DieHard Wolfers

[Per-Scn]

Just wondering if it's remotely possible to convert Super Noah's Ark. I emailed Wisdom Tree months ago regarding a possible update to SDL but I never heard anything back.

So, I was thinking; could some clever person here reverse engineer/hack the game and convert it to SDL, at all?

I think it's a really fun diversion and I'd love to see it running smoothly and at 640x400... Maybe even make some new maps for it!

[Tricob]

From what I've heard, Super Noah's 3-D Ark mainly has changes to the files themselves, rather than the code. But that's going strictly by the SNES version.

I'd really have to run the DOS version before I can give any more feedback on this issue.

[vermil]

The SNES version plays like a reskin of SNES Wolf3D with walk over end level triggers.

The PC version plays identically to the SNES version with the following additions:
Blake Stone style textured floors (i.e. not Operation Body Count styled)
Midi music
Mac Resolution graphics
8 directional sprites for bad guys
A powerup that upon pickup, pops up a screen asking a random multiple choice bible related question; a right answer gives the player a stat boost IIRC.

What version of the Wolf engine that the PC version is based off though... well here's the startup screen:

[Per-Scn]

The game also contains an automap. With this and the above mentioned differences I think the game is a real step up from the original engine. Though I do have a soft spot for the IMF music sound...

Tricob, just wondering, do you have a copy of the game to hand?

It's a pity that the game code has never been released. Between that and the loss of the Blake Stone source it's a shame...

[vermil]

The automap was in the SNES version of Wolf, hence why I didn't mention it

[Per-Scn]

Ah, I forgot about that. Wolf3D on the SNES had the automap too didn't it? It's a feature I wish would turn up in some more of the modern W3D projects...

[Tricob]

Per-Scn wrote:

Tricob, just wondering, do you have a copy of the game to hand?

Sort of; it's part of a *large* torrent file I downloaded several months ago. I downloaded the torrent to get a few obscure Shareware releases, and the Noah game happened to come with it.

I gave the Noah game a whirl last night; it has many more code changes than the SNES version did. But from what I see so far, the changes aren't mind-blowing. I think I should locate a PDF manual for this game to learn more about its features.

[Per-Scn]

I'll have a look around as well to see if there's a manual somewhere though I'm not sure how informative it'll be.

BTW, thanks for showing some interest this topic. I half expected that nobody would care a jot about the game.

[Chris]

vermil wrote:

Mac Resolution graphics

The only PC version of SNA-3D I've seen has 64x64 walls/sprites and 320x200 native resolution just like Wolf3d for PC. In fact, you can open pretty much every file for it in ChaosEdit except the AUDIOT... so aside from a few new coding features, different palette, midi music, and some picture/frame alignment stuff, most of it should already work as a straight port to Wolf4SDL.

[Per-Scn]

Ooh, that's interesting. I take the AUDIOT can't be opened due to the whole MIDI thing and the lack of support for it in ChaosEdit?

So, you think it could, at least in theory, be a fairly straight forward port?

[Tricob]

Well, some parts are more straightforward than others. I know the VGAGRAPH layout is quite different; it uses several chunks in the title screen alone, while the Wolf3D/SOD code uses just two maximum (The Wolf3D screen uses one chunk, while the SOD screen is split into two chunks for the top and bottom). You'd have to reprogram the GFXV_WL6.H file and two CPP files before the EXE would even execute (WL_MAIN.CPP and WL_INTER.CPP).

The Noah game uses quizzes as well, and there's more than one way to program that sort of feature. But you don't need that particular feature for your very first functional EXE; it can always be added later.

As I said earlier, I'll have to look over the manual to get more details.