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Hidden Gem of the Week: Descent 1+2

Today we're launching the "Hidden Gem of the Week" where we'll highlight great games you might have missed. Today we're presenting the revolutionary 3D shooter, Descent 1+2.

With GOG.com's fast-growing catalogue of titles, you might miss some games that really deserve some love. In our weekly "Hidden Gem of the Week" feature, we will highlight those great games for you. And if that's not enough, we'll give you a 10% discount for the whole week, until Sunday at 11:59 p.m. EDT, on the featured game. For a good start, we grabbed GOG editorial contributor David Craddock to take a look at Descent 1+2. If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to share them with us!

by David Craddock



By 1995, Doom's popularity had spawned countless clones, all of which seemed content to cash in on the grit and gore of id Software's opus rather than stake out new territory. As retail shelves became exponentially overcrowded with soulless copycats, it became obvious that a radically different first-person shooter was needed to stand out among the dozens of derivative keycard hunts and demonic invasions. In answer to the genre's plea for individuality, developer Parallax Software crafted Descent, a three-dimensional FPS that literally turned the genre upside down.



In an era of 486 processors, 2.5D engines, and boot disks, Descent's true 3D movement and six degrees of freedom (6DOF)-based gameplay was a wonder to behold, but the first few forays did require a strong stomach. Traversing Descent's 27 levels wasn't a matter of moving up, down, left and right. Players dipped, spun, and corkscrewed through corridors crawling with hostile ships, imprisoned hostages, and plenty of slick weapons and power-ups. After acclimating to the freedom of 6DOF, players embraced the silky-smoothness of exploring Descent's every nook and cranny.



Like any good FPS, single-player was only the tip of Descent's 3D iceberg. Shunning the connectivity rigmarole enforced by other FPS titles, Descent allowed multiplayer sessions to be created from within an in-game menu, and sessions could be joined on-the-fly instead of forcing all players to be queued beforehand. Within minutes, up to eight LAN-ready players could be gliding and twisting like gravity-defying Spider-Men armed with laser cannons and missiles.



Descent's uniqueness and depth spawned a loyal community that passionately embraced Descent II, released in 1996 one year after the original's debut. While imposing for those unable to handle their topsy-turvy gameplay, Descent and Descent II are rightfully regaled as unique, deep experiences that take fun and freedom to the sixth degree.



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Descent series Hidden Gem of the Week: Descent 1+2 (40 posts) (40 posts)
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Posted August 18, 2009
21
Descent is a hidden gem? It was about as big as Doom back in the day.
It was a great game, particularly for multiplayer over the university network. I'm pretty sure it got way more MP action than even Doom at that time.
My only issue with the singleplayer was that somehow shooting pew-pew lasers was never as much fun as things like shotguns and chainguns in doom/duke3d.
My vote for next hidden gem: Hostile Waters.
(or BG&E simply because i've been waiting for a discout for ages ;-) )
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CyPhErIoN: well i've just tried the demo and it wasn't that good :p
i have a 24" lcd and i couldn't force it in window mode , it didn't detect the sound settings and it was way to speedy (even on a single core)
i pressed space 1 time and i was out of missles 2 secs later the lowest drone shot me to smithereens in no time.
so i take it GOG arranged all of this already
then i'll be shopping this week again ^^

did you use dosbox? It should have the sound drivers, and allow you to limit the speed and run windowed.
Graphics are never gonna look great on a 24" lcd though... unless you use a mod/port.
Post edited August 18, 2009 by soulgrindr
Posted August 18, 2009
22
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soulgrindr: Descent is a hidden gem? It was about as big as Doom back in the day.

