THE WALL:

ADVANCED DOS-BOX TUTORIAL

ZZPosted by Hellray on Thursday, July 29, 2010 , under | comments (0)



Advanced DOSBox Tutorial

YEP! Missing images...don't worry...I'll fix that soon...


In the Basic DOSBox Tutorial you learned how to use DOSBox, and how to customize it to play games that don't run, or run incorrectly, with the default settings. This involved increasing or decreasing the emulation speed, changing the graphics mode or the type of PC being emulated, changing the SoundBlaster settings, and mounting a drive as a CD-ROM or floppy drive. These are all relatively simple to do, and allow the vast majority of DOS and Win16 games to be played.
Some games, however, require proprietary Super VGA graphics chipsets that may not be supported by DOSBox's default settings. Switching graphics modes, getting Windows 3.1 to use DOSBox's SoundBlaster emulation, and installing drivers to allow 256 or more colors are too advanced for a tutorial for beginners. You must be familiar with the Basic tutorial in order to follow these instructions. It's time to learn how to use DOSBox to play games with advanced graphics, and how to configure Windows 3.1 to play any game. We'll start by changing graphics modes, but first, a brief explanation of why we need to.
Originally, all PC graphics modes were standardized, usually by IBM. Any game or operating system can support EGA or VGA graphics cards by writing support for a single standard, and any graphics card that supports that graphics mode will be supported. After VGA, IBM tried to make 8514/a the new graphics standard. It supported a 1024×768 resolution with 256 at 43.5 Hz interlaced (meaning that odd and even lines were drawn on alternate frames), and 640×480 with 256 colors at 60 Hz non-interlaced (or progressive, meaning that the entire screen is drawn every frame). For one reason or another, the standard didn't catch on, and soon there were dozens of incompatible graphics chipsets that claimed "Super VGA graphics". Common resolutions were 600×480, 800×600, and 1024×768, and common color depths were 16, 256, 32K, 64K, and 16M colors. How many of these modes were available largely depended on how much video RAM a graphics card had.
DOSBox supports Super VGA graphics, and will run the standard "Super VGA (800x600, 16 colors)" mode in Windows 3.1 with the default settings. DOSBox 0.73 adds support for some of the most popular SVGA chipsets of this era. At present, it supports early graphics cards from S3 Graphics, the Tseng Labs ET3000 and ET4000, and the Paradise PVGA1A. An emulator exists that allows ET4000 graphics cards to run 8514/a software, which is great because DOSBox doesn't emulate the 8514 graphics mode yet. We'll go through using each of these modes in DOS and Windows.
DOSBox has a plain text configuration file called dosbox.conf. You can open it in your default text editor by finding DOSBox in your Start Menu, going into the Configuration menu and clicking on "Edit Configuration".
The DOSBox configuration file
Configuration options are arranged into groups. The [dosbox] group has a setting called "machine", which allows you to choose what graphics standard you want to emulate. S3 emulation is selected by default. Since SVGA graphics cards are backwards compatible with earlier standards, it's safe to leave this on even if you're playing non-SVGA games.
MoraffWare was one of the first companies to add Super VGA graphics modes to their games. Let's take the example of Moraff's Escapade. Many MoraffWare games start with a setup screen that asks you to select a graphics mode. Escapade just includes five executable files, named ESCMONO, ESCMCGA, ESCAHEAD, ESCTRID, and ESCTSENG. The readme file explains that these are for monochrome VGA, MCGA, Ahead Systems 1 MB, Trident 1 MB, and Tseng Labs 1 MB cards. MCGA was an IBM 320×200 with 256 colors graphics mode that became part of the VGA standard. The major difference is that VGA was capable of 640×480 resolution with 16 colors, but most games use the MCGA mode to make more colorful graphics with the 256 color mode. The Ahead, Trident and Tseng Labs modes are all 1024×768 in 256 colors, which means that they have roughly four times the vertical and horizontal resolution of MCGA (16 times as many pixels!), and still with 256 colors! DOSBox's default settings limit your options to monochrome VGA or MCGA graphics.
The only chipset that DOSBox currently supports from that list is the Tseng Labs card, so set machine to "ET4000". Here's a side-by-side comparison of the two video modes. You'll have to click on the Tseng Labs version to see the whole screenshot because it's so huge!
ESCMCGA screenshotESCTSENG screenshot
320×200 MCGA graphics in DOSBox1024×768 ET4000 graphics in DOSBox
Okay, so maybe Moraff's Escapade still looks pretty lousy at Super VGA resolutions, but it looks better than the VGA mode. Escapade happens to support both VGA and SVGA resolutions, and now you can see what you've been missing if you've just been using the default settings in DOSBox!
For playing DOS games, it's just this easy. Playing games in Windows 3.1 is a bit more complicated.
First of all, let's be clear on this point: DOSBox is a DOS emulator. It doesn't emulate Windows 3.1, so you'll need a copy of Windows between Windows 1.0 and 3.11 if you want to run Win16 games in DOSBox. The steps below detail the fastest and easiest way to run Windows 3.1 in DOSBox.
Take your Windows installation disks and copy all of the data into a folder on your hard drive. For the purposes of this tutorial, let's call this folder INSTALL. Installation within DOSBox will be much faster this way, and you'll be able to make changes to your Windows setup without having to get your floppy disks when Windows asks for them.
Windows expects to be run from a folder, named WINDOWS by default. It will not run properly if you mount the Windows folder in DOSBox. Instead, create a folder for all of your Windows games — let's call it WINGAMES. Put the folder with the files from your Windows installation disks in WINGAMES, and mount C:\WINGAMES as the C: drive. Navigate to your installation directory by typing:
cd install
setup
Installing Windows in DOSBox
Installation occurs in just a few seconds, since it's installing from the hard drive instead of floppy disks. Of course, you had to copy all of the data off of the floppy disks before, but you'll save a lot of time whenever you reinstall Windows in the future, or when Windows prompts you for one of the installation disks.
