What an interesting curio. Neat to see something which might have otherwise slipped into the mists of time. Hopefully some peeps who are seriously capable of diving in further do take a chance and do so. If there are other surprises in there, it'd be neat to see what is there!
its pretty impressive for 94. I could imagine it working really well once culling is added. This game looks so damn similar to the prototypes I've made years ago.
That's exactly what I was thinking. And the reason I had Commander Keen on my mind was because I went looking to see what kind of tags Kikoskia uses for his videos, since I've recently begun reworking all of my TH-cam tags after realizing they were terrible. =P
Wait, this went unreleased? That's sad to hear because this looks so cool to me. I would've probably been HOOKED on this if it were to have released back in '96, or '97!
Ayyy! I'm an admin of the dosgames.com forum! Guess since you've namedropped I'll have to pick up the slack. Sadly, we've been under a pretty constant barrage of spambots lately :
@@Pixelmusement we're running an old version of PHPBB. The site owner has been running the site since the late 90s but has since had a lot more adult things to attend to. He recently gutted and renovated the entire site, but the forums are still to be done. We have talked to him and he's hoping to update it soon. You mentioned in your video that the package wasn't bundled well to run with Dosbox... If you still have your working version, would you mind uploading it somewhere for me to grab? I can send it over to emmzee and have him update the version on the site.
+wardrich It might not be appropriate to update the archive as it is for historical purposes. I think instead it would be better to just include instructions on the site as to how to edit the sound.cfg file and how to launch the game with sound support enabled. I go over those details in the video. And yeah, I've been in contact with emmzee; it's why a lot of the games on the site have video links to ADG episodes. ;)
notifications tell of a new ADG episode -> ATTACK!! very curious to hear about prototypes, especially 3D ones from a time when there were no established conventions yet. also, i made a custom software 3D renderer in August.. i can relate to the framerate fluctuating so wildly :D
+vs wares The difference between frame timing and real time is with frame timing, you're relying on the framerate of the monitor to drive the game speed, meaning if the framerate is NOT the expected rate, the speed of the game changes. With real timing, you're reading a timer value from the system at the start of each frame to determine how much time has elapsed from the last time you read the timer, then multiplying all of your timing values by that delta value. :B
The game's graphics are stored in TXM files, which are uncompressed VGA images. They all use trans.pal and one can view them with PixelDbg, TiledGGD, or any equally suitable raw image viewer.
Interesting piece of gaming history! There is definitely a lot of rudimentary System Shock building blocks there, and seeing what could have been the prototype of its engine at work is fascinating. Ah, what I would give to take a look into its source code. ^^
System Shock used the Ultima Underworld engine which didn't support stuff over stuff (this one seems to have cubes over other cubes) - the world was really made out of a 2D heightmap. On the other hand it had 45 degree walls and slopes. So i do not think this is related to UU/SS engine :-).
+badsectoracula They're all definitely related to each other in some way and likely share bits of code here and there, but yeah, there's also plenty of interesting differences between them all. Now that I've seen the editor for this game, it seems to work based on "stacks" of cubes, which is why they can appear one over another.
@@Pixelmusement I'm still a bit skeptical about them sharing code as Ultima Underworld was already two years old by the time they made this and UU was developed independently (Origin came into it later) whereas this was made by people apparently to try and learn 3D games programming so they wouldn't use any existing code (outside perhaps some audio libraries or something like that).
+badsectoracula Origin and Looking Glass were pretty closely knit so I'm not as skeptical, otherwise yeah, I would agree there'd be less sharing of code and such.
Of course it wasn't a fictional language, so much as just a new font, mapped 1:1 with english. Still, it's not only a cool game but one that was pretty trend-setting and big for the company, so look forward to seeing it shown off even if nowadays they have ported engines for the files for any platform you can think of.
+Osmosis Jones Incidentally, Minecraft wasn't the first cube-based game engine by any means. Heck, it wasn't even the first to function the way it did, as you can look up my old video on Cubes5 to see it done over a DECADE prior! Minecraft just massively popularized the concept and now such games are a dime a dozen, though with a handful of decent ones that do things differently enough to be unique and interesting in their own right, like Fortresscraft Evolved.
More like a game prototype looks like a playground to test the engine for something more complex like System Shock. I know my theory doesn’t stand on its own because there’s traces of a plot here, but the level design it’s not even rough. Those are test chambers. Edit: never mind, you said as much at the end.
+Jim Leonard Apart from Warren Spector who, you know, was kinda the producer for System Shock and had minor design input (although input nonetheless) on Transland. Also, if Darrin LeBlanc and Marc LeBlanc are related, that could technically be its own kind of overlap with the two sharing ideas between each other. Ultimately, the only way we could know for certain would be to ask someone who'd know what was going on with either project, because I do agree it's an assumption that there's any relation between the two, but there's enough similarities (also with Ultima Underworld which was released prior to either of these) to suggest SOME kind of connection, even if only in just minor details. I mean, it CAN'T be a coincidence that so many 3D games with cube-centric engines were published through Origin. ;)
Wait, if this is before System Shock... the whole "we're the first PC game with polygonal enemies" thing that Bethesda touts for Terminator: Future Shock... Oh, if it was never completed for release, that explains a lot.
