I talk about my work on making Arcanum a native Windows 10 executable...and why I cannot release it.
Пікірлер: 306
@MandaloreGaming8 ай бұрын
These changes sound so promising. I'd love to see a proper re-release happen
@realbillyb8 ай бұрын
Hey, it’s the King of Limbo!
@valdenn30738 ай бұрын
@@realbillyb still one of the best videos on YT.
@Alamar18 ай бұрын
Ayyy MandaloreGaming. Your Arcanum review is simply wonderful.
@CainOnGames8 ай бұрын
Thanks. I love your review of Arcanum. Our reach then may have exceeded our grasp…but our grasp is longer now.
@GGPoohBah8 ай бұрын
Well we meet again, Mr. Mandalore...
@LandBark8 ай бұрын
Okay, we need to make a petition to Microsoft, to give permission to release the changes that Tim Cain implemented (all packed in Arcanum TC: Ultimate Edition mod). The changes made sound amazing, would play this revitalised version of Arcanum.
@SCARaw8 ай бұрын
use unofficial arcanum patch and universal setup mods it will work
@whiteegretx8 ай бұрын
I'll sign that petition
@alpha007org8 ай бұрын
Microsoft talks big about preservation of old games. This could be one small step to actually do something about it.
@tezzy55848 ай бұрын
There's surely someone we can get ahold of at Microsoft? Letting the creator of Fallout do a passion project with a 20 year old game would be good publicity for them if nothing else.
@alpha007org8 ай бұрын
@@tezzy5584 I'm down. Let's go hunting.
@mementomori7718 ай бұрын
With Microsoft gaining ownership of Activision and by extension Arcanum I'm hopeful we will someday get an enhanced edition of this classic
@waltarron8 ай бұрын
It makes me feel so happy to see the game i deeply loved still being cared by its developer, you sir are truly a legend.
@Marandal8 ай бұрын
Exactly, i couldn't stop smiling at how awsome it is.
@MortismalGaming8 ай бұрын
That was really cool, hope Microsoft sees it!
@Carcerian8 ай бұрын
I would LOVE to see Arcanum Enhanced Edition!
@ruskyandrei8 ай бұрын
You're a gem Tim. I hope Microsoft gives you a chance to bring some of these amazing games back to life!
@robcampion99178 ай бұрын
Would love a sequel and/or remake of Arcanum.
@maksimkharbyshev452529 күн бұрын
bro i will be really happy if that happens!!!
@knastrarn8 ай бұрын
Would be lovely to have the turn based combat of Arcanum be as rigid at the turn based combat from Fallout 1.
@CaptmagiKono8 ай бұрын
Just going to say, I really liked the "sort" function in Arcanum's inventory when I played it recently. Always liked the grid-based inventory system like in Diablo 2, and having an nice sort function was pretty neat to see.
@Marandal8 ай бұрын
I couldn't stop smiling. Your passion and joy for playing with the source code is contaigous. Arcanum is one of my favorite games & just hearing the fun you're having was enough to make me super happy.
@PointReflex8 ай бұрын
If my memory serves me, Arcanum used Direct Draw for pretty much everything under DirectX 7 or 8 (since i don't think DX9 existed at the time). However the Unofficial Patch includes a high resolution mod that replaces the old and more than broken ddraw.dll with a modern one wich allows the game to run under higher resolutions and manage the framerate and mouse sensibility (among other things like switch between software or hardware render). While there are still some graphical bugs (like the characters turning into a mismatch of broken pixels when you steal their gear out off their cold corpses) and memory related lag (like in the Dark Elves City having severe lag when other characters are movin on screen), the game is stable enough to not crash a single bit in the last two playthroughts I had just recently.
@gonza6668 ай бұрын
We need a remaster version of this masterpiece like the one they did for Diablo II! 🙏🙏🙏
@walfordfiore5 ай бұрын
I also love these two games
@sneugler8 ай бұрын
It’s great seeing Arcanum getting some love, I for one would be thrilled to see the game being modernized, optimized, and bugfixed. Even with the patches it’s still a very hard game to get and keep running. You could even make it a video series :)
@patrickboutin92688 ай бұрын
If the rights aren't for sale - let's talk "spiritual successor!" - let's kickstart this thing!!!