Once installation is complete, everything should look like this.
Running Windows for the first time
For some reason, my mouse never works when installation is complete. Don't worry about that. You can exit Windows by pressing Alt+F to access the File menu, and press X or navigate to Exit Windows with the arrow keys. Always shutdown Windows properly to be sure that your changes are saved.
Close DOSBox and start it up again. When you told Windows to install to C:\WINDOWS, it was installed to C:\WINGAMES\WINDOWS (this happens automatically if you choose Express Install). Since WINGAMES will always be mounted as C:\, you'll run windows by changing directory to the WINDOWS folder and typing "WIN".
About to start Windows
Now everything you need, from Windows itself to the installation disks to your library of games, are all in a neat little package in your WINGAMES folder. Whenever Windows asks you to insert one of your installations disks, direct it to look for the files at C:\INSTALL. All of your games should be in folders within WINGAMES, so you can add programs by directing Windows to look for them in folders within the root directory (C:\).
Remember, you must mount WINGAMES as the C: drive, not WINGAMES\WINDOWS, otherwise Windows will not be able to find any of the program groups.
Okay, so you logged back into Windows. Did Windows greet you with a musical welcome? No? That's because it doesn't know that you have a sound card! You can add a Sound Blaster 1.5 by going into the Control Panel and selecting Drivers, but you probably won't have MIDI support if you do. To get complete audio support in Windows, including MIDI, you should install the Sound Blaster installer from the Drivers section.
Unzip the Sound Blaster drivers into a folder like WINGAMES\SB16 and navigate to the folder in DOSBox. Run INSTALL.EXE.
Setting up the sound card
By default, there is no path to Windows, so use the arrow keys to select "Microsoft Windows 3.1 path" and type in "C:\WINDOWS".
Selecting the correct IRQ
When you get to the screen that lets you select the sound settings, the IRQ will be set to 5 by default. The DOSBox default is 7, so use the arrow keys to highlight "Interrupt Setting" and change it to 7.
Other than those two changes, you can press Enter on every screen and the installer will set everything up for you. The next time you run Windows, you'll have full Sound Blaster sound!
You can configure Windows any way you want, from the wallpaper to the screensaver, and start adding games to your Games group. Windows looks and sounds exactly the way you remember it, and you can use all of your favorite features, from Minsesweeper to the old Windows Calendar program. The Windows calculator still has that bug that Microsoft was too embarrassed to reveal (try subtracting 3.1 from 3.11). Put DOSBox into full screen mode and it's just like running Windows on an old PC!
DOSBox running Windows 3.1
Most early Windows games only expected you to have VGA graphics, so this might be as much as you need to know. Later on, games and multimedia applications started to require higher resolutions and color depth. QuickTime came along and allowed full motion video clips to be added to games and encyclopedias on CD-ROM (remember how to mount a CD-ROM from the Basic Tutorial?). You're in high resolution VGA mode right now, which is 640×480 with 16 colors. Games are going to start demanding 256 or even 65 536 colors, which is where things start to get really advanced. Regular DOSBox will let you select Super VGA (800×600 with 16 colors), but we're going to need Daum Cafe's DOSBox to use the Multiple SVGA chipset patch, and then (unlike DOS games) we're going to have to install Windows drivers.
To change the display settings, go to the Main program group and select Windows Setup. Hit Options, then Change System Settings. When you activate the dropdown menu for Display you'll notice that, with the exception of Video 7, none of the options allows high resolutions or color depths. At the bottom of the list is an option to add a new display mode, which requires drivers from the graphics card's manufacturer. This is why people hated Windows. Absolutely everything needed a driver!
Changing the display mode in Windows 3.1
Okay, so which graphics cards can we emulate again? The Multiple SVGA chipset patch can emulate an S3, Tseng Labs ET3000 or ET4000, or a Paradise PVGA1A. It doesn't really matter which one you choose, as long as you have Windows drivers for one of them. If you ever owned a card with one of these chipsets, you can use your old installation disk. If not, you can search the internet. I've located drivers for all four chipsets for you! You can download them in the Drivers section. I recommend the ET4000 drivers because I couldn't get any of the other drivers to work properly. This is probably a problem with DOSBox (or, more likely, the Multiple SVGA chipset patch), which may be fixed in the future.
DOSBox running Windows 3.1 with ET3000 drivers
ET3000 drivers
DOSBox running Windows 3.1 with PVGA1A drivers
PVGA1A drivers
Since you may want to try emulating more than one chipset, and since you may have to reinstall Windows someday, it's a good idea to create a DRIVERS folder in your WINGAMES folder. It's also a good idea to keep each set of drivers in a different sub-folder since some of your files will have the same name.
Once you've placed all of the drivers you want in the DRIVERS folder, go into the configuration file for Daum Cafe's DOSBox and select the svgachipset that you have Windows drivers for. Run DOSBox and go back into Windows 3.1 and select "Other display" from the list of display modes. Tell it to look for the drivers in C:\DRIVERS\(whatever). Windows will give you a list of available display modes, and you can pick whatever you want. Windows will restart, and now you can display 256 or more colors!
Shih Dao in 256 color mode with ET4000 drivers
Shih Dao in 256 color mode with ET4000 drivers
WARNING! There is a good chance that any display mode that you choose won't work. Your display could become completely unreadable, making it impossible to get to Windows Setup to change it back! If you start Windows and the display is unreadable, don't panic! Shut down DOSBox and start it again. You can change your display settings from the DOS prompt. Type:
cd windows
setup
Now you can select something safe for your display mode, like VGA.
Running SETUP from the DOS prompt
And that's about it. You're now an advanced DOSBox user, and you can play both DOS and Windows games in DOSBox!

