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Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

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Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#81
post #9

I remember going on vacation with my parents and all I had was the Diablo game manual, because I got the game 1 hour before we left. I read the manual about 100 times in the car... good memories

Caesar II was that one for me— got the game for Christmas and then immediately was in the car to visit family for a week.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#82

I'm old enough to remember that when Diablo came out, it seemed to be running too fast. This was before 3D video cards were mainstream (which happened with the Voodoo and Quake in 1997 maybe?). I was working a lot with blitters at that point and running into speed issues on the Mac because Apple liked to release machines with half-width busses, which cut memory throughput by almost half. I'd be lucky to get 60 fps on…

Did you ever play that pre-alpha source port of Quake on Mac that was just roughly compiled from the DOS source? Got like 12 fps at best on 320x200 on a PowerPC 603e 120mhz... When you fired a rocket the framerate would slow down by like 50% :'D

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#83
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because someone says what they are doing is legal doesn't mean it is. IANAL so I don't know but the source files have Blizzard's copyright warning in them

And now that MS owns github there's reason to believe they're going to be more active/compliant about bullshit DMCA take down requests.

GitHub was always super compilant in regard of DMCA.

MS will change nothing.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#84
post #9

I remember going on vacation with my parents and all I had was the Diablo game manual, because I got the game 1 hour before we left. I read the manual about 100 times in the car... good memories

For me it was the Starcraft game manual. I took that thing everywhere!

Same here! I was OBSESSED with that game as a kid and took the manual with me to school every day for a couple of weeks. Developing custom maps actually got me into programming (setting up triggers, building maps, etc). I remember trying to storyboard my custom "campaign" during recess, and even went so far as recording voice prompts. So many memories!

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#85
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it was the Starcraft game manual. I took that thing everywhere!

Same. I took the manual to school for weeks so my friends and I could look at all the crazy Metzen illustrations.

Those illustrations and stories where the reason I bought SC.. Event though wc2 was just a polished dune clone

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#86
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

edit : Didn't read the the "spiritual" part of the "spiritual successor". Though you could argue diablo 3 is, I would not be so bold. You should still try diablo 3 if you haven't. Diablo 3 is actually pretty good now if you want a successor. If you just want something similar to diablo 2 I suggest torchlight or titan quest. Diablo 1 is tricky because it was so much closer to rogue likes (probably because originally i…

>Diablo 3 is actually pretty good now if you want a successor. Diablo 3 is in no way a spiritual successor to D1 and 2. Yes, it's much better than it was at release, but it is still very much a streamlined, mass market friendly ARPG. Modern Diablo gameplay consists of leveling (1-2 hours), finishing your season journey (another 2-3 hours, maybe), getting your free super-powerful six piece handed to you, and then grin…

I couldnt get into D3 because there is too much focus on the items, I think the items should compliment the character, not the reverse

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#87
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Diablo 3 is actually pretty good now if you want a successor. Diablo 3 is in no way a spiritual successor to D1 and 2. Yes, it's much better than it was at release, but it is still very much a streamlined, mass market friendly ARPG. Modern Diablo gameplay consists of leveling (1-2 hours), finishing your season journey (another 2-3 hours, maybe), getting your free super-powerful six piece handed to you, and then grin…

I guess I didn't read spiritual in the successor part though I am not sure what that means. I can see how they games are different enough that saying diablo 3 is a spirital successor is probably not useful. I don't think arguing about what it means would be fruitful, so I concede the point. > Yes, it's much better than it was at release, but it is still very much a streamlined, mass market friendly ARPG. How is this…

To be fair, OP was looking for a modern spiritual successor (not sequel) of which D3 is not.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#88
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's such a shame there's no modern spiritual successor to Diablo / Diablo 2. The aesthetic and gameplay was great.

David Brevik, the creator of diablo is currently working on an indy game pretty much by himself called It Lurks Below. It's kind of like if terraria merged with diablo. You have to survive by growing crops and you get items by venturing lower and lower into the world using your pickaxe. It's still in pre-release on steam, but even at this stage I played it for quite a number of hours and found that it had a surprisin…

Just some greedy gremlins ousting the actual creators of success. Must be a law of nature.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#89

I'm old enough to remember that when Diablo came out, it seemed to be running too fast. This was before 3D video cards were mainstream (which happened with the Voodoo and Quake in 1997 maybe?). I was working a lot with blitters at that point and running into speed issues on the Mac because Apple liked to release machines with half-width busses, which cut memory throughput by almost half. I'd be lucky to get 60 fps on…

I had totally forgotten about Descent, thank you for the reminder. That game seriously scared me as a 13 yo boy at the time. I loved it.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is fascinating is the guy who coded and designed the multiplayer is actually a genius, he was just inexperienced at the time. His next big project was a huge, complicated, MMO that you could start playing before it finished downloading, and everything worked from day 1, which is rather unique among MMOs!] edit, sorry: Pat Wyatt of Guild Wars good interview with him talking about screwing up Diablo and doing a go…

Which programmer/game was that? Mike O'Brien on Guild Wars? (Just going through credits on mobygames ;))

Pat Wyatt - Guild Wars
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