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Comment by ralphc | Hacker News Reader

This is basically the only video game I've ever played or play today.

I took a 25 year hiatus playing, from 1996 to 2021 but I'm back at it now, playing on a period appropriate Windows 98 machine.

I love the original Descent and Descent 2 look and feel and graphics, I pass on the rebirths.

If you want a modern game from the same team with similar gameplay, try Overload on Steam.

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Have you tried the ray traced version? In my opinion it's the best way to play it. https://github.com/BredaUniversityGames/DXX-Raytracer

What does it run on, and does it use a modern joystick?

If you want to use a non-modern joystick on a modern machine, there are adapters; I have one I like, and if I remember, I'll post the brand when I get home.

I have the Rockfire RM-203.

Only downside is that it is self-calibrating, so if you have a joystick pot that sometimes jumps to very high (or very low I suppose) resistance, it will scale the axis to that very high value; calibration on the PC in that case will give you terrible resolution (since it is quantized before being sent to the PC). I suggest cleaning the pots with DeoxIT if that happens.

I’ve actually played it on my steam deck and it runs well.

Thanks for sharing, that’s super cool. I loved Descent when I was a young lad.

My favorite classic-style modern FPS is AssaultCube. "50 MB package available for Windows, Mac and Linux"

I loved Descent and Descent2! Most importantly, because speed was coded as uniform in the unit axes (x,y & z), everybody who played always chorded and flew in a permanent diagonal, which I recall was much easier to pull off with the keyboard than joystick.

Early applications of Pythagorus' theorem in action!

What is your Kali handle?

Mine was snorkel.

Mine was shareware.

Kali!

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