BASIC DOS-BOX TUTORIAL

ZZPosted by Hellray on , under | comments (0)




FAQ - DOSbox 1 [basic]

Basic DOSbox tutorial (click on images to enlarge them)

Originally found here: http://www.classicdosgames.com/tutorials/dosbox.html

Many DOS games stopped working reliably when DOS was removed from Windows, starting with Windows XP. The sound could be missing, the speed could be wrong, or the game might not work at all. Windows Vista apparently doesn't play DOS games at all. Almost all DOS games play perfectly in an emulator called DOSBox, which is available for Windows, Linux, OS/2, BeOS, and Mac OS X.

For people who are used to the DOS operating system, or command line operating systems in general, DOSBox is pretty straightforward. If you're from the age of point-and-click GUIs, you may need a bit of extra help. Either way, DOSBox is easy to use, once you understand it. If, after reading this tutorial, you don't agree that DOSBox is incredibly easy to use, I'll give you your money back! Oh, right. The other great thing about DOSBox is that it's free.

Anyway, you can get DOSBox from the here, or from DOSBox's website. Download the version for your operating system and install it. If you use Windows, DOSBox will be added to your Start Menu.


Select the "noconsole" option; the standard link just opens a second window with information that you'll never need to know.


This is the part where people who aren't familiar with DOS may need some help. First, you need to know where your game is. Let's say that you have a folder on your C: drive called DOSGAMES, and a folder inside it called JETPACK. (Always replace code examples with the actual drive and folder names where your game is located.) DOSBox is going to pretend that some folder on your hard drive is really a hard drive (a virtual drive), which you accomplish by mounting the virtual drive. You can assign any letter you want, except for Z:, which is being used by DOSBox. You can even use "C:" as the name for your virtual drive, even if that's the drive where your game is. You must mount a virtual drive in order to run a game in DOSBox. From the command prompt (Z:/>), type:

mount c c:\dosgames\jetpack

Note that folder names aren't case sensitive in Windows, but may be in other operating systems. Now the folder that Jetpack is in is mounted as the C: drive. You can switch to the mounted drive by typing the name of the drive.


If you want to play another game, you can mount it to a second drive letter, or unmount the first drive with the "-u" parameter of the mount command, such as:

mount -u c

Now a new folder can be mounted as the C: drive.

Once you've switched to the virtual drive you've created, you need to run the game by typing in the name of the executable file. If you already know the filename, you can type it in now. If you don't, you can use the old DOS directory command, "dir".


Ack! Some games will have too many files. All programs have either a .exe or .com extension. Some games run a batch file (.bat) first, which might select some of the settings before it starts the game. These are the only three extensions you care about.

You can narrow your search using "wildcards". To DOS, a question mark represents any character, so if you want to find a list of files that start with "game" and end with a letter or number, you could do a search for "game?.exe". An asterisk represents any string of any length, so if you want to search for all of the files that end with .exe, search for "*.exe".

In this case there are two .exe files, but often there will only be one. JETPACK.EXE is probably the right one, so we can type in "jetpack". Because only .exe, .com and .bat files are executable, you don't have to type the .exe extension into the command line. DOS, and DOSBox, will assume that you want to run the .exe file with that name.



And now you're playing Jetpack!



If you're satisfied with the way the game is playing, you can switch to full screen mode by pressing Alt+Enter, and now you're playing just like on a real DOS computer! DOSBox will play most games perfectly using the default settings. In the beginning of the PC, there was only one type of PC, which used an Intel 8088 processor running at 4.77 MHz. Because there was only type of PC, the very first DOS games were designed to run at 4.77 MHz. If you try to run a game designed for the original IBM PC or XT on a faster computer, it might run way too fast. If a game is running too quickly, you can slow down DOSBox's virtual CPU by pressing Ctrl+F11.

Some games that were designed to run on Pentium processors may run too slowly at the default settings. If a game is running too slowly, you can speed up DOSBox's virtual CPU by pressing Ctrl+F12. This changes the "cycle count", which you can see at the top of the interface window. In this case, I've doubled the default cycle count to 6000. You may need to go well into five digits for some games.


If you're playing a game that supports SoundBlaster audio, but sound effects or music are missing, you may need to change the sound settings. Remember that weird line of numbers when you started DOSBox?


What the heck is that about? Well, in the days of DOS, "set blaster" was used to configure the sound card. These settings represent the "A"ddress, "I"nterrupt (IRQ), "D"MA channel, "H"igh DMA channel, and "T"ype. These settings are fairly standard, and many games that are advanced enough to support SoundBlaster hardware can auto-detect your sound settings. Here's an example of a setup screen that allows you to change the sound settings before running the game.


