The Thread Of Randomness

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Help - I am suffering from a "too many ideas error"

Just started another project (very, very large scenario map) before I finished the previous one (very large scenario map) and with at least 2-3 NewGRFs not fully finished and tested

This is basically my life.
My most recent thing is to try recreating the old SimCity spin off, SimFarm, but for modern computers and not 16bit / DOS machines like the original . Unfortunately the asset pack i am using currently means i cannot make it an Open game like OpenTTD & OpenRCT2. I have no artistic talent, so spinning up some open source props isn't possible I'm not spending any money and trying to reuse assets i bought for other stuff (hurray starting and never finishing), and as it turns out I have basic 3D farm assets already available to me. Although some of the crops & trees are very hard to tell apart either in general, or when using the top down style of camera of the original. I considered and to a degree did reverse engineer SimFarm (thank you to Ghidra) to rip the original graphics, but i quickly determined reusing that graphics style & camera is very... uh early 90s (SimFarm was 1993), and figured i'd get no interest if i reused that. So i just used Ghidra to work out the basic mechanics of the game instead, and didn't reuse anything directly. I have a long way to go, but i am trying my hardest. Finding interest is the hardest thing, so my motivation is low but that is always the issue i run into.

I'm also currently trying to spin up a transport sim browser game where players bid to take on real world routes (bus & rail so far), and also a browser version of the forum game guess the station, which is pretty much complete & working.

[ebla71]

This is basically my life.
My most recent thing is to try recreating the old SimCity spin off, but for modern computers and not 16bit / DOS machines like the original

I considered and to a degree did reverse engineer SimFarm, but i quickly determined reusing that graphics style & camera is very... uh early 90s (SimFarm was 1993)

Wow - if something is really retro, then this. It's even retro-retro, I'd say

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Wow - if something is really retro, then this. It's even retro-retro, I'd say

It's so retro i could not even use x32/64dbg to real-time debug the original game to see it firing off things in real time, as my Windows 11 machine didn't even offer me the opportunity to install the DOS or 16 bit requirements to run the executable, it just went "na, i ain't even going to attempt to run this or give you any help to run this". It's why I had to resort to using Ghidra to decompile the original files. I could play the original using DOSBOX, but where is the fun in that?! I saw an opportunity to try making a spiritual successor or followup to it.

It looks very retro, but honestly it was quite an in-depth simulator for 1993, the ideal amount of micro-management without being too in-depth or too... not? I spent a while looking around, and there was never a SimFarm 2, or anything to follow it up, it all went to things like Farming Simulator, where you're actually driving the tractor, rather than focusing on not doing that. I have a driving licence, if i want to drive a tractor do you know what I can do? Drive a real tractor.

Such retro graphics, really takes me back. Bare in mind I was playing this at the same time as Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 & 2 and Transport Tycoon Deluxe, massively different graphics, but I loved them all on my little first PC, a Pentium 1, 133MHz and an ATI RAGE PRO graphics card with a glorious 16MB of VRAM.

I love how instead of trying to make the crop visibly noticeable they just go "...uh so that doesn't work in these graphics, here is a logo and a physical image of a carrot or potato so you know whats what". They improvised & overcame to the max with what they had available with their ability, funds & hardware of 1993.

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[ebla71]

Such retro graphics, really takes me back. Bare in mind I was playing this at the same time as Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 & 2 and Transport Tycoon Deluxe, massively different graphics, but I loved them all on my little first PC, a Pentium 1, 133MHz and an ATI RAGE PRO graphics card with a glorious 16MB of VRAM.

So you think a Pentium 1 is retro???

Then take my first PC below

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Then take my first PC below

Even nicer!

Hardest thing about the project is figuring out where to start. I'd love to know how actual games companies plot out, design & write in a specific order. My brain is just fried figuring out what to do, where i can even start & build from, so i never start as i don't know where. I will think "oh! i can do this!" but its like "..oh but then i need to do this first, so that makes sense or functions anyway"

[ebla71]

And this was one of the first games I played (and loved), beyond "Donkey Kong" on an Atari 2600 or something

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And this was one of the first games I played (and loved), beyond "Donkey Kong" on an Atari 2600 or something

Ultima_IV.png

The first console I played was my grandmothers old Commodore 64GS from 1990. Which is now incredibly valuable, so i wish i'd kept that around ¬_¬
Then I had a Megadrive (yay sonic), then PS1/2, then i discovered the glory of PC gaming.

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I have been inspired.
To put googly eyes on statues & monuments!

Absolute works of art.

[orudge]

My most recent thing is to try recreating the old SimCity spin off, SimFarm, but for modern computers and not 16bit / DOS machines like the original .

