Xargon Uncharted Isle released 8/2/24

[dark]

Hello Keen Release forum. At long last I am pleased to present the first ever full episode-style mod of the Dos version of Xargon: Xargon Uncharted Isle.

https://archive.org/details/xargon-ui



With this mod, Xargon joins the likes of the Keen series, Jill, Vinyl Goddess, Hocus Pocus, and other classic dos games that have had new levels/mods made for them.

The game has 6 completely new levels, new menu graphics, new story scenes, a new demo recording, a full new adlib soundtrack inspired by the original game's soundtrack plus many fun secrets and easter eggs. I have included a readme file in the game archive that identifies some secrets in case you play through and want to see if you missed anything. Cheat codes that work in Xargon Beyond Reality work in this mod as well. The Xargon level editor is itself also intact in this version of the game in case you want to personally edit the levels.

This mod is all made possible by the release of the original Xargon level/game editor earlier this year by Allen Pilgrim, the game's original author.

I learned a lot about editing Xargon (and by extension Jill) by working on this game, and would be happy to discuss obscure details about how to use the original level editors in these games if anyone ever has questions about those.

And if you enjoy the sound track by Dave216, you can listen to it easily here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIeoVvVOVcI

[Roobar]

Oh that mod is so good! The levels after the first one become really interesting (more interesting than the original game imo). And the difficulty is just right. Not too easy and not too difficult. I'm surprised you've managed to pull out such great levels with that editor! The music is also great! I might be at the last level now, but am craving for more! Again, really good mod!

[dark]

Thank you that means a lot. While the mod is on the short side, I really spent quite a lot of time to create each level.

Even after I made them, I discovered that it is quite easy to trigger the dos 640k conventional memory limit and had to find ways to tone several of them down.

I used to think it was a little unusual in the original game when you might see a stage and it only has 2 types of enemies throughout it... But I came to figure out those are some of the ways to manage against the memory limit, the other ways being the overall dimensions of the level, and maybe most important, the diversity of blocks you use to create the level (the more types of scenery you use in a single level, such as cave, grassland, roman columns, beach, etc, the more likely it is that you will have crashes, even if you are using only one block associated with that block set!)

I still have some versions of my prototype levels that are completable but tend to crash from time to time. Maybe I'll provide them in the future if there's interest to show how much things had to be revised.

[Roobar]

Ah yes, memory limitations. The main villain of DOS modding.

[Dave216]

Congrats on the release, dark! It was a pleasure working with you. I've played through a couple of levels, and it was fun! I wish I could give you more detailed feedback, but I don't currently have the time to properly check the original games to give my honest comparison between them and your mod. But this looks really well designed. You really chose the right tracks for the levels, and they fit with the concept of the level. Great job!

I've also updated my video to include your download link!

[dark]

Terrific! Btw in the Xargon FB group Allen continues to compliment your sound track and asked me to let you know he appreciates your contribution to Xargon through this mod.

Would love to work with you again in the future when I have the motivation to put together another mod.

[dark]

Here is a video of a lengthy full playthrough of the mod by youtuber Dosgamert. He goes out of his way to explore the levels and try and collect 100% of everything and kill all enemies, so this is more of a completionist playthrough than a casual playthrough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQS3Np-SCEI

And I've recorded a speedrun, where I skip tons of stuff and just try to complete the game as quickly as possible . That's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnMvGUDF6FI

[Benvolio]

I have to admit I got confused when I saw Dosgamert's vid with its caption text directly quoting your entire mod release blurb... I thought that it implied that you and he were the same person i.e. Dosgamert being the modder. But obviously not!

Anyway the mod looks great, looking forward to downloading soon!

[dark]

Yep we are not the same person It must have just been very easy to copy my description instead of making a new one.

[dark]

Thanks to King_Duke's fantastic Xargon editor (https://pckf.com/viewtopic.php?p=111253#p111253), I am now able to export full pictures of my levels! I thought it would be interesting to show some prototypes of two levels that had to be substantially cut down to fit within the DOS 640kb memory limit. Here they are:

Level 1 as it appears in the final game


Prototype level 1 that had to be extensively cut down to reduce the likelihood of it crashing


Level 2 as it appears in the final game


Prototype level 2 that had to be extensively cut down to reduce crashing.

In fact, I discovered to my dismay, that after saving it one day, the prototype level took up so much memory that I could no longer open it in the in-game level editor without the game instantly crashing! At the time, this meant that I could no longer edit it to delete things from it and I thought I was out of luck and would need to recreate it from scratch! But thankfully a friend was able to play around with a hex editor to delete some content and I was able to load it in the in-game editor again.

[rikimbo]

I really enjoyed playing through this. I thought the levels were well designed, carefully laid out, and felt like Xargon. The music is fantastic. I found the secrets and they made me smile.

[dark]

I really enjoyed playing through this. I thought the levels were well designed, carefully laid out, and felt like Xargon. The music is fantastic. I found the secrets and they made me smile.

Awesome, I'm so glad to hear that! I was so worried that the small audience who will come across this game might not even find the secrets so I added that readme file in the game folder to publicize their existence .


SPOILERS - its been very fun to see full zoomed out images of my maps using King_Duke's new level editor. I uploaded images of every level to this album. It will of course spoil things a bit if you haven't played the game and still plan on it, so I'll leave them in this offsite album rather than pasting them directly into the thread! https://imgur.com/a/aM9uX7l

[dark]

This is an unofficial version of Uncharted Isle with various prototype levels in it, including versions of several levels (level 1, 2 and the final level in particular) that were larger or more complex than their counterparts in the final version, required more memory than typical Xargon levels, and would cause frequent crashes, so they had to be simplified for the final game. With the recent release of K1n9_Duk3's modified Xargon ep 1 exe that has more efficient memory usage than the original exe, these prototype levels can now be played without crashing.

https://fastupload.io/636bac8106a50b69

While I thought the differences were interesting enough to share, it wouldn't be right to say that this is how I had wished the final game would turn out. As I continued working on simplifying and modifying these levels, got more experience with making levels in general, and got some tester feedback, I have to say that I am a fan of how the final simplified levels turned out. It was also a good idea to tone down the difficulty and potential cheapness in some levels (several of these prototype levels have many more enemies and more difficult hazards than the final ones do).