I have been ridiculously busy with work over the last year but now that winter has arrived I have a lot more free time. For the last few weeks I have been thinking about restarting work on the Last Resort mod.
I still have all my source code and original files from the mod, including an update that I hadn't completed.
It is encouraging to see Swat3 now being sold on http://www.gog.com/
I see on the right side of this website Tunngle being suggested to play Swat 3? Have they finally worked out all the bugs with that app? It looked promising a few years ago.
I know that the Swat 3 community is pretty non-existent but something about that game keeps me coming back. Part of me wants people to discover the wonderful fun that we had so many years ago. Is this just a sad reliving of my youth? Perhaps so. Maybe I haven't found a coop game that gave me as much fun in all of the years since Swat3 was first published.
Just been thinking about all the issues I need to deal with to get back into a position to work on the mod:
- Register a new domain name (done) - Point domain to nameservers (done) - Update Joomla to latest version for security (done) - Update website (done) - Install new hard drive - Re-install windows and all my applications (photoshop, hex editor, VB6, dreamweaver etc) - Re-install Swat 3 and copy over the mod files to new hard drive
Update: You will find the Last Resort website at: Mods4Games.info
The only thing not working yet on the site is the Contact Us page.
Hey Jim, on that tack, it looks like something's up with the forum registration/CAPTCHA. And in response to the questions you posed earlier:
wrote ... GoG.com is a website that sells a lot of old pc games that are nearly impossible to find at your local retail outlet. They have started to sell the Swat 3 Tactical Game of the Year version as a download.
Swat3reunited.com has posted on their site that the version being sold has "no restrictive DRM or activations". I have a few questions regarding this version to anyone that has access to it.
1) Does the GOG.com version require a CD key?
No, the GOG version does not require a CD key
2) If it doesn't require a CD Key then what happens when Last Resort executes the custom .exe file? Does the game then ask for a CD Key before you can play?
When Last Resort executes, it simply goes into SWAT 3 with LR engaged
3) Does the executable really not have any copy protection on it? If so I would love to get my hands on it to explore it.
I'm not a developer, so I can't judge that off-hand but GOG's policies are no DRM/copy protection on their releases
I think the registration problem is probably related to an email issue I am having on the website. Sorry about that. I have to get that sorted.
Thanks for your replies regarding GOG.com's version of Swat 3. I was surprised to find out that you didn't have to put in a CD Key when you installed your copy of Swat 3. I am also surprised the CD Key check wasn't triggered by Last Resort since it uses a modified version of the original .exe from Swat 3.
What keeps the GOG.com version from being pirated easily I wonder?
Do you have the file "Swat.icd" in your game folder?
C:\games\win\swat\swat3>dir /s swat.icd Volume in drive C is OS Volume Serial Number is A6F0-B0C5 File Not Found
C:\games\win\swat\swat3>
Well there are some pirated copies out there most likely, but the community as a whole seems to embrace the ethic that since GOG's offering these games at a reasonable price, without restrictions and in many cases, great extras, that they earned their pay and then some.
Piracy isn't always born out of the idea of getting a free game. In some cases those that are lumped into those numbers might have a legitimately purchased copy of the game, but because it's functionally broken (whether by heavily restrictive DRM or blatant defect), they'd dive on over to a build offered on those channels that's stable.
Of course I embrace the ideal that if you produce something, you should be paid for that production, at the same time, I think that the producer also needs to consider their customers and their environment before the size of their monthly executive bonus. GOG fits into that balance very nicely.
I am not holding my breath on the 32 bit colour but if Copy-cat gets it done he will be a held as a god among men, lol.
I spent some more time today organizing all the files for the mod, and I coded a little more on the Last Resort launcher. I can't wait until the core of the mod is done so I can get back to the fun part of working on map textures.
One of the changes I am adding is that the Furrycat "all clear" menu fix for multiplayer screws up the game's single player. With it activated you can't complete missions in single player. I am making a toggle for this.
I think it is important to have the Furrycat fix for multiplayer because the official 2.0 patch left us with a buggy game. This fix is needed for coop in my opinion. The only down side is that if someone forgets to toggle this ON before joining a multiplayer game they will have a data mismatch to everyone who does have it activated.
What do you think? Is it worth the extra little grief of activation?
