Company News Tactical Simulations Interactive founded by SSI alumni

[mindx2]

Bring back the code wheel with runes and I'm in!

And the maps done in red ink, where you needed those viewers with a red lens, in order to see the maps.

I *think* one of the gold box games came with that(?) Or I am confusing that with something else....

I've got them all and none came with a red decoder . Not sure which game you're referencing as I have quite the collection but have never seen a map with the red ink... ... Luzur may know?

edit: As tuluse said, plenty of adventure games used them for their clue books (Sierra especially) but I've never seen a map version.

 

[Fatty]

I don't back kickstarters. If they kickstart a new Wizard's Crown that will change. Ideally it would pick up where Eternal Dagger left off. As I recall I left my merry band of assholes sitting in a field almost 30 years ago. We've been waiting ever since to find out what happens next.

 

[Luzur]

Bring back the code wheel with runes and I'm in!

And the maps done in red ink, where you needed those viewers with a red lens, in order to see the maps.

I *think* one of the gold box games came with that(?) Or I am confusing that with something else....

ehm, no, not SSI, although i know that some games had that little plastic "monocle" that you ahd to use to read password etc, SSI used the manual as far as i know as DRM.

 

[mondblut]

Bring back the code wheel with runes and I'm in!

And the maps done in red ink, where you needed those viewers with a red lens, in order to see the maps.

Yay, Codex gone pro-DRM.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Bring back the code wheel with runes and I'm in!

Yay, Codex gone pro-DRM.

DRM which could be photocopied. Old-school DRM

 

[Shannow]

It's not "DRM", you cunts. Your rights as consumers were in no way infringged upon. Neither was the wheel spyware, nor did it prevent you from making your own safety copy, nor did it prevent you from re-selling or lending to a friend. It did not require you to install third party mal/bloatware. It did not require an online connection to play an offline game that was bought in a physical store.
Don't they teach anything at school these days? Now get off my lawn before I release the hounds.

 

[Grunker]

I get that you're very angry about jokes made at the code wheel's expense, but calling mondblut a kid in the context of SSI games must be some sort of law of reversals.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Bring back the code wheel with runes and I'm in!

And the maps done in red ink, where you needed those viewers with a red lens, in order to see the maps.

Yay, Codex gone pro-DRM.

not all copy protection is drm.

 

[Infinitron]

It's not "DRM", you cunts. Your rights as consumers were in no way infringged upon. Neither was the wheel spyware, nor did it prevent you from making your own safety copy, nor did it prevent you from re-selling or lending to a friend. It did not require you to install third party mal/bloatware. It did not require an online connection to play an offline game that was bought in a physical store.
Don't they teach anything at school these days? Now get off my lawn before I release the hounds.

Bring back the code wheel with runes and I'm in!

And the maps done in red ink, where you needed those viewers with a red lens, in order to see the maps.

Yay, Codex gone pro-DRM.

not all copy protection is drm.

Funny that you say this. It seems that old-school copy protection was often just as controversial back in its day as DRM is today. There was some amount of butthurt about it among the freedom-minded 1980s PC hobbyist crowd. I think one of the Robert Sirotek Matt Chat episodes touched on this.

 

[tuluse]

Funny that you say this. It seems that old-school copy protection was often just as controversial back in its day as DRM is today. There was some amount of butthurt about it among the freedom-minded 1980s PC hobbyist crowd. I think one of the Robert Sirotek Matt Chat episodes touched on this.

A code wheel wasn't digital though

analog rights management

 

[mondblut]

Funny that you say this. It seems that old-school copy protection was often just as controversial back in its day as DRM is today. There was some amount of butthurt about it among the freedom-minded 1980s PC hobbyist crowd. I think one of the Robert Sirotek Matt Chat episodes touched on this.

Back in 80s, developers often went to great lengths trying to mechanically make their floppies un-copyable. "Safety copies" my ass. Moar liek, SecuFloppy.

