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Hovertank and Catacomb, the games between Keen and Wolfenstein, are both open-sourced: https://github.com/FlatRockSoft/Hovertank3D https://github.com/FlatRockS

Hovertank and Catacomb, the games between Keen and Wolfenstein, are both open-sourced: https://github.com/FlatRockSoft/Hovertank3D https://github.com/FlatRockSoft/Hovertank3D https://github.com/CatacombGames/Catacomb3D https://github.com/CatacombGames/Catacomb3D I'm the current owner of the Catacomb games, and have been working on improving and porting them in my spare time (not publicly available yet, but will be When It's Done). Fabien's Game Engine Black Book has been an invaluable resource for me. I highly recommend it!

abeisgreat 7y ago
How did you become the current owner? I'm very curious about how you went about obtaining the rights.
- Jayschwa 7y ago
  The original publisher, Softdisk sold many of its assets to Flat Rock Software in the 2000s. Flat Rock sold off bits and pieces over the years, and the Catacomb games were one of the last things it held [1]. In 2017, I wrote a toy implementation of Catacomb 3D in WebGL [2]. Since the project used art that was under copyright, I contacted Richard at Flat Rock to ask permission to use it. That conversation eventually led to me deciding to buy the overall game ownership from him [3]. [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20150101022225/http://www.flatrocksoft.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150101022225/http://www.flatro... [2]: https://github.com/jayschwa/CatacombWebGL https://github.com/jayschwa/CatacombWebGL [3]: https://web.archive.org/web/20170623155041/http://www.flatrocksoft.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170623155041/http://www.flatro...
  - jackpirate 7y ago
    Wow! Mind if I ask what the price is to the rights of an old game like Catacomb?
    - loceng 7y ago
      The most important factor is likely the current owner wanting to making sure it's going into the hands of someone who will do something caring with the rights.
    - mysterydip 7y ago
      I was looking into buying that IP a few years ago, and the asking price was affordable (I just didn't have the $ at the time so I went onto other projects). Glad to see someone doing something with it, I think it's perfect for a remake.
      - theresistor 7y ago
        Would you be willing to share an order of magnitude?
        rangibaby 7y ago
        Keen Dreams was $1500 so around that I guess
        mysterydip 7y ago
        It was high four figures
sneakernets 7y ago
I wish the owner of the Keen Dreams IP was as dedicated and resourceful as you are. I have a feeling we've lost that one for good.
- notafraudster 7y ago
  Many people not know what you're alluding to, so I'll clarify. The current owner of the Keen Dreams IP (Javier Chavez) is a weird internet racist who got himself permanently banned from selling games on Steam after a meltdown where he changed his name to something that can't be repeated in polite company and began having a meltdown about SJWs and Trump. In addition to releasing Keen Dreams, he also did a reskin of Hovertank 3D (which I believe is open source) except the plot is replaced with weird racist revenge fantasies about killing refugees. Then, after being forced off Steam, he seems to spend most of his time creating anonymous email addresses and harassing people. A company called Night Dive Studios (the current licensee of System Shock) managed to get Keen Dreams back on Steam with reassurances that they had gotten it from Chavez and that he would receive no ongoing income from it, but the game was mysteriously subsequently pulled. Here are some Twitter threads that speaks to the above. Warning: racial and homophobic slurs, open praise of Hitler, pages and pages of abuse, etc: https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1100934501277016065 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1100934501277016065 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1140641745920770051 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1140641745920770051 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1140726699014971393 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1140726699014971393 Keen Dreams is currently available on Nintendo Switch apparently with Chavez's blessing, but buying that is obviously supporting the above insanity.
  - andrewshadura 7y ago
    Wow, that's insane.
    - lightedman 7y ago
      What's more insane is the downvoting of actual factual information. But then again, I'm not surprised, it seems to be a norm. Too bad the moderators don't have the brains to implement and enforce a "You must post a reason which will be publicly shown before you can downvote, and you cannot delete this reason or edit it after submission" function to the site.
prvc 7y ago
>Fabien's Game Engine Black Book >Hovertank and Catacomb One omission from that book that would have been nice to have been included is an explanation of how the 3D scenes are drawn in those games. In one of the quoted passages, Carmack states that it is something other than the raycasting used in Wolf3D, with the added disadvantage of not being correct in every case. From personal observation, the perspective looks strange in those games (no consistent single vanishing point). However, maybe this can be fixed by tweaking a few variables. Supposedly Catacomb and Hovertank have much higher frame rates that Wolf3D on old computers. (another omission is that it doesn't completely explain the theory behind linear feedback shift registers, necessitating further research on the part of the reader to understand them).
- prvc 7y ago
  Just to clarify: the question regarding LFSRs is not in how to implement them (which I think was described adequately), but how to determine what their orbit is upon repeated application, and how to choose one that generates a complete permutation when this is done. And furthermore, how was the particular one used in Wolf3D found. Was 100% Psyched to hear how the screen could be efficiently cleared pixel-by-pixel seemingly at random, but ultimately was left in the dark on this specific question.
3stripe 7y ago
I have really fond memories of buying Catacomb Abyss by mail order in the early 90s when I was 11 years old. We used to play — my brother and sister were younger than me — with the lights turned off, terrifying!

abeisgreat 7y ago

How did you become the current owner? I'm very curious about how you went about obtaining the rights.

