Bio Menace

All discussion about the Commander Genius project (a Keen interpreter + more).
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Lunick
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Bio Menace

Post by Lunick »

Call me crazy but has it ever been suggested that Commander Genius could one day support this game?
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Post by NY00123 »

I actually mentioned it as an idea, at least once. It seemed to be a result of a discussion about another game and the thoughts of supporting it, although Bio Menace is actually based on the Keen Galaxy engine (or some variation of it).
In practice, I think that the higher priorities for CG are currently to get Keens playable with all creatures and the like implemented, and possibly add some relevant additions.
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Post by Lunick »

Yeah, that's why I said 'One Day'. I have seen the priority list so far and this is far from being needed :P
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Post by gerstrong »

Well, I can confirm that. Plans are for Keen 5 and 6 now, after that I might support Dreams which won't be hard and then maybe Bio Menace. I also have plans for Duke Nukem I and II.

If it ever will be done I cannot promise, but let's see what future will reveal to us.

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Post by Lunick »

Duke 1 & 2?

That is awesome!
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Lunick wrote:Duke 1 & 2?

That is awesome!
So is this: ReDuke (And NO, this program has not been released.)
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Post by gerstrong »

K1n9_Duk3 wrote:
Lunick wrote:Duke 1 & 2?

That is awesome!
So is this: ReDuke (And NO, this program has not been released.)
Pretty cool, does the engine load the original DOS Maps, sound etc.?
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

It's a single EXE file (about 440 KB) that I put in my Duke 1 folder. The only thing this program doesn't load from the original game files are the strings (they were contained in the original EXE anyway) and the controls. Everything else is loaded directly from the original files and converted into more modern formats (i.e. EGA data is converted to 32 bit RGBA pixmaps and the PC Speaker sounds are converted to waveform samples.

With some more coding, it would even be possible to switch from the original assets to HD graphics and real digitized sounds by pressing a button, just like in Monkey Island SE.
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Post by gerstrong »

Cool, so I won't need to support Duke Nukem. Good thing that you are working on that.
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Post by Lunick »

K1n9_Duk3 wrote:
Lunick wrote:Duke 1 & 2?

That is awesome!
So is this: ReDuke (And NO, this program has not been released.)
You got any info about that project? :begging
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Post by Levellass »

I don't notice any difference. What am I missing?
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Post by lemm »

K1n9_Duk3 wrote:It's a single EXE file (about 440 KB) that I put in my Duke 1 folder. The only thing this program doesn't load from the original game files are the strings (they were contained in the original EXE anyway) and the controls. Everything else is loaded directly from the original files and converted into more modern formats (i.e. EGA data is converted to 32 bit RGBA pixmaps and the PC Speaker sounds are converted to waveform samples.

With some more coding, it would even be possible to switch from the original assets to HD graphics and real digitized sounds by pressing a button, just like in Monkey Island SE.
Neat!


Is this an authentic disassembly and re-compilation of the original .exe, or did you make very detailed measurements of the game and make a clone?
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Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Levellass wrote:I don't notice any difference. What am I missing?
That was the point. ReDuke was supposed to play the demo just like the original game did. The gameplay is the same, but there are some minor differences. For example, the reactor doesn't spawn particles when it explodes.
lemm wrote:Is this an authentic disassembly and re-compilation of the original .exe, or did you make very detailed measurements of the game and make a clone?
It's not a disassembly. I used DOSBox to capture videos of the original game and analyzed them frame by frame to recreate the behavior of the actors in the game. The only thing that came anywhere near a disassembly was extracting all strings from the original executables.
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Post by Levellass »

That sounds a lot harder than it should.
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Post by Paramultart »

There's a freeware, "spiritual successor" type game called "Dave Gnukem" that makes a pretty faithful adaptation of the original Duke engine. It could probably be modded to be an actual port of the game, but I'm not sure how that would affect the legality of it.
http://gnukem.sourceforge.net/

I love the idea of adding support for other games in Commander Genius, as well as using it as a platform to develop new games.
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