I'm torn between guessing 2 games for your next video. It's either Commander Keen with its SGA (btw, still my vote for the single best id game), or it's Riven with the D'ni language and base 25 numeral system.
@@Pixelmusement my core2duo laptop must be crappier than I thought then, because even Arena plays like crap... I can get "acceptable" framerate until about 18000 cycles but if I raise cycles it starts to slow down again... ok case closed, don't bother wasting time on this xDDDD
I only have the Genesis cartridge. I wish I had experienced the PC version. I feel so restricted when it allows me to field only a limited number of units at any one time, which I assume is due to the memory constraints of the platform.
What an interesting curio. Neat to see something which might have otherwise slipped into the mists of time. Hopefully some peeps who are seriously capable of diving in further do take a chance and do so. If there are other surprises in there, it'd be neat to see what is there!
its pretty impressive for 94. I could imagine it working really well once culling is added. This game looks so damn similar to the prototypes I've made years ago.
that drawing distance impressive (grammar?)
Those little polygon guys were kind of cute! They remind me a little bit of characters from Rayman or something.
I was going tp say the same thing!
Next week's video = Commander Keen 1 - 6! :-)
Thank you for the video, this was an interesting and curious find. Thanks!
That's exactly what I was thinking.
And the reason I had Commander Keen on my mind was because I went looking to see what kind of tags Kikoskia uses for his videos, since I've recently begun reworking all of my TH-cam tags after realizing they were terrible. =P
This was super interesting to watch! Thanks for showing us this game/proof-of-concept!
Wait, this went unreleased? That's sad to hear because this looks so cool to me. I would've probably been HOOKED on this if it were to have released back in '96, or '97!
``It's rough on the edges``
...cue the spiky polygons :)
Woah I thought I was the only one who remembered Transland, it was so well hidden it felt like a secret.
Ayyy! I'm an admin of the dosgames.com forum! Guess since you've namedropped I'll have to pick up the slack. Sadly, we've been under a pretty constant barrage of spambots lately :
+wardrich Ugh, spambots... Hopefully that gets dealt with before too long!
@@Pixelmusement we're running an old version of PHPBB. The site owner has been running the site since the late 90s but has since had a lot more adult things to attend to. He recently gutted and renovated the entire site, but the forums are still to be done. We have talked to him and he's hoping to update it soon.
You mentioned in your video that the package wasn't bundled well to run with Dosbox... If you still have your working version, would you mind uploading it somewhere for me to grab? I can send it over to emmzee and have him update the version on the site.
+wardrich It might not be appropriate to update the archive as it is for historical purposes. I think instead it would be better to just include instructions on the site as to how to edit the sound.cfg file and how to launch the game with sound support enabled. I go over those details in the video. And yeah, I've been in contact with emmzee; it's why a lot of the games on the site have video links to ADG episodes. ;)
I feel those Jumping Flash vibes
notifications tell of a new ADG episode -> ATTACK!!
very curious to hear about prototypes, especially 3D ones from a time when there were no established conventions yet.
also, i made a custom software 3D renderer in August.. i can relate to the framerate fluctuating so wildly :D
the word "attack" will always reminds me of Dr Disrespect screaming "attaaaaaaack" from now on xDDDD
+vs wares The difference between frame timing and real time is with frame timing, you're relying on the framerate of the monitor to drive the game speed, meaning if the framerate is NOT the expected rate, the speed of the game changes. With real timing, you're reading a timer value from the system at the start of each frame to determine how much time has elapsed from the last time you read the timer, then multiplying all of your timing values by that delta value. :B
One of the most interesting games in a while
This looks like something that could of seen major success. I know I would of loved something like this.
The game's graphics are stored in TXM files, which are uncompressed VGA images. They all use trans.pal and one can view them with PixelDbg, TiledGGD, or any equally suitable raw image viewer.
Never would have believed that Origin was on behind this... this.. abomination. In 1996! Thanks for the vid!
Interesting piece of gaming history! There is definitely a lot of rudimentary System Shock building blocks there, and seeing what could have been the prototype of its engine at work is fascinating. Ah, what I would give to take a look into its source code. ^^
System Shock used the Ultima Underworld engine which didn't support stuff over stuff (this one seems to have cubes over other cubes) - the world was really made out of a 2D heightmap. On the other hand it had 45 degree walls and slopes. So i do not think this is related to UU/SS engine :-).
+badsectoracula They're all definitely related to each other in some way and likely share bits of code here and there, but yeah, there's also plenty of interesting differences between them all. Now that I've seen the editor for this game, it seems to work based on "stacks" of cubes, which is why they can appear one over another.