And misplacing your manual (and who needs manual once you got a hang of game controls?) or code wheel effectively disqualified you from running the software you paid for. Totally unlike an online activation server being down. Oh wai...

 

[Delterius]

Bring back the code wheel with runes and I'm in!

Yay, Codex gone pro-DRM.

DRM which could be photocopied. Old-school DRM

I wonder if SecuROM will ever become nostalgic.

"Remember when we didn't need to be anal probbed before booting our games?

Yeah, companies in the golden 2000s used to be much more respectful when violating our lives. How did they get us to use anal probes, though?

It began when glorious BioWare still made RPGs like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. The world was doomed when Bethesda added the SecuProbe to their Fallout 4 masterpiece."

 

[Shannow]

I get that you're very angry about jokes made at the code wheel's expense, but calling mondblut a kid in the context of SSI games must be some sort of law of reversals.

You "get" that I'm very "angry" about jokes? felipepepe critically fails his sarcasm ckeck in the Xulima walking speed thread nearly as dramatically... What's wrong codex, misplaced your humor detector?
Though I do find throwing together DRM and copy-protection distateful. Copy-protection prevents copying the DISK. Nothing more. (Of course, shitty systems could fuck up your whole computer. But that is implementation, not intent. Like the difference between STEAM and ORIGIN.) EDIT: Ok, you might argue that stuff like the wheel is also copy-protection, though it only prevents re-selling a playable copy. To a certain degree. /EDIT
DRM comes with all that I mentioned before and more. *shrug*

Funny that you say this. It seems that old-school copy protection was often just as controversial back in its day as DRM is today. There was some amount of butthurt about it among the freedom-minded 1980s PC hobbyist crowd. I think one of the Robert Sirotek Matt Chat episodes touched on this.

Funny that nobody said that anybody felt nostalgic about copy-protection

I criticised the wheel...in this very thread. (Not all games that came with a wheel or manual password checks or similar came with copy-protection. So the wheel by itself does not prevent a safety copy.) SuicideBunny pointed out that copy-protection != DRM.
The only one who seems to be suggesting that copy-protection was not an controversial issue back in the day...seems to be you

 

[Dorateen]

David Shelley's nugget of wisdom in today's post:

Enjoying working with modern development tools. With the Gold Box games, designers worked in a custom scripting language based off 6502 assembly. We used C-64s and our editors had a 500 line limit, forcing us to cram multiple commands on a single line. And everything was on floppy in the early days, no hard drive, no net. Made version control exciting.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

David Shelley's nugget of wisdom in today's post:

Enjoying working with modern development tools. With the Gold Box games, designers worked in a custom scripting language based off 6502 assembly. We used C-64s and our editors had a 500 line limit, forcing us to cram multiple commands on a single line. And everything was on floppy in the early days, no hard drive, no net. Made version control exciting.

Hope it is a gold box spiritual successor. I would be disappoint if it were 'Phantasie'.... that game sucked, I only recall lots of mushroom gathering and silly looking combat with rows of dudes standing in line whacking each other.

 

[octavius]

David Shelley's nugget of wisdom in today's post:

Enjoying working with modern development tools. With the Gold Box games, designers worked in a custom scripting language based off 6502 assembly. We used C-64s and our editors had a 500 line limit, forcing us to cram multiple commands on a single line. And everything was on floppy in the early days, no hard drive, no net. Made version control exciting.

Hope it is a gold box spiritual successor. I would be disappoint if it were 'Phantasie'.... that game sucked, I only recall lots of mushroom gathering and silly looking combat with rows of dudes standing in line whacking each other.

The Phantasie games were good, and they have aged well thanks to having auto-map. I don't recall the mushroom gathering? Are you thinking of Magic Candle (also a great game).

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

David Shelley's nugget of wisdom in today's post:

Enjoying working with modern development tools. With the Gold Box games, designers worked in a custom scripting language based off 6502 assembly. We used C-64s and our editors had a 500 line limit, forcing us to cram multiple commands on a single line. And everything was on floppy in the early days, no hard drive, no net. Made version control exciting.

