We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.
Abuse
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Screenshot |
Player's Review
Excellent shoot em up platformer with very good level designs and atmosphere. Imo probably the best DOS original game in the genre. Played on normal (second hardest) difficulty.
VERSIONS: First released on Linux in addition to DOS and ported later for Mac, Acorn, iPhone and even Amiga. Mac version has improved graphics (with higher resolution) and some extra features. This video is from the last official DOS release (ver 2.0). Some versions include a level editor and network support for multiplayer matches. Source code has been released to public.
PLOT: Original storyline was about destroying an alien base from inside by shutting down the cooling system. For some reason the plot was changed for final release, the objective was now to shut down Abuse-infected water supply.
MUSIC: Midi music doesn't play properly on DOSBox. Only intro music and the first 2 levels play music correctly, after this the previously loaded midi-track will continue to play indefinitely. For example if you continue to next level the track from last level will continue to play and if you load a game from the menu screen intro music will continue to play. Also the music sounds pretty crappy on DOSBox default settings and even with emulated GUS. This is why I decided to record music separately from midi-files and manually mix the audio tracks into SFX audio stream. For outputting midi to wav I used Timidity++ with a high quality soundfont (SGM-V2.01). Music was composed by Robert Prince, best remembered from Doom. I like the music for most parts, fits the game well. There could be a lot more of it though.
SFX: Sound effects in this game get very loud. I had to reduce SFX volume to minimum settings, but still sound are very loud and distorted at times. This happens for every sound that gets played many times simultaneously, it gets amplified because there's no offset between sounds. I applied dynamic range compression to even up audio levels some, but this doesn't fix occasional distortions that can't be avoided. One could reduce audio levels from DOSBox mixer, but even though it reduces volume it doesn't affect distortion.
WEAPONS: Some weapons like the grenade launcher are cool, but unforunately many are not particularly interesting. I think the game would benefit from more conventional weapons like an auto shotgun and an aliens style pulse rifle for example instead of numerous different energy weapons. There's one special power (stealth) that can be found only in one secret section, I didn't pick it up there as I thought I could demonstrate it later, but didn't find another one to pick up. It didn't seem very useful, probably intended mainly for network matches.
OTHER NOTES: Used one save on average in each level. Health is restored to maximum each time a save is loaded, but that's not the main reason to use saves. The level design features lots of traps that can't be fully appreciated before playing the game. Sometimes save consoles need to be accessed to open doors. Most of the alternative routes and secrets were covered. The biggest drawbacks is a quite poor frame rate (only about 20fps). This game could be improved further by some changes if a motivated and talented group were to do a remake. Considering the history of remakes however it would probably turn out to be a generic and crappy 3D shooter.
Let's rock!
VERSIONS: First released on Linux in addition to DOS and ported later for Mac, Acorn, iPhone and even Amiga. Mac version has improved graphics (with higher resolution) and some extra features. This video is from the last official DOS release (ver 2.0). Some versions include a level editor and network support for multiplayer matches. Source code has been released to public.
PLOT: Original storyline was about destroying an alien base from inside by shutting down the cooling system. For some reason the plot was changed for final release, the objective was now to shut down Abuse-infected water supply.
MUSIC: Midi music doesn't play properly on DOSBox. Only intro music and the first 2 levels play music correctly, after this the previously loaded midi-track will continue to play indefinitely. For example if you continue to next level the track from last level will continue to play and if you load a game from the menu screen intro music will continue to play. Also the music sounds pretty crappy on DOSBox default settings and even with emulated GUS. This is why I decided to record music separately from midi-files and manually mix the audio tracks into SFX audio stream. For outputting midi to wav I used Timidity++ with a high quality soundfont (SGM-V2.01). Music was composed by Robert Prince, best remembered from Doom. I like the music for most parts, fits the game well. There could be a lot more of it though.
SFX: Sound effects in this game get very loud. I had to reduce SFX volume to minimum settings, but still sound are very loud and distorted at times. This happens for every sound that gets played many times simultaneously, it gets amplified because there's no offset between sounds. I applied dynamic range compression to even up audio levels some, but this doesn't fix occasional distortions that can't be avoided. One could reduce audio levels from DOSBox mixer, but even though it reduces volume it doesn't affect distortion.
WEAPONS: Some weapons like the grenade launcher are cool, but unforunately many are not particularly interesting. I think the game would benefit from more conventional weapons like an auto shotgun and an aliens style pulse rifle for example instead of numerous different energy weapons. There's one special power (stealth) that can be found only in one secret section, I didn't pick it up there as I thought I could demonstrate it later, but didn't find another one to pick up. It didn't seem very useful, probably intended mainly for network matches.
OTHER NOTES: Used one save on average in each level. Health is restored to maximum each time a save is loaded, but that's not the main reason to use saves. The level design features lots of traps that can't be fully appreciated before playing the game. Sometimes save consoles need to be accessed to open doors. Most of the alternative routes and secrets were covered. The biggest drawbacks is a quite poor frame rate (only about 20fps). This game could be improved further by some changes if a motivated and talented group were to do a remake. Considering the history of remakes however it would probably turn out to be a generic and crappy 3D shooter.
Let's rock!
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