Olde Battleaxe...

Lady Dragonfly · Post by **Lady Dragonfly** » Sat May 12, 2007 9:09 pm

Good ole' times, good ole' games... Playable on good ole' computers only.
Would you like to see a remake of your former favorite RPG? I don't mean using DOS simulator. I mean a full-fledged full-screen remake with decent graphics AND preserved original flavor.

I wish for Ultima Underworld I. *Sigh*

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:18 am

Final Fantasy VII. No question.

Siberys · Post by **Siberys** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:37 am

Actually, I'd go just the opposite. Take new and cool looking good story based games and turn them into 8 bit graphics.

Reason being is because I actually like the older graphics. Rather than having to mess with a camera to see so many different eye candies, rather than figuring out that W, S, A, D in combination with your mouse and scroll button help you move, I like the simplicity behind the old graphics.

Take for instance, Final Fantasy 6. This was by far the best one in the series, and why? Because it used super nintendo old graphics even though the N64 was out at the time IIRC, and they concentrated on the story. And from that point on, the final fantasy series as it became 3D and more realistic with each game, it steadily and steeply declined in quality. FF7 being overrated, FF8 having nothing to do with actual fantasy but more with machinery (Even FF6 had machines but it was mostly fantasy), FF9 having a good story but rather hard to control at times making it frustrating to want to play, FF10 with both a horrid story and character development even with decent graphics, FF10-2 (an abomination), FF11 a cheap move by Square Enix to make a large sum of money with relative ease of game development, and finally FF12 actually stopping the decline and starting to rise back up, but I doubt this will last.

I would bet that every single one of those games would be just as good as the super nintendo Final Fantasies if they were made the same way as the SNES ones, (and I would give anything to simply read text than to listen to the horrid awful voice acting of Tidus and Yuna).

So, Both Dungeon Sieges, All the new final fantasies, the new Zelda's, definitely the Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion with at least toned down to NDS quality graphics, Dawn of Magic doesn't even need the 3D quality with it's style of gaming, etc.

And if ya think about it, the RPG's that still are in mostly 2D animation that only slightly increase in graphics rarely so often, those are the games that still have a huge success. Just look at the pokemon series. We've gone from Gameboy to a Color Gameboy, Game Boy Advance, and now a slightly better gameboy (The NDS) which is still just about the same quality as the GBA, but with a perspective and two screens, yet the game goes on and on. Also, look at Paper Mario. Nintendo knew the 3D mario's weren't all that great, so they made paper mario, and that game is just awesome (if you didn't know, Paper Mario is a Super Mario type game but the characters usually look like crap, and you can go from 2D to 3D in the game).

AvatarOfLight · Post by **AvatarOfLight** » Sun May 13, 2007 2:21 am

Lady Dragonfly wrote:I wish for Ultima Underworld I. *Sigh*

HERESY!!!

The Ultima Underworld series should never be changed or reproduced! It gives me great pleasure to direct younger next generation RPG players to the old UU's. ^^

Lady Dragonfly · Post by **Lady Dragonfly** » Sun May 13, 2007 12:30 pm

AvatarOfLight wrote:HERESY!!!

The Ultima Underworld series should never be changed or reproduced! It gives me great pleasure to direct younger next generation RPG players to the old UU's. ^^

But you cannot actually play UU1, can you? If you can, I would greatly appreciate if you tell me how. I've got playable UU2 (which I downloaded last summer); I like it much less than UU1 but still enjoyed replaying.

I would still appreciate a remake. I think the ES engine would work great for the game. I don't want any flashy graphics, but I want full-screen vew and a little more pixels. And the music and sounds should remain original!!!!!!! *humming the 'victory' tune*

What I really hate in the modern games is fancy camera movement and rotating map. The revealed map system in UU works just fine for me. *humming the 'dungeon crawl' tune*

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Sun May 13, 2007 12:38 pm

Lady Dragonfly wrote:But you cannot actually play UU1, can you? If you can, I would greatly appreciate if you tell me how. I've got playable UU2 (which I downloaded last summer); I like it much less than UU1 but still enjoyed replaying.

Probably with DOSBox, though I haven't tried out yet.

I agree with Siberys here that none of the oldies should be turned to today's graphics. They wouldn't be the same games anymore, as part of the nostalgy which comes when you play those games comes from the outdated graphics. Also, that would mean to change the controls and so on, which would possibly ruing the original atmosphere of the game...

And that's something the oldies doesn't deserve...

Lady Dragonfly · Post by **Lady Dragonfly** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:14 pm

Kipi wrote:Probably with DOSBox, though I haven't tried out yet.

I was not able to find downloadable UU1 on-line.

The UU reconstruction project status is inactive at the moment as well.

But what is wrong with remakes? You still have the original game intact, so no harm done. The only way to bring the oldies to life IMO is resurrect them from DOS ashes and modernize a bit.

Siberys · Post by **Siberys** » Sun May 13, 2007 1:37 pm

But what is wrong with remakes? You still have the original game intact, so no harm done. The only way to bring the oldies to life IMO is resurrect them from DOS ashes and modernize a bit.

