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I'm really excited about this. I have been a pusher for updating old games / reducing prices on old games, so this sounds really cool. The only thing is finding the original author - Nathan may have the rights to the game, and thus you can't publish without his consent.
So am I... Although I'm on a windows box right now, so I don't expect to be able to play it anyway.
I'm still flyin a Mac. I do hope you'll keep at Ares X. It sounds great. My old OS9 machine will die someday, so I'll need Ares X then! Always glad to help if you need testing or some such thing.
I've been playing Ares for a very long time, and I had thought of this notion of a new Ares many times. Wistfully. I'm so excited that there are indeed people who remember Ares! I hate that it's pretty much obsolete now. I have a iMac G5 OS X and an old G3 with OS 9. Unfortunately, the G3 couldn't connect to the internet if it tried to. I'd love to test this when it's ready. I'd love to help, but I have very limited C knowledge, as I just jumped in. I also am learned in a language called Revolution if it's any use. I also have Photoshop skills, but I only have CS1. However, I've never tried my hand at Ares graphics.
A note about Biggerplanet: don't you think it's sad that they don't mention Ares anywhere on their site, but they still have some love for it; their game Starbase Defender has several elements from Ares, such as PK Beams!
This post has been edited by Fractal : 02 August 2008 - 04:00 PM
@bmac, on Jul 20 2008, 04:58 PM, said in ARES X:
@fractal, on Jul 30 2008, 12:57 PM, said in ARES X:
I've been playing Ares for a very long time, and I had thought of this notion of a new Ares many times. Wistfully. I'm so excited that there are indeed people who remember Ares! I hate that it's pretty much obsolete now. I have a iMac G5 OS X and an old G3 with OS 9. Unfortunately, the G3 couldn't connect to the internet if it tried to. I'd love to test this when it's ready. I'd love to help, but I have very limited C knowledge, as I just jumped in. I also am learned in a language called Revolution if it's any use. I also have Photoshop skills, but I only have CS1. However, I've never tried my hand at Ares graphics. A note about Biggerplanet: don't you think it's sad that they don't mention Ares anywhere on their site, but they still have some love for it; their game Starbase Defender has several elements from Ares, such as PK Beams!
sorry it took me a while to get back to you, I forgot about this topic, but Quake is platform-independant, so bmac, being on a windows box is a non-issue (but I'm looking for coders, not players right now). @Fractal, decent knowledge of C and programming logic is all you need, there are no special carbon/apple-specific libs, and all the SDL code was wrapper-ed by Id nicely. Try to compile the Quake 3 engine on your own for any system (windows, OSX, or linux) if you really want to help.
I'm back. Sorry for my several month furlough, I was glad to see you hadn't given up after I disappeared gavin83209. I have some prelim models that I will upload over the next few days. I haven't done any work with the material editors yet, so they look super glossy, but at least you can get the idea.
-eveningtoast
just wanted to make some noise for the awesomeness that was/is Ares.
I've always been disappointed that it was never ported to OS X
Yeah! Let me play Ares again!
@tesqua, on Jun 30 2008, 02:40 PM, said in ARES X:
I am thrilled to read that others remember this game Ares. Now about an OS X version, wouldn't you need the source code to do a "true" conversion? I know that Bungie was willing to release their code of Myth 2: Soulblighter and dedicated fans made a polished OS X version of the game. Great idea! Ambrosia on the other hand, has failed to update their great games that I PAID for: Barrack, Slithereens, Cythera, and Ares.
Come on Ambrosia, update Ares to OS X pleeeeeease. Or release the source code and let some fans do the work for you. You might just rekindle my interest in your company if you do. Ares was the most recent Ambrosia game I paid for, because nothing since has been as good. And I can't even play it!
I registered Ares so long ago that I think it was done with my father's email address... one that I don't think he has anymore, but i would totally be willing to pay for a new OS X version.
I don't mean to shoot down any ideas for a sequal but honestly I just want an OS X port so I can play it again. I don't think I ever was good enough to actually beat the game, though I could probably do it now
just can't play it anymore though : \
I understand that lawyer stuff might come into play here as far as who owns the code goes, but I'd really appreciate it if ambrosia could do whatever they can.
Though I haven't registered any of their games since EV: Nova, this would really renew my faith in ambrosia
Wow! http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php...87960&st=25 was a trip to the past!
Ares X would be sweet, no doubt. Shamefully, it'll never happen.
lol.
@shrout1, on Sep 24 2008, 06:51 AM, said in ARES X:
The last post in that thread was from 2004. Maybe we could find someone to do it now?
Unfortunately, now we have to worry about intel macs. However, if we're lucky an OS X port for PPC would run well in rosetta (i hope).