The Address is 220, which matches our "A220" setting. The 8-bit DMA Channel is 1, which matches "D1", and the 16-bit DMA Channel is 5, which matches "H5". The Interrupt is set to 5, but we're set up for "I7". This could prevent the sound from playing, or crash the game entirely. The Interrupt should be changed to 7. If you've forgotten, you can check the SoundBlaster settings from the command prompt by typing "set blaster".

Some games will only allow certain audio settings, so if you can't change the game to match your setting, you can change your settings to match what the game expects using the powerful "config" command. The "-set" parameter of the config command can be used to change a configuration setting, and the name of the setting we want to change is "sblaster". DOSBox's internal name for the "A" variable is "sbbase", "I" is "IRQ", "D" is "DMA", and "H" is "HDMA". Now we can change any of the SoundBlaster variables, one at a time, with a command like this:

config -set sblaster sbbase 220
config -set sblaster irq 7
config -set sblaster dma 1
config -set sblaster hdma 3

Besides speed and sound, there's usually only one other thing you need to change to get a game to play properly: DOS could run a number of different video modes. The oldest games used nothing more than ASCII text, but soon graphics came along. The Hercules Graphics Card allowed monochrome graphics. The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) could display 16 colors in text mode and 4 colors in graphics mode, Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) could display 16 colors at resolutions up to 640×350, and Video Graphics Array (VGA) could display 256 colors and resolutions up to 640×480. IBM also produced a computer called PCjr, and Tandy produced a computer called the TRS-80, neither of which became open standards.

These technical details are unimportant. All you need to know is that DOSBox can be run as one of five different virtual machines. "VGA" mode makes DOSBox run as a computer that has an EGA or VGA graphics card. Most games use one of these modes, so this is the default setting. "CGA" mode makes DOSBox run like a computer with CGA color graphics, and "Hercules" mode runs like a computer with Hercules monochrome graphics. "PCjr" mode makes DOSBox run like an IBM PCjr, and "Tandy" mode makes DOSBox run like a Tandy TRS-80. DOSBox usually picks the correct mode by default, but some games won't run properly unless you choose the appropriate "machine" yourself.

It's particularly important to know some of the technical details about CGA, because CGA games may play perfectly, but display the wrong colors if you play in VGA mode!


It's possible to tell DOSBox what type of machine to run as by starting DOSBox from the command line and adding "-machine=[name of machine]", but that's not a very convenient way to do it. The easiest thing is to choose "DOSBox.conf" from the DOSBox section of your Start Menu. You can prevent DOSBox from working properly if you modify or delete things in the configuration file, so don't change anything unless you know what you're doing.CGA had two standard palettes: Palette 1 (background, cyan, magenta, and light gray) and Palette 2 (background, green, red, and brown). Pharaoh's Tomb and Arctic Adventure feature the same engine and the same hero, but Pharaoh's Tomb used Palette 2 to display warm, desert colors, while Arctic Adventure used Palette 1 to display cold, arctic colors. Older versions of DOSBox defaulted to Palette 1 while in VGA mode, causing Pharaoh's Tomb to take place at the North Pole! If you didn't know that Pharaoh's Tomb was supposed to feature bright, warm colors, you would never know that anything was wrong with the emulation. It's a good idea to play it safe and use the CGA machine when playing CGA games.

You can scroll down a short way, or do a search for "[dosbox]". That's where you'll find the machine variable. To make DOSBox emulate a CGA computer, change the setting to CGA. You can't change the machine once DOSBox starts, so you'll have to change this line back when you want to play VGA/SVGA games again.


The final problem that you're likely to run into is when you're running a game from a CD-ROM, or a game on your hard drive that expects to be run from a CD-ROM drive. To mount a folder or drive as a CD-ROM drive, use the "-t" parameter of the mount command. The following are the commands to mount a CD-ROM drive called D: using a CD-ROM in your computer (replace "e:\" with the actual drive name), or a folder on your C: drive, respectively.

mount d e:\ -t cdrom
mount d c:\dosgames\cdgame -t cdrom

You can also mount a virtual floppy disk by using "floppy" with the -t parameter. This simple command parameter should be good enough most of the time. If your CD-ROM game still isn't working, advanced mounting options can be found in the DOSBox readme file.

The last problem that you stand a small chance of running into relates to the version of DOS reported by DOSBox. From DOS all the way to modern Windows, typing "ver" at the command line reports the operating system version that you're running. Typing "ver /r" will also list the revision in some versions. Some programs won't run if they don't like the version of DOS that you're running. DOSBox reports DOS 5 to any program that asks, which is a problem if they were designed for DOS 6 or higher, or require a specific version of DOS other than 5. You can change what version of DOS DOSBox reports with the "set" parameter of the ver command. The format is "ver set [major version] [optional sub-version]". For example, "ver set 6" reports DOS 6, and "ver set 6 22" reports DOS 6.22.

DOSBox is so accurate at emulating DOS that it can even run operating systems that run on top of DOS! If you have a copy of Windows 3.1, you can install it while running DOSBox and play Win16 games the way they were meant to be played. Windows looks and sounds exactly the way you remember it, and you can use all of your favorite features, from Minsesweeper to the old Windows Calendar program. The Windows calculator still has that bug that Microsoft was too embarrassed to reveal (try subtracting 3.1 from 3.11). Put DOSBox into full screen mode and it's just like running Windows on an old PC!


