Something I started years ago but only got round to actually finishing the initial scene to see if the project was fesable.
Background
Back in 1996 a then small known company called Take 2 Interactive released a Gem of an Adventure game called Ripper. Spanning 6 CD's and sporting a star studded (At the time) Hollywood cast (The main Big star being Christopher Walken) and boosting replayability with its 4 different endings a work of art with a fantastic story and gameplay was born.
The Story
New York 2040. A murderer is on the loose. Naming himself after the infamous Jack the Ripper of the 1880's he has already killed 2 victims and is about to make his 3rd. As Reporter Jake Quinlan you immediatly arrive on the scene of the 3rd murder to get the details for your next big scoop.
The Project
With the original game being a DOS only game and now being out of print its very difficult to find and even more difficult to play without having to resort to an emulator like DOSBOX on modern systems. I wanted to see if it was possible to port this game to Windows and use Adventure Maker to make it possible.
Whats currently done in the entire first scene of the game complete with Sound Effects, Introduction Movie and 2 Full Screen Video conversations with 2 characters including Christopher Walken as his character Vincent Magnotta. The Scene ends on the cliffhanger move that was in the prologue on the original game.
The only exceptions to what was in the original game and are not in the port are the following:
- Interface Elements like World Map screen etc
- The Broken Mug Puzzle - Im still working on how best to implement this using adventure maker
- The Sound Bite when you receive a WAC (PDA) message
Current Bugs:
- End Movie loses Audio Sync at the end
I hope to get the mug puzzle implemented soon how ever would like opinions on how to do it to try and remain as close to the original as possible.
Download Links
Please find below the download links for this scene. The total download size is roughly 120MB but ive split it into 6 parts using WinRaR
http://sharp09.myzen.co.uk/files/Ripper.part1.rar
http://sharp09.myzen.co.uk/files/Ripper.part2.rar
http://sharp09.myzen.co.uk/files/Ripper.part3.rar
http://sharp09.myzen.co.uk/files/Ripper.part4.rar
http://sharp09.myzen.co.uk/files/Ripper.part5.rar
http://sharp09.myzen.co.uk/files/Ripper.part6.rar
Note: Due to the original game being rated M for Mature there are a few scenes with profanity. To help alieviate this I have password protected the Archive and will provide the password to people who PM me and are willing to take the risk so to speak
Feedback Required
Note: Due to Web distribution the Video and Sound quality had to be reduce. Im working on getting it better.
Also Due to the nature and age of the source material many of the transition and conversation windows include artificats due to the technology of the time.
I would like where possible the following feedback
- Those that may of played the original game, how my port translates the game to windows.
- Any ideas on how to implement the mug puzzle
- How easy the scene was to complete (There is a End of Scene Placeholder Frame)
- Any improvments youd like to see
- Any general comments.
Technical Bit
This scene requires DivX to play so head on over to www.divx.com and download the free codec if you havent done already.
Due to the age and quality of the source material the frames and video are limited to 640 by 480. There is a check box on the startup menu to switch to this resolution but i recommend unticking it and stick with your desktop resolution
Ideal specs would be:
1Ghz Processor
1Gb Ram
120mb HDD
Try tweaking your DivX Decoder settings to get the best picture quality from the available material. However DO NOT enable the hardware overlay as that will render the scene unplayable.
I look forward to any feedback.
Mike