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I originally posted this on Dev-Scene.com but here it goes:

Has anyone started an XCom 1 clone for DS?
I ask because I've been working on an X-Com clone. It's a clone because I am not using the original source code but will be as close to the original as possible including using the original game data.

I can currently load MAP,PCK,TAB,MCD and LBM files, can load in and create tilesets, render Battlescape maps (where each 10x10 or 20x20 area is randomly chosen from a set of maps depending on terrain type) with up to 4 height layers (the same as the original game) and of course show vehicles like the Avenger and UFO's.

Anyway you can currently show different heights (which displays like the original game) and scroll around the maps with either the d-pad or by touching near the screen boundaries. Animating tiles work and I'm currently working on doors and such. Here are some cheesy JPG screenshots running in an emulator (it works on the real hardware too):

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Lighting and "fog of war" are not in yet and the top screen is currently used for debugging but will be used (most likely) to display the map. Since I'm using the GPU as a fast hardware blitter, lighting/"fog of war" will be pretty easy and shouldn't have any impact on speed.

Hmmmmmmmmmm, I'll be keen to see where this leads, as I'm a big X-Com fan :-)
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It looks like you could almost make an Animal Crossing clone with this kind of engine.
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I am definitely down for trying this out when you are done- the only other option for portable xcom right now is psx on psp

Going directly from XCOM to Animal Crossing in three posts makes me sad.

I really look forward to seeing progress on this project. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the replies. I never considered doing an Animal Crossing clone but I'll make the source code available when I'm done so who knows. As for progress I've got the ground selection cursor working (the cubic looking one that selects the current tile), doors working and am now working on getting XCom agents and aliens working and controllable. I'll also be putting in the UI and map so I'll post some new screenshots soon :)

Anyway thanks for the interest, this game - especially with the touch screen - should work quite well on the DS.

Visually it looks very impressive...

Have you referred at all to the UFO2000 project for any help on this. They've implemented a multi-player version of UFO on PC, but they seem to have stalled when it comes to handling single-player.

Hopefully you'll have better luck, as I think X-Com on the DS would be insane :-)
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You can find my NDS homebrew projects here...

Sweet! I hope you'll get this one finished... X-COM was one of my favourite games back in the 90's on the PC, and DS is pretty much a perfect platform to port the game.

Great news blue_knight, looking forward to see how it turns out.

Never had a chance to properly play X-Com on PC so I'd love to give it a try on the DS :)

XCom on ds, it's a dream come true. I spent so many hour on it on my pc :D.

Quote:

Never had a chance to properly play X-Com on PC

It's working very fine for me with DOSBOX under windows ^^

As for UFO2000, I looked at it a little bit but chose (for various reasons) to implement everything from scratch. I, of course, use the information out there, file formats and game information, just not any source code. Currently I'm focusing solely on single player, once that is finished (and as close to the original as I can get) I'm considering doing an "enhanced" version with WiFi multiplayer support, smoother lighting, etc.

If you want to play the original game you can get a version that works under XP if you don't want to run DosBox. The animations tend to play too fast though.

OOh I still have X-COM CDs somewhere :) can't wait

1st an official theme park by EA, and now this :D

I absolutely love Xcom.

Rebelstar Tactics is good, and so is Lazer Squad Nemsis, but I really miss the good "capture and research" side of things.
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blue_knight wrote:

As for UFO2000, I looked at it a little bit but chose (for various reasons) to implement everything from scratch. I, of course, use the information out there, file formats and game information, just not any source code. Currently I'm focusing solely on single player, once that is finished (and as close to the original as I can get) I'm considering doing an "enhanced" version with WiFi multiplayer support, smoother lighting, etc.

If you want to play the original game you can get a version that works under XP if you don't want to run DosBox. The animations tend to play too fast though.

Good plan. I would imagine the UFO2000 sources are a bit messy and also not suitable for single-player :-)

Well, at least there is a repository if info on the file formats, though :-)
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You can find my NDS homebrew projects here...

An update. I have tile selection working on the map, doors working and a work in progress version of the UI. I provided some screenshots showing the UI, tile selection and working door. I need to resize the UI, but would prefer to use the original art without actually shrinking it. I'm thinking of removing the weapon slots on the sides and doing something else for the weapon select. I also should compact the height somehow in order to have more map space. What do you guys/gals think?

Edit - looking at it again, the verticle space isn't that much smaller then the game, you lose about as much space with this UI (percentage wise) as horizontal space (due to screen width difference). So I'll probably keep the height of the current UI and just put in alternatives for the weapon select on the sides.

I'm also working on getting the soldiers/aliens working, as I said before, I'll post some screenshots of them soon :)

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looks like you'll have to tighten up the UI a tiny tiny bit.

I suppose you have two options, but both of them will mean making the buttons a smidge small and compromising certain bits a tad.

http://www.drderekdoctors.com/xcom_shrunk.png

There's a couple of mocks above the original one.

I already solved it on my end, I left the buttons alone, shifted the whole thing to the left. Then I resized the weapon window slightly - the original weapon art should still fit. At the bottom there will be 2 small buttons: L/R for either hand so you can select which weapon hand you are looking at. I'll just default it to the hand with the primary weapon - alot of weapons are two handed and even when they are not the primary weapon is used most of the time. So you'll rarely have to switch to use grenades or other off-hand equipment. The resizing of the weapon window is done in the program after loading it so the original data is still used.

Thanks for the suggestions and mockups though, I appreciate the effort :)

I'll post a screenshot later.

Here are some screenshots of the tweaked UI. I'm still working on getting the agents/aliens working so I haven't quite finished it yet - I'm still going to add the L/R buttons at the bottom of the weapon window and of course all the agent stats once they're done.

[Images not permitted - Click here to view it][Images not permitted - Click here to view it]

Excellent work.. I've been watching this project for awhile but sadly couldn't be much help.
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Holy crap this is so amazing! Good freaking work on this! I can't wait to play X-com on my DS. Keep the updates coming and again excellent work!

Blue Knight you do a really great job, i'm so excitting by testing a version when you release it :D

This certainly puts a smile on my face. :D X-Com proper on the DS would be fantastic, especially since the interface would transfer over quite nicely for the most part.

I'm working on an XCom-style game myself, though I'll be going the FF Tactics route and using 3D for the terrain and environment, and sprites for the characters. Though to be fair, I haven't really started looking for a programmer yet, mainly focusing on the art assets and game mechanics design for now.

Definitely looking forward to seeing this project progress. :)

Shtroodle, Reppa's right, XCom works in dosbox, and there's also a win95 version that runs in XP with a patch (get it from Home of the Underdogs).

Love, love, love X-Com, it is probably one of my all time favourite games. To see and play it on the DS would be amazing. If you need anyone to beta test, sign me up, my programming knowledge is zilch, but I'd love to help in whatever way possible.

Another Update:
I just recently finished the entity rendering system. The problem I ran into is that many entities in XCom (all the agents and many of the aliens) are made up of many individual sprites including individual arms, legs, several torso varieties, etc. Then there is a version of each of these for each of 8 directions and for many frames of animation for each of those directions. Obviously this can yield 100's of individual sprites just for xcom agents (for one set of armor) not couting having to store multiple types of aliens, civilians, etc. Now in the original RLE-like format this is only a couple of kilobytes of data but stored as individual sprites it takes up considerably more [even using my current atlasing system]...

So I wrote another system where the RLE-like image data is stored in memory and when entities need to be updated they are rasterized (by the CPU) into a VRAM cache (part of an atlas texture) which is used to render the sprites as single quads in the proper rendering order. Since I store enough space in the cache for all the sprites in the level, I only need to rasterize the current moving sprite and update that small part of the texture on any frame which has very little effect on the framerate.

At any rate this system will handle all the entities: agents, aliens, civilians, etc. So now that is out of the way and I've started working on the gameplay: selecting agents, turning them, crouching, etc. Soon I should have them running around fighting aliens :)

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I'm getting very excited about this. I can't wait to play this game again! I would love to help beta test this when you're ready to release this.

Wasn't X.com a net-bank that got bought out by PayPal (which in turn got bought out by eBay)?
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-- Who?
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-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

Lately I've been working on tasks such as fonts, strings and other UI stuff. In addition the quad renderer now supports color tinting (used already to change font color) which will be used for fog of war and lighting. In addition all the agents have their proper stats and names in the mission. When you select an agent you get most of the UI readout as shown in the screenshots. Now I'm working on movement (agents, aliens and civilians). You can already crouch and change facing, I'm working on the actual movement across the map.

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Latest screenshoot are really good, gfx are terrible :D

Xcom what type of game is this? e.g. Sport
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jester wrote:

Xcom what type of game is this? e.g. Sport

Turn based strategy.

Reppa, what do you mean the screenshot looks good but the gfx is terrible? Do you mean the sprites? Anyway the graphics look like the original XCom since it is meant to be a remake/clone of that game :)

Maybe he means since the Xcom graphics are pretty dated, and the graphics in the screenshots look awful, then the project must be coming along just as well as it could. Maybe.

