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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

#181

Post by eropple »

kevstev wrote: post #168
gwicks56 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The entire genre of flight and space-sims has almost entirely gone away and to me its such a tremendous shame- with today's multi-monitor setups and wide screens they would be such a better experience. X-wing, descent, flight simulator, were all so much fun. I still have my MS sidewinder collecting dust in a closet- which may be part of the problem- these games really needed a decent flight stick to enjoy, and that's…

In addition to stuff like Elite: Dangerous and the X series of games, House of the Dying Sun came out in 2016 and is rad.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#182

Post by hyperman1 »

rocky1138 wrote: post #129
hyperman1 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think abandonware is always illegal, it's just that nobody cares enough to enforce the copyright. Betting on this when you have blizzard with their trigger happy lawyers seems risky, IMHO.

Assumed abandonware, anyway. Some companies have legit given the rights over to the public domain for stuff. Hasbro releasing the encryption keys and rights to Atari Jaguar comes to mind. http://www.atarihq.com/news/1999/990514.html

True. The Id software releases are another major example. I am very gratefull for these gifts.

But 'abandoned' implies forgetting or not caring. If a company actively takes some action to allow access, the word 'abandoned' doesn't seem appropriate anymore.

What do you think about the word 'donated' or simply 'licensed'.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#183

Post by munificent »

crocal wrote: post #143

What I like about this code is how much direct it is. No fancy abstraction. Brutally to the point with switch() and if() and that’s it!

This code was automatically decompiled, though, wasn't it? The original is likely quite different.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#184

Post by ecliptik »

EpicEng wrote: post #48
jannes wrote: post #11

We should clone this repository before Github gets sent a DMCA takedown notice.

>"This work is being released to the Public Domain. No assets of Diablo are being provided. You must own a copy of Diablo and have access to the assets beforehand in order to use this software."

In the early aughts, Blizzard took down bnetd due to

> alleged copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and violations of their games' End User License Agreement (sometimes referred to as a clickwrap license) and DMCA anti-circumvention prohibitions [1]

and that was just open-source server software, not even a game.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnetd#Blizzard_takedown_demand...

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#185

Post by reiichiroh »

abiox wrote: post #155
reiichiroh wrote: post #64

It's amazing that Chris Metzen's terrible kiddy drawings from the Diablo and Starcraft manuals got him promoted eventually to creative lead.

metzen created the diablo universe (with roper) and the starcraft universe (with phinney). he had a bit more involvement than some drawings in manuals.

Still, the pencil drawings in the manuals looked like EGM envelope rejects.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#186

Post by Zardoz84 »

ben_w wrote: post #180
zackmorris wrote: post #56

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…

> Even Duke Nukem 3D ran full speed on a 100 MHz 486dx4. That could not have all simply been due to a lack of optimization on the Mac side. Curious. I remember playing Marathon 2 on a 75MHz 603e and it seemed fine. What counts as “full speed”? I think Marathon was frame limited to 30 fps or close to that, from experimenting with semi-transparency based on fast-moving platforms…

Doom II on a 386 at 40 MHz was running fine.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#187

Post by Zardoz84 »

Exuma wrote: 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

original Heroes of Might&Magic. Had a great deal of lore with the mails of Lord Iron First to his brother.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#188

Post by Zardoz84 »

jakebasile wrote: post #19
have_faith wrote: post #4

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.

Isometric ARPGs are niche now, but there's still games being made. Off the top of my head: - Titan Quest (just got an update and a new expansion!) - Grim Dawn - The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Victor Vran - Path of Exile - Warhammer 40000 Inquisitor - Martyr - Torchlight 1 & 2 (I wish Runic games hadn't imploded...) It is unfortunate that most of these don't have the same level of randomness than Diablo ha…

Blade : Edge of Darknes (aka Severance: Blade of Darkness ), could count as some kind successor on 3d and the grand father of Dark Souls.

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#189

Post by [deleted] »

zackmorris wrote: post #56

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…

[deleted]

Re: Diablo devolved – magic behind the 1996 computer game

#190

Post by linuxasheviller »

EpicEng wrote: post #48
jannes wrote: post #11

We should clone this repository before Github gets sent a DMCA takedown notice.

>"This work is being released to the Public Domain. No assets of Diablo are being provided. You must own a copy of Diablo and have access to the assets beforehand in order to use this software."

That won't stop a cease and desist, though. See also: FreeCraft, bnetd.

Though I actually think this will be a good test of how GitHub's new owner reacts when faced with an issue of community versus corporation.

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