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[ChairmanPoo]

Sooo after I heard in this forum about Diablo 1 becoming open source, I began to look into things, and found three very interesting projects
This one is already working, and it is a mod. Adds a couple of new classes, and features, and HD !!!
https://mod.diablo.noktis.pl/


This one is a more long term project, aims to be a full remake a la open xcom

https://freeablo.org/

Devilution is another remake, but less ambitious, as it seems to preserve everything, good and bad, verbatim

https://github.com/diasurgical/devilution

[Mephansteras]

Glad to hear there are so many of these projects in progress.

[wheybags]

Sooo after I heard in this forum about Diablo 1 becoming open source

hioh, main author of freeablo here, what's this about Diablo 1 becoming open source?
Do you mean the devilution project?

[ChairmanPoo]

...yes, I was going by this article

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/320229/Reverseengineered_Diablo_source_code_released_on_GitHub.php

[Paul]

Someone reverse engineering and uploading a game's code to Github does not equal a game going open source. What this guy did was run the game through a decompiler and then spend an absurd amount of time cleaning up the code to be usable.

I could run a decompiler on Skyrim and upload the code to Github and get my ass sued by Bethesda, but it wouldn't mean we had an open source Elder Scrolls V.

[ChairmanPoo]

...look the intention of this thread is to present to the public three different projects that allow you to play Diablo 1 in modern systems, not to degenerate into a pointless legal argument. 

[Kagus]

...look the intention of this thread is to present to the public three different projects that allow you to play Diablo 1 in modern systems, not to degenerate into a pointless legal argument. 

Not enough mana.


Y'know, I still think it's kinda funny that roguelikes have become synonymous with indie gaming culture in recent years, when one of history's most influential titles was, effectively, a roguelike. Diablo just left its permadeath as an opt-in setting rather than an inescapable default.

Can we fanboy in here? D1's soundtrack was god damn amazing, Matt Uelmen at his finest... You'll have to scrounge a bit to find better grim, gothic ambiance, at least by my reckoning.

And we all know that The Butcher became a lil' pop idol, but is there any love for other side characters? Snotspill and Gharbad come to my mind, at least.

[ChairmanPoo]

The sanctity of this place has been fouled

Or King Leoric

Yeah, Diablo was something else
In a way it had some features that were actually more to my liking that Diablo 2. Biggest issue I have with D1 are some outdated aspects of the interface.  Ambience ... I find myself hsrd pressed to say. The Church levels in Diablo 1 are truly good, and the tomes you found as backstory were a great touch. Lazarus creepy cultist rants were somewhat better than the horadric ones, but both were nice. But D2 had so many memorable levels... in particular I liked the Arcane Sanctuary.

If Freeablo takes off AND you could add the features of Diablo 2 that made life easier, and others (much like OpenXcom includes optional modern features not present in the original)... that would be a think

[karhell]

Yes. That is a cow, all right

Agreed on the soundtrack. The themes from Tristram and the Church levels are still amongst my all-time favourites.
The guy behind Devilution posted screenshots of some quick hacks he'd made, notably monster health bars and item labels on the ground, IIRC, so that's definitely something feasible.

Back in highschool, I used to go full-on fanboy mode for Lachdanan. Even went so far as to make some (very bad, and thankfully lost somewhere in between moves) fanart. Might actually be interesting to revisit the subject... Hmmm...

* karhell adds that to evergrowing list of stuff to draw

[Mephansteras]

Honestly, D1 has always been my favorite. Both in terms of atmosphere and the fact that you actually had to respect normal monsters. Careful approach to combat and the use of doors and corners to avoid being mobbed or shot to death. Things like that which were utterly missing in the sequels, where you're either an unstoppable god of death or fighting Elites/Bosses.

I really appreciated the sense of danger and horror you got in the first one. It's something the others miss out on, because while the levels can be designed in a creepy way it's hard to feel horror when you have zero fear of dying.

[Kagus]

The original golem was also a lot of fun, as it gave precisely zero shits about actually following you and helping out. It'd just wander off and do its own thing, and later during the level you'd hear some far-off "*whack*... *whack*... *SPLAT*" when it found something.

Then you go down the stairs and get treated to that shockingly loud crumbling noise as it disintegrated.

[corrosivechains]

https://youtu.be/FD42AMUooyA?t=1m3s

[Aoi]

I can see what you see not;
Vision milky, then eyes rot.
When you turn, they will be gone,
Whispering their hidden song.
Then you see what cannot be:
Shadows move where light should be.
Out of darkness, out of mind,
Cast down into the Halls of the Blind.

I love that poem. It may be rose-tinted nostalgia, but I feel like D1 did a good job with their narratives. I remember another ARPG I played once where there a lore snippet that ran for like three minutes in a hostile area. The even more annoying part was that it'd cut out if you took an action, so you had to stand still the entire time, and the actually detrimental element was that triggering those snippets locked you in place until you cancelled it, often taking at least two seconds. Which meant it was basically suicide to ever view the lore.