Possible Dos game port project

[esteban]

Nat you have my vote on that. I know simcity has been done and done, but i'm a fool for the game. Redo it the way you said would be outstanding. Having king drool stomping through bonkville like down town tokyo would seal the deal for me as well. If i can't have that though, I will take a Halloween harry remake featuring Zonk characters.

What? Hell no, Nat is spewing crazy talk.

What he intended to say is that we need to take the existing PCE version of SimEarth and update all the sprites/landscapes with their analogues from the Bonk universe.

And to this idea—putting the Bonk in SimEarth—I heartily say, "Hell yes!"


Typographical corrections (as Nat intended) in bold:

SimCity has been done and done. The SNES has a perfectly fine version of SimCity already. But a BONK SimCity SimEarth isn't a half-bad idea. I'd remake the entire game to take place in the Bonk universe. Bonk creatures, Bonk buildings, Bonk economics. As the game progressed into the future, the buildings/technology would evolve into the Zonk era.

[BigusSchmuck]

Like I said before, I'll go for open sourced projects first. Hacking Sim Earth, however is yet another can of beans I don't think I want to tackle anytime soon. Baby steps here ^^

[Arkhan]

If you want baby steps, Keen is your answer.  It's a simple platformer.

Ultima introduces the concept of first person dungeons and space-shooterthingy (Star Raiders ripoff).

[BigusSchmuck]

As indicated in the poll, thats probably what I'm going to attempt. Once I feel comfortable with that, will move on to bigger projects.

[Arkhan]

As indicated in the poll, thats probably what I'm going to attempt. Once I feel comfortable with that, will move on to bigger projects.

Even if you were to start smaller, with like a single LEVEL of Keen, I'm sure people would get erect from it.

[KingDrool]

Sim-Whatever starring the Bonk/Zonk cast would be great! Hell, modding an RPG to give us the Bonk RPG I've been waiting for since '92 would be amazing.

But yes, Keen seems to be the way to go.

[snickersbar]

I voted for other, street rod is one of the best car racing games

[Edmond Dantes]

If you want baby steps, Keen is your answer.  It's a simple platformer.

Ultima introduces the concept of first person dungeons and space-shooterthingy (Star Raiders ripoff).

That doesn't mean its gonna be more complicated.

Dude, Ultima:  The First Age of Darkness was programmed in 1980 (that's almost a whole decade before Keen).  In BASIC.  By a single man.  I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to crack.

I just voted for Keen because I'm in the mood for platformers lately.

[Keranu]

I voted for other, street rod is one of the best car racing games

I was thinking about Street Rod as well. Definitely one of the coolest car games evar.

[Arkhan]

If you want baby steps, Keen is your answer.  It's a simple platformer.

Ultima introduces the concept of first person dungeons and space-shooterthingy (Star Raiders ripoff).

That doesn't mean its gonna be more complicated.

Dude, Ultima:  The First Age of Darkness was programmed in 1980 (that's almost a whole decade before Keen).  In BASIC.  By a single man.  I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to crack.

I just voted for Keen because I'm in the mood for platformers lately.

The problem from all of the Ultima games comes from the first person dungeon perspective.  That's a bit of an advanced concept, especially on a machine that doesn't have a bitmapped screen mode.  The dungeons are all drawn with lines on the PC.  You can't do that well on the PCE.  It's all tile based.  This complicates things severely.

and lets not even get into the into-screen spaceship portion.  That's a whole second beast to deal with. 

BASIC doesn't always mean it's easy.

[Edmond Dantes]

I'm sure that if it could be done on a freaking Apple IIe, then it can be done on a PC Engine.  I mean, the system has flight sims and first-person dungeon crawlers already so we know its doable.

(Actually... does the PC-Engine have a flight sim?  I assume it does but I've never heard of one...)

[spenoza]

It has Falcon. Don't know what that's worth, though.

[Arkhan]

I'm sure that if it could be done on a freaking Apple IIe, then it can be done on a PC Engine.  I mean, the system has flight sims and first-person dungeon crawlers already so we know its doable.

(Actually... does the PC-Engine have a flight sim?  I assume it does but I've never heard of one...)

It's not a question of whether its possible or not.  It's a question of: Is this feasible as a first project for a newcomer?

The answer to that is no.

Lord British wrote many, many games for the Apple II before Ultima 1.  Akalabeth wasn't his first game. 

[spenoza]

I kinda agree with Arky (yes, it does happen). Given the lack of a bitmap mode on the PCE, a platformer (or shooter, or other simple, sprite-blitty game) might be an easier start. That said, if you do the first-person dungeon in chunks, un-animated, it probably wouldn't be so bad at all. What I mean by that is instead of walking forward smoothly, you walk forward one square and your perspective on the dungeon jumps forward.

Has anyone managed to determine how Double Dungeons does its animated step-forward bit? There are other systems from that era which surely do the same.

[Keranu]