Maybe we should make some noise on the Ambrosia Banter forum? What do you think?
edit: btw, any programs that we could possibly use to run Ares, such as SheepShaver or Basilisk II don't appear to have been updated in a long time : \
This post has been edited by redsteven : 24 September 2008 - 08:36 PM
I've played Ares in Sheepshaver and Basilisk II on a fast Intel machine - both are too slow for effective play. And certainly you couldn't use any plugs with them.
@lord-commander-anic, on Sep 28 2008, 06:07 PM, said in ARES X:
They're too slow? really? Well that sucks. I've got a first gen intel iMac so if you can't play it, I probably can't.
Thanks for letting us know though.
They said it couldn't be done... that there were too many obstacles standing in the way. BUT THEY WERE WRONG.
I've been in contact with Nathan Lamont, the developer of Ares. He has agreed to release much of the source code for us if we meet one condition first: convert the sprites to PNGs.
Here's a copy of the last email I received from him:
Quote
From: Nathan Lamont Subject: Re: Ares revival Date: October 21, 2008 11:13:16 AM EDT To: (removed)
OK, you may go ahead and try to find someone to convert the sprites to PNGs. The following additional conditions apply:
you're on your own, meaning, basically, don't make Ambrosia or me regret it:
nobody should try to contact Ambrosia regarding anything about Ares' code, under any circumstances. They don't want to deal with it or have to forward emails to me, and they don't know anything about the code anyway
emailing me about the code probably won't do you any good; it's unlikely that I will know the answer unless it's self evident (and therefore shouldn't have been asked), and less likely that I will be interested in figuring it out
if the "challenge" is met, then I will release as much code as is practical, meaning: there will be certain files I cannot release because they relate to Ambrosia's registration system, and further there may be old library files that I may not have laying around any more; e.g. I recall that Ares used a utility library by Apple called MoreFiles. I have no idea if I still have that library lying around, but it's probably no longer relevant anyway.
(removed) / mac software & web development
On Oct 17, 2008, at 7:58 PM, Steven Edwards wrote:
Alright man. Thanks for the prompt response.
By the way... you did a great job on it. The game was a lot of fun
On Oct 17, 2008, at 2:30 PM, Nathan Lamont wrote:
What I mean is, the graphics, sounds, text, etc. would not be "open sourced" -- they would still only be distributed as part of the original Ares package. Whatever was made open and free would need to operate on those original support files.
Let me run it by Ambrosia before you make that public. I'll get back to you.
On Oct 17, 2008, at 2:07 PM, Steven Edwards wrote:
BTW, what do you mean "the code could be open sourced, but not the support files" (what are support files)?
Also, do I have your permission to post this correspondence on the Ambrosia message boards to recruit somebody to convert the sprites to PNGs?
I'm probably gonna post this a link to this thread on the Ambrosia Banter forum to get more attention.
EDIT: removed Nathan's and my own email address from the post
This post has been edited by redsteven : 21 October 2008 - 09:28 PM
Alright, so does anyone know exactly how to uh... convert the sprites?
I have access to some old macs (with 604 PPC processors) that I could open Ares with if I needed to.
I'm gonna be sort of busy this week but if this will necessitate running OS 9 I can do it this weekend.
(forgive the triple post but these are special circumstances)
This post has been edited by redsteven : 21 October 2008 - 05:01 PM
What files does Ares have in the folder? Is there a file called "Ares Graphics" or something? Open it in Resedit and see what's in there.
Also the editor, Hera, would probably be a lot of help. It might even have a way to access the sprites. Basically, converting them to PNG should not be much of a problem at all as long as they're accessible. Unfortunately I have an Intel Mac so I can't poke around with it and figure it out.
That's true Rickton. One could manually convert every spirit by hand.
I can do it; I've got a MDD G4 with Ares and an OS 9/OS X dual boot system primed and ready. The latest I can have them to you is Saturday, but that date could change depending on how much homework I have and how many sprites are in Ares. I've got Resedit (Can't use it but I'm a fast learner) so if Hera can't do it (doubt it; it's a very powerful program) I can fall back to other means, but like all things that are free, it'll take time.
This post has been edited by JacaByte : 21 October 2008 - 06:26 PM
@zamzx-zik, on Oct 21 2008, 06:21 PM, said in ARES X:
Not really as bad a problem as it sounds, there are ways to rapidly convert large batches of graphics.
A quick google search revealed a few programs that look like they can convert large batches, but I'm assuming most are for windows. JacaByte, if you've ALSO got an intel mac (or a PC) it's possible that that would be the fastest way to do it.
You'll still need your PPC to access the files in the first place unless you have an existing Ares installation sitting around, because you of course can't open the VISE Ares installer on an intel mac
BTW, I just wanna thank you guys for the quick responses
This post has been edited by redsteven : 21 October 2008 - 09:25 PM