Schilling's Green Monster Games

[Tale]

Well-known bands often have some little-known band they look up to. Or blush and admit listening to ABBA. Wildly successful authors may be obsessed with obscure literature few other people have read. Or admit their inspiration is comic books. Whether my work is any good is up to others, but I'm working in the media because I liked a 1980s Commodore 64 games mag.

It's not about having the perfect set of influences, it's about the fire your influences lit in you.

[Draegan]

Great thread to catchup with from the last few days.

I find nothing wrong with the overall Diku theam.  Levels, advancement and the shiny.  I know many hear abhor the DIKU style, and want something new.  They emphatically declare, "Think out of the box!" like it's that simple.  Just read Curt's list from a few pages back, everyone is falling under it.

If I were making a game, the last person I'd listen too is Schild since his attention span to a game is incredibly short lived from all accounts.  What Curt needs to do is what he's doing and make the game he wants to make and fuck the rest of you. 

Ultimately, you can learn from past games.  You can see their design decissions, and it would be great if you could figure out where they came from, if they were on purpose or they were accidents.  I'd lean on accidents most likely. 

Meh.  I just hate when people say "Think outside the box!" and then froth when it doesn't happen because It Was So Simple, Don't You See?

[MahrinSkel]

Does anyone remember a 3D chess game, very old, 80's old, that was fantasy/demon based? It was so big (at that time) that I had to uninstall things and install it when I wanted to play?

Not really 3D, 2.5 with sprites as I recall.  Battle Chess, I think.



God, I am such a geek.

--Dave

[gehrig38]

Does anyone remember a 3D chess game, very old, 80's old, that was fantasy/demon based? It was so big (at that time) that I had to uninstall things and install it when I wanted to play?

Not really 3D, 2.5 with sprites as I recall.  Battle Chess, I think.



God, I am such a geek.

--Dave

THat's not it. It was a 3D Fantasy Chess game, with serious artwork (for the time). Demons, wizards, I remember water elementals as pieces. It was so damn cool looking but I remember it crashing horribly, often.

[schild]

I'm just taking a stab, but Chess Wars was a knockoff of Battle Chess with wizards, elementals, demons, desert scenes and such. And it was programmed for shite. I think I was 4 when I played it. Maybe 3.

Edit: Just for reference, this game was also not quite 3D, but it did pull it off more gracefully than Battle Chess, iirc.

Edit 2: Oh snap, screenshot:



Edit: 3: Not happy, I've been looking it up, but it also goes as War Chess. Whatever. I think there's actually a later game that had much higher quality art, but I've just woken it up. My brain is firing very, very slowly right now.

[MahrinSkel]

Mobygames has a 2005 game called War Chess, which looks similar but prettier and higher rez.



Chess Wars kicks up a 1998 Battle Chess knockoff with FMV fight scenes.

Maybe an older DOS version of the 2005 game using voxels or something similar?  The UI and overall style seems very close.

--Dave

EDIT: No, looks like War Chess also had a 2005 release for PS2, I'd guess that's where your screenshot came from.

[schild]

The 1998 version would make more sense as my brain turned 14 or 13 into 4 and 3. Yeesh. I should go back to bed.

[Tarami]

An idea that's prevalent in the music scene is "don't play what you like listening to" and I think it's applicable to games, aswell. You need to be enjoying something different so you can bring some kind of freshness to what you're doing. That said, I don't really agree with Barnett, especially not the way WAR is shaping up to be a copy of its predecessors. There are still things to be learned, it just shouldn't be your main inspiration.

[Venkman]

That's been core to parts of the industry for a long time though. There's still a place for rewarding passion, and as a result, often developers do make games that they themselves (hope to) enjoy playing.

The problems arise if the developers aren't very good at, like, developing, or their beloved passion is so small as to not be a good business to get into.

[HaemishM]

I know crap when I see it, and I haven't been wrong so far.

I would love to see documentation of this.

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?action=profile;u=1336;sa=showPosts

I got banned from crapnews for calling DDO a pile of shit.

Oooo, tell us more. Tell us about all the games you've been banned from too, for being a ethic-deficient exploiting twat.

LC is the type of guy you let into early alpha to find the holes, then perma-ban soon after open beta stage. He really doesn't contribute much after that.

[Furiously]

LC is the type of guy you let into early alpha to find the holes, then perma-ban soon after open beta stage. He really doesn't contribute much after that.

Somehow I don't see him sharing any holes.

[Merusk]

LC is the type of guy you let into early alpha to find the holes, then perma-ban soon after open beta stage. He really doesn't contribute much after that.