Brilliant project! everything look nice.
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awesome, very nice stuff! the one game I thought that would be great on the DS, incidentally, is X-COM. good luck with working on it, you've got my full support.

Wow, haven't seen this game in ages! I played the demo when I was really young, and I was too scared to play it actually :P!

Really is some excellent work there.

What about music/sound effects, do you plan to use them as well?

I would imagine the final product will require the data files from the original X-Com or Terror from the Deep and will use all sounds and graphics that come with those games.

BlueKnight, if you need some help with the game logic, etc on the GeoScape side of the game, perhaps you can consult the people working on UFO: Alien Invasion (It's an OSS UFO remake using the Quake2 engine). I think there project has reached a fairly playable state.

Well, anyway, keep up the hard work.
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"My boot, your face..." - Attributed to OOPMan, Emperor of Eroticon VI

You can find my NDS homebrew projects here...

OOPMan wrote:

I would imagine the final product will require the data files from the original X-Com or Terror from the Deep and will use all sounds and graphics that come with those games.

BlueKnight, if you need some help with the game logic, etc on the GeoScape side of the game, perhaps you can consult the people working on UFO: Alien Invasion (It's an OSS UFO remake using the Quake2 engine). I think there project has reached a fairly playable state.

Well, anyway, keep up the hard work.

I just played a few rounds of Alien Invasion, is a fairly awesome clone. I did how ever have graphical problems, but I suppose that is because I was playing it in a window.

Yes the DS game will use the same sounds as the original game. As I said before I want the experience to be as close to the original as possible and sound played a big part.

Anyway thanks for the interest. I now have agents moving around using the proper time units and energy to move. I have some collision issues to solve and then I'll get aliens/civilians walking around. I'm not too far from having basic playable tactical battles :) No new screenshots yet, soon...

Finally!
All I ask... when will there be a download and where do I send you my money ;)

Good luck man. Hope it translates well onto the DS with hopes of Terror from the Deep in the future

I thought people in this thread might be interested in this;

http://www.xforce-online.de/

Been playing it quite a bit, seems really good for an amataur effort.

Only snag is I cant see how to raise my troops inteligence level.
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Man I'm getting pumped. I'll definitely form over some bills for this as well for your hard work on this. Can't wait to play this game again.

needlesmcgirk wrote:

Man I'm getting pumped. I'll definitely form over some bills for this as well for your hard work on this. Can't wait to play this game again.

I know... I actually found myself looking at the forums at least twice a day for updates.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I had some pesky "real life" things to deal with :) Anyway work is continuing, another proper update will follow soon.

Thanks for the interest.

That release will be great aswell!
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Just so you know, BK, I registered on this forum specifically so I could post and give you props for working on this project. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for someone to work on X-Com for the DS. I thought long and hard about doing it myself, but realized that the learning curve would be way too steep for me.

Please please please keep up the good work. And let us know where we can send you PayPal donations. :) I am more than willing to bribe you along with some cold, hard cash.

And, of course, I am completely willing to test any and all of your releases when you reach that stage.

You, my man, are awesome.

A small update: Well photobucket is down so I can't get you a screenshot of aliens but... I can move the agents around which uses TU (Time Units) and EU (Energy Units) properly for moving, crouching, turning, etc. Full collisions are implemented. Turns are implemented (including things like doors closing and regenerating some amount of your energy based on your agent's starting TU). Animations are mostly implemented, I'm working out some kinks in the agent animations. Moving aliens are implemented which move around based on the pathing data built into the maps.

So next up is to finish the animation/pathing issues. Once that is done I'll implement shooting and damage (both agents and aliens). Then I'll handle lighting/"fog of war", most of the necessary code is already in place.

By the end of the week basic tactical combat should be finished (inventory, AI, etc) with a few weapons. Then I'll get the core base/worldview mode working and then progress both modes in parallel so I no longer have to hack in mission data and can more naturally implement new features on both sides. The key is to build solid foundations for each mode, then I just implement and test them together after that point.

Oh and unlike certain other versions I will have the 3D spherical version of the globe like the original :)

sounds fantaasic :)
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Holy crap, totally awesome. I am getting PUMPED.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy. I love how you plan on having everything work just like in the original (or as close to it as you can get). I picked up Rebel Star Tactical Command for the GBA just so I could get some of that good X-Com action in a handheld format, but it just pales in comparison to the real thing.

Bring on the Geoscape!

Indeed.
Lots of things have bits of xcom gameplay, but few gets it all.

I still recomend fans check out X-force though, its freeware fangame in development for PC and, imo, its really really good.
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I can`t wait. This sounds too good to be real! Especially since you are not going to make just the turn based combat, but everything else as well. Awesome!

Darkflame wrote:

I still recomend fans check out X-force though, its freeware fangame in development for PC and, imo, its really really good.

But still, nothing can compare to playing the original X-Com, with the original graphics, sounds, and gameplay. I've tried remakes and homages, but nothing hits the spot like the nostalgia of the original X-Com.

That's why I'm so jazzed about this project.

This is truly pants wettingly exciting!

This is buy a new DS and paint it with the XCOM logo exciting!

I just don't know what else I can say to express the sheer excitement surrounding this .... more screenshots as soon as you can man!

I must be the only guy in the world that has zero clue what Xcom is/was

what's it comparable to?

quick wiki search seems to say it's kinda like a sci-fi version of Ghengis khan/romance of the 3 kingdoms/etc style game?

Tikker wrote:

I must be the only guy in the world that has zero clue what Xcom is/was

what's it comparable to?

Not the only one. Plus those games you mentioned I've never played either.
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grab a snes or genesis emulator for your DS, and a grab a Romance of the 3 kingdoms backup

fantastic series

it's kinda like civilizations + risk

Tikker wrote:

I must be the only guy in the world that has zero clue what Xcom is/was

what's it comparable to?

I shed tears for you, my friend. X-Com combines planet-wide resource and base management as well as research trees into alien technology (yes, much like Civilization), along with turn-based fog-of-war combat. On the combat side of things, Rebelstar Tactical Command for the GBA is the closest approximation, because it was made by the same people, but its probably less likely you've heard of that one. You could say its similar to Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, or FF Tactics, just a heck of a lot more complex. Instead of each unit being able to move 5 squares, etc., each soldier has time units. Each action they perform, whether its moving a space, changing out their rifle for a grenade, kneeling down to take cover, or taking a rapid fire spread shot at an alien, takes a certain amount of time units. When the units are used up, they can't move anymore until the next turn. You really have to be cautious and strategic, as the game is extremely difficult. There are also some light RPG elements, as each battle your soldiers survive increases their stamina, hit point, firing accuracy, max time units, etc. It can be quite heartbreaking to watch your super soldier, whom you've molded and trained over the past 10 battles, get whacked in the back by a sneaky alien. You'll find yourself recruiting rookies constantly to fill in the recently vacated spots in your troop roster.

Hope that helps explain it, a bit. Even if you've never tried X-Com before, its still a fantastic experience the first time. I pick it up through DOS-Box every year or so, and it never ceases to amaze me at how well its held up over the past decade.

Well-put. If the person in question is a PC-gamer, I might refer them to similar combat situations like Jagged Alliance or Fallout. Despite bearing little resemblance to X-COM, they do have some of the same trends.

It's the complexity of X-COM I admire. I've been playing UFO:ET and miss many of the options that were available to me in 1993.

Take this scenario, for instance. I could hunt down objectives, or dig in and wait for the aliens to approach - setting up occasion smoke screens if I'm taking fire, proximity grenades all around (not only causing damage, but alerting me if something's approaching that I can't see), setting armed charges on personnel so I can send one in charging - knowing that if he gets wasted, the alien and whole building is going down (Predator-style. ;] ), or securing an area aliens are approaching, setting a charge for 5 turns (long enough to get everyone out) and demolishing the area as I leave.

I went back and played it after playing UFO:ET, UFO:AI (work in progress clone), UFO-Afterlight (and their other games), and it still holds up despite the graphics (320x240 that weren't great at the time) and interface quirks. I ended up going back through the whole thing on Genius level - part nostalgia and part quality gaming experience.

If this can be fully realized on DS, it'd be the epitome of homebrew gaming in my opinion.
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it definitely sounds like a sci-fi version of ROT3K

TheYak wrote:

Take this scenario, for instance. I could hunt down objectives, or dig in and wait for the aliens to approach - setting up occasion smoke screens if I'm taking fire, proximity grenades all around (not only causing damage, but alerting me if something's approaching that I can't see), setting armed charges on personnel so I can send one in charging - knowing that if he gets wasted, the alien and whole building is going down (Predator-style. ;] ), or securing an area aliens are approaching, setting a charge for 5 turns (long enough to get everyone out) and demolishing the area as I leave.