Whichever platform you run your software on, you can save screenshots (Ctrl-F5) and record movies (Ctrl-Alt-F5 to start and stop). When you want to have complete control over the way DOSBox runs, you can learn more about the configuration file. This allows you to change the default settings to give yourself precise control over every aspect of the system being emulated, such as how much RAM DOSBox should pretend to have. The configuration file is fairly self-explanatory, so I won't explain it here. The purpose of this tutorial is to allow most people to play most games, and this is all that you need to know to accomplish that. Mounting and switching between drives, and getting the speed, sound, and video correct are the most common obstacles to playing DOS games in DOSBox. Only an advanced user needs to know more than this. To learn more about the advanced features of DOSBox, and how to configure Windows 3.1 to have sound and be able to play games that require better than VGA graphics, move on to the Advanced DOSBox Tutorial.

Congratulations on completing the Basic tutorial!


My future Canon Game Report -- John

ZZPosted by John.Y on Friday, June 11, 2010 , under | comments (0)



By Next 2 Generation

Super Mario Galaxy

The link below link to my blog

http://1739john.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-future-canon-game-report.html

FUTURE CANON GAME REPORT Steve 596

ZZPosted by steve on , under | comments (0)



CALL OF DUTY


This game is very impressed with Call of Duty's authentic presentation, well designed and often very intense single-player missions, and fast-paced, entertaining multi-player modes. It have many versions for this game. I have been playing this game for many times and I love it. In my opinion, it will be a canon game in the future!

this is a game that pulls together many of the best aspects of other, similar games, and also includes all sorts of little "wish-list items" that may have crossed your mind while playing those other games. The result seems, above all, very well designed. The action in Call of Duty, ultimately, is arcadelike--much like in Allied Assault or Battlefield 1942. You can't survive a shot to the head, but you can take a few bullets anywhere else and can keep going just fine. There's also a clear onscreen indication of the direction from which you're taking fire (and, as you're getting hit, the screen shudders to make it look like it hurts). Luckily, first aid kits, conveniently placed in the levels or occasionally dropped by killed enemies, instantly restore large portions of your health. You hardly ever need to activate a "use" key in this game. When you do, you'll use it to instantly set explosives or grab documents, but you won't use it for opening doors.

Call of Duty features a wide arsenal of authentic American, British, Russian, and German WWII weapons, including various rifles, submachine guns, side arms, and grenades. You can carry only two larger weapons at a time (as well as a pistol and some grenades), so, typically, you'll want to have a rifle for out-in-the-open engagements and a submachine gun for tight-quarter combat. While armed with any of these, you may shoot from the hip, raise the weapon to eye level and aim down the sight (for more accuracy at the expense of movement speed), or use the butt of the weapon to try and club an enemy to death. Manually reloading your weapon tends to be faster than letting the clip run out, and some weapons let you switch firing modes, like going from full-auto to single shot (though, since you can squeeze off single rounds in full-auto mode, this isn't very useful). Your crosshairs expand when you're moving and contract when you're steady, pointing out how much more inaccurate you'll be if you try to run-and-gun. The weapons themselves are modeled very convincingly, thanks in no small part to the tactile sense you get from being able to look through their sights or use them as bludgeons, and most every one will earn your respect since, in the right situations, they can all be deadly effective.


MODE

Additionally, multiplayer Call of Duty features the very clever "kill cam," which lets a player who's been killed relive the last five seconds of his life from his killer's perspective. The implications of the kill cam are pretty significant: If anyone isn't playing fair in a multiplayer match, the kill cam ought to make this quite clear, and then players can vote to have the offending player kicked. When playing a deathmatch-style multiplayer mode, you can easily skip the kill-cam sequence and get back into the action, but if you're playing one of the multiplayer modes in which you can't instantly respawn, it can make for an entertaining five-second consolation prize.

Call of Duty bills itself as having three distinct single-player campaigns--one for the Americans, one for the British, and one for the Russians--but this isn't exactly the case. You do get to play a number of exciting missions from the perspectives of each of these allied forces, and each one takes place in a different part of Europe. However, you play through all of the game's missions in a linear order, and there's no clear transition from one "campaign" to the next. There's no epilogue when you finish a series of missions, so all you get is a different-looking between-mission loading screen to clue you in that you've moved on to the next chunk of the game. Overall, the single-player portion of Call of Duty is of approximately average length, meaning it should take you some 10 hours, give or take, from beginning to end. None of it is filler.

One of Call of Duty's most distinguishing features in the single-player mode is how many humans, both friend and foe, it manages to cram into an environment. With the exception of a small handful of corridor-crawl-style commando missions (which, while pretty good, are probably the least interesting parts of the game), you'll never be fighting alone, and you'll always have allied soldiers fighting--and dying--by your side. These allies are mostly for the sake of ambience; they mostly look realistic as they fight from behind cover and draw some of the enemy fire. They even sometimes charge the enemy, as you'd expect them to under the circumstances. However, they won't do your job for you and can't be depended upon to take out the bad guys.

GRAPHIC and ENGINE

Because the core gameplay and weapon balancing in Call of Duty is very well done, and the 3D engine and netcode capably handle situations where a ton of action is going on all at once, all the multiplayer modes are inherently enjoyable. The aforementioned kill cam is another nice touch, and the same sort of excellent level design found in the single-player portion of the game can be found in the multiplayer maps. These are each quite large and easily accommodating of 32-player games, and they offer plenty of cover and plenty of places to set up ambushes. Each of the main types of primary weapons has real value, and real weaknesses, on these maps. A server browser lets you easily get in on a multiplayer match so you can have at it. The game also readily invites user-made mods.