Somehow I don't see him sharing any holes.

Not actively, no.  It's the old saw that if you've got enough logging going on, you'll still see them.

[LC]

Oooo, tell us more. Tell us about all the games you've been banned from too, for being a ethic-deficient exploiting twat.

LC is the type of guy you let into early alpha to find the holes, then perma-ban soon after open beta stage. He really doesn't contribute much after that.

I prefer "morally bankrupt". I think I have been banned from everything except AC1/AC2 and eve.

[Simond]

...and the only reason you weren't banned from EVE is that your entire alliance is corrupt from bottom to top and in bed with the developers.

[gehrig38]

Still haven't found or seen the chess game. I know it was dark, the board backdrop, and the pieces were very fantasy oriented, water elementals, demons, mages and more.

[schild]

Well, doing a search for "Battle Chess Knockoffs" will just lead you back to this thread. Fucking Google is fast.

[Jayce]

Oooo, tell us more. Tell us about all the games you've been banned from too, for being a ethic-deficient exploiting twat.

LC is the type of guy you let into early alpha to find the holes, then perma-ban soon after open beta stage. He really doesn't contribute much after that.

I prefer "morally bankrupt". I think I have been banned from everything except AC1/AC2 and eve.

.. and AC1 had that "it's our fault" policy for a long time.  I think they eventually did start banning people though, when all the Gear usage started.

AC2?  Well, 

[Kirth]

Still haven't found or seen the chess game. I know it was dark, the board backdrop, and the pieces were very fantasy oriented, water elementals, demons, mages and more.

Sorry I have to:



I do know the game you are talking about however, buried somewhere in my sub-conscious is its name, is it archon or did this thread already talk about it?

[UnSub]

I now deeply admire Schilling's forum-jutsu: turning discussion about 38 Studios into a search for an obscure fantasy chess game. He is truly the master. 

[Nija]

but if you wanted to play the Ultima 7 series you'd be pretty screwed (just to name 2 I'd definitely put on the list).

--Dave

You picked one game that is actually quite easy to play. I even have it on my Vista work laptop!

http://exult.sourceforge.net/

[Cylus]

I do know the game you are talking about however, buried somewhere in my sub-conscious is its name, is it archon or did this thread already talk about it?

Archon was the shit!

[WindupAtheist]

I had Archon for NES.  God I loved the basilisk/unicorn.  Especially against golems/trolls.  The whole "you can mash me in 1 hit but I'm 10 times faster" thing made for some fun fights.

[schild]

I now deeply admire Schilling's forum-jutsu: turning discussion about 38 Studios into a search for an obscure fantasy chess game. He is truly the master. 

Or people gave up before he even posted about the chess game.

[lamaros]

OT: How does one block individual avatars again? The four animated ones in a row just now nearly caused a fit.

Edit: Because I'm hyper sensitive and animated things on my screen flickering in the corner of my vision are more than trivialy annoying.

[schild]

Why? Because they were all going to fight eachother and you couldn't determine a victor?

[Tale]

All this chess squares stuff reminded me of The Sentinel.

[Aez]

It's a trap.  He's probably talking about this one :

[UnSub]

I now deeply admire Schilling's forum-jutsu: turning discussion about 38 Studios into a search for an obscure fantasy chess game. He is truly the master. 

Or people gave up before he even posted about the chess game.

True.

Archon II screenies from the Amiga version.

[Righ]

OT: How does one block individual avatars again? The four animated ones in a row just now nearly caused a fit.

Install Adblock Plus in Firefox and right click on the images and select 'Adblock Image'.

[Mrbloodworth]

Does anyone remember a 3D chess game, very old, 80's old, that was fantasy/demon based? It was so big (at that time) that I had to uninstall things and install it when I wanted to play?

Not really 3D, 2.5 with sprites as I recall.  Battle Chess, I think.



God, I am such a geek.

--Dave

Oh man, so many hours lost on that game, good times.

[gehrig38]

That is not it. I have not seen it yet but I remember the graphics being far 'cleaner' than this an prettier. It was much more high fantasy too. I am killing myself trying to find it and when I see it the 'high fantasy' part will become obvious...

[Signe]

You'll remember at 4 AM, dying to tell everyone, next to a sleeping wife who will shoot you if you wake her up getting out of bed to run to the computer. 

[schild]

or

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/hoyle-majestic-chess/screenshots/gameShotId,254561/

or

you know what, I can't be bothered by a chess game anymore. /add

[Ingmar]

It makes me think of Archon, but that was anything but 3D.

[gehrig38]

Still can't find it. And nothing posted here even looks like it.
Killing me...