Lucasarts on GOG

GEC: Discuss gaming, computers and electronics and venture into the bizarre world of STGODs.

Moderator: Thanas

User avatar
Vendetta
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 10895
Joined: 2002-07-07 04:57pm
Location: Sheffield, UK

Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Vendetta »

ATTN: Fat People

Lucasarts games, including X-Wing and TIE Fighter, are now available from GOG. Meaning they might work on something resembling a modern operating system.

Also available are several of the classic pointy clicky adventure games and KOTOR (which was already on Steam but at least you don't have to piss about with CDs or pay for DRM now).
User avatar
Elheru Aran
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 13073
Joined: 2004-03-04 01:15am
Location: Georgia

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Elheru Aran »

Lovely! I never got the chance to play X-Wing and TIE Fighter, or the VS... do they have the VS or is it just the individual games? Also do they have Rogue Squadron?
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
User avatar
Darksider
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 5271
Joined: 2002-12-13 02:56pm
Location: America's decaying industrial armpit.

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Darksider »

Looks like just X-wing and TIE Fighter for now. Maybe Vs. and Alliance will come later?
And this is why you don't watch anything produced by Ronald D. Moore after he had his brain surgically removed and replaced with a bag of elephant semen.-Gramzamber, on why Caprica sucks
User avatar
Eternal_Freedom
Castellan
Posts: 10361
Joined: 2010-03-09 02:16pm
Location: CIC, Battlestar Temeraire

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

If they get Rogue Squadron and/or Episode 1 Racer I'll be happy. Now don't judge me, podracing is fun :D
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
User avatar
Elheru Aran
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 13073
Joined: 2004-03-04 01:15am
Location: Georgia

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Elheru Aran »

Lawd yes. Racer was pretty awesome. Sure, it was a bit generic and repetitive, but damn if podracing isn't actually kinda fun when you get down to it.

You know what would be kinda awesome? Dark Forces 2 and Mysteries of the Sith redone with updated graphics. Oh yeah.
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
User avatar
Eternal_Freedom
Castellan
Posts: 10361
Joined: 2010-03-09 02:16pm
Location: CIC, Battlestar Temeraire

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

Elheru Aran wrote:Lawd yes. Racer was pretty awesome. Sure, it was a bit generic and repetitive, but damn if podracing isn't actually kinda fun when you get down to it.
It was quite refreshing to have a Star Wars game where you aren't trying to kill people or blow shit up. Don't get me wrong, blasting TIE Fighters or stormies is great and all, but sometimes it's nice to just...race or play, without fighting. Hence why I have a snooker game on my shelf right next to Wolfenstein.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."

Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
User avatar
Havok
Miscreant
Posts: 13016
Joined: 2005-07-02 10:41pm
Location: Oakland CA
Contact:

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Havok »

While I'm a Fat People, I am not a FattyNerdTM. What is GOG?
Image
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it.
Blank Yellow (NSFW)
"Mostly Harmless Nutcase"
User avatar
DaveJB
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 1917
Joined: 2003-10-06 05:37pm
Location: Leeds, UK

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by DaveJB »

Havok wrote:While I'm a Fat People, I am not a FattyNerdTM. What is GOG?
http://www.gog.com

Depending on your outlook, either it's a nifty place to pick up both indie games and older "classic" games that are packaged to run on a modern OS without too much fuss (and with a guarantee of no DRM besides the code cards you used to get with floppy games), or it's the only gaming store on the internet worth using and an antidote to the Great Satan that is Steam (and I guess the Vaguely Annoying Demon that is Origin).
User avatar
TheFeniX
Sith Marauder
Posts: 4869
Joined: 2003-06-26 04:24pm
Location: Texas

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by TheFeniX »

Elheru Aran wrote:You know what would be kinda awesome? Dark Forces 2 and Mysteries of the Sith redone with updated graphics. Oh yeah.
There were 2 projects in this vein. One was going to port JK1 and MotS over to the Outcast/Academy engine (Q3 engine) and got shut down by Lucasarts because they were always like that. The other was updating the models on the original game using the original engine, which I'm pretty sure was already a heavily modified Q2 engine which it was pushing the limits of in the first place, but it's been years.
Havok wrote:While I'm a Fat People, I am not a FattyNerdTM. What is GOG?
GoG.com offers digital editions of video games, sans DRM. Like Steam, you have to hit a lot of the old games you buy from there with a hammer to get them to work right.
User avatar
Elheru Aran
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 13073
Joined: 2004-03-04 01:15am
Location: Georgia

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Elheru Aran »

Updating the models with the original engine? Wouldn't that just make... marginally less shitty models? Even for... what was it, 1998? they were not particularly awesome. Like the stormtrooper blasters were basically extruded triangular prisms rather than cylinders... Now JK1 and MotS on Q3 would have been pretty nice and probably good enough.