Call of Duty's graphics, somewhere down the line, are powered by the Quake III engine, but the game looks great--not dated. Occasionally, some of the character animation doesn't look quite right. For instance, the animation for when killed soldiers fall from banisters or balconies looks particularly weak. Additionally, there are a few clipping issues here and there. Also, some of the scenery, particularly small shrubs and such, looks blocky and ugly if you get right up to it. We also experienced some graphical issues running the game with an ATI Radeon 9800 graphics card, which didn't properly handle the game's occasional motion-blur effect. Other than these specific issues, the overall look of the action is excellent. Realistic weather effects, explosions, and muzzle flashes help make the game's environments come alive, and the character models for friends and foes are surprisingly detailed given how many of them can be onscreen. Additionally, the game runs very smoothly in comparison to other recent shooters. If you get a good frame rate out of other PC action games, this one will be silky smooth. Call of Duty, like Allied Assault, squeaked by with a "T" rating from the ESRB despite the extremely violent subject matter it portrays. Unlike Allied Assault, it even shows a little blood in the form of a red mistlike spurt that's seen when a bullet hits its mark. For better or worse, there's no graphic violence here, but the animations are realistic, and action is visceral.

AUDIO

The audio in Call of Duty is even better than the look. You'll learn to tell most every weapon apart by its own loud and clear roar. In those rare instances when shooting isn't occurring all around you, you'll still tend to hear shooting off in the distance--an ambient effect that reinforces the sensation that you're in the middle of a war. Some of the more action-packed single-player missions are practically deafening, what with all that's going on with the bullets practically grazing your head, shells flying, aircraft making strafing runs, and more. In a great touch, if an artillery shell detonates near you, you'll be shell-shocked, rendering you temporarily deaf and substantially disoriented. In fact, you'll struggle to get back on your feet as the sound of battle eventually rushes back to your senses. The game's sporadic use of voice acting is good, though it's a bit of a shame that much of the Russian soldiers' voice-over (and some of the Germans') is in accented English rather than in the native language. For a game that attempts to appear as authentic as possible, this seems a little incongruous. Amidst all the cacophony of Call of Duty, it can be hard to hear the game's orchestral musical score, but it kicks in on particular occasions and adds even more drama and cinematic flair to the proceedings.

So Call of Duty is an all-around excellent game in first person shooting game that players alway play it many times. Fans of this game also wait for the next version coming (same as me), so no way that this game can not be a future canon, can't you tell? Finally, let's ENJOY!!!! Call of Duty together....





This the link to my future canon game report

ZZPosted by Paul on , under | comments (0)


Cannon Game 2290 Kylin

ZZPosted by Kylin on Thursday, June 10, 2010 , under | comments (0)









Recently, I have played quite a few popular games. I have to say most of them are quite incredible. However, the one I would like to pick is Mirror’s Edge. There are dozens of factors respecting it attracting me. I suppose if you were going to play this game, you would really enjoy playing time. When EA digital Illusions CE announced it would be developed, I was always expecting it would be classic one. Actually, it does. Now, let me introduce this amazing game-------Mirror’s Edge.

Background
Mirror's Edge is a single-player first person action-adventure video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronic Arts. In November2008, it is first released for Xbox and PlayStation 3. After three mouths, it is imported Personal Computer. It supports Windows System, however; it also could be played in Mac Computer. This game is powered by Unreal Engine 3. This engine is very preeminence. A lot of games choose this engine.

This game has been made by EA Digital Illusions CE, a Swedish Video Developer, which is one part of Electronic Arts. One famous game made by it is Battlefield, now Mirror’s Edge is as well. This group was started by four persons. In 1994, this company moved to Gothenburg until 2005 the office was merged with the ex-Refraction Game office in Stockholm. The company registered in 1998. When the Battlefield released, it become very famous. The total value of the company was estimated at approximately USD$55 million in 2004. During 2000-2001, it bought some other video game groups. When time goes to November 2004, Electronic Arts declared it tend to purchase this company’s shares. On 2nd October 2006, it was bought by EA and renamed EA Digital Illusions CE. At this moment, I would like to introduce Electronic Arts.

Obviously, it is an outstanding video game corporation. It is an international, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Trip Hawkins found it on 28th May1982, at initial stage, it design video game for home computer. In the later 1900s, it grew via a successful game developer. Presently, its most successful game products are sport games. Now, EA has become a huge corporation through buying many small video game studios and corporation with other partners. EA Digital Illusions CE is one part in this company.

Actually, I assume it is known to all, a product which would be released by a good company should not be bad. I would like to mention that associating with the type of Mirror’s Edge, this game is quite suitable to be made by this company. Electronic Arts is famous of its sports game, so the actions is very cool in this game and Battlefields are EA Digital Illusions CE’s most famous games; consequently, shooting or fighting is their advantage.

The background system is Unreal Engine 3. It is a game engine developed by Epic Games. This engine is released in1998. At the first time, it is used for first-person shooting game. There are three visions about this engine, vision 1, vision 2 and vision 3. For this game, it is used vision 3. Its core code is written by C++. It supports many different systems, such as Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Vision 1 is released in 1998, and then transfer product is published vision 2. Obviously, vision 3 is an evolution. It designed for Direct X, Xbox and PlayStation. Its render supports many advance technique and it could be run in Mac computer and Iphone.

Statistics
When it has just been released, it becomes very hot game.

