To: hitech-sim (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) Reply-To: hitech-sim (Hitech Simulation Mailing list) Errors-To: postmaster@onion.rain.com Precedence: bulk Bcc: hitech-sim-out Subject: Hitech Simulation Digest V1 : I36 Hitech Simulation Digest Volume 1 : Issue 36 Thu Aug 26 21:00:13 PDT 1993 Compilation copyright (C) 1993 Jeff Beadles Send submissions to "hitech-sim@onion.rain.com" Send add/drop requests to "majordomo@onion.rain.com" Archives are available via ftp from onion.rain.com [147.28.0.161] Today's Topics: Re: Tornado news from \\illiam of S Andrew.Stevens@prg.oxford.ac.uk Patriot V1.1 Robear ------------------------------------------------------------ From: Andrew.Stevens@prg.oxford.ac.uk Subject: Re: Tornado news from \\illiam of SH, on AOL > >DI is expected to send SH a Tornado patch this week; there are apparently >a few last problems caused by the patch that are being ironed out. >I recall hearing that the SH and DI versions of Tornado are slightly >different; thus I presume that there will be a short delay beyond that before >those of us in North America get it. Yes, the patches will be different. This is because SH use a different copy-protection scheme from that used in DI's own (european) release. DI have promised me a copy of the euro-patch just as a soon as it is available - I'll upload to onion. >There will probably never be an Allied mode for Tornado. William explained >that DI does not seem to have considered modem play when writing the program; >the H2H portion of the code was added at the last minute on the insistence >of Spectrum Holobyte. William said it would require a major rewrite of the >Tornado code (not just comms code) to allow for Allied missions; from this I >deduce that it ain't gonna happen. 8( Not much we can do about it - except >hope that maybe DI will decide to do the work.... I think even hoping is probably too optimisitic. Talking to the DI folk for GameBytes (there will be a text of the interview in the forthcoming issue - see an ftp site near you) it was clear that it is even just a matter of coding effort. Tornado is an *entirely* real-mode program and makes no use whatsoever of extended or expanded memory. There plain isn't space for the comms code to handle allied mode flight. (Note: yes, you *can* run it on FAST 286's as long as you can get enough K's free in DOS. ) This is in addition to the rewrite of the gameplay code that would be required to keep the data volume needing to be exchanged down to a level feasible across a serial link. >From what I could gather DI have roughly the following list of priorities: 1. Patches to Tornado to deal with some remaining bugs and tune the gameplay. 2. Work on a gulf-war mission disk and/or a mission editor (this is a lot of work as it will require lots of new ground objects / terrain). 3. Moving their 3D engine to a 32-bit DOS-extended environment for future products. Major upgrades to Tornado weren't really mentioned - I got the feeling that they felt the return on investment wouldn't justify the disproportionate effort required to extend the existing (rather specialised) 16 bit code. Reading between the lines, I suspect they might consider some refinements to the game engine (e.g. lob-tossing wingies and suchlike) for the mission disk, but it would depend on percieved demand, finding space for the code, and available programmer time. It certainly wouldn't do any harm to try to bounce potentially feasible suggestions around on this list and forward the results to them. Andrew ------------------------------- From: Robear Subject: Patriot V1.1 This is turning out to be more of a sim than a game. Any opinions? I've posted an overview to csipg.strategy - anyone want a similar article here? David Pipes ------------------------------- [[ End of digest Volume 1 : Issue 36 ]]