The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread

[toro]

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

The fuck!?




Not only is there a Flotilla 2 that I somehow hadn't heard about, and it's been out for months, it's apparently VR only of all fucking things. Kind of a shame since I would've liked a cleaner Flotilla which I'd hope for from a sequel.

 

[Life of the Party]

 

[ortucis]

So, this game looks fun:




Also, found this:







EDIT: Purchased Reigns, Kingsway and Deep Sky Derelicts. Paid 50% of total with my card sales earnings too. Overall, happy with these turn of events. Now to play all games in my inventory and sell cards for 2020 sale.

 

[Don Peste]

 

[Baron Dupek]

Catherine coming to PC

https://steamcommunity.com/games/460790/announcements/detail/1721962968917170170

 

[Melcar]

The amount of shit/WTF games on Steam is amazing.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So people are just making up games now to claim oldfag status?

To clarify:

It's supposed to be a game from 1987 that was very ahead of its time, and comparable to Another World, Flashback, or Prince of Persia.
The ZIP download also contains three screenshots.
The commenters seem to remember it... One of them is "JMenko" who is also the uploader.

Another place with a download: http://www.classicdosgames.com/forum/vi ... php?t=1623

The uploader is "JohnM". I wonder if he is the same as the "JMenko" above, since they share the same initials...
He writes "I was currently able to play only the first part of the game".
I wonder how, since I couldn't get the game to work...
People there also complain about the game not working.

The first post has the three screenshots from archive.org plus a new one.

Also, this ZIP file here contains only README.EXE and SETUP.EXE.
README.EXE matches the README.EXE in the archive.org ZIP.
SETUP.EXE matches the ETERNAL.EXE in the archive.org ZIP.

Someone mentions the empty .dat files that are only in the archive.org version.
The first post was edited once, so I guess the post originally has that version as well.

Analysis of the files:
(Don't just believe me -- look into them yourself!)

* Most files contain only zero bytes.
As noted in the classicdosgames forum:

I wonder how is this game supposed to work if all the .dat files are empty.

* ANLGSND1.DAT, ANLGSND2.DAT, ANLGSND3.DAT
These are the copies of the DIGISND1.DAT, DIGISND2.DAT, DIGISND3.DAT files from Prince of Persia 1 (DOS) v1.0.
What are these files doing in a game supposedly from 1987?

* MELEE.COM
According to the text in the file, this is a "Star Control II crack".
This is also noted in the forum:

The crack for Star Control II doesn't seem to help.

I wonder where are you going with it.

* MELEE.PKG
This is a picture with some unknown header. If you set the width to 256 in your hex editor, you'll see that it spells "STAR CONTROL 2 SUPER MELEE" at the top.

* SETUP.EXE
This is supposed to be the installer. It asks for disk 2, but it can't find it, so the only option is to quit.
It doesn't seem to contain the names of any files around it.
On startup it mentions DPMI. But DPMI was introduced only in 1989!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS_Prote ... _Interface

* ETERNAL.EXE
This seems to be a different version of the installer.
It seems to start up somewhat faster.
It doesn't contain the names of any files around it, either. I has only some DOS commands to create and remove directories from "INSTALL1" to "INSTALL8".

* README.EXE
This displays the manual of the game. (You can redirect it to a file.)
It tells how to register the game (through an 1-800 phone number), the story (with some typos), how to install, and controls.
There is no info about who made the game, though.
Also, was the word "folder" used for directories on DOS, back in 1987?

* The EXE files contain error messages like "RETURN without GOSUB" and "Out of DATA".
This means that they were made in Basic.
This, by itself, does not prove anything, though.
There were some actual games made in Basic, like Castle Adventure (1984), Prisoner (1988), or Aquanoid (1992).