Sure it was. But nowadays it's quite obscure; ask any of the modern folk; noone below 20 have ever heard of it.
And yeah, Hostile Waters would be sweet.
Post edited August 18, 2009 by Elwin
Posted August 18, 2009
23
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soulgrindr: did you use dosbox? It should have the sound drivers, and allow you to limit the speed and run windowed.
Graphics are never gonna look great on a 24" lcd though... unless you use a mod/port.

yeah i did but i didn't look very hard tbh. (+1 4 ur helpfulness)
I'll buy the game here by the end of the week and give it a go. I played it numerous times before and totally forgot about it with the years passing by. Strange that it's purely nostalgic and i actually don't care about how it looks graphiclly.
i immediatly relived my childhood again (voodoo gfx card 32mb + pentium II rocked :)
i think i'll run it in a window mode with the background blacked out.
Hell might even go to the cellar and dig out a 14" monitor :)
Post edited August 18, 2009 by CyPhErIoN
Posted August 18, 2009
24
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BoxOfSnoo: Maybe even a slightly larger discount? 59 cents off isn't pushing it into the impulse buy category just yet.
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Elwin: C'mon, it's $6 we are talking about. Even at the original price it almost feels like a shoplift.
Discount size seems quite right.

Makes me wonder how many games you personally have "shoplifted," I mean purchased from GOG?
I too think 59 cents savings would not convince too many people to buy the game to simply try it out. I also agree $4.99 would be more appealing.
By the way here are my purchases that I worked to be able to afford.
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Posted August 18, 2009
25
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Faithful: Makes me wonder how many games you personally have "shoplifted," I mean purchased from GOG?

34, so you topped me here :). (I can post a screenshot if you like).
And yeah, your list sure is impressive.
Let us not forget that GOG does have some bills to pay,,,
Posted August 18, 2009
26
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Faithful: [By the way here are my purchases that I worked to be able to afford.

Doesn't look like Descent 3 is on there! That one is also a steal.
Posted August 18, 2009
27
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Faithful: Makes me wonder how many games you personally have "shoplifted," I mean purchased from GOG?
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Elwin: 34, so you topped me here :). (I can post a screenshot if you like).
And yeah, your list sure is impressive.
Let us not forget that GOG does have some bills to pay,,,

Thanks for your response and I am glad you have bought so many games. But of course your a slacker with "only" 34! :o)
Again, thanks for the nice response, well done.
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Faithful: [By the way here are my purchases that I worked to be able to afford.
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BoxOfSnoo: Doesn't look like Descent 3 is on there! That one is also a steal.

Played it a long time ago, never really cared for it, but good eye noticing it is missing!
Post edited August 18, 2009 by Faithful
Posted August 18, 2009
28
Well I just downloaded these great games. I was playing Ultimate Doom & Doom 2 the other day on my laptop and I thought man it would be great if I could get descent. Now I find this and can download both for under $6.00 that is just awesome. The only thing I'll have to hook my full size keyboard to it there was a way I used the # keypad and asdf to play this game ha ha ha. Thank you so much for getting these games on XP & Vista keep up the great work!! I am also going to get Duke Nukem 3d Atomic Edition eventually as well!!
Mischa.
Posted August 18, 2009
29
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gamebin: The Definitive Edition is not included?

I realized nobody answered you. Not really, you are missing: Levels of the World Descent Mission Builder, and Vertigo.
Vertigo is the only thing really missing (though I love "Abyss" from LotW).
Still, getting both 1&2 for this price is well worth it.
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BoxOfSnoo: Doesn't look like Descent 3 is on there! That one is also a steal.
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Faithful: Played it a long time ago, never really cared for it, but good eye noticing it is missing!

My shelf only has 10 games on it! And you wouldn't even find any of the Descents because I have the definitive collection and D3 CDs. I am always tempted to rebuy things from here though, just to eliminate CD issues. Plus I don't have the Mercenary pack...
I enjoyed D3 quite a bit, except for the subway level (grr). The environments always just kept getting better and better. I never finished it, because my old system was always crazily unstable. I'd get to level 10, the thing would crash, and the savegame would never work on my next installation for some reason. I had to go through those levels again and again. Maybe if D3 becomes a hidden gem of the week I might try a non-DRM version ;)
Post edited August 18, 2009 by BoxOfSnoo
Posted August 19, 2009
30
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soulgrindr: did you use dosbox? It should have the sound drivers, and allow you to limit the speed and run windowed.
Graphics are never gonna look great on a 24" lcd though... unless you use a mod/port.
avatar
CyPhErIoN: yeah i did but i didn't look very hard tbh. (+1 4 ur helpfulness)
I'll buy the game here by the end of the week and give it a go. I played it numerous times before and totally forgot about it with the years passing by. Strange that it's purely nostalgic and i actually don't care about how it looks graphiclly.
i immediatly relived my childhood again (voodoo gfx card 32mb + pentium II rocked :)
i think i'll run it in a window mode with the background blacked out.
Hell might even go to the cellar and dig out a 14" monitor :)

