N'Al on 5/9/2008 at 14:02
Cool, cheers.
Mazian on 5/9/2008 at 21:59
Did they fix the difficulty bug (where DOS ver. 1.4 always defaults to Beginner difficulty no matter which difficulty is selected)? It's curious they just didn't use the Collector's Edition with the various fan-made patches available from (
http://www.xcomufo.org) www.xcomufo.org They have patches for the sound (for the CE, admittedly) as well as a utility (XcomUtil) that you can use to randomize terrain and/or UFO layouts as well as doing a lot of other things (modified initial base layout, increased power of High Explosives and Heavy Laser, automatic troop equip and ordering in drop ships). It's definitely cool that it's available for Vista & XP owners now, but I think I'll stick to the customizable-and-works-fine-in-XP Collector's Edition for now.
Fingernail on 6/9/2008 at 09:44
This makes me want to try Apolcalypse, I remember many long hours engaged in the original game - the turn based combat really was nerve-shattering at times.
EvaUnit02 on 6/9/2008 at 13:57
Quote Posted by doctorfrog
I'm surprised no one has pointed out that the first X-Com game is available free and probably-legal at Abandonia.com.
Just like MDK and Freespace 2, NONE of these X-Com games are LEGALLY AVAILABLE as abandonware. Just because C&D letters haven't been issued doesn't give you the license to do whatever the fuck you want.
Eight years ago one of the former rights holders did distribute U:EU on a magazine coverdisc; but the current owner, 2K Games, has chosen to sell the game. It's not some fucking legal loop hole.
sergeantgiggles on 6/9/2008 at 20:59
I thought Freespace 2 was a special case, and actually is free?
doctorfrog on 6/9/2008 at 22:17
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Just like MDK and Freespace 2, NONE of these X-Com games are LEGALLY AVAILABLE as abandonware. Just because C&D letters haven't been issued doesn't give you the license to do whatever the fuck you want.
Ok. I'll just turn off my computer and lie on the floor and wait for the FBI to show up.
Shadowcat on 6/9/2008 at 22:46
Quote Posted by sergeantgiggles
I thought Freespace 2 was a special case, and actually is free?
Freespace 2 has (
http://scp.indiegames.us/) open source code. The data is not freeware.
The license that you agreed to when installing the game mentioned, in some cases, a (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSpace_2_Source_Code_Project#cite_note-1) clause whereby you could freely share the game with friends and acquaintances. Some people have taken this as free license to share the game with absolutely anyone at all, but once you are no longer a genuine acquaintance of a paying customer, you can be
damned sure that they weren't saying it was okay for you to have the game for free.
A different license without this clause gets installed to the game directory, incidentally, so there was clearly a legal dept. screw-up in the first place, but regardless of that, plain common sense tells us that "Freespace 2 is freeware" was
never an intended meaning.
kfir on 7/9/2008 at 00:01
The first X-COM game ("UFO: Enemy Unknown" or "UFO Defense", depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on) is the best, from what I've heard.
I've beat it about three or four times myself. If you've never played it before, it's definitely worth giving a try.
You can get it on Steam, but if you wanna save money, it might be better to go to Abandonia dot com and download it from there. Also be sure to have DOSBox to run it on, which is also free.
icemann on 7/9/2008 at 13:11
XCOM 2: Terror from the deep is fucking awesome as well. Its my personal favorite in the series. Yes its more or less the same engine with a few tweaks (slightly better gfx and sound/music), but so is Doom 2 after Doom 1.
I just loved the whole invasion from the deep theme to the game, and the terror missions were better than the ufo defence ones.