@StrikeSvenАй бұрын
My favourite game of all time. Still give it go yearly. Keeping my eye on your channel dear sir.
@peadarmcmahon12758 ай бұрын
MandaloreGaming has a great video on Arcanum, and has some good tips to get it to run smoothly. Thank you for all the great lessons Tim!
@valdenn30738 ай бұрын
Warlockracy also has a great Arcanum video. His channel covers several classic CRPG’s as well as mods.
@pnutz_28 ай бұрын
@@SpaceDwarf45 ah yes, mandalore's mister hyde alter-ego I didn't realise why mandalore-without-his-meds was making the jokes about the gnomes until I saw regular mandalore's video and learned of the International Gnomish Conspiracy. Dunno how that would fly nowdays...
@FathDaniel8 ай бұрын
@@SpaceDwarf45Sseth review is succinct but I loved Mandy's review more.
@TrueNeutralEvGenius8 ай бұрын
All the mentioned videos about Arcanum under this comment section suck, they are all awful.
@fgfsgdomagerd8 ай бұрын
imho the Russian RPG Mandalore has the best Arcanum video, but he's longform, so it's kind of cheating...
@cburger4life1448 ай бұрын
These videos are truly a highlight of my day. Particularly the Arcanum vids. And, oh my gosh, hearing about you working on it after all the years is really something. Would be amazing to see an Arcanum Enhanced Edition or something. But even if it’s just these updates on your personal projects, thank you for sharing with us.
@Hurlebatte8 ай бұрын
I've spent some time imagining a version of Arcanum where updates never stopped. I like to imagine what Arcanum could be with decades of content and fine-tuning. It's not realistic, of course, but it's a fun idea to me.
@nevernerevarine80718 ай бұрын
It would be simply amazing if the work you did/are doing on Arcanum made it out to the rest of us one day. The game is a masterpiece, it just needs polish
@GypsumGeneration8 ай бұрын
Thanks for sharing Tim! I hope to play these modern updates to your games someday.
@MrZoichi8 ай бұрын
Arcanum is worth it's (figurative) weight in gold. I need to try to get it working again so I can play a Tech-only playthrough. Thank you for the many hours of joy in this game!
@WolfHreda8 ай бұрын
The Shocking Staff is bonkers, especially in real-time. But it eats through batteries super quickly. If you want to use the Electric discipline, prioritize the schematics for charges. One is in the Chemistry branch, the other can be bought at Inventor Shops. Enjoy.
@daemir21438 ай бұрын
I would pay money to get a Tim Cain edition of Arcanum, any day of the week.
@scarletina51378 ай бұрын
To me you an absolute genius and I LOVE that you are doing this for Arcanum which was always my favourite game growing up!
@user-uz6dy3mj7o7 ай бұрын
Tim, in any case, I look forward to continuing the game from you. The games you took part in are my favorite.
@sebastiangajdzinski6297 ай бұрын
Great to see that you still got a lot of love for Arcanum. :) It's my all-time favourite, and as a dev myself my greatest dream is to make a sequel, prequel or whatever for it. In highschool I created very basic system for tabletop rpg in Arcanum and played a few sessions with friends. Also working on Shrouded Hills as a kind of a proof of concept in Unity, but that goes terribly slow as I work on too many things at once in general. :D
@Norpal7 ай бұрын
Regarding the bit about game balance: I remember the most brokenly OP thing I ever had in this game was that one dog you could acquire as a pet. That good boy just absolutely demolished *everything*.
@davidcolby1678 ай бұрын
As a hardcore turn based player, ditching realtime sounds win win to me! EDIT: Oh, also, being able to control your NPCs would be AMAZING.
@backslashzero8 ай бұрын
Hey Tim In Fallout 1, was the "Tell Me About" box originally going to have more of an impact? I remember trying it a bit, then forgetting about it and completing the game without ever using it again. Any other features in games that you wish you could have expanded on. Also, I think you are awesome, and I hope that even though there's lots of complaining, or trolls, you know there's tons of people who watch your videos and think you're just the cat's meow but don't post anything. I'm sure you'd get tired of the praise. Thanks for the informative videos
@StodgyAyatollah8 ай бұрын
I'd speculate it's implementation was due to Tim's history with MUDs and was left in a sort of vestigial state due to being ignored by the team as a whole, much like you and everyone else did while playing. I think he may have brought it up in a previous video but not sure.