It might be worth trying a frontend like D-Fend reloaded, as it's much easier to set up than messing with command lines and config files in dosbox itself.
http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/
Also, and i just discovered this myself, dosbox has built in graphics filters (like 2xsai), so you might be able to upscale without it looking too terrible.
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Scaler
GOG will have sorted it out themselves of course, though you might still want to mess with the settings to get it as you want it.
(off to mess with filters in System Shock....)
Posted August 19, 2009
31
hey i didn't know about the scaler.
It works rather well. the text already seems a lot better anyway. :)
Posted August 20, 2009
32
Bah, despite nobody here apparently being able to weigh these versus Radix, (Man I hope GoG gets this on here one day so people can experience the glory of it!) I still went ahead and grabbed this Descent pack as well as Part 3 just to round thing out and hopefully encourage Radix coming to the service.
Really don't know how I missed these all that time ago they apparently popped on GoG...good thing for that little mainpage blurb on it to draw attention.
Posted August 22, 2009
33
Great initiative but I agree that 4,99 price is more atractive to undecided buyers than 5,39.
Posted August 23, 2009
34
Just bought Descent 1 & 2, first GOG purchase and I'm impressed, the game will be great to try out, after hearing so much about it over the years!
Posted August 24, 2009
35
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CyPhErIoN: well i've just tried the demo and it wasn't that good :p
i have a 24" lcd and i couldn't force it in window mode , it didn't detect the sound settings and it was way to speedy (even on a single core)
i pressed space 1 time and i was out of missles 2 secs later the lowest drone shot me to smithereens in no time.
so i take it GOG arranged all of this already
then i'll be shopping this week again ^^

Part of the strategy is to hoard your resources for when you need them. It's like any other game that way. Shoot off all your ammo at once and ... well, you're going to have to start punching people instead of shooting them. But while you run out of missiles, you can pick them up from enemies you kill. And you can always use your lasers. Often, you should choose them first so your missiles will be around to unloose in a big barrage against enemies that are really scary.
Sounds like you didn't use your lasers well or maneuver very well if the lowest drone wiped you out right away. The game is definitely a challenge, and that's one of the things that is really fun about it. You can't just wade in and have the enemy drop dead.
The other stuff sounds like installation problems. None of what you said made it sound like the demo wasn't that good.
Posted August 25, 2009
36
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Blarg: Part of the strategy is to hoard your resources for when you need them. It's like any other game that way. Shoot off all your ammo at once and ... well, you're going to have to start punching people instead of shooting them. But while you run out of missiles, you can pick them up from enemies you kill. And you can always use your lasers. Often, you should choose them first so your missiles will be around to unloose in a big barrage against enemies that are really scary.
Sounds like you didn't use your lasers well or maneuver very well if the lowest drone wiped you out right away. The game is definitely a challenge, and that's one of the things that is really fun about it. You can't just wade in and have the enemy drop dead.
The other stuff sounds like installation problems. None of what you said made it sound like the demo wasn't that good.

