Bernewfie - Hexen hack-of-a-port for DOS

Spinel

EDIT: Okay - no familiars in this one, a pity though

EDIT-EDIT:

For download link check the post below. Be sure to have a glance at the REAME.

ORIGINAL POST:
Spent some time over the weekend cross breeding Marine's Best Friend and Hexen original source code into a lovable and playful creation I am sharing here: https://gitlab.com/ludicrous_peridot/bernewfie/-/blob/master/README.md

In short this is a close to vanilla port for DOS that uses patched and updated Allegro and also state of the art ( ) VESA code from recent MBF build to add 640x400 resolution to Hexen. The hybrid has lost some of the parent breed well known features in the process (see readme), but has all the recognizable traits and some minor, ahem, 'quality of life' improvements (see readme).

If there are DOS gamers on the board and you are not frightened off by somewhat ~~irresponsible~~ hasty production process behind this and want to give it a try, let me know, as I am interested in how the port runs on different hardware. I used to have a Core Duo DOS machine where I would test such stuff, but, alas, don't have it anymore.

Oh, and for the screenie... see readme.

SilverMiner

Wow dude, just yesterday I was thinking about making adding Hexen actions for monsters to my mbf2.04 fork for one of my wads.
And today I see something related to my thoughts. Gonna check it out when I have time

Gibbon

I’ll have to check this out, always up for a bit of DOS’ing around. Looks like awesome stuff as usual!

Spinel

Thanks, @Gibbon . Just a note to add to the readme and to set expectations right - there will be glitches, hence I'm sharing the live source code for now and not build.
E.g. I am struggling with monster "faster than light" movement this weekend, (which drives me insane tbh) ... and there are some others that I've spotted, so if you try it out and notice suspicious stuff, please let me know.

Spinel

Eventually fixed the glaring issues (well, at least those I knew about, like the one mentioned before) with this port and recorded flics of Hexen and Deathkings original demos being played:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3t17UVn2jg

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B5sx-E0fJk

kvsari

Damn, I'm playing through Hexen right now actually (but using another source port).

Spinel

Hey, @kvsari . Good to hear Hexen is still being played. Is your playthrough via GZDoom?

On Bernewfie, I wanted to whine about "how cool would a port assets wad be" , but in the end broke my Slade abstinence and made one. Strangely, I had issues with my currently installed Slade 3.2 which was hanging when accessing Hexen graphics assets, but did not have any with 3.1 that I had to download.

The wad has these gargoyle wings in the status bar by Nash Muhandes (I guess?) - for which I didn't yet ask for a permission to use - and slightly differently packed original sound effects.

kvsari

@Spinel
I'm using crispy-hexen. Really enjoying Hexen actually which is unexpected.

EDIT: Wait, crispy-hexen isn't a source port is it? It's a choco-port.

Spinel

I've done a fairly "lazy" attempt at making OPL music sound better in Bernewfie by replacing the Doom 2-specific sound bank of MBF 2.04 with plain conversion of GENMIDI from Hexen IWAD.

The conversion was done with Wolfstan's soundbank editor, hence "lazy" above. For those who have an FM synth trained ear, there's an emulated recording of the result up for critique:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC7zaIOL9w4

joe-ilya

@kvsari said in Bernewfie - Hexen hack-of-a-port for DOS:

@Spinel
I'm using crispy-hexen. Really enjoying Hexen actually which is unexpected.

Is it really? From what I've seen it has too many switch "puzzles".

kvsari

That's why it's unexpected. The first hub was a pain and quite boring but the next two are fun. I heard there are a further two hubs to go so I may change my opinion.

Gibbon

Well so far I'm loving it! I like how you made some modifications but kept it really vanilla, its awesome!

Spinel

As I wanted to take a break from Tartar, I have fixed some of the known and newly reported bugs in Bernewfie, and am now comfortable with sharing the latest build (HEX.7Z below), resource WAD (BERNEW.WAD below) and some extras taken directly from Gerwin's MBF.

For those who wouldn't check the README here's how I normally start it:

bernew.exe -hires -show_fps -mlook -quick -ravpic -maxsound -use_vsync -page_flip -extra BERNEW.WAD

In the hindsight, I wish I had spent my time on a similar hack for Heretic instead, but it is what it is

PS. I actually also listened to the OPL card playing music with the IBK timbers loaded and to the vanilla playing music on the same card, can say that while the IBK does not make the sound match vanilla, it is sounds much more interesting in my opinion than pure Allegro FM music.

MBF_D2GM.7z