Ah yes, which tactical approach to use? I remember one of my favorite strategies was to put a few soldiers with good strength in the back and give them rocket launchers. Then, after I had set up a perimeter around the ship, I would bring them out and have them fire helter-skelter into all of the nearby farmhouses, clearing out the walls and revealing many a hiding alien. Then, wha-la, my snipers take them out, one by one. Also, I would use the kamikaze-proximity-charge rush into an alien ship, except I would give the cannon-fodder rookie a rocket launcher, and have him launch one into the nearest wall, obliterating himself and all of the alien scum with him. Only problem with that is you tended to destroy all of the nice alien alloys that you could then sell for a profit after the battle. Heh heh.

Oh, good times, good times. BKnight, see what you've awakened in all of us? Bring on the X-COM!

Tikker wrote:

it definitely sounds like a sci-fi version of ROT3K

I'm going to have to try out that game. Which is better, the SNES or Genesis version?

Sorry for being silent as of late, expect a new update in the next few days. I just need to finish the line of sight stuff beforehand so I can show fog of war, lighting, aliens, etc. Soon :)

blue_knight wrote:

Sorry for being silent as of late, expect a new update in the next few days. I just need to finish the line of sight stuff beforehand so I can show fog of war, lighting, aliens, etc. Soon :)

Excellent. Keep up the great work.

So...... when do we get to test something for you? :)

man oh man I want to play this game again.

derrickec wrote:

Darkflame wrote:

I still recomend fans check out X-force though, its freeware fangame in development for PC and, imo, its really really good.

But still, nothing can compare to playing the original X-Com, with the original graphics, sounds, and gameplay. I've tried remakes and homages, but nothing hits the spot like the nostalgia of the original X-Com.

Not at all. The original is the best.
I merely point it out as its the closest I have found to the original feel, and its still very early days in development.

They are letting people make their own missions and campagns for it too, interestingly.
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derrickec wrote:

Tikker wrote:

it definitely sounds like a sci-fi version of ROT3K

I'm going to have to try out that game. Which is better, the SNES or Genesis version?

there were multiple versions

iirc rot3k 1-4 were available on both system

5-7 on ps1
7-11or12 on ps2

Just joined the forum and came across this thread, I remember a few years ago (well about 10 or so now!) I worked in a games company, and my uncle who was a huge fan of the XCom series suggested to the bosses about the game and they contacted the original company who wrote Xcom and they said to send them an outline etc.

We knocked up a story line (my uncle wrote it and it involved time travel which we thought was the next step etc, and his story was excellent) and even created some graphics and also code to show the abilities of what we could do etc (I THINK I still have an animated GIF of one of the suits we created, will see if I can dig it out)

Unfortunately for us, it was at a time when the original software house decided they thought the next step forward for the series was 3D, so we never got the go ahead for the game.

Look forward to seeing a playable version of the original game, and im pretty sure that if my uncles lad has a DS, my uncle would go and get an R4 card just so he could play it!!!
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Well I will release all the source code (when it's done), so you can use the engine/code to make your game if you want :)

Any updates worth mentioning?

Sorry, I know you'll post when you're good and ready, I just wanted an excuse to keep bumping this thread to the top of the forum. I think I've been dreaming about X-Com lately. I'm not sure if thats pathetic or awesome. I'm going to go with the latter.

I've been out of town a couple of days and haven't had a chance to update. Maybe tonight or tomorrow (I'm not at home to get screenshots and all that now). Progress is still being made :)

blue_knight wrote:

I've been out of town a couple of days and haven't had a chance to update. Maybe tonight or tomorrow (I'm not at home to get screenshots and all that now). Progress is still being made :)

Go ... go coding warrior ... our hopes and dreams of Xcom awesomeness lie with you!

ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO RESCUE XCOM?!

Personally, I can't wait to play on the hardest difficulty level without saving during battles. That's the only way to play X-Com.

derrickec wrote:

Personally, I can't wait to play on the hardest difficulty level without saving during battles. That's the only way to play X-Com.

You're Crazy! Lol

Anyways I can't wait for a playable version of this, I only had the demo as a kid, and I beat it over and over again. It wasn't tell about 2 years ago I downloaded the full version and gave it a whole playtrhough, the game is so indepth, the music and graphics are awesome, its really suspenseful. I love it.

Keep up the great work Blue Knight!

Jonesin for an update... Need my fix!

As we continue to wait for the update (don't take our limitless enthusiasm for impatience, BK, we know you're working hard on it), I thought I would take this moment to further my reputation as an unnecessary posting whore.

Fun Fact: No less than 8 people have made their first post in this thread, with the majority of them ONLY making posts in this thread. I don't know if that is the norm for other homebrew projects, but I think it just goes to show how freakin excited people are over X-Com on their DS.

To quote Yak earlier, "If this can be fully realized on DS, it'd be the epitome of homebrew gaming in my opinion."

^ I agree.

I am one of those first posters, but I am into some other homebrew projects too. I just thought this one was worth me registering and making a post for. I mean, this is just awesome. X-com was one of my favorite games ever growing up and I want to play it again so badly. Blue_knight is tearing it up too and really making a quality item here. Excellent work.

not being impatient, just getting pumped and excited.

BK, I have an actual honest-to-God legitimate question this time. :) I noticed in your intro post that you said you were creating a "clone" and not simply retooling the existing code to work on the DS. From your screenshots and comments, it appears that you're implementing the art, tilesets, and sound straight from the original game, which is fantastic.

But how does it work when you begin to implement the AI and game mechanics? If its a "clone," then are you looking at the original source code and figuring out how they did it? Or are you just attempting to approximate the AI using your own code? For example, there were 5 levels of difficulty in the original X-Com game. Lets say, I played a game through on the fourth level (I think it was 'genius') in the original. When you are finished with your version, if I play a game through on 'genius,' will it act and feel just like it did before? Or will it be significantly different? (I hope my question makes sense)

Just curious as to how this whole process works. As always, you're the man.

add another to the list of posters who have signed up to this forum specifically for this homebrew game. i've been lurking for weeks, but just now had the urge to sign up.

first, i wanna thank blue knight for undertaking this. when this is finished, i'll be buying a DS specifically because of it.

now onto my reason for signing up so i could post. i have a question. blue knight, you say this is going to be a direct clone. i'm wondering if you'll update the game with some of the features that XCOMUTIL has that remove some of the tedious aspects of the game -- namely, that the original UFO didn't remember which soldier was equipped with what equipment between missions. it would be nice not to have to outfit each soldier everytime, heh. also the stat strings would be helpful, or you could go the TFTD route and allow the player to access the soldier's stats in the equip screen.

basically, i'm wondering if these modern conveniences will make it into your DS remake?

thanks!

^ That always was kind of a pain to have to equip everyone everytime they were on a mission. It always got a jumbled up and you had to unequip some to give the other soldiers their weapons, and you would run out of space, and all that. I didn't know they have tools (or mods) to fix that. That's pretty sweet.

I don't know anything about soldier stats either. Is this like kills, number of missions, etc? That seems really awesome.

Either way I am absolutely thrilled with this project as is.

you can look here for all the fixes/changes XCOMUTIL made to the game:

http://members.aol.com/stjones/xcomutil/

the stat strings was an addition to the soldier's name. XCOMUTIL would add indicators automatically so that the player would have information about each soldier's stats while in the equip screen. so if a soldier was strong, say with a strength of 40, you'd want to know that when in the equip screen so you could give this soldier the heavy weapons, like a rocket launcher. XCOMUTIL would add a string at the end of the soldier's name to reflect that, so the name "Otto Zander" would become "Otto Zander/H" where "H" is the indicator set in the .cfg file for soldiers with a strength of 40 or more. different letters are set for different stats, and all can be customized in the .cfg file. this way you can know who is strong, who has fast reactions, who has excellent firing accuracy, etc, so all your soldiers will be equipped properly before you start the mission.

i recommend XCOMUTIL to any XCOM player, even if you don't use any of the other changes, at least get it for the difficulty bug fix. without that fix, even if you select "superhuman" difficulty, the game will always revert back to "beginner." it's a bug that was never fixed, but XCOMUTIL does fix it.

I used XCOMUTIL the last time I pulled out the game, and it was a fantastic addition. Not only does it fix the difficulty bug, remember soldiers' equipment, and add stat strings, but you can adjust a lot of other settings as well. For example, you can have the alien ships be randomly generated, instead of having one of the 8 pre-designed ones. Admittedly, you end up exploring some fairly bizarre looking UFOs, but it does add a nice touch.

XCOMUTIL also buffs up a couple of the more useless weapons, like pistols and heavy explosives.

All in all, its a nice fix (the stat strings and ability to save what equipment went with what soldier were the most important additions), but by no means are all of the little bells and whistles crucial. I would be happy with just the game as is. :)

Its so nice to just be chatting passionately about X-Com again. So.... did anyone ever actually finish the game on SuperHuman?

Illegal, thanks for posting the info about the XCOM util - I had never heard of it till now!