While we're on graphics. Are or have they updated them in any way, or are they still the cheesy Win95 blocky pixels? I totally understand retro, but it might be nice to have a cleaner, more modern option. At this point it might basically constitute creating a whole new game from scratch though.
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
User avatar
TheFeniX
Sith Marauder
Posts: 4869
Joined: 2003-06-26 04:24pm
Location: Texas

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by TheFeniX »

Elheru Aran wrote:Updating the models with the original engine? Wouldn't that just make... marginally less shitty models? Even for... what was it, 1998? they were not particularly awesome. Like the stormtrooper blasters were basically extruded triangular prisms rather than cylinders... Now JK1 and MotS on Q3 would have been pretty nice and probably good enough.

While we're on graphics. Are or have they updated them in any way, or are they still the cheesy Win95 blocky pixels? I totally understand retro, but it might be nice to have a cleaner, more modern option. At this point it might basically constitute creating a whole new game from scratch though.
Well, yea. There's nothing "retro" about it. It's just old. You're running into 15 year-old engine limitations. Same thing Natural Selection developers ran into. I don't even know if the mod still works. That said, once you try porting over assets from a game to another engine, the publisher can step in and shut you down. This is why the next JK project disbanded. Lucasarts sent them a cease and desist.

Years later, Raven would start talks with LA to start on another JK game. But due to a combination of internal projects they didn't want to compete with (read: the snooze-fest of Force Unleashed) and how the Arena shooter mechanices (among other things) of the JK games were outdated and they were looking for a new audience, the series has been dead for over a decade. You take what you can get. With the release of the J-O/JA source code and LA finally getting put down, I was hoping to see something from the batshit modding community, but nothing has come of it that I've seen. But hey, there's nothing wrong with your IP when your best Jedi games this decade have LEGO in the title.....
User avatar
RogueIce
_______
Posts: 13385
Joined: 2003-01-05 01:36am
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida, USA
Contact:

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by RogueIce »

They have the original and the remake versions that LucasArts put out. The 94 and 98 editions, according to them. So depends I guess.

I don't think GOG really "improves" the games, do they? They pretty much just try to get them functional on modern systems, but that's about it. I don't know that they ever try to patch bugs and stuff (aside from CTDs).
Image
"How can I wait unknowing?
This is the price of war,
We rise with noble intentions,
And we risk all that is pure..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, Forever (Rome: Total War)

"On and on, through the years,
The war continues on..." - Angela & Jeff van Dyck, We Are All One (Medieval 2: Total War)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
User avatar
DaveJB
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 1917
Joined: 2003-10-06 05:37pm
Location: Leeds, UK

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by DaveJB »

They do occasionally include fan-made patches, but only the ones where the original developers released a bug-ridden mess and then either didn't bother patching it or went bust before they could do so. Other than that, they just release the latest stock version of the game and let you decide what mods you want to install.
User avatar
Zaune
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 7430
Joined: 2010-06-21 11:05am
Location: In Transit
Contact:

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Zaune »

Elheru Aran wrote:While we're on graphics. Are or have they updated them in any way, or are they still the cheesy Win95 blocky pixels? I totally understand retro, but it might be nice to have a cleaner, more modern option. At this point it might basically constitute creating a whole new game from scratch though.
GOG.com are just a retailer and only have limited access to the source code for copyright reasons; they can port games to modern hardware but they can't mess around with the content. In some cases they don't even do that and just sell the game bundled with a preconfigured copy of DOSBox.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)


Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin


Like my writing? Tip me on Patreon

I Have A Blog
sgt67
Redshirt
Posts: 28
Joined: 2009-12-12 07:30pm

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by sgt67 »

Can anyone who downloads either X-Wing or TIE Fighter clarify a few questions for me? The blurb mentions both the 1994 and 1998 versions, but this is a fairly vague statement. X-Wing in its original format was released in 1993, with the CD Collector's Edition in 1994 that added voiceovers. The same followed for TIE Fighter in 1995 with its collector's edition, except it was not only voiceovers but significantly enhanced resolution. The 1998 versions referred to are the X-Wing Collector's Series, which replaced the entire game engine (for the most part) with the one used in X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, hence better graphics (good) but a stock movie soundtrack (bad). So, what I would like to know is whether or not the old versions bundled here include the Collector's Editions or are the original versions.
User avatar
Vendetta
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 10895
Joined: 2002-07-07 04:57pm
Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Vendetta »

Havok wrote:While I'm a Fat People, I am not a FattyNerdTM. What is GOG?
It's a distribution platform that specialises in older and indie games. They rework older games so they work on modern operating systems as well.

It's operated by the guys who do the Witcher games, CD Projekt.
User avatar
Vendetta
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 10895
Joined: 2002-07-07 04:57pm
Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Vendetta »

sgt67 wrote:Can anyone who downloads either X-Wing or TIE Fighter clarify a few questions for me? The blurb mentions both the 1994 and 1998 versions, but this is a fairly vague statement. X-Wing in its original format was released in 1993, with the CD Collector's Edition in 1994 that added voiceovers. The same followed for TIE Fighter in 1995 with its collector's edition, except it was not only voiceovers but significantly enhanced resolution. The 1998 versions referred to are the X-Wing Collector's Series, which replaced the entire game engine (for the most part) with the one used in X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, hence better graphics (good) but a stock movie soundtrack (bad). So, what I would like to know is whether or not the old versions bundled here include the Collector's Editions or are the original versions.
You get both.