That's precisely it, you won't have the game in tact. The more modernized it is, the more features are needed to be added. More Controls and a Camera Movement, more dialogue and possibly voice acting, a lot more graphics meaning not everybodies PC would be able to handle it, etc.

The one thing that's guarenteed a problem though is the controls. I remember in the NES days where you had 6, maybe 7 controls at most and a few of them you didn't even need. Select was for pausing the game, Start was for menu's, and the other six buttons (Up, down, left, right, A, B) were basic forms of control.

It was the same with computers too, possibly even less, a mouse, an arrow keypad, and the escape button was it. Adding graphics and such would make use of the W, S, A, D controls, having enter as start, Alt as showing items on the ground, the mouse wheel to scroll through characters/spells, the mouse wheel button to rotate the camera, page up and page down to zoom in and out with the camera, escape for menus, F1 for help, Caps Lock for run, Tilde (~) for a cheat console, 1-9 for hotkeys, so many things that simply aren't needed for a simple game.

And it is because of these standard controls and graphics that any game remade with better graphics will not be the original game whatsoever. Look at Pac-Man, it kept getting better with the graphics, but still the best game of Pac-Man was the original 2D yellow circle dot eating ghost-a-phobe in a blue maze. As it became more graphically advanced, the game started to suck more and more.

Lady Dragonfly · Post by **Lady Dragonfly** » Sun May 13, 2007 2:07 pm

I mean the original game would remain as is, nobody is going to burn it. At the same time, if there would be a remake, you can choose which one you want to play. You probably have never played UU (early 1990-s), but it was 3D and had pretty advanced controls. The game is a classic and one of the best RPG ever made IMHO, if not the best.

Ultima Underworld - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 3D engine used was advanced for its time, featuring a texture mapped environment and polygonal objects. Lighting featured prominently in both games.
An enhanced version of the engine used in the games was later used for System Shock.
ID has stated that the ideas of making Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM were both inspired by press coverage of Ultima Underworld's development versions.
The Elder Scrolls series was initially inspired by Ultima Underworld.

The 2002 game Arx Fatalis was heavily influenced by the Ultima Underworld series. The developers of Arx Fatalis, Arkane Studios, have stated that Arx Fatalis was actually intended to be Ultima Underworld III, however they could not obtain a license for the UW name.

This game deserves a remake.

Look at Pac-Man, it kept getting better with the graphics, but still the best game of Pac-Man was the original 2D yellow circle dot eating ghost-a-phobe in a blue maze. As it became more graphically advanced, the game started to suck more and more.

I played the original one (and even a beta-version

) on my old trusty 286 and enjoyed it a lot. I had no clue it was still around.

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Sun May 13, 2007 2:11 pm

An oldie I always liked was Ogre Battle...

Lady Dragonfly · Post by **Lady Dragonfly** » Sun May 13, 2007 2:18 pm

BlueSky wrote:An oldie I always liked was Ogre Battle...

Isn't it a Nintendo strategy game?

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Sun May 13, 2007 2:20 pm

Lady Dragonfly wrote:Isn't it a Nintendo strategy game?

I believe it is, a few years ago I found a Dosbox version.
But I couldn't resist posting the wish for a remake, when I was reading this post.

Lady Dragonfly · Post by **Lady Dragonfly** » Sun May 13, 2007 2:24 pm

BlueSky wrote:I believe it is, a few years ago I found a Dosbox version.
But I couldn't resist posting the wish for a remake, when I was reading this post.

Yes, especially if it is remastered for PC. Viva la Revolucion!!! :laugh:

Lady Dragonfly · Post by **Lady Dragonfly** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:32 pm

I am curious whether anyone in the US has purchased Arx Fatalis, the Collector's (limited) edition yet. I was going to buy this game anyway, but decided to wait a bit after the new edition was announced in October. Have I completely missed this "hit and run" event?

I am on the "older games" shopping spree: just bought King's Quest Collection on Amazon - one of my olde favorites - can't wait to visit the Kingdom of Daventry in all its glory once again

.

C-K'R[PhoEniX] · Post by **C-K'R[PhoEniX]** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:07 am

I would like to see playable Daggerfall. I'm a huge fan of Morrowind and I've tried making Daggerfall work, but playing a laggy game that old can get very frustrating.

It really looks like a game I could get to love, it's a shame I hadn't played it when it was popular.

alias · Post by **alias** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:11 am

In response to an Ultima Remake, you probably have seen this site already but in case you haven't there is an Ultima remake site with numerous different remakes of Ultima games + also remakes in progress.
Ultima: The Reconstruction

Now what I would REALLY like to see is The Bard's Tale IV. (The continuation of the ORIGINAL Bard's Tale trilogy from the 1980's.)

The Bard's Tale remake that came out a few years ago is NOTHING like the original series. Bring back the old grid mapped dungeons, 2D animated monsters and text based battles!