dear friend :) , i merely wanted to say that the game went in overdrive when i started it meaning it was a dualcore problem. it ran way to fast so when i pushed space it shot all my rockets. when the first enemy showed i was dead in 1 second because of the overdrive.
i've played this game 100rd's of times before but thanks for the tricks :)
maybe somebody else might be able to use them.
Post edited August 26, 2009 by CyPhErIoN
Posted December 30, 2009
37
No, this is not just another Descent 1+2 are good games. They are, and many people described them in the needed details. I want to bring up a different subject, which is probably just the right time when 3D is becoming popular (see the new hit movie Avatar, etc.).
Few people on this planet knows that Descent 1+2 are 3D games. No, not the lousy red-blue glass 3D, but really 3D with the so called LCD stereoglass technology. Way back when Descent 1 came out, I wasn't particularly impressed. I mean, it was nice, but......
As a coincidence I got a present from someone, an LCD stereoglass, with a shortened version of Descent. I installed it on my computer and my eyes popped up of the amazement. Words can not describe the HUGE difference. They can't, because one must see it. There is just no other way. Especially Descent 1 and 2 (opposed to 3), because it has the narrow tunnels, rather than the large rooms and open spaces and the 3d technology makes them look frighteningly real, as if you would be there. It blew my mind and I was hooked. I mean hooked to the point of playing it hours and hours in every free moment of my day.
Unfortunately, that 3d technology is gone. Only on Ebay one can pick up those old style glasses here and there, but if you can find one, it sells usually for a few bucks. Those are the LCD stereoglasses which are plugged into the printer port of the old computers (NOT the type Edimensional sells) and require a "driver like" program, called LCDBIOS. That still can be found on the internet.
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea whether they would work or not with DOSBOX. I should dig up my old glasses (boxed away in my basement) and check it. But if somebody out there knows what I am talking about and willing to spend a few dollars and experiment, get one, get Descent 1+2 here on GOG and you surely will have the ride of your life in the world of Descent. I sure had.
Posted February 11, 2010
38
www.descentbb.net is the best place to get help for any of the Descent series.
There are 2 updates for D1/2 to make then playable in XP/Vista without Dosbox. They are called D2x Rebirth and D2XL or something.
www.planetdescent.com also has tons of info and levels for all 3 of the games.
Saw pics for Radax, doesn't comapre to D1/2 or even 3.
CDN_Merlin
Posted February 13, 2010
39
avatar
gablau: Few people on this planet knows that Descent 1+2 are 3D games. No, not the lousy red-blue glass 3D, but really 3D with the so called LCD stereoglass technology. Way back when Descent 1 came out, I wasn't particularly impressed. I mean, it was nice, but......
As a coincidence I got a present from someone, an LCD stereoglass, with a shortened version of Descent. I installed it on my computer and my eyes popped up of the amazement. Words can not describe the HUGE difference. They can't, because one must see it. There is just no other way. Especially Descent 1 and 2 (opposed to 3), because it has the narrow tunnels, rather than the large rooms and open spaces and the 3d technology makes them look frighteningly real, as if you would be there. It blew my mind and I was hooked. I mean hooked to the point of playing it hours and hours in every free moment of my day.
Unfortunately, that 3d technology is gone. Only on Ebay one can pick up those old style glasses here and there, but if you can find one, it sells usually for a few bucks. Those are the LCD stereoglasses which are plugged into the printer port of the old computers (NOT the type Edimensional sells) and require a "driver like" program, called LCDBIOS. That still can be found on the internet.
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea whether they would work or not with DOSBOX. I should dig up my old glasses (boxed away in my basement) and check it. But if somebody out there knows what I am talking about and willing to spend a few dollars and experiment, get one, get Descent 1+2 here on GOG and you surely will have the ride of your life in the world of Descent. I sure had.

No no no it's not gone!! D2X-XL supports 3D rendering. Check here: http://descent2.de/
Unfortunately, XL requires a bunch of setup. I'd make a copy of your D2 directory, one for the game itself and one for XL.
Music1an
Posted February 13, 2010
40
[i]No no no it's not gone!! D2X-XL supports 3D rendering. Check here: http://descent2.de/
Unfortunately, XL requires a bunch of setup. I'd make a copy of your D2 directory, one for the game itself and one for XL.[/i]
THANKS!
I will try it and report the result.
Gabor
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Descent series Hidden Gem of the Week: Descent 1+2 (40 posts) (40 posts)
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