Microsoft brings 18-year-old game 'Hover' to browser | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft brings 18-year-old game 'Hover' to browser

hover.ie

117 pointshypr_geek100 comments

Let's complete the effect shall we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4

Dial it down to 240p for the true '95 experience.

This was the first video I ever watched on a computer. I will never forget staring at this, realizing that I was seeing the future.

Wow, this video and the game are bringing back memories. This is the first experience with a computer I can remember. I didn't really realize what I was doing at the time, I would have been 2 or 3. Thankfully my dad cared enough about computers to have one for the family, that early experience probably contributed to my passion for software today.

>This is the first experience with a computer I can remember. I didn't really realize what I was doing at the time, I would have been 2 or 3.

Whereupon I am confronted head on by the relentless progression of aging and mortality.

I'll admit, I started programming young, about 8 years old (probably not too atypical in this forum though). The other day I realized, the new hires here were born after I started programming. I now better understand how a couple friends in college, non-traditional students who came back after stints in the military and other career attempts, felt.

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqL1BLzn3qc

That's the one.

Let me get my old CD-ROM and have it sound like a jet engine too.

Don't forget Gorillas http://www.kongregate.com/games/moly/gorillas-bas

Forgot about that. Was on the windows 95 CD somewhere. Remember watching it at work on a new Compaq DeskPro after complaining that they ripped the task bar off RISCOS.

Didn't work on NT4 which i had at the time :(

My '95 CD had the Rob Roy trailer on it too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0-2kzujLA8

Ahhh, memories!!!

don't forget this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SAN0Llw2p0

the irony is 3.1 looks more modern (flat) now than 95

This is the best thing MS has done in years. I was just trying to remember what this game was called, and now it's on the web, and plays great.

Now they just need to release web versions of Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2, and maybe do a new version of Combat Flight Simulator...

There is the recently released AoE2 HD on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/

Unfortunately it's Windows only... Maybe if I have some time I'll fire it up on Wine. Thanks for pointing that out BTW.

Also I've heard that the game will cease to function when Games For Windows Live is discontinued in July 2014

Competition does wonders. MS didn't manage to sabotage WebGL and had to implement it in their browser. I wish they'd start enabling OpenGL across all their platforms as well.

What has MS sabotaged in the web that would lead you to this?

If anything, MS made the current javascript ajaxy freak show.

CSS mainly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish

In the past MS used their usual sick lock-in tactics in IE. Intense competition forced them to reduce this idiocy. Unfortunately in other areas they still don't care. So I doubt you'll see OpenGL on Xbox or Windows tablets / handsets, until something will force them to enable it.

You can't use OpenGL on Xbox or tablets, or is it just more difficult?

EDIT: A few google searches later, indeed it's not accessible in XBox or Windows Phone 8. For some reason I didn't expect that.

You can't. That's MS way of lock-in and ensuring that porting of games and other applications is much harder.

Why didn't you expect that? I'd say that WebGL in IE is something unexpected, not the other way around. MS has a long history of being jerks and using lock-in with proprietary standards.

As they expressed it in the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft#Vendor_...

I honestly don't know why it surprised me. I suppose I'm just as surprised that it surprised me as I was at learning it.

Especially since I'm the one in my social circles that usually has to explain MS's history with other standards and the anti-trust charges.

> You can't. That's MS way of lock-in and ensuring that porting of games and other applications is much harder.

It is a way of them not having to write, support, and optimize two entire sets of drivers that accomplish the same thing.

I was actually working in Windows Phone when there were talks about supporting OpenGL (I wasn't involved in any, I just watched from the sidelines). The decision ultimately came down to already having people who could write really fast and stable DirectX drivers. The expertise was there, so it was used.

Sure, they'll find technical excuses. But as soon as it will start biting them back, they'll quickly find needed expertise.

But probably Windows Phone is not the best example, since it's a minor platform comparing to others. MS has no leverage on the industry with it. Xbox is different. It's quite big. And enabling OpenGL there would only make sense for gaming.

They attempted to sabotage WebGL (refusal to implement) by pointing to shaders as a potential vulnerability (while exposing the very same vulnerabilities in Silverlight, I might add).

> MS didn't manage to sabotage WebGL

To be fair I don't' think they really wanted to sabatoge WebGL out of spite, they had some very valid reasons for not implementing it right away.

Here on hacker news some of our best minds sided with MSFT on this.

https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/81732190949486592

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2677899

Wonder what's changed - the GFX drivers are still crap, without any hope of being ever fully secure. Perhaps Microsoft added some really comprehensive tests to Winqual to test security bugs in GFX drivers?

Fun fact: Microsoft's WebGL implementation calls down to Direct3D.