* screenshot_1.png
Open it in a hex editor or text editor.
You will find this in the metadata:

<photoshop:TextLayers>
<rdf:Bag>
<rdf:li rdf:parseType="Resource">
<photoshop:LayerName>@1987 T.E.C. CGA MODE</photoshop:LayerName>
<photoshop:LayerText>@1987 T.E.C. CGA MODE</photoshop:LayerText>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li rdf:parseType="Resource">
<photoshop:LayerName>SYNTH ENABLED</photoshop:LayerName>
<photoshop:LayerText>SYNTH ENABLED</photoshop:LayerText>
</rdf:li>
<rdf:li rdf:parseType="Resource">
<photoshop:LayerName>Layer 17</photoshop:LayerName>
<photoshop:LayerText/>
</rdf:li>
</rdf:Bag>
</photoshop:TextLayers>

It looks like the texts on the title screen were added with Photoshop.
Why would someone do this on a genuine screenshot?

I found this out when I was searching the texts on the picture in the game's files.
But those texts appear only in this PNG file, not in any of the EXEs.

 

[toro]

... snip ...

Thanks for the information. I did not know about it. Sorry.

Here is another trailer:

 

[Infinitron]

So people are just making up games now to claim oldfag status?

Seems like it might be a kind of Polybius-inspired performance art, no? Wink wink nudge nudge.

 

[Grotesque]

Seems like it might be a kind of Polybius-inspired performance art, no? Wink wink nudge nudge.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Seems like it might be a kind of Polybius-inspired performance art, no? Wink wink nudge nudge.

No, I see no reason to grant them that kind of recognition.

Polybius was always treated like it was some kind of myth, or at the very least there was myth surrounding it.

This one outright states that the game has existed for over 30 years, but the only shred of evidence found is full of stolen files or empty datasets, obviously planted there by someone as a probable tie-in to this game.

All they have to do is change the phrasing of the game's description to give it a thin veil of mythical mystique.

Even creepypastas do a better job of that than this.

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[toro]

Seems like it might be a kind of Polybius-inspired performance art, no? Wink wink nudge nudge.

No, I see no reason to grant them that kind of recognition.

Polybius was always treated like it was some kind of myth, or at the very least there was myth surrounding it.

This one outright states that the game has existed for over 30 years, but the only shred of evidence found is full of stolen files or empty datasets, obviously planted there by someone as a probable tie-in to this game.

All they have to do is change the phrasing of the game's description to give it a thin veil of mythical mystique.

Even creepypastas do a better job of that than this.

So, you are butthurt because the devs pulled a PR stunt?

Well, who cares, the game is quite good.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

That release date makes it seem like a prank though.

 

[Modron]

Dark Wish gets released.


Really old school adventure game


Not much of interest released post sale so here is some prosperous content to pad this post.

Snails!


Shoutboxer simulator


Finally a reason to buy a vr headset

 

[Solid Snail]

 

[Kaethar]

The amount of shit/WTF games on Steam is amazing.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/292630/Uriels_Chasm/
Very Avant-Garde.

 

[lightbane]

So people are just making up games now to claim oldfag status?

Yep, it has obvious scummy practices...

Well, who cares, the game is quite good.

But the gameplay video looks good. Alas, it really needs a "full color" patch, as the graphic style makes it hard to discern what's going on sometimes, as the video shows, especially the intro text, which is hard to read. I guess in the grim future of the not-80s, grammatical rules are a lost art. Also, the game seems to have clunky hit detection and a stamina bar, for some reason.
The worst of all is that according to reviews it's too short (2 hours or so), so don't buy without waiting for sale/s.

 

[Morgoth]

The graphics will give you eye cancer but the excellent soundscape and soundtrack will make up for it. I also like that the PC has weight to his/her movements.

 

[lightbane]

Welp, the Castle game is even shorter than I thought. Here's the second (and last) part of that video gameplay. However, while I doubt there are alternate endings, there's hidden stuff the videos didn't show.

Spoiler

 

[Machocruz]

The jump looks like it's from Flashback

 

[Grotesque]

the Castle game is even shorter than I thought.

Of course it is! The original had to fit on a floppy disk!

 

[Country_Gravy]

I really miss floppy disks. The 5 and a quarter that were really floppy and the ring in the middle moved around?

Old school heaven.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/icewind-dale-plus-planescape-torment-pack

$5 for both IWDEE and PSTEE.