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Microsoft brings 18-year-old game 'Hover' to browser
- deweller 13y ago> You'll need a browser that supports WebGL to play Hover. I'm pretty sure Chrome supports WebGL.
- dave84 13y agoWorks fine on Chrome 29.0.1547.76 on Mac.
- ryen 13y agoI have the same version on Mac and it doesn't work. Weird
- lsdafjklsd 13y agoWorking fine for me on Chrome 29.0.1547.76 on 2013 13in MacAir
- Spoom 13y agoWorks fine on Chrome 29.0.1547.76 on Linux as well.
- dubcanada 13y agoYou are probably on Linux. Some graphics drivers don't support WebGL so it's turned off.
- bsimpson 13y agoSame problem on my Chromebook Pixel, but http://get.webgl.org http://get.webgl.org confirms that I have WebGL support.
- djim 13y agoSame device/issue here.
- tommaxwell 13y agoNot working on my HP Chromebook, sadly.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dangrossman 13y agoChrome supports WebGL, but Chrome does not necessarily have WebGL enabled. There's a whole blacklist of GPUs it's disabled by default on. You either have to flip a flag somewhere or start up with --ignore-gpu-blacklist.
- martinml 13y agoNah, it's not that. I can't get it working either and WebGL is working fine here. They're using Modernizr and the 'Modernizr.csstransforms3d' property seems to be returning false in my browser. Maybe it's because of this bug? https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/issues/590 https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/issues/590 Edit: actually, it does seems to be a blacklisting issue. You can check in about:gpu. In my case I was running WebGL via software! If you're curious you can see the full list here: https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chrome/gpu/software_rendering_list.json https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chrome/gpu/software_renderin...
- Groxx 13y agoI wonder if they're just sniffing UAs, blocking Chrome. fwiw Firefox seems to work fine.
- pc86 13y agoThey're not. I think it stands to reason they would have blocked Firefox as well.
- Groxx 13y agoYou're arguing that they should be acting rationally if they're sniffing UAs and blocking Chrome specifically? That's inherently irrational, once you cross that line you can't assume anything. Anyway, this seems to be resolved, so it's unimportant.
- azakai 13y agoWorks fine on Firefox on Linux over here. Do other WebGL demos work on your machine? Might be a driver issue or a blacklisting.
- bobbles 13y agoVersion 29.0.1547.76 m and Windows 7 working fine for me
- shmerl 13y agoCompetition does wonders. MS didn't manage to sabotage WebGL and had to implement it in their browser. I wish they'd start enabling OpenGL across all their platforms as well.
- dubcanada 13y agoWhat has MS sabotaged in the web that would lead you to this? If anything, MS made the current javascript ajaxy freak show.
- JonnieCache 13y agoCSS mainly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish
- shmerl 13y agoIn the past MS used their usual sick lock-in tactics in IE. Intense competition forced them to reduce this idiocy. Unfortunately in other areas they still don't care. So I doubt you'll see OpenGL on Xbox or Windows tablets / handsets, until something will force them to enable it.
- Jtsummers 13y agoYou can't use OpenGL on Xbox or tablets, or is it just more difficult? EDIT: A few google searches later, indeed it's not accessible in XBox or Windows Phone 8. For some reason I didn't expect that.
- shmerl 13y agoYou can't. That's MS way of lock-in and ensuring that porting of games and other applications is much harder. Why didn't you expect that? I'd say that WebGL in IE is something unexpected, not the other way around. MS has a long history of being jerks and using lock-in with proprietary standards. As they expressed it in the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft#Vendor_lock-in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft#Vendor_...
- dave84 13y agoThis runs much smoother than I ever got it to run on my 166mhz Pentium!
- davej 13y agoIt ran ok on my Pentium 60MHz with 8MB ram. :-)
- normloman 13y agoSince I first discovered Hover on my old win 95 disc, I've dreamed of a multiplayer mode. At last.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- JonnieCache 13y agoLet's complete the effect shall we? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4 Dial it down to 240p for the true '95 experience.
- daeken 13y agoThis was the first video I ever watched on a computer. I will never forget staring at this, realizing that I was seeing the future.