Since you posted a bit of handy info and some ideas, I wanted to put in my two cents as well:

1. I'd like to show my support for this project in a little more $$$ way - by giving Blue_Knight a few bucks for doing this. BK - do you have a paypal account? Would you mind a couple of bucks as way of thanks? I doubt I'm the only person here who wants to show their appreciation this way.

2. The only people who are going to play this game at first are the hardcore XCOM fans (heh heh heh), but there are going to be gamers exposed to XCOM for the first time. I would like to suggest two things along these lines (After the game is playable and we all get our XCOM fix first of course) -

A. Somebody here has to have an good, original copy of the XCOM manual (Mostly for the little pictures, the text can always be re written). As a sort of sub project that we fans could help out with - we could break up the manual so that you could read through it on the DS. What I'm envisioning is on the top screen you have a picture of say, one of the basic handguns copied from the manual. On the touch screen is the text associated with said gun, and a forward and back arrow to go to the next or previous page. Clicking and dragging with the stylus would let you scroll down the text till you'd finished the entry. It's a little bit putzy I know, but I think it would be invaluable to new people we expose to this wonderful game.

B. Have a tutorial level like Theme Park - where all it truly is is a prerecorded game. This would be easy to do because all it would need is some text bubbles telling the person what the game is doing during the tutorial, and a small stylus icon to show what's being selected at the time.

I personally don't have coding ability, but I'm thinking that more than a few of the XCOM lovers here might be able to do this?

Whadda ya think BK? How about the rest of you? Sound like good ideas or garbage?

and yet another new poster just because of this game! :-)

i've been following this for weeks but now i had to sign up.

can't wait to test this one!!!

If you wish to make a list of desired fixes/enhancements feel free. They may not make it in and the initial version probably won't have them but I am planning an enhanced version afterwards (for features such as multiplayer). So there will be a "true-to-the-original" version and an enhanced version afterwards.

Anyway I've started on the GeoScape part of the game, I really need to put together an update :)

Now I'll answer some of your questions (sorry for the delay):

<derrickec> you asked how I'm making a clone. I have absolutely no access to any source code for XCom, but to be honest I wanted to rewrite it anyway for multiple reasons. I am approximating the AI and mechanics based on my own experience and information available on the net. I use values from data files where possible to help, for example the map pieces each have waypoints that connect together (and between pieces) that aliens and civilians use to patrol - I am using that data. In addition I have the formulas that tell me how the difficulty levels affect damage/health of units, how damage modeling works and things like that.

So all this means that I'm confident that this will feel very much like the original XCom - in fact that's why the first version won't have a lot of modern conveniences. But as I've said I'll build an enhanced version afterwards where I can add all these enhancements and both will be seperately available. Of course obvious bugs like the difficulty levels will be fixed in both versions.

And since this is a full rewrite it's written in C++, the rendering system is made specifically for the DS, I fully understand the code, etc. But that means it takes longer than a source port, unfortunately. But this all started with me wanting to write a isometric tile engine because I wanted to write a graphics/game engine other then 3D for once :) [I have been writing 3D engines/editors/games since before 3D hardware acceleration was available :]

<priest22> As far as PayPal, if people really want to make donations I won't turn them away BUT I won't take anything until I've delivered the game. Of course I don't expect or even ask for anything because I decided to do this for fun and to explore a console I've only worked on a little (don't worry, see my post above - I've worked on Apple II's, 286's, Commodore64, PSX and so on [all the way to modern hardware] so I'm not a newbie :). But if you (or others) still want to donate after you've played the game, we can set something up :)

As for showing the manual in game (on the DS), that can certainly be arranged. It'll probably be put into the enhanced version however. If someone has an online version of the manual (or can put it online) that would help - I no longer have the manual.

The tutorial idea was interesting, but I'll hold off on commenting on that for now. If something like that goes in, it'll be pretty low priority right now (but that doesn't mean no, it just means I don't want to consider it yet :)

Anyway, thanks for the enthusiasm :)

Yup, its absolutely the best way to do the code yourself so you understand it completely.

While a direct port is possible without knowing all the code, if you plan at some stage to add stuff, change stuff, its vastely easier if you do.
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I don`t want to seem impatient or anything, but I would be interested to know how long it will take until there is a playable version. Does it take months or years?

I really wasn't sure if I could have gotten anymore excited about this than I already was, but your post, BK, did just that. I am totally, 100% confident in your abilities, and can't wait for you get to a point where I can actually help in some way (beta testing, etc.).

And an enhanced version? With MULTIPLAYER? Holy freaking crap.

Bring it on, bring it all on. :)

As to the manual and stuff, great idea, and I have a copy of the original manual in .pdf format, so whenever that happens, count me in.

i've just uploaded the manual and player's handbook in pdf format to
rapidshare.com/files/47005980/X-Com_1_-_Manual.rar.html

is this for real or another hoax? I've seen too many hoax DS projects. I dont know why people get a kick out of it :(

Ok I got the manual and handbook, thank you. The manual looks like it'll be pretty easy to reformat for DS. Of course I'll have to change some of the text (things like copy protection, DOS and various PC specific things) but most of it looks fine as is. I can also distribute the modifed version with the game including any DS specific issues (installation, any issues with specific homebrew solutions that we find, etc). That would be pretty slick for a homebrew distribution - having an actual manual :) And having it in the game itself will be even better.

Last edited by blue_knight on Sun Aug 05, 2007 9:05 am; edited 1 time in total

<kprojekt> As for whether this is real or not, well unfortunately you have to take my word on it right now. First impressions are very important and I'm not ready to distribute anything yet. The earlier screenshots are taken from an actual emulator, maybe at some point I'll do a movie or something of it running on the DS... The program does work in atleast one emulator, NO$GBA - although slowly - and on the DS on an R4 (usually at 60fps), but still has a lot of work to be done. Not sure what else to say :)

Well I have a small update. As I mentioned before I started on the GeoScape World View. Anyway I've been tweaking the interface and sizes (all in code after loading the original data), below you can see the main GeoScape screen on the DS, the big change is that the Time/Date text display is different since that was the easiest area of the interface to resize without graphical quality loss. The globe isn't being rendered yet, I'm working on that now.

[Images not permitted - Click here to view it]
Let me know what you think.

And since I never made a real update for the tactical combat, here is an older picture I have with aliens.

[Images not permitted - Click here to view it]

I've only implemented one type of alien (shown) and just the base agents (no armor yet), although I do have male and female now. As I progress through the GeoScape I'll update the equipment,aliens, etc. as the equivalent features (research, equipment, etc) get implemented in the GeoScape mode. That way there isn't anymore hacking in mission data and it flows naturally. So once the core GeoScape mode is finished I'll progress both modes in parallel until completion. I'll post more GeoScape screens soon :)

Ah, sweet sweet X-Com geoscape goodness. BK, looks fantastic. Thanks for the update, as always.

As to whether or not its a hoax, I'm no DS homebrewing genius or anything, but everything BK has said so far sounds authentic (as in his experience, what he's doing from a coding standpoint, his knowledge of the game, etc.). I'm guessing that anyone who would actually perpetuate a hoax would 1) not know much about coding for the DS, and 2) wouldn't really know much about the game either. BK doesn't strike me as either of those things.

As to having a list of things we'd like to see implemented, as well as a more accessible way for BK to post updates, would starting a wiki for the project be a good idea? I would be happy to spearhead that, if BK thinks it would be beneficial, and if people would enjoy checking that more often than refreshing this forum topic.

Awesome update. Still super pumped. Can't wait for this game.

I was playing Age of Empires with my bro today on our DS's and I said to him, man, wouldn't it be great if someone could port X-Com over to the DS. So I googled it and look what I found! Bravo blue_knight! You are my personal hero for porting one of my top 5 favorite games (although Terror from the Deep is close with it, could we expect a port of that next? :).

And you are talking about Multiplayer Wifi? Get out of town! I am excited for this! I was impressed as hell with the Lemmings DS port that was released recently, this should be even better! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help (outside of programming).

blue_knight, for MP you may want to talk to the guys handling the UFO2000 project, which is an open source remake focusing only on the MP side of things.

I know about that project, I may want to do things a little different - I have some ideas how multiplayer could have affects on single player for example - but I'll keep that in mind :)

Can you give us any ideas on how single player may effect multiplayer?

And also, do you plan to add anything to the game, such as new weapons or anything like that? Just curious...

I'm not currently planning on adding more weapons (so far, although I could change my mind - but definitely not in the core version), although some new features may go into the Enhanced version, such as multiplayer, graphical tweaks like smooth lighting (the core version will use the same tile based lighting found in the original), possibly some other features (such as those done by the XCom untilities). Exactly what will make it hasn't been finalized because I first want to finish the core version (which will match the original as close as possible except for obvious bugs of course).