@Jaqinta8 ай бұрын
My older cousin showed me a some joke on that when you use that feature on esspecially on aradesh and tell him that Stupid Aradesh , he responds as yes it's me :D
@backslashzero8 ай бұрын
@@StodgyAyatollah Thanks for the reply. That makes sense. Each play through I'd first wonder if it had importance, then forget it exists. I hope to run across that previous video you mentioned, I'm going through all his videos so I'll find it eventually.
@zakatalmosen59846 ай бұрын
Don't know if you're aware of this but there's various topics of conversation you can only breach with tell-me-abouts, you can find a list around somewhere. I'm not 100% on this but I seem to remember you could even solve the crop rotation quest in Shady Sands by typing "crop rotation", allowing you to bypass the science requirement. I think you either don't get XP or you don't get +rep for it though. It's a small thing but it's interesting.
@echoness_8 ай бұрын
This is way too awesome! The industry trends are going for better graphics, more game mechanics, longer play hours. But really sometimes players just need compatibility and support update to appreciate classic games. Thank you Uncle Tim! Couldn't ask for something better.
@LTPottenger15 күн бұрын
I like the idea of a Harm spell that is low damage and low cost. That is something mages kind of lack. But the way it is now is crazy obviously. I would keep the one point method but combine each school so there's half as many. So you have to take 8 points before 9 and 10 give the top spells. The monsters going at once in arcanum is an amazing feature, just love that.
@PhaserRave8 ай бұрын
Even though you're not able to release it, it's really cool that you're doing this. We should petition Microsoft to let you patch/re-release the game (if that's what you wanted to do). I hope they do something with it.
@Ablimify8 ай бұрын
You seem really excited about this and that makes me happy! I’m sure if you can get into contact with the right people, Microsoft will allow you to release it!
@KeithBurgun8 ай бұрын
Hey Tim. Love your videos, keep it up. One thought I had about real time was, I played the game exclusively in turn based, EXCEPT if it was a "pushover" popcorn fight that I knew I would win. For those, it was kind of nice to be able to hit SPACE and just "insta-resolve" the fight. So what I would do if I were you would be to keep a "low functionality" version of real time in there, specifically for this purpose.
@amlithe8 ай бұрын
This is amazing, please never stop dreaming and please never stop loving the world. The things you create are beautiful Tim 🙂
@ILoveCiniminis8 ай бұрын
These show and tell videos I would watch all day uncle Tim. Those icon faces of people that Leonard done look wonderful. If you'd play with even vampire, that would be very cool.
@pitchforker33048 ай бұрын
Trippy, I just installed Arcanum last night! Looking forward to jumping in...
@tur13l8 ай бұрын
Dude I still remember my final battle in Arcanum, pretty epic stuff, I thought the "bad ending" was oddly written given how your interaction went with said individual, but overall I did enjoy this game quite a bit. Being able to coop multiplayer the campaign might be pretty fun but you do you sir :D
@thegreatestcait8 ай бұрын
In 3 years, on the 25th anniversary, Tim and Microsoft release a remastered version of Arcanum. Any takers?
@Ramiobomb8 ай бұрын
Me and my friend just bought it on Steam haha. Thanks a lot for your contribution to gaming and THE WORLD!!!!!
@Mordrevious8 ай бұрын
The madman actually did it. And he's threatening to do more. Tim, you're an absolute champ.
@StavrosNikolaou8 ай бұрын
You must really like teasing us Tim.. Toying around and making a better version of an already stellar game we love and telling us that we likely won't be able to play it.. 😄😂😭 Let me add my voice to those one suggesting that having access to this in some form or another would be a dream. Also, Microsoft, if you are listening, we would be happy to buy again a director's cut of this game.. just no DRM please 😊 Also +1 to making it turn based as well as every other suggestion you made except one, leave the Harm spell as is; it is funny how good it is :) Thank you for showing us this and still caring and have a wonderful day!
@Kurereha8 ай бұрын
Did you have any surprises looking at the old source of it? Anything wonderful that you've forgotten about, or horrendous spaghetti which worked, but was left in due to the sake of time? Thanks for the video as always!
