Marnetmar Posted August 25, 2013 Most probably haven't heard of the really bad GBA-exclusive first person shooter known as Dark Arena: Looking at it, the game seems like it could have had a lot of potential, but a Jaguar version of the Doom engine and what must have been a very inexperienced development team completely killed it. So, I'm not proposing anything, but does anyone think that a Dark Arena remake, kind of like what Xaser did with HacX would be a good idea? I personally wouldn't mind seeing an attempt to unfuck this game myself. 0 Share this post Link to post
Bucket Posted August 25, 2013 I believe some of the people responsible for this game are forum regulars. You're probably not winning people over by taking the "this game is shit" angle. 0 Share this post Link to post
Avoozl Posted August 25, 2013 I remember trying to find out what game it was from a screenshot in a gba magazine which didn't say the name of the game at all, until I found out the name and that it wasn't based on an old pc game at all. I'd love to see it made as a Doom 2 mod using it's same textures from the texture wad already available, but with a modded palette to fix the textures messed up by Doom's palette. 0 Share this post Link to post
Xaser Posted August 25, 2013 Step 1 would be providing a PC port in some engine, which IIRC should be not-so-bad given a ROM dump since it uses Doom format maps n' whatnot. I'd be interested to see that. 0 Share this post Link to post
Jayextee Posted August 25, 2013 Bucket said:I believe some of the people responsible for this game are forum regulars. Map design, yes. Basically, someone from the studio contacted a bunch of active community mappers asking them if they'd be interested in making maps for a GBA game using the Doom engine. I myself was contacted, then sent a sample map and was enthusiastically 'accepted' as a mapper. But I heard nothing after signing and faxing (yes, faxing -- at their request) an NDA. I think another British mapper (again, memory is a little shabby -- Nick Baker/Nightamre?) reported the same thing. One mapper I think got accepted was Maonth/Shaviro - and he said that mapping was an awkward affair, done without a resource WAD (but like, a texture list or something?). Shit game or not, I'd have loved to make maps for it. 0 Share this post Link to post
Da Werecat Posted August 25, 2013 After reading some other thread I got an impression that this game is a direct Doom clone with redrawn graphics and new maps. However, when I've finally tried it out, it turned out to behave quite differently. No textured floors/ceilings (random noise instead of flats), weapons are a little different, and, most notably, different enemy AI. What was left untouched anyway? 0 Share this post Link to post
Jayextee Posted August 25, 2013 But yeah, I'd love to see a remake as long as it's not ZDoom-based. ZDoom likes to make my laptop overheat. 0 Share this post Link to post
Devalaous Posted August 25, 2013 If its a Doom Engine game, does that make it even more obscure DE game than Strife? 0 Share this post Link to post
franckFRAG Posted August 25, 2013 Hi, I know a person who has create last year a Dark Arena's map. It tried to be the most faithful possible by using textures of the game. (She can't post herself, because she forgot her login). DL=> http://www.mediafire.com/?uv9bqx5ixunq9c4 0 Share this post Link to post
skillsaw Posted August 25, 2013 Jayextee said:I myself was contacted, then sent a sample map and was enthusiastically 'accepted' as a mapper. But I heard nothing after signing and faxing (yes, faxing -- at their request) an NDA. I think another British mapper (again, memory is a little shabby -- Nick Baker/Nightamre?) reported the same thing. I also had this exact experience. I was asked, sent a sample map, was accepted, signed an NDA, and never heard from them again. They must have contacted a huge number of mappers considering how many seem to still be around here. 0 Share this post Link to post
TwinBeast Posted August 25, 2013 I thought of a remake of the Unreal Dark Arena level in Doom. 0 Share this post Link to post
Jayextee Posted August 25, 2013 Fuck it, let's make our own Dark Arena. With blackjack. And hookers. 0 Share this post Link to post
Marnetmar Posted August 25, 2013 Yes please! franckFRAG said:Hi, I know a person who has create last year a Dark Arena's map. It tried to be the most faithful possible by using textures of the game. (She can't post herself, because she forgot her login). DL=> http://www.mediafire.com/?uv9bqx5ixunq9c4 This is gold! Thanks for providing this! Bucket said:I believe some of the people responsible for this game are forum regulars. You're probably not winning people over by taking the "this game is shit" angle. You are correct. The thing is, every forum regular I've seen that mapped for Dark Arena actually seems to agree that the game turned out pretty bad. Plus, from playing the map in DARNATEX.WAD, it would seem that the map design itself actually wasn't all that bad, moreso the original game's mechanics. On a different subject, now that we have a resource WAD, maybe this could provide a place to start? Of course, the palette, textures and sprites would need to be massively reworked. 0 Share this post Link to post