As for multiplayer , I haven't finalized any designs yet but I'll give some examples of some possibilities I'm thinking of:

1) XCom groups fighting each other with their single player game data. If they fight in the field the winner takes the spoils - technology, equipment, possibly prisioners (which are brainwashed and added to your roster complete with abilities). If one attacks one the other's bases and win then they take the base and all the contents and conversely if they lose than the base owner get their spoils (like above). This could track a player's wins and loses, which other players can see. And all of this would be saved in your game (including all the multiplayer stats).

2) [No saved game data] Two (or more?) sides get some funds and spend money on soldiers and equipment, they then duke it out in various environments. Their could be multiple rounds(?) and after each round they get some money to upgrade and replace soldiers/equipment based on their performance (?)

3) One (or more?) sides play as sets of aliens and the other side(s?) play as XCom agents. There could be different objectives for each side. For example the aliens could try converting or killing all the civilians and win once that happens and conversely the XCom agents have to protect the civilians and kill the aliens. Or one side against another (kill all). Or XCom agents have to storm the alien base and destroy the core while the aliens try to protect it. That kind of thing.

Again none of this is finalized, right now the core game comes first.

All of those modes sound really fun. I think this is going to be a pretty sweet enhanced version.

Are you planning on having any of these modes work over wifi internet, or is it going to be local multiplayer? Anyway, as always I'm extremely excited for what's to come.

Play by email? :p

Bah, I'm sure blue_knight has enough to do already ;)
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how about a co-op mode where each player controls half the team?

I like the co-op idea. Both of you controls half the team against the Alien AI. Now I just have to find people to play it with.

I feel like we're counting the chickens before they hatch, way before they hatch. :)

Well there's a lot of things on blue_knight's plate (metaphorically speaking). No rush to find multiplayer-mates just yet :)

I love all those ideas! And I agree that playing co-op with a friend (possibly through an entire campaign?) would be great as well. But even if there was no multiplayer and it was simply a DS port, I'd be happy. The multiplayer will simply be a nice bonus!

And not to bug you blue_knight (cause I'm sure this has been asked before) but are you taking a "it will be released when it's done" approach? Or did you have a set time frame and a goal for release?

Given varying time constraints and other factors I couldn't give you a meaningful date even if I wanted to :) So I'm going with the "it will be released when it's done" approach. Besides you wouldn't want a buggy or partially complete version to be released just to meet a date right?

Anyway I'm working on GeoScape screens now, once all the graphical elements and core gameplay systems are done progress speed should accelerate. The tricky thing about the GeoScape screens is figuring out how to resize them without sacrificing quality and of course just figuring out how they were built too, some of the data was hardcoded in the exe (none of this is "hard" per se, it just takes time).

The base screen is nearly complete, I'll have new screenshots soon.

Much respect Blue Knight, I am sure you appreciate these ideas, but we know you have alot on you're plate as is. Keep up great work!

Ok now heres my 2 cents lol. Have you thought about just porting the demo? It didnt require the geoscape or any resource/base management, it just set you off on a relatively hard night time mission with units already equiped.

blue_knight wrote:

Given varying time constraints and other factors I couldn't give you a meaningful date even if I wanted to :) So I'm going with the "it will be released when it's done" approach. Besides you wouldn't want a buggy or partially complete version to be released just to meet a date right?

Anyway I'm working on GeoScape screens now, once all the graphical elements and core gameplay systems are done progress speed should accelerate. The tricky thing about the GeoScape screens is figuring out how to resize them without sacrificing quality and of course just figuring out how they were built too, some of the data was hardcoded in the exe (none of this is "hard" per se, it just takes time).

The base screen is nearly complete, I'll have new screenshots soon.

I'm more interested to hear how much trouble you'll have getting a hold on the underlying gameplay executed by the UFO player in Geoscape mode. The UFO side does a lot of stuff in the background, so to speak :-)
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You can find my NDS homebrew projects here...

I may make a demo like that at some point (just to test the tactical combat with players) but I'm already working on the full game - no going back now :) Besides alternating between the tactical combat and the geoscape is a nice way of avoiding getting tired of working on one specific thing for too long.

<OOPMan> As for UFO AI in the GeoScape, I suspect that will be one of the most difficult parts of the game. However I fully intend to meet the challenge and avoid simplifying the AI or geoscape (like some other versions have...). It's not that I underestimate the problem (I'd be lying if I said that it will be easy), but that I plan on doing it anyway :)

I'll start off by saying that I've never played X-COM before. Now I'm starting to wish I had. Personally, I think this will be the best way to be introduced to the game. It's been so much fun to be able to play old classics from anywhere at anytime on the DS. So I'm very much looking forward to the end results as well.

Now with that being said, I was wondering about something. It seems like it would be rather obvious, but I thought it worth asking anyway. Are save games going to be compatible between the regular and enhanced versions you have planned? I ask because I intend to start playing on the regular version because it will be completed first, but will probably change to the enhanced version once it's complete for the extra features. It would be nice if the save files could work for both versions so that we don't have to start over again.
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MechaBouncer wrote:

Are save games going to be compatible between the regular and enhanced versions you have planned? I ask because I intend to start playing on the regular version because it will be completed first, but will probably change to the enhanced version once it's complete for the extra features. It would be nice if the save files could work for both versions so that we don't have to start over again.

I'm just guessing here, but I imagine the time between when BK releases the original version and the time when he releases the enhanced version will be fairly significant. Because of the awesomeness of X-Com and its extreme replayability, you will probably have finished a few games before the enhanced version even comes out.

But I imagine thats all a mute point, as porting saves between versions can't be that complicated.

I don't see any reason that the saves would be incompatible. Just in case I'll version the save games and allow the programs to load all saved game versions and fill in missing data with defaults or throw away unnecessary data. Either way it's not a big deal to keep them compatible, there is no reason to obsolete save files as long as they are versioned.

However save games for the DS version will not be compatible with the PC version.

blue_knight wrote:

Either way it's not a big deal to keep them compatible, there is no reason to obsolete save files as long as they are versioned.

Other than perhaps that the loaders for old versions take up a lot of RAM, which is less plentiful on the DS than on a PC? Or do you plan to make the save converter a separate program?
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It depends on how much extra loading code there is. If it's just a small amount, then I don't think the memory will be an issue (remeber we're not actually storing more then is needed, just storing more code for the different loading paths). If memory becomes an issue then I can easily make a simple command line or simple windows GUI based converter. I'm not sure if this is going to be an issue yet but either way an easy to use solution will be presented.

As long as we know which version the save file is, there is no reason not to either be able to load the file anyway (memory permitting) or have a save file converter.

I hope that was a little more clear. I realize that memory is tight on the DS but that shouldn't affect this problem given that there is a solution either way :)

MechaBouncer wrote:

I'll start off by saying that I've never played X-COM before. Now I'm starting to wish I had. Personally, I think this will be the best way to be introduced to the game. It's been so much fun to be able to play old classics from anywhere at anytime on the DS. So I'm very much looking forward to the end results as well.

Now with that being said, I was wondering about something. It seems like it would be rather obvious, but I thought it worth asking anyway. Are save games going to be compatible between the regular and enhanced versions you have planned? I ask because I intend to start playing on the regular version because it will be completed first, but will probably change to the enhanced version once it's complete for the extra features. It would be nice if the save files could work for both versions so that we don't have to start over again.

You will love X-Com bro. Although if I were you, I would play X-Com: Terror from the Deep first and then play blue_knights version of X-Com: UFO Defense, that way the original will be more fresh when you start on the DS. Terror from the Deep in my opinion is a better game, but pretty much identical to the original, gameplay wise (other than graphical differences and some larger levels here and there on TFTD, the 2 games really are almost identical, even the technology structure and weapons are basically the same, just different names and looks). I'm just thinking that you could enjoy 2 great games this way instead of just one :). And don't worry about getting bored with it, I am STILL playing these 2 games on and off to this day.

And blue_knight, if you did run into memory problems, couldn't people just use the RAM expander slot 2 device if it came down to it? I know with the Supercards you can co-mingle the 2 cards to work together.

zfunk007 wrote:

And blue_knight, if you did run into memory problems, couldn't people just use the RAM expander slot 2 device if it came down to it? I know with the Supercards you can co-mingle the 2 cards to work together.

Yeah that is definately something to think about, I would definately buy a slot-2 cart with RAM if that is the case. How much RAM did the original DOS version take up? I belive the original Quake required like 12 to 16MB of RAM, but they were able to figure out how to squeeze the game into 4MBs for the DS, so maybe there are some things you can shave of or reduce in the code to reduce the program.

Also I remember there were some glitches in the original X-Com, especially being able to see enemy units through the roofs of UFOs with soldiers in Flying Suits, and I remember alot of weird bugs with the vision inside bigger UFOs, Do you think you're version will fix some of these issues or are you planning on re-creating this as true to life as possible?

