this was by far the scariest game i played as a kid. you failed to admire the sound effects. the grey grimy environment with screaming creatures that can end your life any step of the way and traps, this game offered the maximum amount of adrenaline rush any gamer could ask for.
This is one of the few games I played for hours and hours, and despite moving forward I could never tell if I was making progress. Even now I feel unsure how the various paths of the game conclude, and if they're truly separate paths or just digressions.
Abuse has a special place in my heart. I remember being very excited about it as a teenager, I think mostly because of the unique weapons, but more importantly it was very moddable and became my introduction to programming. It actually had an active modding scene in the early 2000s as well, people were doing some pretty creative things with it. But I think it's very much in the category of "an engine with a game tacked on", because the campaign itself is pretty uninspired - very repetitive and tedious. But from a technical point of view it was quite impressive - the level editor was powerful, a lot of the game logic could be modified and expanded through the exposed lisp files, the art could be edited (I think through a tool called satan paint). I think it even came with a demo of a mod which turned it into pong, which shows just how flexible it was. But I don't think it was enough of a financial success, as the developer went under some years later. Oh well!
I was waiting your next AGD episode :) I heared the game several times in the past, but I never tried it. I'm going to play this game, I really like this type of atmosphere.
Unsure if anybody commented on that before. Abuse can be obtained for free on Desura. It also seems to be released here by devs/publishers themselves, and comes bundled with preconfigured DOSBox for convenience.
+ReddmanDGZ Finding accurate licensing info for Abuse was ridiculous back when I made this video... I've been told things have changed since but given the mess it was in originally I have no desire to recheck any of it. x_x;
yea, I imagine. All I know is that in ubuntu games it's literally one of the first things that comes up. I have the original game and even if the linux distro is 'fan made levels', they at least seem to try to mirror what is on the actual disc. Personally, I love games like this. I love punishing difficulty and the sense of achievement for overcoming it. I guess that's why I got addicted to games like Dark Souls, and the old Xeen games, etc. Btw. Love your work on this stuff. I grew up in the 80's and 90's and PC gaming was my bread an butter (even teaching myself basic to make my own games).
There is a derivative of this game's play style called Dark Angeal. Don't know how it compares, but it is noteworthy in its own right for being one of Vicarious Visions earliest titles; funny how they're still around and quite successful but Crack Dot Com isn't.
a childhood game that i still play to death. i even decided it'd be a good idea to have it on my psp... and i was fucking right! though perhaps it's just me, i did prefer free abuse (frabs) to just playing the original campaign. ugh, i need to figure out how to stuff the full original campaign into frabs now, instead of just having the first five levels of it. really enjoying your videos, by the way! :D
Nice vids. Any reason the 'episode' watermark stays the whole video. It's redundant after the first 30 seconds. Consider changing it, it's quite detracting.
Loved this back in the day, and totally intended to make my own maps for it when I bought the commercial release, until I gave up grappling with the buggy and unintuitive level editor trying to make anything substantial. I play the source port on Linux every now and then, but these days there's no excuse the frame rate is as low as it is. Not a fan of the keyboard+mouse controls either, I'd prefer Contra/Metroid style gamepad controls.
Dude there was a game that kinda looked like this one, but had a 3rd person view camera similar to MGS1. One played with a character with two guns and killed aliens and mutants and shit. It was very bloddy. Please have you played it!??
Ohhh man...I am trying to remember. I was like 7 or 8 when I played it. Hopefully you've played it 'cause it was right about the time Abuse came out. Here's all the things I can remember (and I thank you for taking the time to read it): The game had these kind of graphics. Your character was seen from above (Not a above-diagonal camera like Metal Gear Solid or God of war), like you'd see his head, arms and laser guns. He kinda looked like a "normal" dude with black hair. (No weird armor, no strange head set, no tail, etc...). First level was in some kind of desertic place and you'd run onto futuristic/space machinery from time to time. Main objective (I THINK) was to find and collect some (alien?) eggs, and of course find an exit and leave the place. And you'd have to shoot aliens and robotic mutants and shit. Like big grubs and spyder-like creatures. One curious detail I remember is that you'd leave bloody footprints if you walked over the pools of blood (from creatures you killed). THEN I remember the 2nd stage, which was aboard a space ship or an alien ship. The place looked black and green, with electrified doors if I rememer correctly. Some new enemies appear. That's all I have. Thanks again. I take the time to write 'cause you are one of the very few youtubers that played a lot of these mid-late 90s computer games!
Nice vids. Any reason the 'episode' watermark stays the whole video. It's redundant after the first 30 seconds. Consider changing it, it's quite detracting.
This is like a 2D Quake with Aliens and a Predator as protagonist.
this was by far the scariest game i played as a kid. you failed to admire the sound effects. the grey grimy environment with screaming creatures that can end your life any step of the way and traps, this game offered the maximum amount of adrenaline rush any gamer could ask for.
With a name like that someone would think that the devs were crackheads that would develop anything for a piece of rock XDXDX
Thanks to you I discovered this game. It's so great and so hard but satisfying I couldn't stop playing until finish it.
Abuse's level editor was the basis for the in-house Apples & Astronauts 'Blast Engine' editor for tile-based metroidvania style games and platformers.
I remember playing this on the computers at school. On the website, at least. It was _definitely_ a love/hate relationship.
This is one of the few games I played for hours and hours, and despite moving forward I could never tell if I was making progress.
Even now I feel unsure how the various paths of the game conclude, and if they're truly separate paths or just digressions.