Hope it is a gold box spiritual successor. I would be disappoint if it were 'Phantasie'.... that game sucked, I only recall lots of mushroom gathering and silly looking combat with rows of dudes standing in line whacking each other.

The Phantasie games were good, and they have aged well thanks to having auto-map. I don't recall the mushroom gathering? Are you thinking of Magic Candle (also a great game).

oh right, it was magic candle with the mushrooms, I had the games confused.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Totally unlike an online activation server being down. Oh wai...

you can't phone a friend to ask for the verification response, you can't rent a copy from your local game rental shop that will activate just fine and then copy the decrypted files so your own installation will work ok, neither can you ask a cousin to fax you the damn verification, nor can you actually backup the activation server in your home, unlike codewheels and the like.

 

[Dorateen]

Meanwhile, back on the facebook page, TSI is asking,


"Do people recall particular aspects of particular SSI games that were particularly notable? We certainly have our own ideas, but we'd love outside input."

I don't post on facebook, but I hope they keep their lines of communication open once they launch the real website. I'd respond to this with a laundry list of features.

 

[tuluse]

I want Imperialism 3.

 

[octavius]

Meanwhile, back on the facebook page, TSI is asking,


"Do people recall particular aspects of particular SSI games that were particularly notable? We certainly have our own ideas, but we'd love outside input."

I don't post on facebook, but I hope they keep their lines of communication open once they launch the real website. I'd respond to this with a laundry list of features.

I don't post on Facebook either but I did I'd post something like this:

Gold Box games

The positive:
The combat engine. Best combat of all turn based DOS era CRPGs (or maybe Wizard's Crown was even better?).
The excellent encounter design of most of the games.
The unlinearity of Pool of Radiance and Death Knights of Krynn.
Parlay (sic) with enemies, at least in the early games.
The excellent overland map of Pool of Radicance.

The things you either love or hate:
Fighting armies of Kobolds and Orcs in Pool of Radiance.

The negative:
Very weak monster AI and downright atrocious AI for quick combat, but at least friendly fire was mostly eliminated in the later games.

If anyone wants to post my list, feel free.

 

[Metro]

Pool of Radiance was the gold (derp) standard of the Gold Box games. Anything they make today should try to emulate all of its upside particularly the non0linearity and massive overworld compared to the fairly discreet amount of encounters the succeeding games had.

 

[catfood]

Meanwhile, back on the facebook page, TSI is asking,


"Do people recall particular aspects of particular SSI games that were particularly notable? We certainly have our own ideas, but we'd love outside input."

I don't post on facebook, but I hope they keep their lines of communication open once they launch the real website. I'd respond to this with a laundry list of features.

I don't post on Facebook either but I did I'd post something like this:

Gold Box games

The positive:
The combat engine. Best combat of all turn based DOS era CRPGs (or maybe Wizard's Crown was even better?).
The excellent encounter design of most of the games.
The unlinearity of Pool of Radiance and Death Knights of Krynn.
Parlay (sic) with enemies, at least in the early games.
The excellent overland map of Pool of Radicance.

The things you either love or hate:
Fighting armies of Kobolds and Orcs in Pool of Radiance.

The negative:
Very weak monster AI and downright atrocious AI for quick combat, but at least friendly fire was mostly eliminated in the later games.

The ninth layer of Hell itself:
The interface.

If anyone wants to post my list, feel free.

Fixed.

 

[octavius]

No fan of using the keyboard, Unkillable Cat?
The only thing I really disliked about the interface was that in some games the same key was used as both Esc and End Turn, which could be annoying when you hit End Turn by mistake and your character wasted his turn.

 

[catfood]

No fan of using the keyboard, Unkillable Cat?
The only thing I really disliked about the interface was that in some games the same key was used as both Esc and End Turn, which could be annoying when you hit End Turn by mistake and your character wasted his turn.

I don't have a problem with using the keyboard. I have a problem when I feel like I'm Franz Liszt every time I want to do the simplest of things, like equiping characters.