As for memory, the minimum requirements for the game say 4MB I think - although 8 was recommended. At any rate I'm going to try very hard to get the game to fit - the fun of getting it to fit within DS performance and memory constraints is part of the reason I'm doing this to begin with, doing an old-school game like this would be much easier [ie plenty of space and speed] on the PC :) If this means making an external program for save game conversion or whatever that's fine, it's not like I haven't written a windows program before :)

As for bugs, some are (unfortunately) inherent in the way collisions and tiles were setup. I'll see if I can fix them but they are low priority. Other bugs, like various base item limit issues, I will fix or may not show up at all since I'll be coding it myself. I certainly won't try to introduce an obvious bug, but if it's ambiguous or a gameplay decision (even if people don't all agree with it) then I'll try to match the original.

However in the enhanced version I'm all for fixing other (non-bug) issues people may have with the original game - within reason :) Does that answer your question?

i'm weary of posting in this topic at all, because it seems like such an absurd amount of hype for a project that's no doubt a long way off and i don't want to see you get too overwhelmed by all the anticipation..

but i'd imagine four megs of ram is plenty for x-com. i've never seen or played the playstation version, myself, but i know that it had a bit less than that, so there you go.

Yeah. The PS1 had, what, 2MB main RAM with 1MB of that for video and 512KB audio? That's even less. At first I thought the PS1 had 4MB total, but looking into it, it seems it was just a pool of 2MB total. If it can be made to run on that, I'm sure the DS won't be a problem.
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I actually forgot how little main memory the PS1 had. As for video memory, the amount you had [for textures] depended on the resolution/color depth you ran at. You could actually have more then 512KB (out of the 1MB) available if you ran at a low resolution.

At any rate memory hasn't been a problem yet and it should work just fine :) As I said before I'm not planning on using any extra memory and I'm also not planning on reducing fidelity [graphical/sound/gameplay].

I'm not sure if there were any reductions made for the PSX version or not - I've never played it. However the PC version required atleast 4MB, but since that's what the DS has I'm not worried. The only issues I've had are with video memory but I've already worked through that. I never meant for it to seem like memory is going to be an issue only mentioning that if it is, I can support multiple save versions using a conversion program.

ethoscapade wrote:

i'm weary of posting in this topic at all, because it seems like such an absurd amount of hype for a project that's no doubt a long way off and i don't want to see you get too overwhelmed by all the anticipation..

but i'd imagine four megs of ram is plenty for x-com. i've never seen or played the playstation version, myself, but i know that it had a bit less than that, so there you go.

I think you mean Wary. Weary implies that you're tired of posting in this thread :-)

Being wary isn't bad, but BlueKnight does seem to be making good progress :-)
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Currently I'm putting together screens, figuring out how best to reduce them (removing 64 pixels from the width and 8 pixels from the height) and implementing the controls. There are a lot of screens, so it'll take a little while, but I'd rather get all that tedius work out of the way before working on the "meat" (gameplay). As I work on them I get the buttons to work so you can go between screens and soon the whole geoscape UI should be working.

Once I get a few more screens done I'll show screenshots of a bunch of them and then hopefully get some feedback as to whether people like the way that I reduced the screens.

Note, however, that in order to maintain graphical fidelity, I'm not actually scaling the graphics, rather cutting out graphical parts and tweaking the layouts - no information or functionality is lost. The main GeoScape screen is an example of that, I removed the left 64 pixels from the background and cutout 8 pixels from the middle of the right UI bar, used smaller text for the time and tweaked the text layout. But, as far as I can tell, nothing "looks" reduced - however if I actually reduced the graphics themselves that would be noticable and rather ugly given weird scaling factors (256/320 and 192/200). At the end of the day I want the screens to look like the original as much as possible while still looking like you're seeing them in their native size and resolution.

Yes I could use bicubic filtering or something similar to increase reduction quality but I want to be able to process it quickly - so I can use the original data as is and easily (and quickly) reformat it on load. Backgrounds are always loaded between screens (yes this is fast enough on actual hardware) so reformatting speed is important. That way if I want to support another game based on the same engine (say Terror from the Deep for example - no promises:) I just swap the data and it works (assuming the format is the same or similar). In addition using the original data was a design goal, which makes many of the tools used for XCom useful for this version too (not all of them, but some :)

Once you have the regular version done, are you considering doing anything with the second screen for things other than debug information? Maybe the GeoScape UI displayed to monitor what else is going on? Or maybe a list of the condition of your agents or any other helpful information that might be of use? Perhaps even a map of the general area? Something that doesn't require too much processing and doesn't affect normal gameplay, but is still helpful. Maybe even the ability to toggle the screen with Select or some other button. Just a thought. At this point, I'm sure you want to avoid feature-creep.
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Sounds awesome. I think that will be much better than resizing. Keep up the hard work and look forward to some new screen shots.

I was already planning on doing something with the second screen. I was going to display a non-interactive version of the map in the battlescape combat (click on the map icon to get the map you can scroll around and click on). As for the geoscape, I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for yet but there will be something there - even if it's a picture or something. It's certainly not going to be a black screen with debug info in the final release, but for now it's very useful for that purpose :)

blue_knight wrote:

That way if I want to support another game based on the same engine (say Terror from the Deep for example - no promises:) I just swap the data and it works (assuming the format is the same or similar). In addition using the original data was a design goal, which makes many of the tools used for XCom useful for this version too (not all of them, but some :)

Terror from the Deep??? I'll fund your project! :)

As for the Geoscape and using both screens. Would it be possible to have one screen at the globe at all times and the other used for browsing through your bases or possibly having a whole seperate battle screen once your fighting a UFO?

Any new updates?
Can you post a video?

Yes, I am feeling the vacuum of no updates. My weekly fix would be nice, although I could just go back to playing slowed down X-Com on DosBOX. Sigh.

Hope things are going well, BK. We are still eagerly anticipating things. Don't stop now!!!!!

I haven't stopped, I've just been real busy. I will get an update out as soon as I can :)

I think about your project everyday and how great it will be to play one of my all time favorites on the DS! (and then pray that you will find it in your heart to do Terror from the Deep next :)

blue_knight wrote:

I haven't stopped, I've just been real busy. I will get an update out as soon as I can :)

Thanks for the mini update on the update. That will keep me going for at least another week!

I'm jonesin'

http://rebelstar.namco.com/

Has anyone here seen Rebel Star? It is an X-Com Clone, sort of.

May help out a little...

http://rebelstar.namco.com/screens.php Heres some Screen Shots, and a Video.

RebelStar is cool, but it's not really a match for X-Com.
_________________
"My boot, your face..." - Attributed to OOPMan, Emperor of Eroticon VI

You can find my NDS homebrew projects here...

I have the Amiga AGA version of X-Com but it's rather slow on my A1200 with only 2MB of chip ram. I think 4MB fast ram was recommended... The ECS/OCS version didn't look as good but was somewhat faster and even playable on an A500!
Link:
http://hol.abime.net/1789

I heard about Rebel Star but if I'm not mistaken, isn't the game centered only around combat and no base building?

Yes, the GBA Rebelstar is a series of combat missions separated by dialogue scenes, more like Fire Emblem or Advance Wars, only with a slightly more annoying interface and a lot tougher. It really misses the driving force of the geoscape, IMO.

Ditto.

It is made by the original Xcom folk, however. (ditto for Lazer Squad Nemsis).

Its a shame they arnt doing anything with research/basebuilding.
_________________
Darkflames Reviews --
Make your own at;
Rateoholic:Reviews for anything, by anyone.

You would think they would do an X-Com like game for the DS anyway since the interface is so well suited to it...

Alright, I need an update. I'm dying over here! Want to play some X-Com! How's it coming along, man?

Rebelstar is indeed created by the same guys who made X-Com and Laser Squad (Nemesis). Infact, the original Rebelstar is a predecessor to both games.

Edit: But yes indeed. An update would be nice. Good job BTW =)

I cant wait for this, I want to play it at work!

Correct me if I'm wrong but... this seems to be not true. I'm a Xcom fan and I would do whatever to play it on my ds, but 3 weeks without nothing... And since the beginning of the topic, just a few pictures... Please tell me that someone KNOWS that this is true or I'll just stop visiting this thread every day. Is blue_knight serious? does he have a web?

Note: Sorry for my English, is not my mother tongue.

uh. he's doing this for no money, and i don't think he'd mock up debug text for nothing. relax.

materio wrote:

Note: Sorry for my Common Sense, is not my mother tongue.

Coders have to put up with enough tripe without somebody being skeptical despite them posting regular progress images. 3 weeks would be quite some time if this were a team being paid for the process. It's nothing if you allow for people having lives outside of NDS coding. Look at how long it took (is taking) Okiwi between stages. This project's got a lot more evidence behind it than, say, HelloDS did.
_________________
DSL Onyx w/ R4 & 1GB Kingston SD. FlashMe'd v.7

I donno...sounds very much like a hoax with no tangible video or beta dump

ethoscapade wrote:

uh. he's doing this for no money, and i don't think he'd mock up debug text for nothing. relax.