@wesp58 ай бұрын
Hi Tim. Once you take a look at Bloodlines, maybe you could fix two bugs that are unconnected to the Source engine, but still unfixable by me: 1) Switching between Histories gives the starting XPs again which makes it very easy to cheat (you probably disabled the Histories due to that bug in the released game) and 2) There is a memory hole or something that makes entities appear when playing for several hours (most notable in the Skyeline Apartments map).
@elvendelusion20898 ай бұрын
A Friend and I were just talking about this game 2 days ago and how much we loved playing this! If there was a possibility of petitioning (making this possible) I would be over the moon! Absolutely fantastic game I keep recommending to all friends ❤
@Pedone_Rosso6 ай бұрын
This could tragically end up in an unwilling Leonardo move: carrying the Monnalisa around with him for years, painting and repainting over it, for nobody but himself to see and enjoy. Will people get to play "perfected" (i.e. debugged and rebalanced) Arcanum, through a preserving contraption, in the most famous museum of the 28th century, or will Microsoft wake up in a slightly faster manner than that? Thanks for your videos!
@domagojkersun96308 ай бұрын
You guys from Troika are awesome. Troika game are pure romance of RPG games. I hope you all return someday to create more awesome games. BTW...unofficial Arcanum patch makes this game playable in newer Windows. You just need to disable something, I can't remember what.
@jsivonenVR7 ай бұрын
You are a very very cruel human being, Tim. 🔥 We’ve waited for 22 years for this, and after all the niceties you listed, you say you can’t release this! 🔥🔥🔥 I honestly still have the OG packaging and booklets stashed away for Arcanum! 😢
@trystonminsquero8 ай бұрын
Hey Tim, love your videos and games! Almost done watching all of them. What do you think it takes to be a good game designer? Lots of universities offer courses, but how much do you think that really helps? And Why does it seem like people often switch to game design from other professions most often (especially with yourself as you switched from programming) Thanks for the great videos!
@Nuk4Dud36 ай бұрын
Arcanum was my very first rpg. The soundtrack, the story, the quests, the super voice acting! the world! We need a re-release for this! No wonder i fell in love with fallout after this.
@kardrasa8 ай бұрын
Thank you Tim!
@oliorogue2 ай бұрын
This would be so awesome.
@user-vr7jb6ff4q8 ай бұрын
I bought arcanum during black friday on steam, it's so far very cool, love the story, and gameplay wise it reminds me a lot of fallout 1
@karisalonen128 ай бұрын
This was one of my favourite games and I still haven't played it through. Have to rectify that!
@nerd4tw7 ай бұрын
You're a legend.
@pedjanedeljkovic70218 ай бұрын
Amazing game with amazing atmosphere!
@Orangubara8 ай бұрын
Interesting stuff :) Thanks
@zakatalmosen59846 ай бұрын
I really wish MS got on this. There was never another game like Arcanum and there probably will never be. It's almost like a lightning in a bottle, where the primitive charm of old cRPGs came together with creative and almost futuristic design ideas. Also, let's be honest, nobody will ever come up with with anything cooler than the name "Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura". I'd love to know who came up with that.
@CainOnGames6 ай бұрын
Thanks. That subtitle was my idea. It was inspired by Judges Guild module names.
@OMentertainment8 ай бұрын
Just realized the Arcanum menu and the Rage of Mages menu has very similar art
@LTPottenger15 күн бұрын
Wow, that would be something!
@billmakesgames8 ай бұрын
I have published a few mobile games built with Unity over last two years, this video makes me want to leave mobile completely and build on PC only. There is a consistent amount of work needed to be done to maintain my mobile game in the appstore which I did not know. Unity and Xcode changes so frequently that I sometimes have trouble opening my project from just a year ago, getting a bunch of new warnings/errors that I don't really know where to begin to look. Then here's Tim opening a 20 year old project, still able to compile and run because he knows how the entire thing is built. Me on the other hand, uses high level tool and when there's something wrong in the tool, I don't know how to fix it. I wouldn't be able to build anything quickly without those tools though.