Avoozl Posted August 26, 2013 That resource wad was already available years back on idgames which is what that map was made with. 0 Share this post Link to post
hex11 Posted August 26, 2013 The intro was cool, but otherwise it looks like a generic DOOM clone with serial numbers filed off. I'd rather just play the GBA DOOM, or some Hacx maps. 0 Share this post Link to post
Devalaous Posted August 26, 2013 Now that ive actually watched the video in the first post, that actually looks like fun. I wish I'd known it was a DE game back when it was available. I'd love to see a standalone IWAD of this. 0 Share this post Link to post
joepallai Posted August 27, 2013 Da Werecat said:After reading some other thread I got an impression that this game is a direct Doom clone with redrawn graphics and new maps. However, when I've finally tried it out, it turned out to behave quite differently. No textured floors/ceilings (random noise instead of flats), weapons are a little different, and, most notably, different enemy AI. What was left untouched anyway? Mostly it was linedef specials that behaved like Doom's; also damaging sectors worked in a similar manner. During developement we had to use roughly 20-30 specific linedef specials instead of the full range. I can't remember if we were limited to certain monster types (I think we were); also I think the Gameboy engine could use Doom's sky tricks (at least the second proposed game from them could--note this wasn't a sequal to Dark Arena). I also remember using a texture list for the first few days before the texture pack was made for us. the developer's also hadn't established how detailed the maps could get as they weren't certain at the time, which led to some simple maps. Reception initially was "yeah it's a Doom clone". 0 Share this post Link to post
Death Egg Posted August 28, 2013 Would be cool to see Eternity add this as a supported IWAD. 0 Share this post Link to post
Devalaous Posted August 28, 2013 Not to mention ZDoom. I love opening it and seeing four Dooms, the Raven games, HacX, Strife, Harmony and Chex Quest 3 in one big list of choices 0 Share this post Link to post
Avoozl Posted August 28, 2013 Ragnor said:Not to mention ZDoom. I love opening it and seeing four Dooms, the Raven games, HacX, Strife, Harmony and Chex Quest 3 in one big list of choices Same except I don't have harmony, I don't think I have ever heard of it before now. 0 Share this post Link to post
Devalaous Posted August 28, 2013 Avoozl said:Same except I don't have harmony, I don't think I have ever heard of it before now. It's a standalone level set, not a licensed game like the rest, but its still good. EDIT: Whoops, Gez had already linked to it, go figure 0 Share this post Link to post
Guest DILDOMASTER666 Posted August 28, 2013 Fun fact: there is no IWAD anywhere to be found in a raw dump of Dark Arena. I've found something that looks like it could be similar to a LINEDEFS lump at 0x9FBA, but other than that, I don't have any time to look into it. 0 Share this post Link to post
Da Werecat Posted August 28, 2013 I have an impression that it's a different engine after all. Maybe they were using Doom map format, but the renderer seems quite unique to me. Look at those texture distortions when close to a wall, for example. joepallai said:I can't remember if we were limited to certain monster types (I think we were); also I think the Gameboy engine could use Doom's sky tricks (at least the second proposed game from them could--note this wasn't a sequal to Dark Arena). I've just stumbled upon an interesting view: Apparently, the mapper was going for a tall building effect. It didn't work. And no one have noticed. I can see that there wasn't much cooperation between devs and level designers. 0 Share this post Link to post
Willv91 Posted August 29, 2013 Hi, i'm the one who remade the map that Franckfrag has provided the link for download^^ If someone want to do a TC of Dark Arena, I would be more than happy to help them, unfortunately i'm rather busy at the moment.^^ 0 Share this post Link to post
Guest DILDOMASTER666 Posted August 29, 2013 @Werecat, certainly a possibility I hadn't considered. It's also entirely possible that the engine is still Doom's, but some renderer checks and other math related functions were cut down for performance reasons. The Jaguar Doom source does this. 0 Share this post Link to post
Devalaous Posted August 30, 2013 How many maps does Dark Arena have anyway? 0 Share this post Link to post