Every X-com game (yes, even that one)

[Moosehands]

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=posts&id=1794&cc=US

Following up on the Oddworld release, Steam is now offering the complete X-Com series.  Introductory rate is again $13.49.

According to the Steampowered forums all titles are verified working with Vista.

Feel free to discuss how Interceptor was complete shit and you've never heard of Enforcer.  (I have never heard of Enforcer.)

[Yegolev]

I'd rather talk about Apocalypse.

[Azazel]

Hm. I will buy this one.

Do they let you "gift" games you already own when you buy them again in a package like this?

[lesion]

AFAIK; I gifted the Orange Box HL2 to a friend.

[bhodi]

Crossposting this here, for people who want to customize a bit.

The steam version of XCOM - UFO defense uses dosbox.

The resolution is the same - big and blocky. I prefer to run it in a window, slightly enlarged. To do that, I just changed these parameters in steam/steamapps/common/xcom ufo defense/dosbox.conf

fullscreen=true   -->   fullscreen=false
windowresolution=original  -->  windowresolution=1024x768
output=surface  -->  output=ddraw

to smooth the edges, some, I also changed:
scaler=advinterp2x  -->  scaler=super2xsai

You can see the different scaler options and what they do here. Basically, different anti-aliasing options. The output I changed to ddraw since the others didn't support windowed mode in anything but default resolution.

[Reg]

Another thing is if you change the desktop shortcuts to point directly at the DosBox utility you can run the games without bothering to start up Steam.

[Falwell]

Update on this. They knocked the price down to a cool fiver for the entire X-Com series...

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/964/

[Xuri]

How can anyone afford NOT to buy this?

[Zar]

Hot damn. I'm sold.  Thanks for the heads up. 

[Mrbloodworth]

X-com: Terror from the deep is such a masterful game.

I'd rather talk about Apocalypse.

Its crap.

[Merusk]

X-com: Terror from the deep is such a masterful game.

Err... I was told at the time it came out that TFTD was just the original X-com with new alien textures, so I never bought it. Did they add something else in terms of gameplay that my friend missed?  Not that the original x-com sucked, but I didn't see the point in blowing another $45 to play the same game.

[Mrbloodworth]

X-com: Terror from the deep is such a masterful game.

Err... I was told at the time it came out that TFTD was just the original X-com with new alien textures, so I never bought it. Did they add something else in terms of gameplay that my friend missed?  Not that the original x-com sucked, but I didn't see the point in blowing another $45 to play the same game.

Nope, its nothing new, however i loved the aliens and lore (in the ufopidea) a lot more. Its is just x-com reskined.

[Xuri]

I played both the first games (don't talk about number three, please) through to the end, and I enjoyed the first one far more than the second, without being able to pinpoint exactly why that's the case.

[Llyse]

i was going to post earlier why can't I find the X-com package only to realise that it must be region specific or something since I can't find it in my Steam.

I read in another thread that someone who can see it can gift this to me though, is this right?

I can't be sure but TFTD had Terror missions, did UFO also have that?

There were a couple of things that I use to think was incredibly cool but not it might be just a cocklock.

UFO: Laser weapons had unlimited ammo.

TFTD: Gauss weapons had limited ammo supply.
Various weapons (Torpedo launcher, Homing alien launcher?, Hydrojet cannon) couldn't be used above ground.

I played TFTD first so when I played the UFO Laser weapons were a godsend.

I loved watching my rookies die/live unti they became officers worthy of armor 

[Lemming]

I can't be sure but TFTD had Terror missions, did UFO also have that?

I'm going off of long term memory here, but I believe it did.  Terror missions in TFTD were the ones where you rescued cruise ships and stuff from alien attacks, right?

[Merusk]

UFO had terror missions.  I hated those because often your rookie would see an alien walk past a window, fire off a snap shot and score a kill.  A kill on the civilian standing 4 squares behind the alien who he'd missed by a mile, that is. 

That and you couldn't make good use of grenades/ blaster bombs on terror missions.  Damn civvy losses cutting my funding!

[Llyse]

They had awesome atmosphere at night.

Shots out of the darkness freaked the hell out of me.

It was find the last muthat fucken unarmed earlier in the map the annoyed the hell out of me.

2 good reasons why I use to wait until day light to do Terror missions.

One awesome trick I figured that made me proud was the old pass the primed grenade from the someone in the back line to someone in the front line with only enough time units to pick up and throw and not enough to prime and throw.

 

[Mrbloodworth]

X-com: Terror from the deep is such a masterful game.

Err... I was told at the time it came out that TFTD was just the original X-com with new alien textures, so I never bought it. Did they add something else in terms of gameplay that my friend missed?  Not that the original x-com sucked, but I didn't see the point in blowing another $45 to play the same game.

Nope, its nothing new, however i loved the aliens and lore (in the ufopidea) a lot more. Its is just x-com reskined.