@TheSoulOfLincoln8 ай бұрын
If this appears as a Mod that requires locating the original exe (for legal reasons maybe), it could be a great benefit for the community 🙌
@smmmma8 ай бұрын
Arcanum is one of my favourite games of all time. I would love to be able to play it again on a newer OS (I have never gotten a stable build to work on anything newer than xp)
@ZacHawkins42Ай бұрын
Search for the 'Unofficial Arcanum Patch', it's free and fixes a lot of bugs plus restores cut content.
@whiteegretx8 ай бұрын
ARCANUM Director's Cut
@Krashnikov8 ай бұрын
the video us Arcanum fans have been waiting for. I actually have a question regarding Arcanum, because while i've been a Fallout fan for much longer, i've only really played the bethesda titles, i've tried multiple times to play fallout and fallout 2 but they're too clunky and unintuitive for me, meanwhile, Arcanum on the other hand i found very intuitive, and i'm currently on my fourth playthrough, so I guess the question is what steps were taken to make sure Arcanum was more user friendly than fallout, if it was a conscious decision edit: might be worth mentioning i played Arcanum with the unofficial patch
@Zeropointill8 ай бұрын
I feel bad for anyone who never tried Fallout during it's heyday. Back when everything was clunky and we didn't care because we didn't know any better.
@Krashnikov8 ай бұрын
@@Zeropointill its true, there are a lot of things considered the norm back then that are very unintuitive nowadays, i REALLY want to play those games and i still try every now and then but particularly things with the UI just make it a hassle
@Celadonis-the-Lore-Seeker8 ай бұрын
I have a friend who tried Fallout 1 this year and he didn't find it too clunky, the story really appealed to him. It depends from person to person.
@silverjohn60378 ай бұрын
Personally the only things I found really clunky with Fallot 1 and 2 was the single stack inventory and not being able to highlight things on the ground without mousing directly over them. A better explanation that you could use rope's would have also helped but the actual interface once you knew that it was possible was fairly easy.
@Krashnikov8 ай бұрын
@@silverjohn6037 i think my big issue is the little messages it gives you, the first few times i played and went down into that vault that requires the ropes i didnt see the "you look around and theres nothing here" message because it scrolls away before i see it because im focused on combat or something else
@realbillyb8 ай бұрын
What significant/noticeable changes in your programming styles do you see looking at your old code versus your current work?
@JaydonVRC8 ай бұрын
"Dude is literally me if I was good at coding" - A quote from my friend, in relation to this gem of a video.
@lutherbrown88736 ай бұрын
an enhanced edition would be amazing.
@graymantube8 ай бұрын
Hi Tim! This sounds really awesome! I hope you will figure out how to re-release the Arcanum with Phil) How do you think, how complicated it could be to adapt Arcanum for Macs?)
@Philopean12Ай бұрын
Give me more Arcanum please Microsoft. Let Tim make the fans happy.
@joshuahogan25548 ай бұрын
I have dreamt about a remaster or sequel to this game for decades. I just finished my degree in game dev at full sail and I would help you find bugs for free.
@golvmopp8 ай бұрын
I loved Arcanum despite its bugs. The only thing I remember using real time for was kicking knocked out oponenent when they were down.
@jeremyjohnson96098 ай бұрын
Hey Tim! You've briefly mentioned some of this before, but I wonder how you take criticism. Whether it's a review of your game(good or bad), comments from co-workers, employees, or bosses. Or even bad youtube comments you've read. (Although I can't imagine you receive bad comments😅). Does it effect you mentally? Do you learn from it? What do you decide to take in or disregard? How do you react in front of others as a boss/employee?
@darthnix8 ай бұрын
I know it’s not the greatest solution but could you implement certain fixes like balancing through a mod like Josh Sawyer did with new Vegas?
@ZiddersRooFurry8 ай бұрын
Josh made that while he was still working on it and with the publisher's permission. Tim would only be able to release his fixes if Microsoft okayed it which is unlikely as they would need to have someone QA it to make sure it didn't fuck with people's systems. It would cost them a decent amount of money both technically and legally for an obscure 20+ year old game that didn't sell that well on release and is still considered more of a cult classic.
@makowiec2k8 ай бұрын
I cannot wait to see ReVamped Vampire xD
@FrostyChilli8 ай бұрын
If you were to make another version of Arcanum, what would be your choice of game engine? Considering your experience with Unity when creating PoE, it would be interesting to hear your pros and cons of using this engine for an RPG like Arcanum or PoE. Let's assume a dev team size similar to PoE (unless you feel the size should be different).