TheYak wrote:

Coders have to put up with enough tripe without somebody being skeptical despite them posting regular progress images. 3 weeks would be quite some time if this were a team being paid for the process. It's nothing if you allow for people having lives outside of NDS coding. Look at how long it took (is taking) Okiwi between stages. This project's got a lot more evidence behind it than, say, HelloDS did.

KayDat wrote:

ethoscapade wrote:

uh. he's doing this for no money, and i don't think he'd mock up debug text for nothing. relax.

TheYak wrote:

Coders have to put up with enough tripe without somebody being skeptical despite them posting regular progress images. 3 weeks would be quite some time if this were a team being paid for the process. It's nothing if you allow for people having lives outside of NDS coding. Look at how long it took (is taking) Okiwi between stages. This project's got a lot more evidence behind it than, say, HelloDS did.

Creed Bratton wrote:

Ditto that my brother.

_________________
If I use a term wrong or something then feel free to correct, I?m not much of a programmer.

Original DS Phat obtained on day of release + flashme v7
Supercard: miniSD, Kingston 1GB, Kingston 2GB
Ralink chipset PCI NIC

Even if this turns out to be a hoax (a very well played hoax ;)) which I personally believe it isn't, he has shown there is significant interest in an XCom clone or style of game. Even if it turns out to be a hoax he has done a good job either way ;).

Although, that being said, the last time he mentioned anything was a month ago. Being that it sounds like he's a game developer professionally, he may have hit "crunch time" at work. While understandable why there's been no news or updates, it would be good to hear from him again.
_________________
Cobalt/Black NDSL
CycloDS Evolution (firmware 1.55 BETA 3) and EZFlash 3-in-1
Kingston SD-C02G JAPAN 2GB MicroSD
MoonShell 1.71, DSOrganize 3.1129, QuakeDS Pre3, ScummVM DS 0.11.1, Pocket Physics 0.6, OpenTyrian DS 0.3

Blueknight sure has some interesting stuff in his photobucket account. ;) It's not what you guys are looking for though...

Common, give us an update! Show us that this is still around!

An update would be nice, but I'm sure he has a life like most people.

Ah, BK, we eagerly await any updates you might have for us. But I echo the sentiments of most of the people on here - I'm sure you have a life outside of X-Com DS, and I would feel sad for you if you didn't (although I would secretly rejoice because it would mean more X-Com for me, faster).

Looking forward to whatever you have on tap.

yeah good luck waiting. If anyone has a pocket pc there is an xcom release for that. Awesome port, pretty much flawless.

Blue Knight, you made me register and post here because I am just so interested in this, and then was sorta disappointed as the thread sorta died off after 11 pages... I just had to post and say, I look forward to this.

d3vkit wrote:

Blue Knight, you made me register and post here because I am just so interested in this, and then was sorta disappointed as the thread sorta died off after 11 pages... I just had to post and say, I look forward to this.

Indeed, this is the same reason why i registered here if i remember correctly.
_________________
God Speed

its a pretty difficult project to undertake, sometimes life will get in the way (only temporarily I hope)

I totally don't mind the wait... or rather, I can tolerate and understand it :D I am VERY impressed by the knowledge that Blue_Knight seems to be bringing to this project. I know nothing of DS development (or any development for that matter, besides some web programming), but he seems to really know what he's talking about with this (as someone earlier said).

I am most excited for the upgrade to the original, although I know that's even farther off. But the thought of wifi multiplayer xcom is just too much.

Hopefully we can get an update soon. It would be a shame if all the work put into this end up for not if the project is abandoned. I'm sure he'll be gettting back to us sometime however.

needlesmcgirk wrote:

Hopefully we can get an update soon. It would be a shame if all the work put into this end up for not if the project is abandoned. I'm sure he'll be gettting back to us sometime however.

I hope so, I too am excited to see how this turns out.
WiFi almost seems impossible, was there even a online mode in the new X-Com's?
_________________
God Speed

Not sure about that, but turn-based games are probably the easiest to implement with online WiFi play. And what's more, it seems there's been recent success with DS-to-DS ad-hoc connections! Check it out HERE. With any luck, this will become a reality as well.
_________________
Cobalt/Black NDSL
CycloDS Evolution (firmware 1.55 BETA 3) and EZFlash 3-in-1
Kingston SD-C02G JAPAN 2GB MicroSD
MoonShell 1.71, DSOrganize 3.1129, QuakeDS Pre3, ScummVM DS 0.11.1, Pocket Physics 0.6, OpenTyrian DS 0.3

the closest an official XCOM game got to mulitplayer was PBEM, or "play by email." it was a minimized version of XCOM, redone for email play. hasbro abandoned it almost a decade ago, so the servers are no longer online.

but the UFO2000 project is a fan-based multiplayer version of XCOM:

http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/

very cool stuff.

Laser Squad Nemsis's multiplayer was pretty darn good.

Still, be really interesting for someone to do a Xcom-style (research et all) with multplayer too.

But that would be very hard to make/get right.
_________________
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Make your own at;
Rateoholic:Reviews for anything, by anyone.

yeah LSN is pretty cool, but it is a departure from the XCOM style of play. while i agree that the "simultaneous" turns are an improvement for balanced gameplay, i don't like having to set everything up and then just hit play and watch. i still prefer XCOM's one-at-a-time action orientated gameplay.

keep an eye on UFO2000, the developers have plans to integrate the research/base management part into multiplayer.

but these are just fans of XCOM, who have real lives too, so it could be a while :D

edit: i also thought i'd mention that THQ's squad command is a turn-based, tactical squad combat game with wifi multiplayer:

http://www.thq-games.com/uk/game/show/2292

it'll be released late november/early december for the DS.

If you want to start naming off other games, then I'll mention Front Mission 1st that comes out tomorrow. It's a turn-based, grid-based strategy RPG where you command a squad of customizable giant robots (called "wanzers") that also features local wireless play (although, sadly no online play). It doesn't have a research ability, base management, or any of those other extras, but you can purchase different parts and fully customize your wanzers and adapt them for different roles. Most of the gameply revolves around preset missions or arena combat. It's actually a port of an old SNES game that never made it over here, so the graphics are rather dated. I'm still jumping for joy that it's finally getting released as we've only seen 2 out of the 5 games in the series and this is the original. Here's the link to the site:
http://na.square-enix.com/frontmission/
_________________
Cobalt/Black NDSL
CycloDS Evolution (firmware 1.55 BETA 3) and EZFlash 3-in-1
Kingston SD-C02G JAPAN 2GB MicroSD
MoonShell 1.71, DSOrganize 3.1129, QuakeDS Pre3, ScummVM DS 0.11.1, Pocket Physics 0.6, OpenTyrian DS 0.3

Man I want to play X-Com on my DS...

Is there a DOS BOX port for the DS like there is for the PSP? I doubt X-Com would work like that, but still.

needlesmcgirk wrote:

Man I want to play X-Com on my DS...

Is there a DOS BOX port for the DS like there is for the PSP? I doubt X-Com would work like that, but still.

lol im freaking out over here.

im in love with x-com and can't wait to play this.
_________________
God Speed

*sigh*

I'd quite understand if BlueKnight decides to never post in this thread again, what with all the extremely irritating "Is it done yet? lol!" and "What about a DosBox DS port? lol! lol!" posts.

Seriously people, try to post intelligently.

The question of DosBox on the DS has already been discussed and laughed away on numerous occasions.
_________________
"My boot, your face..." - Attributed to OOPMan, Emperor of Eroticon VI

You can find my NDS homebrew projects here...

OOPMan wrote:

*sigh*

I'd quite understand if BlueKnight decides to never post in this thread again, what with all the extremely irritating "Is it done yet? lol!" and "What about a DosBox DS port? lol! lol!" posts.

Seriously people, try to post intelligently.

The question of DosBox on the DS has already been discussed and laughed away on numerous occasions.

I haven't seen that much of that, just people excited at the idea of it. Reading over the last few posts I see people excited for the game but not asking, "IS IT DONE WHERE IS IT LOLZ", and the dosbox comment, to me, wasn't asking BK to make it or something. He even wrote, "I doubt X-Com would work like that, but still". I have no idea about dosbox on DS (since I don't follow homebrew much and this is so far about the only thread I've read on this forum); Dosbox DS hadn't crossed my mind. But I think a simple "nope, it won't work, and if you're wondering why it's been talked about a few times in the forum, just search for it" would have been more than adaquate. Felt like your post was an uncalled for flame. Didn't seem like a lot of unintelligent banter going on to me.

I think most of the posts are concerning the fact that his last post was 2 months ago. Many are growing concerned for the project. With such a long absence, I'm a little concerned about whether something else may have happened. He just sort of dropped off the face of the Internet. At this point, I'd be relieved to hear anything from him.
_________________
Cobalt/Black NDSL
CycloDS Evolution (firmware 1.55 BETA 3) and EZFlash 3-in-1
Kingston SD-C02G JAPAN 2GB MicroSD
MoonShell 1.71, DSOrganize 3.1129, QuakeDS Pre3, ScummVM DS 0.11.1, Pocket Physics 0.6, OpenTyrian DS 0.3

i'm with you, mechabouncer.

i only joined this forum to watch the development of this project.

