DOS Games Discussion

Apparently the full game can be now downloaded for free from Blizzard (a Battle.net account is needed):
http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/10/31/blizz ... -download/

I remember getting this game from Costco many moons ago. The box made it look like an awesome run-and-gun kinda game with a hint of stealth. I remember being slightly disappointed when it turned out to be the exact opposite lol.

Actually it turns out that you don't need an account after all:
https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

Yes, that game is the BEST!!!

Blizzard has just released The Lost Vikings and Rock'n'Roll Racing is a similar fashion:
https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

This is cool news, I loved the vibe of Blackthorne.

I don't like the new version of Blackthorne. IMO, the original release is better.

They aimed to make it more friendly for PC players, but I think they missed the point by a few miles and screwed it up royally.

1) Password system replaced with automatically saved progress - so OK, I don't need to remember passwords, but since when is it a real problem? But now I cannot just play any level any time I want.

2) They changed the control scheme to use more buttons. Probably they thought it's confusing that Fire and Jump or Run and Fire Backwards share keys. But it really wasn't, because the functions are mutually exclusive and cannot be executed from the same stance. Now, instead of using 'F' or 'Space' for Fire/Jump, 'Space' can only be used to jump (and doesn't do anything in combat stance), and 'F' automatically draws the gun (instead of 'S') and then is used for firing. 'D' can only be used for running, and 'R' is a new key assigned for firing backwards.

So, instead of just 4 buttons, arranged closely and conveniently together (SFED), we now have 6 buttons (SFED, R and Space which is far from the rest).

Thumbs up for the free release, thumbs down for the content.

I'd be shocked if they changed code at this point to make a free release. Any chance it was for a different platform than you originally played it on? Or am I missing the boat and they really did polished it up for a new free release?

And when I downloaded it I thought it was running in dosbox, but it's been a while, I'll have to check when I get home. If it is, you might be able to improve things by keymapping a better layout with <ctrl>F1.

I confirmed they are using DosBox in the free Blackthorn release. (Though they are being sneaky about it!) And the <CTRL>F1 brings up the keymapper, so you should be able to customize the controls. I'm pretty sure you can have one key send two keypresses, so mapping 'D' to send both 'D' and 'R' could probably work.

Yes, they really did change the code. I wouldn't call it "polishing", though.

And yes, it is running in Dosbox, and I can make such modifications just to get it to work the way I want, but why would I bother, when I can just play the old version?

Quadko wrote:I confirmed they are using DosBox in the free Blackthorn release. (Though they are being sneaky about it!)

As Qbix (a DOSBox developer) put it:

Qbix wrote:One of the most advanced DOSBox integrations I've seen so far.