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X-COM

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Re: X-COM

#21

Post by type_enthusiast »

zlorch wrote: post #16
type_enthusiast wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was also interesting from a design perspective; the various parts of the game were all separate executables and I never did figure out how they all interacted (though clearly some people did, as evidenced by the excellent XComUtil which has proved difficult to track down lately!)

IIRC the game just wrote a plain data file onto disk and the next executable read it up with all the needed info.

Well sure, when you put it that way it sounds simple! I was 12 or so, and I spent a few nights trying to figure out the "plain data file" before shrugging and going back to playing X-Com.

Re: X-COM

#22

Post by lapfi »

mcbuilder wrote: post #10

My favorite game of all time is another one in the turn based tactical genre, Jagged Alliance 2. A game still under active fan development some 20+ years later with the excellent 1.13 mod.

My all time favorite too. I still return to this game every few years. If you're a fan I suggest checking out this book: https://bossfightbooks.com/products/jagged-alliance-2-by-dar...

Re: X-COM

#23

Post by TeMPOraL »

aidenn0 wrote: post #11

I don't know if the author reads HN comments, but the story I heard about "Terror from the Deep" being so hard was because people were complaining that X-Com was too easy, due to an unfixed bug: Any time you loaded a save, the game reset to the easiest difficulty level. Not only would people often not play in one sitting, but many strategy gamers aren't above save-scumming either. Result, a large fraction of game hou…

"Save-scumming", such an ugly name for speculative execution...

Re: X-COM

#24

Post by simonebrunozzi »

> It had no video demo playing in the front window of Babbages,

This specific reference baffles me. Anyone cares to elaborate/clarify?

(I guess when you grow up somewhere other than the US, there's a chance these things happen).

Re: X-COM

#25

Post by n3k5 »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #3

One of my favourite games growing up. I tried replaying it about 10 years ago but it’s got serious quality of life problems with the mission aspect of the game. Particularly, it had no way to remember or save gear assignments between missions. So you would spend like 5 minutes at the start of every mission giving your guys the correct stuff for their stats. Every. Damn. Time. The other thing that bugged me on mission…

> Particularly, it had no way to remember or save gear assignments between missions.

OpenXcom has this, plus a lot of other improvements and bug-fixes. I'm no expert (played it and the original for a few hours each about a year ago) but my impression is that it manages to pull off nice QoL-improvements while staying faithful to the feel and gameplay of the original game.

Re: X-COM

#26

Post by skocznymroczny »

I loved the original X-Com, but I couldn't get into the new ones. My biggest issue with the original game is that as soon as one alien sees you, all aliens sees you starting to mindcontrol your entire team which easily spirals out of control. Luckily, modern reimplementations such as OpenXcom allow you to disable it and require line of sight checks before MC attempts.

Re: X-COM

#27

Post by simonebrunozzi »

TimSchumann wrote: post #20

This and Master of Magic were many _many_ hours of my childhood. Also some of the first programs/files I opened up in a hex editor.

Me too. At the risk of ruining you next several weekends, there's Caster of Magic out there, a magnificent mod for MoM. [0] [1]

[0]: http://seravy.x10.mx/CasterofMagic/CASTEROFMAGIC.HTML

[1]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1250690/Master_of_Magic_C...

Re: X-COM

#28

Post by pjmlp »

I loved this series all the way back to Rebelstar Raiders.

Must have spent endless hours playing all Laser Squad versions on the Speccy and it was only natural to jump into X-COM.

Although the ones that moved away from the Rebelstar Raiders/Laser Squad initial concept are not worthy to me.

Re: X-COM

#29

Post by caf »

I still remember playing night time missions up late in a darkened room, hearing the soft padding of those alien footsteps, somewhere out beyond the limits of vision in the darkened fields...
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