Abuse has a special place in my heart. I remember being very excited about it as a teenager, I think mostly because of the unique weapons, but more importantly it was very moddable and became my introduction to programming. It actually had an active modding scene in the early 2000s as well, people were doing some pretty creative things with it. But I think it's very much in the category of "an engine with a game tacked on", because the campaign itself is pretty uninspired - very repetitive and tedious. But from a technical point of view it was quite impressive - the level editor was powerful, a lot of the game logic could be modified and expanded through the exposed lisp files, the art could be edited (I think through a tool called satan paint). I think it even came with a demo of a mod which turned it into pong, which shows just how flexible it was.
But I don't think it was enough of a financial success, as the developer went under some years later. Oh well!
Ironically, some of the Abuse editor functionality is going to be creeping into my own gamedev project very soon. ;)
I was waiting your next AGD episode :)
I heared the game several times in the past, but I never tried it. I'm going to play this game, I really like this type of atmosphere.
I still play this today and have more fun than with most ps4 games I own
Love your videos! Just a quick comment to say "thank you".
Unsure if anybody commented on that before. Abuse can be obtained for free on Desura. It also seems to be released here by devs/publishers themselves, and comes bundled with preconfigured DOSBox for convenience.
Another one I have fond memories of, especially because of the editor.
Licensing: Abuse is 100% free on most linux distro's package managers.
+ReddmanDGZ Finding accurate licensing info for Abuse was ridiculous back when I made this video... I've been told things have changed since but given the mess it was in originally I have no desire to recheck any of it. x_x;
yea, I imagine. All I know is that in ubuntu games it's literally one of the first things that comes up. I have the original game and even if the linux distro is 'fan made levels', they at least seem to try to mirror what is on the actual disc.
Personally, I love games like this. I love punishing difficulty and the sense of achievement for overcoming it. I guess that's why I got addicted to games like Dark Souls, and the old Xeen games, etc.
Btw. Love your work on this stuff. I grew up in the 80's and 90's and PC gaming was my bread an butter (even teaching myself basic to make my own games).
1:45 spot on!
I musta missed the mutant ants last year
There is a derivative of this game's play style called Dark Angeal. Don't know how it compares, but it is noteworthy in its own right for being one of Vicarious Visions earliest titles; funny how they're still around and quite successful but Crack Dot Com isn't.
a childhood game that i still play to death. i even decided it'd be a good idea to have it on my psp... and i was fucking right! though perhaps it's just me, i did prefer free abuse (frabs) to just playing the original campaign.
ugh, i need to figure out how to stuff the full original campaign into frabs now, instead of just having the first five levels of it.
really enjoying your videos, by the way! :D
Remembers me of Ge ocide: same level design, same controls...
Damn shame that Crack dot com's other game, Golgotha i think it was called, never saw an official release.
I always thought this game was a Predator vs Aliens game
Nice vids. Any reason the 'episode' watermark stays the whole video. It's redundant after the first 30 seconds. Consider changing it, it's quite detracting.
I remember this. ;)
Apparently the original release had a completely different storyline (not that that changed the gameplay any)
Loved this back in the day, and totally intended to make my own maps for it when I bought the commercial release, until I gave up grappling with the buggy and unintuitive level editor trying to make anything substantial. I play the source port on Linux every now and then, but these days there's no excuse the frame rate is as low as it is. Not a fan of the keyboard+mouse controls either, I'd prefer Contra/Metroid style gamepad controls.
Recommend this game? Do you like Dark Souls? Do you like 2d shooters? Then yes, you will LOVE this.
Dark Souls is like Abuse but with swords.
it always looked like the predator with weapons to me
+João Serra I think that was actually part of the inspiration... could be wrong...
Dude there was a game that kinda looked like this one, but had a 3rd person view camera similar to MGS1. One played with a character with two guns and killed aliens and mutants and shit. It was very bloddy. Please have you played it!??
+Paolo Olivari There's a LOT of games like that. You're gonna have to be more specific. :P
Ohhh man...I am trying to remember. I was like 7 or 8 when I played it. Hopefully you've played it 'cause it was right about the time Abuse came out. Here's all the things I can remember (and I thank you for taking the time to read it): The game had these kind of graphics. Your character was seen from above (Not a above-diagonal camera like Metal Gear Solid or God of war), like you'd see his head, arms and laser guns. He kinda looked like a "normal" dude with black hair. (No weird armor, no strange head set, no tail, etc...). First level was in some kind of desertic place and you'd run onto futuristic/space machinery from time to time. Main objective (I THINK) was to find and collect some (alien?) eggs, and of course find an exit and leave the place. And you'd have to shoot aliens and robotic mutants and shit. Like big grubs and spyder-like creatures. One curious detail I remember is that you'd leave bloody footprints if you walked over the pools of blood (from creatures you killed). THEN I remember the 2nd stage, which was aboard a space ship or an alien ship. The place looked black and green, with electrified doors if I rememer correctly. Some new enemies appear. That's all I have. Thanks again. I take the time to write 'cause you are one of the very few youtubers that played a lot of these mid-late 90s computer games!
+Paolo Olivari Kinda sounds like one of the Alien Breed games, though I've never played them so I'm not certain.
@@paoloantonio1531 Alien Shooter?
try hunter hunted guys is pretty cool to
not to mention that it's not particularly unique anymore- i can think of sixty billion flash games that play like this
Crack dot com is a drug rehab website :)
”Compile source code yourself.”
Ok.
What?!
Nice vids. Any reason the 'episode' watermark stays the whole video. It's redundant after the first 30 seconds. Consider changing it, it's quite detracting.