by Quattro Bajeena » Wed Sep 30, 2015 3:56
Let me preface this by saying I have ZERO expectation of this actually happening. If I were to expect such a thing, I'd have to back it up with a plan to do the work myself — and I've made no such plan.
I heard about this engine while investigating techniques for speeding up my own raycaster, which also builds on SDL2. I found a post by the main developer describing how ECWolf works, and claiming that he intended it as a general-purpose engine for running old raycaster games on modern computers, not just a Wolfenstein port.
As soon as I read that, I knew exactly the game I'd like to see it support. Its world geometry is barely more complicated than Wolf3D's. The map is still a fixed grid, and all objects are still billboards, but now there are variable floor heights, transparent walls, and water with a cute animation effect to make the surface look like cartoonish waves. Strangely enough, it doesn't support stairs, instead using a crudely drawn door texture to represent the point of ascent or descent to the next floor of a building. The gameplay mechanics are quite different from Wolf3D, a little closer to their common parentage in
Ultima Underworld. And while the series as a whole is so fondly regarded that the fans border on self-destructive obsession, it's only the sequels that are getting any kind of attention towards efforts at a remake.
Naturally I'm talking about
The Elder Scrolls I: Arena.
The original source code has probably been lost, meaning a true source port is out of the question. And there's very little documentation (as far as I know) on the data file formats. On the other hand, the game itself is now freely and legally available from Bethesda, so someone with a knack for reverse engineering could conceivably get started at their own leisure.
Then again, there'd be so little reward for this kind of project...
Let me preface this by saying I have ZERO expectation of this actually happening. If I were to expect such a thing, I'd have to back it up with a plan to do the work myself — and I've made no such plan.
I heard about this engine while investigating techniques for speeding up my own raycaster, which also builds on SDL2. I found a post by the main developer describing how ECWolf works, and claiming that he intended it as a general-purpose engine for running old raycaster games on modern computers, not just a Wolfenstein port.
As soon as I read that, I knew exactly the game I'd like to see it support. Its world geometry is barely more complicated than Wolf3D's. The map is still a fixed grid, and all objects are still billboards, but now there are variable floor heights, transparent walls, and water with a cute animation effect to make the surface look like cartoonish waves. Strangely enough, it doesn't support stairs, instead using a crudely drawn door texture to represent the point of ascent or descent to the next floor of a building. The gameplay mechanics are quite different from Wolf3D, a little closer to their common parentage in [i]Ultima Underworld[/i]. And while the series as a whole is so fondly regarded that the fans border on self-destructive obsession, it's only the sequels that are getting any kind of attention towards efforts at a remake.
Naturally I'm talking about [b]The Elder Scrolls I: Arena[/b].
[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/5YZSzUf.jpg[/img][/center]
The original source code has probably been lost, meaning a true source port is out of the question. And there's very little documentation (as far as I know) on the data file formats. On the other hand, the game itself is now freely and legally available from Bethesda, so someone with a knack for reverse engineering could conceivably get started at their own leisure.
Then again, there'd be so little reward for this kind of project...