Wow, good to see some people still remember AR!

I remember a brief spurt of curiosity when AR Online was announced a
couple years back, but aside from some rendered concept art and an
announcement about a deal with Monolith, nothing else. That was back
before the MMO market got saturated and could definately have been a
hit.

And while I certainly understand the dissapointment in the current crop
of CRPGs, I do have to say that from a pure adventure standpoint, I
can't imagine any games coming closer to a spiritual successor than
Morrowwind, Gothic 2, or FFXI Online. I've spent as much time exploring
these worlds as I did back in the day exploring Skara Brae and Xebec's
Demise. FFXI Online is my new passion, as the world is HUGE and offers
so much in the way of exploration that I almost feel like I'm back on my
Apple //c with a pad of graph paper and a 20-foot scroll of
note-covered printer paper (untorn, and taped together where it started
to split) all bathed in green monochrome.

--Frank

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert [eobet--spray.se]
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 4:26 PM
To: <Address Masked>
Subject: Re: Status of the remakes


Hello!

Well, the only AR related news I have is two new (to me anyway) Atari
emulators. The interesting fact about these, are that they are SDL (and
one
of them is open source). This means that they can be ported to almost
any
platform!

The emulators are:

http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~thor/atari++/
http://www.zerstoerung.de/

They both run AR, but not better than Atari800Plus. I'm in touch with
one of
the authors, though (the A8E author), and perhaps I can convince him to
work
on AR (City graphics bugs are there as usual).

I haven't had time to add reviews of them to the FAQ yet.

I'm adding things now and then to the design docs of the PalmOS version
of
AR, but it's still just on planning stage. I don't know when I can/want
to
start the implementation. The can, is because of personal changes in my
life
soon. The want, is because I'm aiming to make the jump from a PalmOS 3
to a
PalmOS 6 device. If SDL is released on PalmOS 6, then I will make the
port
in SDL, and thus enable it to be ported to any platform as well (so you
Macintosh owners will get your AR fix as well).

Just so you kow, I'll be using slightly updated original graphics, and
not
even a raycasting engine! I'll try to replicate the 3D parallax effect
that
the original games used. That means 90 degree turns (the way I like it)
and
also the return of most of the original control methods (I, J, K, L).

With the cancellation of Fallout 3 and Sam'n Max 2, I've lost all faith
in
PC gaming. Perhaps you have heard of the new Bard's Tale game as well?
It's
going to be a console hack'n slash. Things are just in an absolutely sad
state, these days.

Two games on the horizon seem interesting. Fable, from Lionhead, will
probably be so much watered down at release, that it will end up as
another
Black & White (ie. great concept, total failure in its execution). The
Fall,
from some unknown german studio, will be a spiritual sucessor to Fallout
(they've even got ex-Black Isle employees).

I will probably only put my money into World of Warcraft (the European
version, though). It's got a few interesting features, but I do not
expect
any roleplaying from it (too many kids running around in it). I will
play it
for the absolutely drop dead gorgeous graphics.

The best I can recommend, is to get another old school fix from one of
these
locations:

http://www.ragingmole.com/RTC/
http://www.dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/

/Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: <allan.vanleeuwen--orangemail.nl>
To: <<Address Masked>>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 1:24 PM
Subject: Status of the remakes


> Hey list ....
>
> Does anybody have an update on any of the 'remake' projects that were
going
> on ? It's been like more then a year since I've heard from any of
them.
> IIRC there was a Java version in the making, A palm handheld version
and
> even some talk of a totally new version (Although I think that last
project
> died a silent death).
> Would like to know if these projects are still going and how far they
are.
> (Actually ... i'd like hearing just about anything AR related)
>
> off topic - does anybody know of any good RPGs released lately ? I
havn't
> been able to find anything worthy since Morrowind.
>
> The only secure computer is one that's unplugged, locked in a safe and
> buried 20 feet under the ground in a secret location...
> and i'm not even too sure about that one
>
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