@MarcinWanago8 ай бұрын
Hell yeah!
@mkdalynn8 ай бұрын
I know you are just playing around with things, but it sounds like this is effectively a remaster, to an extent. I'd love to hear your thoughts on remasters/remakes, when does it make sense to do, what should be included?
@fredrik38808 ай бұрын
Arcanum is pure magic! It runs like a dream on my computer with uap and my balance mod.
@helioortegashows8 ай бұрын
Not just magic, but steam works too :P
@fredrik38808 ай бұрын
@@helioortegashows yeah mate
@mikeofs13042 ай бұрын
Tim, please, PLEASE , make the complete of siam twins quest. The best of CRPG quest ever must be finished)
@AzimovTube7 ай бұрын
WON, now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
@alexalaserbean8 ай бұрын
everything you say sound great is sad that will never gonnas see this updated version
@joshstivers90428 ай бұрын
This updated version should be on game pass pc. Just played through the original Fallout there and had a great experience.
@Dizintegrator8 ай бұрын
Are you aware of Arcanum Multiverse Edition fan mod that was a go-to for many to run the game? If so, did you have dome involvement with it and what are your opinions on it?
@StodgyAyatollah8 ай бұрын
No Tim, I think we need to talk about harm lol. I've grown accustomed to the game as is so I'd be curious to see what cleaning up you'd do. Shame your hands are tied from even releasing an unofficial patch. Why I tend to suggest people make games as a hobby not a career these days. It's generally better for the games we get in the long run. More financially stable for the individual in today's market as well.
@JacksonHatland8 ай бұрын
Tim what with news of the Fallout show I was wondering how you feel about the concept of canon itself.
@tafjaf22458 ай бұрын
Nice to know.
@totallynotthecia8 ай бұрын
I still play this game a couple times a year generally completing the main quest (game) at least once
@mementomori7718 ай бұрын
Ive been playing Arcanum for the first time sense Mandalore gaming made a video on it its a ton of fun
@sajberkg8 ай бұрын
What about using the Steam API for multiplayer instead of WON?
@WolfHreda8 ай бұрын
I think the biggest thing I'd like to see is native HD/widescreen support. I've dealt with everything else for long enough that it doesn't bug me. Don't you dare touch Harm, sir! 🤣
@momchilgradinarov64288 ай бұрын
Microsoft, get you s**t together and give this man the time and resources to remake Arcanum as it deserves to be.
@theandrew13758 ай бұрын
I’d reach out to MS about this, they’ve been pretty good about classic game preservation compared to most companies it seems and always need that Game Pass content. Almost all of Tim Schafer’s old games got “remastered” releases and are on Game Pass, plus all of Rare’s old stuff, Wasteland, and the Bards Tale from 2004. You know enough people there between Obsidian and inXile they could probably get it done. I’d love to see them do a console port of it, and maybe get the original Fallout on console as well at some point.
@sajberkg8 ай бұрын
What about the resolution does it scale up to higher resolutions?
@dakedres3 ай бұрын
Was Arcanum built with GNW or a similar abstraction layer? If so did that make this port easier?
@brettgregoire4188 ай бұрын
I would 100% buy this again if it was a mobile/desktop update. I own an original copy. MAYBE A BEAMDOG (they did the bauldurs revamps right?) release?
@billy65bob7 ай бұрын
Hi Tim, is publicly documenting the File Formats (preferably as C structs) something you can do? I've been interested in doing an Open Source re-implementation of the game engine (mainly using SDL), ala OpenMW. I've made a small start, but I've not uploaded it anywhere, because all it can currently do is open the .DAT archives and dump the data with their proper file names. Thing is, I have almost no experience with either reverse engineering or hex editing; that I managed to figure out the DATs was pure luck...
@cheacher8 ай бұрын
I love arcanum
@valcaron8 ай бұрын
When you say "Native Windows 10 executable" do you mean like just a regular program, or a "Windows Store App" version of it? If the latter, would something like that even be Wine/Proton compatible in Linux?
@thelightside777 ай бұрын
Thank you for doing all this work i love seeing people working on things they love. A question though. Could this be released as a standalone mod? There are plenty of standalone mods on ModDB for various games.