2 months is quite a long time, so it'd be nice to know that blue knight is still alive and doing well.

we all agree that XCOM DS is worth any kind of wait, so i'm just trying to keep the hope alive that the project hasn't been abandoned.

illegal youth wrote:

we all agree that XCOM DS is worth any kind of wait, so i'm just trying to keep the hope alive that the project hasn't been abandoned.

I hope Blue Knight doesn't quit on this.
it would be a huge disappointment.
but even then, i think some one here could also try and continue the project.
I don't know if it would be the same though.
_________________
God Speed

its dead man, deal with the denial.

Suck an awesome idea though, I just don't think its dead. The dude went through a whole lot of work and there are a lot of people really interested in this one. This is too huge to just disappear.

kprojekt wrote:

its dead man, deal with the denial.

no, and i hate you for what you just said.

needlesmcgirk wrote:

Suck an awesome idea though, I just don't think its dead. The dude went through a whole lot of work and there are a lot of people really interested in this one. This is too huge to just disappear.

and i believe this to be so true.
alot of people want this to happen.
_________________
God Speed

I'll gladly continue to hold out hope that this will become a reality. I check in every couple of weeks to see if BK has posted.

I'll probably give it at least 2 more months with no contact before I write it off completely.

Been over a month, and no news... =(

KayDat wrote:

Been over a month, and no news... =(

I know, this is why i check these forums almost everyday, i feel like a stalker...
_________________
God Speed

KayDat wrote:

Been over a month, and no news... =(

actually, we haven't heard from blue knight since august 23 -- so we're looking at more than 3 months without any news.

And if people stopped reviving this thread for no reason it would be a lot easier to tell that nothing's happening.

Oops. Now you've got me doing it. ;)

Dammit already! Come on BK, we're dying here. Toss us a bone.

Honestly dude, base on the screenshots he put up I was a little hesitant from the start, then when he mentioned no beta will be released until the final is done set off red flags. Now his absence only shows this was another DS homebrew hoax. I honestly don't see any point of it... just like all the hoax DS browsers, yukk

Is that not just a sly ploy to try and force the author to release his code? For all you know he may have been served a Cease and Desist from XCom copyright holders.

...yes, or maybe he finished the code and needed to save out an nds file but got really hungry for a Peanutbutter Jelly sandwich, but by accident his hands got stuck in the jar. Now he cant safe the code or log onto gbadev.org and give a STATUS UPDATE...

sonny_jim wrote:

For all you know he may have been served a Cease and Desist from XCom copyright holders.

I doubt it. There are many larger X-Com based mods or what not out there on the net. They have bigger fish to catch. Even then, X-Com isn't exactly a name that rakes in money; there are more well known brands out there.

So not only is this not a large project, it's a small one-man project based on a relatively obscure game.

KayDat wrote:

Even then, X-Com isn't exactly a name that rakes in money

This X.Com rakes in a lot of money ;-)

X.Com was an Internet financial services company. A company called Confinity entered into a joint venture with X.Com, and the result was PayPal.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

kprojekt wrote:

...yes, or maybe he finished the code and needed to save out an nds file but got really hungry for a Peanutbutter Jelly sandwich, but by accident his hands got stuck in the jar. Now he cant safe the code or log onto gbadev.org and give a STATUS UPDATE...

Don't laugh, man. I had that happen to me once, and I was out of commission for 3 weeks. Couldn't even zip up my friggin' pants, let alone open a door or dial the telephone. It wasn't until the neighbours came by to investigate that I finally got rescued.

Turned me right off of peanut butter and jelly, too... every time I smell it, my hands cramp up and I start feeling claustrophobic.

Does anyone have an update on this? I hope it has not died or was fake....

We need to start a telethon, a march, or some sort of protest to get this project back on track!!! THE PEOPLE NEED THIS GAME!!!!

Can I get and 'amen'?
_________________
is there anybody out there?

Amen! Or maybe a fund raiser to get what source code has been made. We can't just let X-Com die again....

Human_USB wrote:

Or maybe a fund raiser to get what source code has been made.

Would such a fundraiser use the payment processor formerly known as X.Com? Or would it use Amazon Honor System?
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

I made a chipin page so we can get some money together for it.

You can read about chipin at www.chipin.com

The URL for the Chipin page is;

http://xcom.chipin.com/x-com-ds-source-code

tepples wrote:

Human_USB wrote:

Or maybe a fund raiser to get what source code has been made.

Would such a fundraiser use the payment processor formerly known as X.Com? Or would it use Amazon Honor System?

:D :D
_________________
Darkflames Reviews --
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Human_USB wrote:

Amen! Or maybe a fund raiser to get what source code has been made. We can't just let X-Com die again....

they call this "irony". doesn't anyone remember the bogus "x-com: apocalypse on WinXP" project back a few years ago when Windows XP was new and everyone was desperate for running DOS games under it? basically the developer was asking for money to make it and it turned out to be a complete hoax to just get peoples money. right now we have no real proof that this was nothing but mock-ups, and if anyone were to give money towards the development of it, you'd have to be very suspect.

gbadev.org forum archive

DS homebrew announcements > XCom DS

#131801 - blue_knight - Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:34 am

#131810 - OOPMan - Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:36 am

#131820 - tepples - Wed Jun 20, 2007 1:58 pm

#131830 - vuffi_raa - Wed Jun 20, 2007 3:31 pm

#131873 - Liquidnumb - Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:34 pm

#131906 - blue_knight - Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:12 am

#131910 - OOPMan - Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:04 am

#131911 - melw - Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:10 am

#131929 - Shtroodle - Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:51 pm

#131956 - Reppa - Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:05 pm

#131968 - blue_knight - Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:18 pm

#131969 - Dan2552 - Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:21 pm

#131988 - Darkflame - Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:19 am

#132009 - OOPMan - Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:19 am

#132088 - blue_knight - Sat Jun 23, 2007 7:50 am

#132115 - ethoscapade - Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:54 pm

#132304 - DrDerekDoctors - Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:07 pm

#132307 - blue_knight - Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:01 pm

#132369 - blue_knight - Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:13 am

#132385 - Mrshlee - Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:09 pm

#132426 - needlesmcgirk - Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:32 pm

#132439 - Reppa - Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:25 pm

#132445 - LoTekK - Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:30 pm

#132529 - thebawp - Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:34 pm

#132969 - blue_knight - Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:40 am

#133005 - needlesmcgirk - Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:50 pm

#133172 - tepples - Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:38 pm

#133743 - blue_knight - Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:12 am

#133774 - Reppa - Sun Jul 08, 2007 4:25 pm

#133775 - jester - Sun Jul 08, 2007 4:25 pm

#133786 - Doom5 - Sun Jul 08, 2007 6:48 pm

#133797 - blue_knight - Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:17 pm

#133800 - Liquidnumb - Sun Jul 08, 2007 9:36 pm

#133801 - jester - Sun Jul 08, 2007 9:36 pm

#133898 - frosty-theaussie - Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:54 pm

#134187 - Kamu - Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:09 pm

#134192 - OOPMan - Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:41 pm

#134203 - Kamu - Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:53 pm

#134232 - blue_knight - Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:46 pm

#134342 - kprojekt - Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:51 pm

#134471 - Darkflame - Fri Jul 13, 2007 9:54 am

#134839 - needlesmcgirk - Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:00 pm

#134904 - kprojekt - Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:18 am

#134905 - blue_knight - Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:21 am

#134930 - jester - Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:49 pm

#134981 - derrickec - Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:57 pm

#135008 - blue_knight - Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:09 am

#135013 - Darkflame - Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:13 am

#135028 - needlesmcgirk - Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:15 pm

#135045 - derrickec - Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:09 pm

#135057 - Darkflame - Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:29 pm

#135359 - some_guy - Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:52 pm

#135564 - derrickec - Tue Jul 24, 2007 5:02 pm

#135591 - priest22 - Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:53 pm

#135606 - Tikker - Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:31 pm

#135608 - Tikker - Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:34 pm

#135620 - Dood77 - Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:18 am

#135629 - Tikker - Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:16 am

#135682 - derrickec - Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:26 pm

#135699 - TheYak - Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:44 pm

#135700 - Tikker - Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:46 pm

#135703 - derrickec - Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:56 pm

#135704 - derrickec - Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:57 pm

#135708 - blue_knight - Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:24 pm

#135718 - derrickec - Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:25 pm

#135729 - needlesmcgirk - Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:02 pm

#135730 - Darkflame - Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:25 pm

#135733 - Tikker - Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:19 pm

#135844 - Mark J - Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:55 pm

#135890 - blue_knight - Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:14 am

#136246 - derrickec - Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:12 pm

#136255 - blue_knight - Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:06 pm

#136311 - priest22 - Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:08 am

#136337 - derrickec - Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:15 pm

#136451 - Crass - Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:22 pm

#136518 - needlesmcgirk - Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:56 pm

#136526 - derrickec - Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:47 pm

#136532 - needlesmcgirk - Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:32 pm