@@Pixelmusement I'm still a bit skeptical about them sharing code as Ultima Underworld was already two years old by the time they made this and UU was developed independently (Origin came into it later) whereas this was made by people apparently to try and learn 3D games programming so they wouldn't use any existing code (outside perhaps some audio libraries or something like that).
+badsectoracula Origin and Looking Glass were pretty closely knit so I'm not as skeptical, otherwise yeah, I would agree there'd be less sharing of code and such.
The next episode is about the Galactic Alphabet in Keen, isn't it?
That was my guess as well.
Of course it wasn't a fictional language, so much as just a new font, mapped 1:1 with english. Still, it's not only a cool game but one that was pretty trend-setting and big for the company, so look forward to seeing it shown off even if nowadays they have ported engines for the files for any platform you can think of.
Nowadays, it would have been released then patched for years.
+MarquisDeSang Maybe, but that's not inherently a bad thing, so long as a game stays fun through all the updates. :B
Oh man, the new release of Minecraft looks awesome :p
+Osmosis Jones Incidentally, Minecraft wasn't the first cube-based game engine by any means. Heck, it wasn't even the first to function the way it did, as you can look up my old video on Cubes5 to see it done over a DECADE prior! Minecraft just massively popularized the concept and now such games are a dime a dozen, though with a handful of decent ones that do things differently enough to be unique and interesting in their own right, like Fortresscraft Evolved.
Yay! 10:30 in the morning here in germany, perfect time for some ADG!
Btw. never heard of this game before! Nice!
GERNADE gun. Love that typo. lol
More like a game prototype looks like a playground to test the engine for something more complex like System Shock. I know my theory doesn’t stand on its own because there’s traces of a plot here, but the level design it’s not even rough. Those are test chambers.
Edit: never mind, you said as much at the end.
The games style reminds me a lot of "Quarantine" that came out around the same time
Those explosions look like the ones from powder crates and cannons in Ultima 7. Haha.
The low-poly guys and some of the art/landscapes remind me of the LBA games. Good old times.
Why does this game remind me of Lemmings 3D ???
maybe graphics ??
+The Rarest Gamer I can see the similarities. ;)
Wasn't System Shock just running on an upgraded version of the Ultima Underworld engine?
+Jason Blalock I think so... it's possible this engine is either an intermediary between the two or was being made alongside System Shock.
@@Pixelmusement System Shock was a complete rewrite of the engine, but it was meant as an extension of the tech.
+DOS Nostalgia Either way you slice it, Origin liked their cubes. ;)
@@Pixelmusement There is no overlap between this and system shock: www.mobygames.com/game/dos/transland/credits
+Jim Leonard Apart from Warren Spector who, you know, was kinda the producer for System Shock and had minor design input (although input nonetheless) on Transland. Also, if Darrin LeBlanc and Marc LeBlanc are related, that could technically be its own kind of overlap with the two sharing ideas between each other. Ultimately, the only way we could know for certain would be to ask someone who'd know what was going on with either project, because I do agree it's an assumption that there's any relation between the two, but there's enough similarities (also with Ultima Underworld which was released prior to either of these) to suggest SOME kind of connection, even if only in just minor details. I mean, it CAN'T be a coincidence that so many 3D games with cube-centric engines were published through Origin. ;)
Wait, if this is before System Shock... the whole "we're the first PC game with polygonal enemies" thing that Bethesda touts for Terminator: Future Shock... Oh, if it was never completed for release, that explains a lot.
Really cool engine. Shroud of the Avatar should have used it. =P
S,220,1,5 the old good times pre pnp
I'm torn between guessing 2 games for your next video. It's either Commander Keen with its SGA (btw, still my vote for the single best id game), or it's Riven with the D'ni language and base 25 numeral system.
Riven is a Windows game, so no, it can't be the D'ni language.
Mindblowing indeed!! Better framerate than Elder Scrolls Arena possibly?
+FeelingShred I mean... TES Arena plays too fast if the framerate is too high. :P
@@Pixelmusement my core2duo laptop must be crappier than I thought then, because even Arena plays like crap... I can get "acceptable" framerate until about 18000 cycles but if I raise cycles it starts to slow down again... ok case closed, don't bother wasting time on this xDDDD
oh I misread it, you were saying that movement in Arena is capped to framerate? ok then... nevermind my raging autism (embarassing)
I think I know the next game: DUNE 1.
we owe so much to the Dune RTS
@@hyceohmenjai I meant the adventure game it has a fremen language mode
@@earthsteward70 Oh that's new to me
@@hyceohmenjai it's certainly in the CD version
I only have the Genesis cartridge. I wish I had experienced the PC version. I feel so restricted when it allows me to field only a limited number of units at any one time, which I assume is due to the memory constraints of the platform.
It's gonna be Commander Keen I know it!
Ooh, now _that_ is a framerate.
As a trans girl, the title of this game got me excited for a second...
Lol that was my first thought as well x3
Commander Keen!
Bruh this is cool as shit