Platform PS3 Xbox 360 PC IPod Lead role Faith
Senior Producer Owen O'Brien Writer Rhianna Pratchett
Rating Teen (ESRB) / 16+ (PEGI) Game Engine Unreal 3
Price US$10 Classic Vision Price US$129

At the first week, in Europe, it only sold around 60 thousand copies, far less than the expectation value of Electronic Arts. However, after several mouths, it sold more than 100 thousand copies around the world. According to official survey, a new player could finished this game in 36 hours and a skilled played is able to finished this game in 15 hours. Majority players deem it is a cool game and some players figure it is an amazing game but with several problems.

Award
Game Critics Awards: E3 2008 Best Original Game
IGN.com E3 2008 Best Action Game
Game Spot E3 2008 Best Action Game
Game Pro's Best of E3 2008 Gold
Game Trailers’ Best of E3 2008: Best New Franchise
Game Spy’s Top 10 Games of E3 2008
UGO's E3 2008: Best Action Adventure Game
GC 2008 Best Xbox 360 Game
Nordic Game Awards 2009: Best Artistic Achievement
Nordic Game Awards 2009: Best Nordic Game

Requirements
For Xbox360 and PlayStation, there are no special requirements, only need some room for it. About 10MB in Xbox360 is required; meanwhile, 550MB is asked if used PlayStation 3.

If this game runs in computer, there was a basic requirements list.
Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Vista or Win 7
Processor: 3.0 GHz or faster
Memory: 1 GB RAM or more
Graphics: Microsoft DirectX 9.0c compatible video card
Video card must have 256 MB or more (NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or better)
Hard Drive: 8 GB free space
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Story
An Asia girl Faith is a thief. One day she want to steal something from an apartment; unfortunately, she be arrested by Mercury. He assumes she is an adoptable person to be a runner, so he trains her. The duty for she is to send some messages to other people, because government oversees all folks’ life. Her older sister is a police officer. One day, she is taken to somewhere Faith did not know. Faith wants to take her sister back; the only way is to take over the truth. She starts her plan to save her sister. One day, she catches a person who knows something. When he will tell something to Faith, he is killed. Faith has to find the murderer. Finally, she catch her, one of group of runner, but cops and securities comes. She leaves and she wants to save her sister personally. Mercury changed the route of police car where Faith’s Sister Kate in it. But police attack runner’s base. Mercury tells Faith where Kate is taking. After a stimulating fighting, she save Kate.
Graphics
This story happens in a nameless city. The whole city seems very clean. There is tons of glass. Glisten in this game is quite strong. All of factors shock players while they have just played this game. The scene appears extraordinary gorgeous. This graphic style shows us this city is exceedingly prosperous. Everything makes you feel unbelievable and pleasure.

Unreal 3 is used for powering this game. One important thing I would like to mention is a powerful plugging is used in this game Beast. The reactive light becomes quite perfect. If an object was lighted very strongly, its own colour would be projected to other things around it. Beast plugging does not allow GPU changing Illumination and contrast automatically that makes quality of graphic better. PC vision adds PhysX physical engine, it bring some more cool effects, such as glass light, particle system and fog. The colour in this game is very bright and vivid. There almost do not have any words in the screen, it keeps screen seems clean and makes quality of images does not become lower. During different grounds, there is 2D animation that seems beautiful.


GamePlay
For a long time, there is no amazing FPS game. Now, Mirror’s Edge would be an classic one.

This game wants to bring cool first person feeling to all players. For achieving this goal, Faith is designed as a prompt role; meanwhile, the camera is very close to this character. Her legs, arms and torso are quite prominent, at the same time; everything is able to affect her actions. For example, visibility is one of those elements which would reduce or increase the speed of Faith. If Faith jumps a long distance, she would stop for a while. All of these elements brings players realistic feeling about first person adventure. Momentum is this game is quiet important. Players should try to preserve it, because sometimes your enemies would follow you tightly. If players could not keep momentum, the game would be ended for Faith would be killed. Compare with other similar adventure game, it gives players unique experience. Another asset is worthy to be mentioned is puzzle in this game. It is not math puzzle or jigsaw puzzle; it is exceedingly cleaver idea testing players combining several tools to be a chain for achieving target. It is very exciting and interesting, because you have short time to finish that; or you would be killed. There are dozens of police officers following Faith. Players should control Faith run and hide; simultaneously, solve this problem in order to approach destination. How cool is it! What is more, weapon could not be hold in this game, although it could be used to finish off heaps of enemies, when the bullet runs out, it would be discarded automatically. This reason for making this trait is that designers desire to let players taste realistic first person view. If guns are allowed, most persons would choose kill enemies from a long distance. It would reduce feeling regarding actual first person view and charming of this game. However, weapon could be used until cartridge clip is empty. I believe that carrying weapons would decrease speed and it would be designed as an obstacle while there are no bullets.

