its catalog and removes all old games that don't work on Windows 2050 or whatever we'll be using then. But that's so far away, and there are so many other ways it could be handled.

 

[felipepepe]

There's a bunch of games that don't work on any post-Vista Windows already. For those, I have a Virtual Machine with XP in it.

Between VMs, fan-patches and companies like GOG & Night Dive, I think we're pretty well covered.

 

[LESS T_T]

More shovelware re-releases by Retroism. The first five are region locked outside of U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Paws and Claws: Pet Vet http://store.steampowered.com/app/33720/
Paws & Claws: Pampered Pets http://store.steampowered.com/app/33700/
Paws and Claws: Pet School http://store.steampowered.com/app/33710/
Fetch It Again http://store.steampowered.com/app/12650/
Miss Popularity http://store.steampowered.com/app/12660/
The Search for Amelia Earhart http://store.steampowered.com/app/33760/

 

[Boleskine]

quoting from the System Shock kickstarter thread

Stephen Kick chats with Matt Barton on System Shock and game preservation

 

[LESS T_T]

Well, I'm not sure if this will be eventually relevant to the re-release business... Anyway Retroism releases a boxed limited edition for the first time. Their choice is quite a surprise.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

 

[pippin]

 

[Infinitron]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/405820/discussions/0/350544272220209761/

Turok 2 is coming!

So as many of you may have guessed, working on the rights to these classic titles can be tricky and sometimes contractual obligations prevents the transparency we've enjoyed on some of our other titles which is why updates have been mysteriously absent.

We're well aware of the demand for Turok 2 and it is still in development...in fact we started development just shortly after the launch of the first Turok. Turok 2 is a bigger game, more enemies, more weapons, more locations and most importantly...Turok 2 had Multiplayer.

In our quest to bring you the most authentic experience at the highest quality level available we've decided to give Turok 2 the love it deserves and release the game "when it's done" which is why all we've been able to say is this:

Turok 2 is coming!

Thank you for your continued support and patience, we know you're going to love it!

 

[Ash]

Turok 2 is an awesome console shooter. Real fucking hardcore too. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

 

[LESS T_T]

Nightdive will bring two more GOG releases to Steam in time of Halloween (Sale):

 

[Jaesun]

Cool. Never played Starship Titanic back in the day, heard it was a pretty cool game. I'll have to give it a try now.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[LESS T_T]

New Retroism release on GOG. It's Killing Time: https://af.gog.com/game/killing_time?as=1649904300

 

[LESS T_T]

Heh, Nightdive released Origin's Space Rogue on GOG: https://af.gog.com/game/space_rogue_classic?as=1649904300

I guess Paul Neurath is somehow involved with this release.

 

[LESS T_T]

Killing Time is now also on Steam:

 

[Infinitron]

TUROK NOW INCLUDES A LEVEL EDITOR!

The new Level Editor for Turok allows users to create and modify maps and to upload these via the Steam Workshop. Add new features or create your own custom areas. A full manual is available for download.

Coming soon to GOG!

 

[Infinitron]

Huh, I hope Nightdive know about this: http://www.pcgamesn.com/turok/turok-source-code-found

The source code for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter found on reclaimed workstation from Acclaim

An interesting piece of first person shooter history has been discovered in the files of an old SGI Indy workstation, acquired from the liquidation of Acclaim Entertainment. Documented by retro tech YouTuber SiliconClassics, he has found the original source code for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter within the files of an SGI Indy, previously used by Turok developer Iguana Entertainment.

The actual story of how SiliconClassics got these workstations is quite the long winded one. He bought them off of a Russian warehouse manager in Brooklyn in the summer of 2016, who in turn bought them from the liquidation sale of Acclaim Entertainment back in 2004. Luckily, despite being on a shelf in a warehouse for the past 12 years, most of the Indy stations are still working, with their power supplies and hard drives all in good order.

This bank of SGI Indys contains files from various developers which were bought up by Acclaim, including Probe Software, Sculptured Software and Iguana Entertainment so there are more games to be discovered within the banks of these old computers. By the looks of it, some of the Indys even had the Nintendo 64 development boards plugged into them at one time, but they have since been removed.

While acquiring this archive of ‘90s game history back in the summer, SiliconClassics has only now started to sort through the mass of files located on these systems. Besides finding a healthy amount of motion capture data, art assets and developer documents, SiliconClassics very recently discovered the entire source code for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on one of the workstations owned by Iguana.

You can see in the video above, the workstation in question has sound files, programming data, art assets and much more which all related to the original Turok. It’s a real treasure trove of information, with many clamouring for SiliconClassics to upload the source code to a file sharing site so modders and hobbyists can play around with this classic FPS. One of the actual developers of the Turok source code, Stephen Broumley, has even chimed in on the comments of the video, commending SiliconClassics for documenting this find.

With the large amount of attention resulting from this video, SiliconClassics actually released another video today (found below) where he outlines his future plans for this wealth of videogame history. As he is an attorney, SiliconClassics knows he cannot just release the source code out into the wild, as it is still a copyrighted piece of work and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is still being sold on Steam by Nightdive Studios, who could pursue legal action. However, as he lawfully bought these workstations, the First Sale doctrine means that he, as the rightful owner of these computers, is allowed to sell these workstations on to anyone who would buy them.

As a result, SiliconClassics is planning to sell on these workstations via eBay, making it up to whoever buys these computers to do what they want with the contents of them. 20% of the money raised from this sale will go to charity so if you are interested in potentially acquiring the source code for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, break out that wallet and get bidding.

 

[LESS T_T]

Follwoing Line of Sight: Vietnam, Retroism released another obscure 2000s shooter from Infogrames on Steam:

 

[LESS T_T]

Yet another obscure 2000s shooter from Infogrames catalog:

 

[Infinitron]

Coming Soon to Steam, GOG, and The Humble Store!

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/405830

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil returns to the PC! The sequel to the hit game Turok is now available, featuring a host of new enemies, new weapons, new missions, new locations and a new multiplayer mode. Remastered for today’s computers using a new engine with improved graphics, Turok 2 will transport players into sprawling environments with vicious enemies lurking behind every corner.

 

[Ash]

Probably the best console shooter in existence, and the most hardcore FPS, period.

 

[tormund]

Probably the best console shooter in existence

Halo series, Killzone series, Perfect Dark, Destiny...

 

[Ash]

All shite and what spawned the phrase "console shooter" in a derogatory sense in the first place. An exception perhaps for Perfect Dark.

Turok, Turok 2, Alien Trilogy, Duke Nukem: Zero Hour, Timesplitters and other lesser known old school titles is where console shooters have their place.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I was thinking about Turok2 when there was GOG promo for the first remaster. No fog and no respawning enemies would make the game cool...

 

[Morgoth]

Fuck yes man Turok 2 was my favorite on N64 besides GoldenEye of course.