X-com on steam

[Dudeur]

Found something neat on Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5045545/x+com-comes-to-steam-and-wicked-cheap-too) you can download all 5 X-com games for about 15 dollars or one for $5.00.

Steam Link (http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=sub&SubId=964)

A couple classic turn based strategy games, a Flight sim with an X-com research twist, A Third person shooter with a bit of a research twist and a turn based or real time strategy game.

Good line of games and picking all 5 up for $15 is awsome. Especially if they updated them to run smoother on newer machines.

[Darksol]

They would have had to update them so that the clock speed wasn't an issue for them or those titles would be dead on arrival.

[pissant]

Purchased and played! So here is the deal... they are using DosBox in order to run the games and it works pretty good on my laptop. Everything is pretty seamless. Regular users (not that they would buy these games) wouldn't ever notice that everything is being emulated.

The price is something like $13.49 for this week. I couldn't resist.

[Dudeur]

If you still have the original titles and add them to your steam account does that let you download them from Steam later on?

I have all except for UFO Defense.

Did they manage to slow down the map scroll speed? Using Dos Box and setting the speed to the lowest setting I still had a problem going exactly where I wanted on the map.

I've had to break out my 486 so I could actually play terror from the deep.

[pissant]

If you still have the original titles and add them to your steam account does that let you download them from Steam later on?

I have no idea. I don't think that those games had serial numbers or anything did they? My guess is that the games are so cheap that likely Steam doesn't bother to give that option.


Did they manage to slow down the map scroll speed? Using Dos Box and setting the speed to the lowest setting I still had a problem going exactly where I wanted on the map.


I only played about 20 minutes into the first game any didn't notice anything, but then again its been maybe 15 years since I last played it so I might not have noticed any funny business.

If you take a look at the link below, someone has posted the entire dosbox config file. Give that a shot.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/39309975/m/848009134931

I run a Mac, so I installed Steam on a virtual machine and installed the first 2 X-com games. I then moved the actual folders from the emulated steam directory to a native Mac installation of dosbox and tried to run the game. Worked! :) Now I'm a happy camper.

Only the first two games run under dosbox as near as I can tell. The last three run natively on windows. They may have made some changes to those games in order to get them running on 2000/XP/Vista. I haven't tried them out yet as the first 2 games are the ones that I played ack in the day. :D

[Slash]

I've just discovered the glory that is xcom enemy unknown, being playing it with dosbox, i turned the speed down on it but the time still flys on the map screen. an on the battles the map scrolling is really quick.

How did i miss this one :D

Anyone got any tips? first games not going to well, i've research plasma rifles. managed to capture one alien alive, but then my squad got hammered with a bad night landing it was a slaughter :(

Now i got no troops an next to no money, an 2 of the countrys have lowered funding, an one uk, joined a secret pact with the aliens :eek:

I think it may be time to start a new game :)

[Dudeur]

I've just discovered the glory that is xcom enemy unknown, being playing it with dosbox, i turned the speed down on it but the time still flys on the map screen. an on the battles the map scrolling is really quick.
How did i miss this one :D
Anyone got any tips? first games not going to well, i've research plasma rifles. managed to capture one alien alive, but then my squad got hammered with a bad night landing it was a slaughter :(
Now i got no troops an next to no money, an 2 of the countrys have lowered funding, an one uk, joined a secret pact with the aliens :eek:
I think it may be time to start a new game :)

Night and undersea battles need to be taken really slow. Move one unit a few spaces and then another and so on and try to always have time units saved up for cover fire if the aliens move within range during their phase.

Time units to kneel is also helpful. When kneeling or laying prone you present a smaller target and make it harder for the aliens to hit you.

Save a lot at first until you get a good grasp of your strategy and how the different aliens react.

I forget if UFO has them but terror from the deep had "glow sticks" that you could throw so you could see better, further.

Research as soon as you can but dont spend to much on scientists as they will eat at your income quickly. Once you get something researched that you can manufacture start manufacturing and selling to help with your income.

[sio]

Some fans Xcom have made their own version:

UFO: Alien Invasion (http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/?page=About)

Just downloaded it myself.

[Nexjen]

Downloaded them all. I love these games. 15 bucks in total. What a fricking bargin. Without a doubt some of the best games ever. :)

[Dudeur]

I ran across a bug in interceptor. When an alien sends in a jamming probe and you launch a mission to intercept the probe will not show in the flight sim portion.

[tylertoo]

an on the battles the map scrolling is really quick.

I was able to slow down map scrolling within the battle mode (it was driving me crazy). On the battlescape control bar, there's a button with a question mark for options. Go to that, and you'll see options to slow down scrolling (and animation). I set it to the slowest and its fine.

[Slash]

I was able to slow down map scrolling within the battle mode (it was driving me crazy). On the battlescape control bar, there's a button with a question mark for options. Go to that, and you'll see options to slow down scrolling (and animation). I set it to the slowest and its fine.

Thanks that helped, :D it was annoying how it kept flickin back an forth,

[Dudeur]

You can also change the scroll from auto to trigger scroll.