It is known to all, Assassin Creed or Prince of Persia is another quite hot action adventure game, but they use third person view. However, taking them as references is a not bad idea. In third person view, all actions of whole body would be displayed distinctly since using this view. In prince of Persia, a wise and brave prince imagination is built. But the prince is only having some actions in that game. Nonetheless, Mirror’s Edge would give audiences another taste. There are wild rang of actions could be made by Faith. It seems unbelievable. If Prince of Persia looks like Arabian Nights, Mirror’s Edge seems living vivid life. In first one, camera using is quite normal, it is just be set follow the character. Nonetheless, in Mirror’s Edge the camera is not just follow her, it is set very close to this role; it would bring real uptight sense to players. It is an amazing inexpressible feeling about this game. In Prince of Persia, Prince is Persia, although there are a large number of puzzle games, those are traditional and classical. In comparison with Mirror’s Edge, I assume puzzles in the last game seems cool and real. Players would use their brain to solve some problems in real life. What an interesting idea! Although all puzzles in Prince of Persia appear extraordinary cool, thinking for a while, you would find they are meaningless and insipid in real life. The main weapon for the prince is blade in game world. It is suitable for statues of our prince, but it still normal and dull. Short distance camera view and bare-handed wrestle in Mirror’s Edge would bring players incredible feeling. It is entirely new one.

The song of this game is “Still Alive”. It is famous one. The background music makes players exciting. Sound in each game become very significant nowadays. Most taste experience comes from voice. So make cool sound for game is significant. This game does.

Female character Faith is a successful character. She is an Asian. Black short shirt, loose white trousers and red shoes make this individual seems extraordinary fashion. The one piece for this character is the sign on her right eye which comes from logo of this game gives me deep impression.

Feature
In this game, there is a special movement called reaction time. It seems like bullet time. If it is activated, time would become slow. You have more time to think what the next step is.

The controller in this game is simple, just using keyboard and mouse. For example, up is for jumping, running or climbing, down is for sliding, rolling or crouching. That is not easy. But you would get it quickly, if you exercise.

Graphic in this game is quite cool.

Effect
There are three cool effects I would like to talk about.

The fist one is red hint I called. When the role approach something useful, it would turn to be red for remind players using this thing. That is very useful effect for a new player. Take me as an example, when I first saw this effect, I assume it is something will be exploded. But, when I find it is a hint, I think it must be useful.

The next one is the effect of particle system. Fog and glisten are two crucial factors should be taken account when you would like to make a decision concerning how to make the next action. Fog in this game seems very true, even you can hind in it and the glisten is cool as well, but glisten sometimes help players ,something not. These two effects make this game truer and more interesting.

Different colors sides flashing is the next effect I would like to talk. When you unable to use special movement bullet time or you are in danger, the screen sides would become red. If you are allowed to use special movement again, the screen sides become light blue. That is an important hint, because it would save your life, when you saw it, try to hind or ran to somewhere for save your life.

Ramification
Several song set are made and sold.

The comic is also sells well. The final chapter is released.

2D online game is published.

Sequel
At the end of this game, Kate is declared as a criminal as well as Faith, so it must have sequel. Actually, EA says this game have three parts. This is the first one. The following works is starting. This end of the game is quite interesting. It has told us that there must have the next game. Why it seems so confident? In my view, it should, because it does quiet cool.

Influence
EA Digital Illusions receives all positive reviews in this game. It gives all players an outstanding game. That is quite cool. You know, if you mix some elements into a new game that is not tough. Nonetheless, when a group would like to mix all advantages into a cool future canon game that means too much. Plenty of factors should be taken account of. Even some of brilliant merits which are not suiting this game style could not be joined. Quite a few of features which are too much shine could not be joined. But EA did a good job. All the cool elements in this amazing game seem mixed perfectly. It never gives audiences some bad feeling regarding this game; at least, I reckon that.

This game brings all players a totally different feeling regarding action adventure game. One question, I would like to ask. Why other action game I did not suppose it would be canon game in the near future, such as prince of Persia, Assassin Creed, and NBA. All of them show players unbelievable experience concerning actions in game. The wherefore is in Mirror’s Edge, the strong true living feeling of action from first person view. That feeling is unique. You could not stop thinking you were in the game. The mission is not in the game; it is just in front of your eyes. How cool is it! Have you got this sense from the other games? No, I assume this is the true first person view game which would make me gain this incredible feeling.

It helps EA acquire heaps of experience about First Person View game. As you can image, most well known action game which has been made by EA is third person view. But EA would have abundant experience about first person view game. Obviously, I could image that several first person view game would be released by EA later. Actually, for this game, it has sequel. In my view, Mirror’s Edge would be a kind of standard which a lot of games might follow. The actions, the view, the image style. All of those would be classical.

After the bright colored Mirror’s Edge released, Battlefield is also used bright colour. What I think about the colour in this game is beautiful and gorgeous. You would see all the images in this game looks peaceful and pretty. It let me feel comfortable. Most of time, when I playing this game, I was really enjoy this environment. Virtually, it would be a emblem of any modern city, because it tells us a true story to some extended. I think a game might not just give players fun, although it sounds the first important features a game would have and it is true. For my part, a game is also might tell players some true stories. It would give players some other experience respecting true life in other places. That should be cool. As what I have said, it bring unbelievable living experience concerning playing this game which would fairly and quickly established players’ confident.

Phys X Physical Engine is also shows its power. This engine gives this game an incredible true living environment which others games are unable to compare with this game. The dust, fog and sunshine, even the wind I could feel though watching some tiny stuffs in the street. I deem it would be very cool. When I first saw those specifics, I was shocked, because I presumed there is some enemies there. Actually, it is just wind. I do not indicate each game which makes some cool images would be classical. Nevertheless, this one makes stunning true.

Non-linear game it is. Although the storyline could not be altered, players are allowed taking quite a few other inspired measures to achieve the goal concerning each scene. That would be cool, because when players pass all scenes, they would play it again for trying different solutions. That implies this game attract players to play this game more than one time.

Thank you!