I loved SimFarm as a kid, it was a great fun. I had the Windows version (which did run under Windows 3.1), but there was a classic Mac OS version too (68K) which I discovered some years later. I used to like getting the crop duster and flying my plane all over the place.

Good luck with your project!

So you think a Pentium 1 is retro???

Then take my first PC below

Heh. I had an AMSTRAD 1640 as my first PC, with the two 5.25" floppy drives (no hard disk for me, alas). That was a good machine. Then a few years later we got a Dell 386, with MS-DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1, and it was on that machine that we later discovered Transport Tycoon (and indeed SimFarm). And, well, here I am now, eh?

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Good luck with your project!

Thank ye!
After consulting with a friend, we decided it is probably actually easier to recreate it in Unity, with it being (on the surface) quite simple, rather than spending ages trying to decompile it. So I've started going that, using assets i already have to keep costs down, at least for now. We're still running the original executable on Windows to try working out what leads to what in debuggers, also sidenote; we managed to get it to work on Vista of all things without extra stuff. Finally, Vista is coming up on top. I'm not sure it'll run on anything newer than that though, I think Win 7 dumped a lot of the old 16 bit ancient stuff the Windows version of SimFarm requires, either 7 or 8 will have been its death.

The game is A LOT more in-depth than I recalled at first. You can select anywhere in the United States as your location, for example, and that affects stats that affect your entire game. Miami apparently suffers everything all at once, non-stop. Farm vehicles degrade over time, more so if they're not kept indoors. Each crop has sometimes wildly different output, but one thing I was not expecting to examine and need to recode, is how often cows decide to "get it on" and self-replicate.

I'm currently using, as i said, stock assets i already own, which is handy. But it also means the original plan of releasing as an 'open source' thing, may not work out with the licence of that. I will need to investigate the specifics.

[orudge]

I suspect SimFarm might work on modern versions of 64-bit Windows with something like winevdm or win3mu. These projects include a CPU emulator, and translate Win16 API calls to Win32, with a reasonable amount of success.

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I suspect SimFarm might work on modern versions of 64-bit Windows with something like winevdm or win3mu. These projects include a CPU emulator, and translate Win16 API calls to Win32, with a reasonable amount of success.

I had previously attempted with winevdm, but it is rather unstable. Sometimes it runs for a while, and sometimes it crashes within about 30 seconds.

In other news, oh gosh. This is so much more detailed than I remember from my teen years!

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[Chrill]

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-acq ... -tycoon-ip

How did I miss this? Atari has bought the rights to Transport Tycoon.

Atari has made an agreement with veteran games developer Chris Sawyer to acquire his iconic management game Transport Tycoon.

While the company did not specify any future plans for the IP, Atari said has a "long-term plan to preserve and expand this classic sim," potentially including new digital and physical releases of the original games, developing new content or standalone titles, and merchandising opportunities.

"We are honored that Chris has entrusted us with Transport Tycoon, and our team is committed to both honoring and advancing his groundbreaking creation," said chairman and CEO Wade Rosen.

[orudge]

Hmm, intriguing. I wonder if Transport Tycoon is likely to pop up on Steam under DOSBox or something!

[Chrill]

We shall call our forums the "Transport games in a tycoon style Forums" going forward.

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How did I miss this? Atari has bought the rights to Transport Tycoon.

I hope OpenTTD is distant enough from the original at this point they'd have no reason, or no legal basis if they did try to go after it. Wouldn't see it as a potential dampener on their profits worth going for if they did decide to do something with the IP.

Atari are sadly not the most well known for living in legal peace & harmony and letting things be.

[orudge]

Atari have owned the rights for RCT for some time I believe (and sells it on Steam), but OpenRCT2 still appears to be a thing.

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Atari have owned the rights for RCT for some time I believe (and sells it on Steam), but OpenRCT2 still appears to be a thing.

That is true, and I know, for I use OpenRCT2! Great little addition it is.

Most recently Atari have decided to take on State Farm after they showed an arcade machine of one of their titles, the arcade unit is definitely from Crystal Castles, although they retitled the top logo to "Witches Broom".
So, Atari are keeping busy.

[vear]

Long time since I last posted here. And yet, a short visit to my all-time favourite thread and such an interesting news regarding Atari's acquistion lies above!

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve and I'll be spending the afternoon at work, someone's gotta keep an eye on them aircraft above. Since I last posted here, I've become an Air Traffic Controller and after a few years, I still pretty much still love the job.

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Well, it's time for my first insurance claim! Accidentally clipped a transit van after it decided to park on a sharp corner. Finally, I have valid reason to claim on an insurance i spend so much paying every month for everything

Apparently because the car is relatively new (Oct, 2023) the parts in it are probably worth a lot so the insurance might write it off and sell it for that value instead of just patch it up. Although I hope they're not banking on the clutch being good condition, I'm not the best at clutch control