And yeah, the games are totally still running in 1994-o-vision which you may or may not be able to cope with. In the '98 collectors edition you can probably force antialiasing with your graphics driver so you don't cut your eyes on all the jagged edges, but that might have wacky effects.
sgt67
Redshirt
Posts: 28
Joined: 2009-12-12 07:30pm

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by sgt67 »

Thanks! I can live with 1994-o-vision so I'll be downloading away.
AniThyng
Sith Devotee
Posts: 2760
Joined: 2003-09-08 12:47pm
Location: Took an arrow in the knee.
Contact:

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by AniThyng »

Does the 1994 tie fighter include the final campaigns?
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character :P
User avatar
Fingolfin_Noldor
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 11834
Joined: 2006-05-15 10:36am
Location: At the Helm of the HAB Star Dreadnaught Star Fist

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Fingolfin_Noldor »

Only problem is that Windows 8 apparently *hates* joysticks.
AniThyng wrote:Does the 1994 tie fighter include the final campaigns?
The 1998 did. The 1994 TIE Fighter required lots of floppy disks to install the damn thing... along with that stupid memory requirement.
Image
STGOD: Byzantine Empire
Your spirit, diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you.
Kreia
User avatar
Executor32
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 2088
Joined: 2004-01-31 03:48am
Location: In a Georgia courtroom, watching a spectacle unfold

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Executor32 »

The DOS versions included with both games are the Collector's CD versions, so yes.
どうして?お前が夜に自身お触れるから。
Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil,
but a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow
was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now, the fool
seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku...
-Aku, Master of Masters, Deliverer of Darkness, Shogun of Sorrow
AniThyng
Sith Devotee
Posts: 2760
Joined: 2003-09-08 12:47pm
Location: Took an arrow in the knee.
Contact:

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by AniThyng »

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Only problem is that Windows 8 apparently *hates* joysticks.
AniThyng wrote:Does the 1994 tie fighter include the final campaigns?
The 1998 did. The 1994 TIE Fighter required lots of floppy disks to install the damn thing... along with that stupid memory requirement.
Thanks. Yeah I remember. Back then my PC had a...what, 600mb hdd? felt like it would never run out.

Then I got Daggerfall...but I digress.

I doubt I will ever get a joystick again - how does it play using keyboard? My recollection from the dim recesses of 1994 suggest that it was not optimal at all.
I do know how to spell
AniThyng is merely the name I gave to what became my favourite Baldur's Gate II mage character :P
User avatar
Jub
Sith Marauder
Posts: 4396
Joined: 2012-08-06 07:58pm
Location: British Columbia, Canada

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Jub »

AniThyng wrote:I doubt I will ever get a joystick again - how does it play using keyboard? My recollection from the dim recesses of 1994 suggest that it was not optimal at all.
I'd play it with a control pad, it's not optimal, but you can make it work. You can also get a mouse to joystick emulator, but I haven't tried any of those.
User avatar
Joun_Lord
Jedi Master
Posts: 1211
Joined: 2014-09-27 01:40am
Location: West by Golly Virginia

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Joun_Lord »

AniThyng wrote:
Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Only problem is that Windows 8 apparently *hates* joysticks.
AniThyng wrote:Does the 1994 tie fighter include the final campaigns?
The 1998 did. The 1994 TIE Fighter required lots of floppy disks to install the damn thing... along with that stupid memory requirement.
Thanks. Yeah I remember. Back then my PC had a...what, 600mb hdd? felt like it would never run out.

Then I got Daggerfall...but I digress.

I doubt I will ever get a joystick again - how does it play using keyboard? My recollection from the dim recesses of 1994 suggest that it was not optimal at all.
I still got an ancient Win 95 computer with a massive 1GB hard drive sitting in my closet. And I can still remember thinking that was pretty darn big.

Fast forward to today where I recently bought a teensy tiny el cheapo memory card with over 16 times the capacity to stick in my woefully outdated smart phone that is probably several times more powerful then that computer. My current computer has for its primary hard drive a drive that is a 1 Terabyte.

Things like that make me feel old and I ain't even 30 yet.
User avatar
Thanas
Magister
Magister
Posts: 30779
Joined: 2004-06-26 07:49pm

Re: Lucasarts on GOG

Post by Thanas »

Jub wrote:
AniThyng wrote:I doubt I will ever get a joystick again - how does it play using keyboard? My recollection from the dim recesses of 1994 suggest that it was not optimal at all.
I'd play it with a control pad, it's not optimal, but you can make it work. You can also get a mouse to joystick emulator, but I haven't tried any of those.
You need both the keyboard and the joystick to play Tie Fighter, it was a game where you had to do a lot of things manually (especially considering the difficulty). Things like transferring energy to shields and vice versa, or modulating your shields so that the strong side is up front or in back are critical to surviving the missions. The dificulty is really hard in that game.
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
------------
A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
------------
My LPs
Post Reply