Jayschwa 7y ago
The original publisher, Softdisk sold many of its assets to Flat Rock Software in the 2000s. Flat Rock sold off bits and pieces over the years, and the Catacomb games were one of the last things it held [1]. In 2017, I wrote a toy implementation of Catacomb 3D in WebGL [2]. Since the project used art that was under copyright, I contacted Richard at Flat Rock to ask permission to use it. That conversation eventually led to me deciding to buy the overall game ownership from him [3]. [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20150101022225/http://www.flatrocksoft.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150101022225/http://www.flatro... [2]: https://github.com/jayschwa/CatacombWebGL https://github.com/jayschwa/CatacombWebGL [3]: https://web.archive.org/web/20170623155041/http://www.flatrocksoft.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170623155041/http://www.flatro...
- jackpirate 7y ago
  Wow! Mind if I ask what the price is to the rights of an old game like Catacomb?
  - loceng 7y ago
    The most important factor is likely the current owner wanting to making sure it's going into the hands of someone who will do something caring with the rights.
  - mysterydip 7y ago
    I was looking into buying that IP a few years ago, and the asking price was affordable (I just didn't have the $ at the time so I went onto other projects). Glad to see someone doing something with it, I think it's perfect for a remake.
    - theresistor 7y ago
      Would you be willing to share an order of magnitude?
      - rangibaby 7y ago
        Keen Dreams was $1500 so around that I guess
      - mysterydip 7y ago
        It was high four figures

sneakernets 7y ago

I wish the owner of the Keen Dreams IP was as dedicated and resourceful as you are. I have a feeling we've lost that one for good.

notafraudster 7y ago
Many people not know what you're alluding to, so I'll clarify. The current owner of the Keen Dreams IP (Javier Chavez) is a weird internet racist who got himself permanently banned from selling games on Steam after a meltdown where he changed his name to something that can't be repeated in polite company and began having a meltdown about SJWs and Trump. In addition to releasing Keen Dreams, he also did a reskin of Hovertank 3D (which I believe is open source) except the plot is replaced with weird racist revenge fantasies about killing refugees. Then, after being forced off Steam, he seems to spend most of his time creating anonymous email addresses and harassing people. A company called Night Dive Studios (the current licensee of System Shock) managed to get Keen Dreams back on Steam with reassurances that they had gotten it from Chavez and that he would receive no ongoing income from it, but the game was mysteriously subsequently pulled. Here are some Twitter threads that speaks to the above. Warning: racial and homophobic slurs, open praise of Hitler, pages and pages of abuse, etc: https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1100934501277016065 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1100934501277016065 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1140641745920770051 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1140641745920770051 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1140726699014971393 https://twitter.com/dosnostalgic/status/1140726699014971393 Keen Dreams is currently available on Nintendo Switch apparently with Chavez's blessing, but buying that is obviously supporting the above insanity.
- andrewshadura 7y ago
  Wow, that's insane.
  - lightedman 7y ago
    What's more insane is the downvoting of actual factual information. But then again, I'm not surprised, it seems to be a norm. Too bad the moderators don't have the brains to implement and enforce a "You must post a reason which will be publicly shown before you can downvote, and you cannot delete this reason or edit it after submission" function to the site.

prvc 7y ago

>Fabien's Game Engine Black Book >Hovertank and Catacomb One omission from that book that would have been nice to have been included is an explanation of how the 3D scenes are drawn in those games. In one of the quoted passages, Carmack states that it is something other than the raycasting used in Wolf3D, with the added disadvantage of not being correct in every case. From personal observation, the perspective looks strange in those games (no consistent single vanishing point). However, maybe this can be fixed by tweaking a few variables. Supposedly Catacomb and Hovertank have much higher frame rates that Wolf3D on old computers. (another omission is that it doesn't completely explain the theory behind linear feedback shift registers, necessitating further research on the part of the reader to understand them).

prvc 7y ago
Just to clarify: the question regarding LFSRs is not in how to implement them (which I think was described adequately), but how to determine what their orbit is upon repeated application, and how to choose one that generates a complete permutation when this is done. And furthermore, how was the particular one used in Wolf3D found. Was 100% Psyched to hear how the screen could be efficiently cleared pixel-by-pixel seemingly at random, but ultimately was left in the dark on this specific question.

3stripe 7y ago

I have really fond memories of buying Catacomb Abyss by mail order in the early 90s when I was 11 years old. We used to play — my brother and sister were younger than me — with the lights turned off, terrifying!