Sure, why shouldn't it (from their perspective). MS didn't enable WebGL out of OpenGL enthusiasm. They did as much as was needed to enable the API on the Web. As I wrote, they didn't drop their OpenGL hostility in other areas yet.

Funner fact: So do Chrome and Firefox, via ANGLE: http://code.google.com/p/angleproject/

Firefox on Windows gives a choice which backend to use (OpenGL or Direct3D).

See webgl.prefer-native-gl flag

Someone correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe the native OpenGL backend is not recommended for security reasons. All of the security efforts have gone into the D3D backend. The native OpenGL option is included for testing trusted code against a simpler, more reliable, probably faster implementation in case the D3D wrapper is messing up for you somehow.

Not sure about that, I'm not using Windows anyway, and on Linux it's native OpenGL obviously.

Why shouldn't they properly work on security for OpenGL backend though?

Priorities. There are a lot of Windows users out there with old drivers. Many of those old drivers have passable D3D support but useless (if any) OpenGL support.

So do Mozilla and Google (by default) when running on Windows. Project Angle (https://code.google.com/p/angleproject/) is a Google library that enables this in both browsers.

This runs much smoother than I ever got it to run on my 166mhz Pentium!

It ran ok on my Pentium 60MHz with 8MB ram. :-)

Official press release with amusing promo video: http://blogs.windows.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2013/10/02/hover-br...

You can type 'Bambi' on the front page for an even more retro version.

Much better! Thanks

I think they might need to work on their collision detection. When going up the staircase I suddenly found myself beneath the staircase, unable to escape.

http://i.imgur.com/EUYwin7.png

That sounds eerily like some of my other experiences with their software.

Same thing happened to me!

> You'll need a browser that supports WebGL to play Hover.

I'm pretty sure Chrome supports WebGL.

Works fine on Chrome 29.0.1547.76 on Mac.

I have the same version on Mac and it doesn't work. Weird

Working fine for me on Chrome 29.0.1547.76 on 2013 13in MacAir

Works fine on Chrome 29.0.1547.76 on Linux as well.

You are probably on Linux. Some graphics drivers don't support WebGL so it's turned off.

Same problem on my Chromebook Pixel, but http://get.webgl.org confirms that I have WebGL support.

Same device/issue here.

Not working on my HP Chromebook, sadly.

Chrome supports WebGL, but Chrome does not necessarily have WebGL enabled. There's a whole blacklist of GPUs it's disabled by default on. You either have to flip a flag somewhere or start up with --ignore-gpu-blacklist.

Nah, it's not that. I can't get it working either and WebGL is working fine here. They're using Modernizr and the 'Modernizr.csstransforms3d' property seems to be returning false in my browser.

Maybe it's because of this bug? https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/issues/590

Edit: actually, it does seems to be a blacklisting issue. You can check in about:gpu. In my case I was running WebGL via software! If you're curious you can see the full list here: https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chrome/gpu/software_renderin...

I wonder if they're just sniffing UAs, blocking Chrome. fwiw Firefox seems to work fine.

They're not. I think it stands to reason they would have blocked Firefox as well.

You're arguing that they should be acting rationally if they're sniffing UAs and blocking Chrome specifically? That's inherently irrational, once you cross that line you can't assume anything.

Anyway, this seems to be resolved, so it's unimportant.

Works fine on Firefox on Linux over here.

Do other WebGL demos work on your machine? Might be a driver issue or a blacklisting.

Version 29.0.1547.76 m and Windows 7 working fine for me

You can still download the original version from Microsoft's public FTP server:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/deskapps/games/public/AAS/Hover.EXE

Plays just fine on modern machines running Windows.

Or just pop in your Windows 95 CD. I don't know why they didn't just install it along with Windows 95 -- it was pretty reasonably sized if I recall correctly.

Windows 95 also shipped on floppies. See Raymond Chen's post mentioning how they used high-capacity floppies just to save the money from two disks: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/08/19/4536....

Perhaps it was small by todays standards but I remember my first Windows 95 PC had a 290MB Hard Drive. A fresh Windows 95 install took up maybe 30MB or 40MB if I remember correctly so even if Hover was only 1MB it was still a relatively significant amount.

As an aside... I also remember Windows 95 was available on floppy, I think maybe there was 10 floppy disks in total (?). I seem to recall that they used special floppy disks that held more than the usual 1.44MB.

I broke it http://imgur.com/YrdFbLU

I assume you stacked bounce and went over the wall?

nope, walked right through the wall. Or fell, rather. I don't even know what 'stacked bounce' is.

This brings me back, but I was really hoping it would be another game I played in the 90s that was very similar except it was a flight sim where you could get off the ground. I've done google searches over the year to find it but have never been able to.

