Wuggles on 5/6/2004 at 05:02
If you hang out in the Shock forums, you'd know that I'm now mirroring a bunch of the LGS classics including TN, which were given to me by Daxim. I figured if I had the game on my hard drive, I may as well play it.
WOW!
This game is really fun. I'm half over the dated graphics, mainly because of the unusually fast paced action I like so much. (the game couldn't have been written to play this fast...)
Its a shame that this is one of the less active forums here at TTLG. It should come as good news, however, that since I began mirroring just 5 hours ago, there have been 52 downloads (well, starting... I distribute over P2P) of TN! In fact, thats the only game people have downloaded from me so far.
If you were curious, I'm running XP Pro at 2.1GHz with 1GB of ram, and the only thing I had to do to make the game run was apply NOLFB.
Shadowcat on 8/6/2004 at 00:21
I'm glad you got around to playing it, Wuggles. I'm always faintly surprised when it takes LG fans so long to discover Terra Nova when the forum is sitting right here. But then there are die-hard SS2 fans who still haven't tried the original!
And yes, Terra Nova was and is awesome fun! :)
> I'm half over the dated graphics, mainly because of the unusually
> fast paced action I like so much. (the game couldn't have been
> written to play this fast...)
A bit hard to answer that one without seeing it running on your machine. Maybe XP doesn't handle the timing correctly? Or perhaps 2.1GHz is just too fast, and manages to trigger some previously unseen timing issues. My machine is an 800MHz Athlon with 256MB RAM running Win98SSE (the minimum reqs were a P60 with 8MB RAM), and Terra Nova runs at the proper speed for me.
Or maybe it is running at the normal speed for you as well? I sure wouldn't describe Terra Nova as slow-paced. The somewhat common "Mechwarrior" comparisons you might have heard are fairly misplaced... the Centauri PBAs are way more mobile than a Mech (and a lot smaller, of course :)
> If you were curious, I'm running XP Pro at 2.1GHz with 1GB of ram,
> and the only thing I had to do to make the game run was apply
> NOLFB.
Great! Thanks.
Did you already have VDMSound installed by any chance? Or are you definitely running the game without VDMSound? If so, it may be useful to know what your sound card is? (and perhaps which revision of XP you are running, too.)
Wuggles on 8/6/2004 at 00:46
I know for me, it took so long because
A. Nobody really ran around saying how great it was
B. I didn't see it on a shelf in walmart like SS2
C. It didn't come with a soundcard, like Thief 2 did
D. The only places to download it that jump out are P2P, and nobody likes to do that.
I like it this fast, I don't want it fixed! But yes, I'm sure its faster than it should be.
I'm 95% sure I'm not running vdmsound. Is there an easy way to check? The 5% chance would be if its left over from me making SS1 work a year or so ago, but I really don't think so.
I'm running XP Pro with SP1. My soundcard is a Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum.
Also, the audio is out of sync with the video on the cinematics, but it doesn't really bug me.
Brad Schoonmaker on 8/6/2004 at 00:54
Seconded. This game has to be the most underated LGS game featured here. It's definitely a great game.
I read "I'm half over the dated graphics, mainly because of the unusually fast paced action I like so much. (the game couldn't have been written to play this fast...)" to mean it runs normally, but the game pace is truly intence at times if not always. And I agree with that, too. :D Often tough!
I hope you did get it working with XP easily. Gives me hope.
Shadowcat on 8/6/2004 at 14:24
> A. Nobody really ran around saying how great it was
> B. I didn't see it on a shelf in walmart like SS2
> C. It didn't come with a soundcard, like Thief 2 did
> D. The only places to download it that jump out are P2P, and nobody likes to do that.
A. hmm... I just figured that as a given, the developers being who they were. I wonder if we should figure out some kind of ttlg advertising campaign to encourage folks to play it??
B. The perils of self-publishing. I don't know what sort of shelf-space coverage they managed.
C. That wouldn't have been a bad idea, in all honesty -- Terra Nova featured a stereo sound technology called QSound that managed to mimic surround sound to some degree. I guess LG always were up with the play when it came to audio...
D. True. You can actually still buy it online, but unfortunately you won't get a manual with the jewel-case version :(
> I like it this fast, I don't want it fixed! But yes, I'm sure its faster than it should be.
:)
> I'm 95% sure I'm not running vdmsound. Is there an easy way to check?
I would suspect that the task manager would tell you. Hit ctrl+alt+del and click on the task manager button (or shift+ctrl+esc is the hot-key combo to bring it up, going by Win2K usage), and have a look through the list of processes. I hope that it names itself nicely as "vdmsound" or similar.
Wuggles on 8/6/2004 at 18:06
Nope. Not there. I thought it might have been a fake driver or something. I keep very close watch on what starts up with my system.
I think this helps support my theory that a well configured, well maintained, healthy system built with high quality parts, running xp pro can run just about any game without too much difficulty. I have games from 1988 that run just fine for me.
Dashek on 13/6/2004 at 15:32
Actually, I've got the same issure with speed. I've been playing this game every few years since it was released, it was my first real computer game :) Anyway, I got it working using nolfb and vdmsound (finally) and there is definately some speed problem.
I am running an Athlon 2500 mobile at 2.3 GHz, and wow, all 3D movement happens far too fast. You run faster, but turn at the regular speed, and the enemies move fast too. makes it hard to track them. Also, you jump faster, but your energy depletes at the same rate, meaning you can jump waaay high. The multipulsar also doesn't track emeies at all, probably because of the speed issue. It makes the game very difficult to play, so I might end up just pulling out my old Winows 98 box and giving it a whirl.
Wuggles:
"Nobody really ran around saying how great it was"
I've told everyone for years how great it is every chance I get :cheeky: I absolutely love this game
Matthew on 17/6/2004 at 11:47
I didn't really know much about it either. I think I remember an old review, but as Shock had not yet entered my life the name Looking Glass meant little to me.
Then the thrice-accursed* Shadowcat gave someone a buy link, and lo! I secured a copy. Now all I have to do is get it to work.
*Because as a direct result, I spent about $150 on old games + overseas postage.
Saam on 17/6/2004 at 15:25
Wouldn't the old Origin Systems (or was it developed by a third-party I don't remember..) 'moslo' program work to make the game run slower?
At any rate, I haven't played the game in over 6 years, but if it works in XP without any hitches I'll definitely give it a few more whirls. As with all LookingGlass games, definitely ahead of its time and hugely underappreciated.
Matthew on 21/6/2004 at 14:01
Wouldn't say 'without hitches', but it is playable and others seem to have had more luck than I (currently trying to fix the quarter-size stereoscopic nature of the graphics).