- mappum 13y agoWow, this video and the game are bringing back memories. This is the first experience with a computer I can remember. I didn't really realize what I was doing at the time, I would have been 2 or 3. Thankfully my dad cared enough about computers to have one for the family, that early experience probably contributed to my passion for software today.
- ag80 13y ago>This is the first experience with a computer I can remember. I didn't really realize what I was doing at the time, I would have been 2 or 3. Whereupon I am confronted head on by the relentless progression of aging and mortality.
- Jtsummers 13y agoI'll admit, I started programming young, about 8 years old (probably not too atypical in this forum though). The other day I realized, the new hires here were born after I started programming. I now better understand how a couple friends in college, non-traditional students who came back after stints in the military and other career attempts, felt.
- Nogwater 13y agoAlso: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqL1BLzn3qc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqL1BLzn3qc
- Sniffnoy 13y agoDid the original Hover used acceleration-based controls? I don't remember that; I recall it being much easier to control...
- erroca 13y agoThats basically what made Hover a cool game, you "hovered" around the level. That was basically what made it challenging
- yottabyte47 13y agoYou can still download the original version from Microsoft's public FTP server: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/deskapps/games/public/AAS/Hover.EXE Plays just fine on modern machines running Windows.
- Mindless2112 13y agoOr just pop in your Windows 95 CD. I don't know why they didn't just install it along with Windows 95 -- it was pretty reasonably sized if I recall correctly.
- renata 13y agoWindows 95 also shipped on floppies. See Raymond Chen's post mentioning how they used high-capacity floppies just to save the money from two disks: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/08/19/453612.aspx?Redirected=true https://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/08/19/4536....
- davej 13y agoPerhaps it was small by todays standards but I remember my first Windows 95 PC had a 290MB Hard Drive. A fresh Windows 95 install took up maybe 30MB or 40MB if I remember correctly so even if Hover was only 1MB it was still a relatively significant amount. As an aside... I also remember Windows 95 was available on floppy, I think maybe there was 10 floppy disks in total (?). I seem to recall that they used special floppy disks that held more than the usual 1.44MB.
- kylec 13y agoI think they might need to work on their collision detection. When going up the staircase I suddenly found myself beneath the staircase, unable to escape. http://i.imgur.com/EUYwin7.png http://i.imgur.com/EUYwin7.png
- grahamburger 13y agoI broke it http://imgur.com/YrdFbLU http://imgur.com/YrdFbLU
- deletes 13y agoI assume you stacked bounce and went over the wall?
- grahamburger 13y agonope, walked right through the wall. Or fell, rather. I don't even know what 'stacked bounce' is.
- lectrick 13y agoNever heard of this game. Probably because I was playing Spectre VR on a Mac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(video_game) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(video_game)) around that time, which this is a total unabashed knockoff of. Can't Microsoft NOT copy something for a change?
- jaredsohn 13y ago>Can't Microsoft NOT copy something for a change? I don't think this particular criticism is fair since the copying was done ~18 years ago.
- joenathan 13y agoThese games look nothing alike, Spectre VR http://www.myabandonware.com/media/captures/S/spectre-vr/spectre-vr_1.png http://www.myabandonware.com/media/captures/S/spectre-vr/spe... Hover http://www.stanford.edu/~cammat/HOVER/images/screenshot001.JPG http://www.stanford.edu/~cammat/HOVER/images/screenshot001.J... Have you taken your medication?
- toufka 13y agoIf you actually played both the games you'd realize they are really similar. Capture the flag from the cockpit of a 'tank' with various power-ups you can run over to activate against an opposing force. Sure, in one you shoot, and in the other you do not. And the graphics in the browser above look more like the graphics in Spectre than the screenshot you link to.
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoSpectre, a game about battling hovertanks, was ripped off by Hover, a game with no weapons and no damage? What?
- umphetico 13y agogod I loved playing that game in grade 5 in the classroom.
- shurcooL 13y agoDoes anyone else know of a small game called Hover by Eric Undersander? I spent so many hours playing it. Too bad it's closed source and not maintained; it'd be awesome on smartphones.
