18 replies to this topic

[Coug-it]

Well, it may be time to dig out that old copy of Oni...

There's an interview on the Macgamer website (yes, they cover Mac gaming again)
with Edwin Smith from Feral Interactive about patching the old Oni title to run
under Mac OS X 10.6:

http://www.macgamer....ain-oni-returns

There's also a comment at the end about possibly patching some other old PPC games to run
native on Intel hardware.

[ltcommander.data]

Since they don't have the North-American rights to Oni will this still work for the NA release?

I wonder what are the chances that Rosetta will still be available for Lion? It was only an optional install in Snow Leopard. Not including Rosetta will allow Apple to remove all the PPC versions of the various frameworks, which they'd probably prefer from a space and maintenance perspective. I wonder if renewed interest in a second wave of PPC>Intel ports is because developers know what is coming or not coming in this case? Personally, number 1 on my list of games that would need an Intel native version is Rosetta is not included in Lion is Starcraft.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

I would LOVE Oni on my iPad..

[devSin]

That's the one thing I was wondering too (if Apple is going to abandon Rosetta in Lion). I hope it's there for one more version. But that has nothing to do with an Oni update; this Intel build has been in development for, like, forever.

I think WoW keeps the Mac team too busy these days to do things like Intel versions of the legacy games and fixing StarCraft II. I even recently tried playing Warcraft III on my old 10.4.11 PPC Mac, and after updating to 1.24e, all it would do is crash when trying to bring up the options screen, stupid Blizzard.

Oni was fun, but the environments are so bland and lifeless. It's just not worth revisiting IMO.

I think the source Feral is working with is Omni Group's port. It will work for everyone.

Surely they don't have distribution rights for iPad. Whoever owns the IP would sue and probably bankrupt Feral.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

I don't like rosetta and I don't count games running in it as being 10.6 compatible since I've had bad experience with it even running old games such as id tech 3 titles and older Unreal Engine games. I've found time and time again if it's not a native version running it in a WINE based wrapper peforms better than trying to run an old PPC version in WINE and has more configuration options that I can tweak to have better settings on newer hardware ironically. There are certain Unreal Engine 1\2 games that where ported to PPC Mac that are allergic to advanced .ini tweaking and will reset it to only the settings allowed in the GUI like for even things such as resolution.... but the PC version in a wrapper doesn't do that. Even games like Max Payne perform better wrapped. So most of the time I don't need rosetta and personally wouldn't shed a tear if it was gone in Lion. But that's just me and if it works for others then I don't begrudge them the choice... but yeah.

It's nice that Feral is picking up at least one of those games that were ported by Omni group and are patching it because for all intents and purposes they abandoned their ports and I didn't think a single one was going to ever get patched again. In fact I was listening to an interview one time where Omni basically said porting games is just a good way to get started and once you have the hang of it you move onto making serious non-gaming applications.

[Matt Diamond]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 30 December 2010 - 06:22 PM, said:

It's nice that Feral is picking up at least one of those games that were ported by Omni group and are patching it

Ooh, maybe they'll do Giants: Citizen Kabuto next! :-)

(I do hope Oni comes out though. Would like to play that again.)

[Cobra]

Still really hoping for a Ghost Master patch from Feral although I'm probably the only one.
As for other games by other companies StarCraft, Space Colony, Gangland, and Gorky 17 would be great.

[Wumpus]

Cobra, on 01 January 2011 - 06:55 PM, said:

Still really hoping for a Ghost Master patch from Feral although I'm probably the only one.
As for other games by other companies StarCraft, Space Colony, Gangland, and Gorky 17 would be great.

Gorky 17, now there's one I haven't heard in awhile, or played in awhile. Seriously doubt that would get patched, was never that popular as far as I know. But we can always hope!

[Mister Mumbles]

Cobra, on 01 January 2011 - 06:55 PM, said:

As for other games by other companies StarCraft...

? Last I checked it runs just fine in 10.6, though the editor has never been updated for OS X.

[Cobra]

Cool to see I'm not the only one who liked Gorky 17 on here Wumpus.

Mister Mumbles, on 02 January 2011 - 12:17 AM, said:

? Last I checked it runs just fine in 10.6, though the editor has never been updated for OS X.

Yeah, StarCraft is fine for now... just worried about 10.7.

[Sargiel]

I bought Gorky 17 for the mac a few months back but was unable to get it to work in 10.6. Was a little bit frustrating that I'd have had more joy from the PC version via crossover

[edddeduck]

devSin, on 30 December 2010 - 04:51 PM, said:

I think the source Feral is working with is Omni Group's port. It will work for everyone.

Yes it is, as mentioned in the article, Ken Case at Omni passed over the code he had been working on and his work is the basis of mine but this is a side project by myself rather than an all out effort by Feral programmers. It has been done all in my spare time with a little help from a few Oni fans & Ferals permission to work on it. Hope to have the patch out near the end of Jan once this rush dies down as I have very little spare time right now to finish off the last bits.

The patch will contain sparkle for future updates and should also have FSAA support plus a few other nice surprises for people who install mods.

Cheers,

Edwin

[Janichsan]

edddeduck, on 04 January 2011 - 10:07 AM, said:

Yes it is, as mentioned in the article, Ken Case at Omni passed over the code he had been working on and his work is the basis of mine but this is a side project by myself rather than an all out effort by Feral programmers. It has been done all in my spare time with a little help from a few Oni fans & Ferals permission to work on it.

I know that you are working on this for quite a while now and it's good to see it finally comes into fruition. Definitely looking forward to dig my Oni disc out again.

[edddeduck]

Janichsan, on 04 January 2011 - 11:14 AM, said:

I know that you are working on this for quite a while now and it's good to see it finally comes into fruition. Definitely looking forward to dig my Oni disc out again.

Thanks, I am looking forward to shipping it as well after making the promise I would ship it this month!

Edwin

[edt_oni]

I've been testing the Intel Oni and its running great in 10.6.6

Here is an example of FSAA with a HD version of Konoko:



Konoko HD is not part of the Intel update, you will need to install Anniversary Edition and then the Konoko HD package.

[Cougar]

Oni was a fun game, but I could never get past that circular room with all the lasers and the terminals you had to hack.

[Tesseract]

Cougar, on 24 January 2011 - 04:12 AM, said:

Oni was a fun game, but I could never get past that circular room with all the lasers and the terminals you had to hack.

I have to admit I stopped playing for a while when I hit that part. It's a real speed bump in the game's learning curve.

It takes a few tries to pick up the pattern of the beams and get used to making the jumps, but once you get it it's not as hard as it seems at first.

On a tangentially related note, I played Red Steel 2 recently and it reminded me of Oni in multiple ways. The art style, the mix of guns and close combat, and, unfortunately, the fact that they shipped a game that wasn't really finished.

[JohnB]

yes-right you are- I played Oni on console and got through part of it, and liked it-despite the learning curve

Oh, and if I could ask a favor-could you post a link to the article? I tried to find it and no go

finally, what is this Anniversary Edition of what you speak? Konoko HD, Intel update...?

your picture promises much happiness, but your words leave me confused....

thanks

JohnB
(still stuck with a ton of classic games, all originals)

[Smoke_Tetsu]

I really like the recent'ish intel Oni patch and some of the HD stuff they've been coming up with. However I wish all the models where HD remakes like the konoko one most of the rest are just reskins of the head basically.... and of course not all the levels have great remade HD textures like is available for the training level either.

But the intel patch does work real good even on Lion.