It's Alive!

[Just Rick]

Hi everyone

I've just finished up a project I've been working on the last few months for a contest in programming. I got in contact with Laetusatheous and she gave me the ok to mention it here and offer it up to everyone to give a try if you like.

The contest premis was to take an older game from the 70's and 80's and make it up to run on modern computers and to update its sound and graphics as well as (hopefully) improve the gameplay. We had 90 days in order to do the project and had to start from scratch. I believe there was 76 submissions so anyone that is interested can go look at them and maybe find a favorite game redone :

http://www.retroremakes.com/comp2006/screenshots.php

The above link experienced some harsh lag and still gets nailed during peak hours so game authors are making their games available through thier own sites at this link : http://www.retroremakes.com/forum2/show ... php?t=7914

My programming buddy and i chose to do Millennium 2.2 and update it. Earth has been decimated by a roque asteroid impact. All life has been destroyed and the Earth rendered uninhabitable. You are the commander of a surviving Lunar Colony and now you must lead humanity back from the brink of extinction. Develop technology, explore the solar system, and colonize viable planets and moons you probe to ensure our survival.

A direct link to that download is http://public.w3site.us/download/millennium.zip

The language we used was Blitz3d, a programming language specifically created for game design. The file is 7 meg in size (contest rules limited size to 15 meg) and you need only create a Millennium directory and unzip the contents into the directory and run the Millennium.exe in order to play. There is no real game installation so nothing is altered on your computer, no mickying around in your registry, or anything like that. Just a simple .exe

Thanks everyone!

[imrational]

I take it there's not hope of having this run on a mac?

[Just Rick]

Sorry no. I'm a pc man and really never messed around with mac at all. Unless someone has some technical know how I'd have to say its limited to your garden variety windows computer.

Guess I should point out that this requires at least 32 bit system capable of 3d graphics. It probably will lag badly if your system is slower than 1 gig. 90 days from start to finish doesnt leave much room to optimize.

[joeactor]

Very cool...

Is this a complete rewrite?
Or did you develop an emulator and use some of the original code?

Just curious.

[Just Rick]

Is this a complete rewrite?

It's a complete rewrite. I'm not sure what the original code was in (assembly?) but we did use an emulator to take notes on gameplay and get a screenshots for reference. We used a few of the screenshots in the game as placeholders, but then as time for the competition deadline ran out we decided that leaving some in didnt hurt and added a tribute and familiar look to the game for past players.

We coded Blitz3d gaming language and wrote about 17,000 lines of code. From what I understand of some of those games written in a period where memory and disk space was a premium you can have a very hard time following what they did because they re-used their variables and complex algorithms so much. Rather than attempt to decompile (which I have NO clue on how to do) we started fresh.

[Just Rick]

A critical bug was pointed out to me and we did up an update. You can redownload the whole thing at A direct link to that download is http://public.w3site.us/download/millennium.zip
or just grab the exe at A direct link to that download is http://public.w3site.us/download/mill_exe.zip

The bug allowed you to end the game with a win (circumnavigating the entire game) within a few minutes of play. Can't have that. Gotta make you sweat for that win!