I am pretty sure the game was called 'Chaos'. The aesthetic was very angular; I believe the main craft you steered was a yellow triangular shape. I loved it. Anyone know it?

Descent? Terminal Velocity/Fury3/Hellbender?

I wish I could get a copy of Fury3. If only for the soundtrack.

You can get the Fury3 demo here: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/deskapps/games/public/Fury3/

On a related note, I didn't know about ftp.microsoft.com until today. It's full of all kinds of nostalgia.

My favourite ftp.microsoft.com file of all time: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SPEAK.EXE

A windows driver to turn the speaker that beeps when your PC turns on into a very limited sound output device.

Helpful if you didn't have one of those Soundblaster thingies ;)

Haha! That's awesome. I had no idea that existed for windows. I wonder if it runs on Windows 8...

Also, as it turns out, same thing also exists for Linux. The snd-pcsp module provides that feature and is in the Kernel.

Unfortunately not, but those graphics certainly match the era.

This game's camera was behind the craft, so no POV shots from cockpit. The graphics were truly more mundane than any of these though. It must have been an independent release/demo I came across that never developed into anything significant since there is nothing. It's too bad, my best friend and I played for hours even though there was really no point to the game from what we could tell.

There was Spectre VR, and Chaos VR. Chaos was an unfinished demo with no goals. There were enemies and places that spawned infinitely. You were a flying ship and could shoot and barrel roll etc. I think there were some kinds of powerups. Infinite lives, but again, no score or goal. Still fantastic fun to play.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131708/runtime_mipmap_...

As I recall you could actually press a button to go between cockpit/external views. There were a few versions too - I think the VR was a much later addition.

http://www.applefritter.com/node/14284

Yes! Thank you very much for this information and the links.

I am very glad I spent hours configuring a working virtual machine for classic Mac OS last year and that I did not get rid of it!

The unfinished demo and open ended nature of it was totally part of the appeal for me. Infinite map/enemies and no goal was just kind of a relaxing way to play ( for hours and hours ).

Seriously, thank you again!

Within 10 seconds of loading it up, I had already glitched into a wall and trapped myself in a box. Yep, that's nostalgia.

Does anyone else know of a small game called Hover by Eric Undersander? I spent so many hours playing it. Too bad it's closed source and not maintained; it'd be awesome on smartphones.

Did the original Hover used acceleration-based controls? I don't remember that; I recall it being much easier to control...

Thats basically what made Hover a cool game, you "hovered" around the level. That was basically what made it challenging

I immediately flew out of the map after collecting some speed boost (I was just on a black infinite plane and the map floating above me). I guess the collision detection code needs to some refactor. I wasn't able to get back on there. That's when I closed the tab, after ~40 secs.

Awesome QA for a company of that size & resources. Wtf.

Flynn?

The author is answering questions on reddit: https://pay.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1nl5nk/i_worked_wi...

I really like it but two remarks: -they changed the graphics (it's no longer "pixelated") -I think the physics are slightly different but maybe I don't really remember

Since I first discovered Hover on my old win 95 disc, I've dreamed of a multiplayer mode. At last.

Works for me in Safari 6.1 on Lion

My MacBook is so old it doesn't even have a GPU. NICE.

Tried to drive up a set of stairs; was promptly placed inside the geometry.

Somebody know the name of the song of the soundtrack?

What are the controls?? Where are the instructions??

What's with the snarky title?

Funny how all these MS HTML5 websites can be visited only with MS latest browser... latest chrome on Windows, it asks me to download IE11 , i'll pass... that's not how you promote open standards , you make them work on all browsers... unless you dont care ...

Worked fine in Firefox 24.

Worked fine for me in 30.0.1599.66 m .

Works fine on Chrome for me.

Chrome on a Mac: works fine for me. It doesn't like Safari, however.

Never heard of this game. Probably because I was playing Spectre VR on a Mac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(video_game)) around that time, which this is a total unabashed knockoff of. Can't Microsoft NOT copy something for a change?

>Can't Microsoft NOT copy something for a change?

I don't think this particular criticism is fair since the copying was done ~18 years ago.

These games look nothing alike,

Spectre VR http://www.myabandonware.com/media/captures/S/spectre-vr/spe...

Hover http://www.stanford.edu/~cammat/HOVER/images/screenshot001.J...

Have you taken your medication?

If you actually played both the games you'd realize they are really similar. Capture the flag from the cockpit of a 'tank' with various power-ups you can run over to activate against an opposing force. Sure, in one you shoot, and in the other you do not. And the graphics in the browser above look more like the graphics in Spectre than the screenshot you link to.

Spectre, a game about battling hovertanks, was ripped off by Hover, a game with no weapons and no damage? What?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com