- yottabyte47 13y agoOfficial press release with amusing promo video: http://blogs.windows.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2013/10/02/hover-bringing-a-classic-pc-game-to-the-web-with-internet-explorer-and-modern-web-standards.aspx http://blogs.windows.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2013/10/02/hover-br...
- Mikeb85 13y agoThis is the best thing MS has done in years. I was just trying to remember what this game was called, and now it's on the web, and plays great. Now they just need to release web versions of Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2, and maybe do a new version of Combat Flight Simulator...
- spectre256 13y agoThere is the recently released AoE2 HD on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/
- Mikeb85 13y agoUnfortunately it's Windows only... Maybe if I have some time I'll fire it up on Wine. Thanks for pointing that out BTW.
- plaguuuuuu 13y agoAlso I've heard that the game will cease to function when Games For Windows Live is discontinued in July 2014
- galapago 13y agoSomebody know the name of the song of the soundtrack?
- camus 13y agoFunny how all these MS HTML5 websites can be visited only with MS latest browser... latest chrome on Windows, it asks me to download IE11 , i'll pass... that's not how you promote open standards , you make them work on all browsers... unless you dont care ...
- standeven 13y agoWorked fine in Firefox 24.
- adandy 13y agoWorked fine for me in 30.0.1599.66 m .
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoWorks fine on Chrome for me.
- mikestew 13y agoChrome on a Mac: works fine for me. It doesn't like Safari, however.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- infinita740 13y agoI really like it but two remarks: -they changed the graphics (it's no longer "pixelated") -I think the physics are slightly different but maybe I don't really remember
- jefffoster 13y agoYou can type 'Bambi' on the front page for an even more retro version.
- garg 13y agoMuch better! Thanks
- thelucky41 13y agoWithin 10 seconds of loading it up, I had already glitched into a wall and trapped myself in a box. Yep, that's nostalgia.
- kingnight 13y agoThis brings me back, but I was really hoping it would be another game I played in the 90s that was very similar except it was a flight sim where you could get off the ground. I've done google searches over the year to find it but have never been able to. I am pretty sure the game was called 'Chaos'. The aesthetic was very angular; I believe the main craft you steered was a yellow triangular shape. I loved it. Anyone know it?
- scott_karana 13y agoDescent? Terminal Velocity/Fury3/Hellbender?
- pavel_lishin 13y agoI wish I could get a copy of Fury3. If only for the soundtrack.
- 8_hours_ago 13y agoYou can get the Fury3 demo here: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/deskapps/games/public/Fury3/ On a related note, I didn't know about ftp.microsoft.com until today. It's full of all kinds of nostalgia.
- Maxious 13y agoMy favourite ftp.microsoft.com file of all time: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SPEAK.EXE A windows driver to turn the speaker that beeps when your PC turns on into a very limited sound output device. Helpful if you didn't have one of those Soundblaster thingies ;)
- 8_hours_ago 13y agoHaha! That's awesome. I had no idea that existed for windows. I wonder if it runs on Windows 8... Also, as it turns out, same thing also exists for Linux. The snd-pcsp module provides that feature and is in the Kernel.
- strathmeyer 13y agoWhat are the controls?? Where are the instructions??
- dimadima 13y agoOk, cool. But how am I supposed to use this for entertainment?
- hexley 13y agoWorks for me in Safari 6.1 on Lion My MacBook is so old it doesn't even have a GPU. NICE.
- underwater 13y agoWhat's with the snarky title?
- virtualritz 13y agoI immediately flew out of the map after collecting some speed boost (I was just on a black infinite plane and the map floating above me). I guess the collision detection code needs to some refactor. I wasn't able to get back on there. That's when I closed the tab, after ~40 secs. Awesome QA for a company of that size & resources. Wtf.
- joemaller1 13y agoFlynn?
- anona 13y agoThe author is answering questions on reddit: https://pay.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1nl5nk/i_worked_with_microsoft_to_bring_hover_to_html5/ https://pay.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1nl5nk/i_worked_wi...
- Sheepshow 13y agoTried to drive up a set of stairs; was promptly placed inside the geometry.