I am going to retract this, well, modify it that is.

After revisiting them both over the past few days, i have to say that TFTD is an improvement in a lot of ways. One such improvement is the graphics themselves. Aliens and equipment seem to be a more refined pixel art. Your APC ship also, isn't on the second story, something that was frustrating me greatly in the original, it meant you didn't have all your troops in plain view and had to switch between level 1 and 2 constiantly.



VS.



The ufopedia also got an upgrade in terms of info, and graphics from one version to the other.

[Big Gulp]

That and you couldn't make good use of grenades/ blaster bombs on terror missions.  Damn civvy losses cutting my funding!

Heh.  I went into terror missions with the mindset of "it's better that 100 civilians bite the dust than one alien walk free".  You can believe that half of my squad was equipped with high explosive automatic cannons which they used liberally.  If I saw a gas station I sure didn't aim for the aliens, I aimed for the pumps.  Of course I also followed the viewpoint that doors are for the foolish.  Much better to blast a hole in the wall and chuck in grenades.

True, my government funding took a hit, but by that point I was filthy rich from selling alien tech anyway.  Plus it gave me an air of superiority.  That sort of "I am above transnational governments!  I AM THE LAW!" feeling.

ETA:  Oh, and on missions with those aliens that turned civvies into versions of themselves?  Yeah, every civilian I saw was getting a bullet just to keep that from happening.

[Merusk]

OOh, those little black fuckers.  Yeah I took that attitude on those missions, too.  Nothing worse than a terror mission where there's 10 civvies and one of those guys left, all trapped in a room together.  If they get taken-over it counts as a civvie lost anyway, so hey, "You were dead already, skyler." *blam*

[Falwell]

That and you couldn't make good use of grenades/ blaster bombs on terror missions.  Damn civvy losses cutting my funding!

Heh.  I went into terror missions with the mindset of "it's better that 100 civilians bite the dust than one alien walk free".  You can believe that half of my squad was equipped with high explosive automatic cannons which they used liberally.  If I saw a gas station I sure didn't aim for the aliens, I aimed for the pumps.  Of course I also followed the viewpoint that doors are for the foolish.  Much better to blast a hole in the wall and chuck in grenades.

True, my government funding took a hit, but by that point I was filthy rich from selling alien tech anyway.  Plus it gave me an air of superiority.  That sort of "I am above transnational governments!  I AM THE LAW!" feeling.

ETA:  Oh, and on missions with those aliens that turned civvies into versions of themselves?  Yeah, every civilian I saw was getting a bullet just to keep that from happening.

This..

This is proper X-Com thinking. Why the fuck would I risk the life of one of my squaddies going up a one square wide staircase when I could just completely level the entire second floor with high explosives from halfway down the block.

[Merusk]

Goddamnit I've been thinking of playing X-com again since reading this thread.  I don't want to hunt down my disks, though.  Damnit.

[rattran]

You should check and see if it's on Steam 

[Merusk]

I'm not rebuying software I own, but you knew that already, wiseass. 

[Big Gulp]

I'm not rebuying software I own, but you knew that already, wiseass. 

For $5?  The convenience alone is worth it to me.  Plus I like being able to play it in a window with filters to somewhat hide how dated it looks.

ETA:  I say $5 because the first X-Com is all I need.  The other ones are all extraneous fluff.

[Mrbloodworth]

ETA:  I say $5 because the first X-Com is all I need.  The other ones are all extraneous fluff.

Get TFTD instead.

[Big Gulp]

Get TFTD instead.

Heresy!

I played TFTD when it first came out, and sorry, but aside from some useful fixes (mainly, the way you load out your troops before a mission) I considered it inferior to the original.  I honestly don't get the love for that game.

[Merusk]

Nope, not even for $5. I blame the Scotts blood in me.  I found the disk and DOSbox lets me window it, so game ahoy!

[Mrbloodworth]

Get TFTD instead.

Heresy!

I played TFTD when it first came out, and sorry, but aside from some useful fixes (mainly, the way you load out your troops before a mission) I considered it inferior to the original.  I honestly don't get the love for that game.

Its simply more polished all around. Same basic game, more polish. Better art even.

[Big Gulp]

Its simply more polished all around. Same basic game, more polish. Better art even.

Oh, I grant you that it's just a reskin, but I don't like the skin.  The whole aquatic thing left me cold.  I can't really relate to killing aliens on the ocean floor vs. hunting them in farms, in the arctic, in the desert, etc.

Also, I despised cruise ship terror missions.

[Murgos]

Also, I despised cruise ship terror missions.

That's what it was I didn't like about TFTD.  I had forgotten the cruise ship terror missions.

They were two-parters and it was this ridiculous maze of trying to find the last alien all the time.  I remember those terror missions taking hours to complete.

I seem to recall that the UFOpedia was better in TFTD and also I think the end-game was a little smoother.