Questions about Deadlock

[Ànman]

I love all of yous guys.

[Rapossu]

Hi guys, i love deadlock since i was 9, i used to play in my father´s computer but to my sadness i lost the CD, and then this year i found a new one in a site and buy it, so i learn how to use VN and intaled the Win95 to play.
The game didnt old a day to me, its perfect! but i noted some peculiar things that i don´t understand, why the uva mosk are always talking about some revolution? are they comunist like? and if there is a lore to deadlock here can be found? i wish to know.
thank you.

[sdu754]

Hi guys, i love deadlock since i was 9, i used to play in my father´s computer but to my sadness i lost the CD, and then this year i found a new one in a site and buy it, so i learn how to use VN and intaled the Win95 to play.
The game didnt old a day to me, its perfect! but i noted some peculiar things that i don´t understand, why the uva mosk are always talking about some revolution? are they comunist like? and if there is a lore to deadlock here can be found? i wish to know.
thank you.

In the original form of the game there was a large guide that discussed each race. The Ova Musks are basically a bunch of tree huggers who want to spread thier tree hugging ways accross the galaxie, that's the revolution they're talking about.

[Rapossu]

In the original form of the game there was a large guide that discussed each race. The Ova Musks are basically a bunch of tree huggers who want to spread thier tree hugging ways accross the galaxie, that's the revolution they're talking about.

Maybe I'll see this in the manual of the version I bought for MAC (still coming), my version is the Brazilian one, it comes in a magazine with a thin manual that says nothing.

[sdu754]

In the original form of the game there was a large guide that discussed each race. The Ova Musks are basically a bunch of tree huggers who want to spread thier tree hugging ways accross the galaxie, that's the revolution they're talking about.

Maybe I'll see this in the manual of the version I bought for MAC (still coming), my version is the Brazilian one, it comes in a magazine with a thin manual that says nothing.

The manual i got with the PC version was big and quite detailed. I bought the game while it was still on the shelf though.

[fetsvin]

Hi all,

Man, I love DL and I'm glad I found this place . I have a question: does anyone know if GOG.com will ever port deadlock to more modern platforms?

Thanks!

[Ubergeneral Grunt]

I don't see why GOG.com couldn't release Deadlock for new versions of Windows (not much use to me under Mac OS X, though). GOG has a deal with Atari, Atari releases on GOG include the Master of Orion and Star Control series. Deadlock is a 32-bit game which means it should not be too much of a problem to update for Windows 7.

The REAL problem is that, as we have established here, Atari seems to have no idea that they own the rights to the series.

Still, the best thing we can do is vote for Deadlock and Deadlock II on the community wishlist at GOG.com:

Deadlock:
http://www.gog.com/en/wishlist/games/de ... y_conquest

Deadlock II:
http://www.gog.com/en/wishlist/games/deadlock_ii

Who knows? With enough votes GOG might mention Deadlock to Atari, which would hopefully make Atari finally notice the gem that they are sitting on!

[Belix]

Still, the best thing we can do is vote for Deadlock and Deadlock II on the community wishlist at GOG.com

GOG is an excellent service, they have gone above and beyond what most distribution channels would do for old games, even including community patches with some of the titles. Though I fear Deadlock is very low on the list with just under 300 votes, I have added my vote, for whatever it may count.

I also wanted to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation for the developers that stopped by and spent some time sharing stories and insights with us on Deadlock. It was very fun to read. Despite its age and the technical limitations facing you at the time, you produced a truly memorable game that absolutely shined with all the little attention to detail that went into it. I spent many hours playing it, and, were it running better on modern operating systems, I would gladly spend many more. Thank you for your gift to us! Decades from now when all the games I grew up with are distant memories, Deadlock will be one of the games I will never forget.

[TimeDilation]

hey ubergeneral i read that you are searching for dl2 graphics...
what do you need them for?
however im quite good at 3d modelling, i can easily reproduce the buildings and use the powerful means of nowdays since we're not in 1998 anymore

[Tggtt]

At first I acknowledge the replies from the creators, I didn't expect them to be around and the trivia is very very interesting. I hope they are still ok and find more opportunities to create more masterpieces.

On the other hand, I have tried decoding the sprite files without success (the DL1 and DL2 seem to use different formats and I failed at both).
Even if MoeMoose recalls the bit codes correctly, his message is ambiguous (I had to try several interpretations, i.e., changing what is the offset relative to, if it's before the relative byte (as his message leads us to) or it's a signed offset, the byte and bit ordering was not specified).
What really bothers me is the quantity of 11000100 bytes since the beginning. There could be padding bytes to allign or some initial offset to initiate the decoding. I don't think that's the right board to write too much about my attempts.

By disassembling the deadlock executable it would be possible to find these offsets, but it could be harder than finding them by guessing.
We could also run the game and search the memory when each sprite gets decoded, I'm considering this option after failing to decode. But it could require to search every time for each different sprite. Still, if we knew that this sprite is exactly as it would be in the decoded file, it could be a clue for decoding again.

Also, TimeDilation has a point. Maybe we don't need all the sprites anyway. My humble computer (and probably TimeDilation's too) is probably more powerful than the SGIs used to render the videos. These days, talented artists could make nice models without the need to use clay thanks to these hardwares. That has a huge advantage, since we would avoid IP restrictions and improve the resolution and color depth.

[edit]
I and other member have cracked the sprite data format (November 2013). Browse the Creativity Corner for more details.