Battlezone 1

Hi!
A couple of you may remember me if you were around in the early days of Battlezone, I made a bunch of conversion utils for BZ1... BZHgt, BZAct and whatnot. I've just found out that both BZ1 and BZ2 are now freely available 'abandonware' and seen the forgotten enemies mod for BZ2.

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to port all of the BZ1 units, physics, weapons and gameplay into BZ2? I never was a fan of the sequel, but the BZ2 engine is so much better on modern PCs. If nobody has tried this, my next question is about the availability of the source code for both games. I know the BZ1 full source was around at one point, but given out under an NDA, so I never got a hold of it. But that was years ago, so maybe it is available now? Seems like it would be a worthwhile project.

I think somebody somewhere was porting BZ units into BZ2 but I never liked the aiming in BZ2. Currently Ken Miller has the BZ1 source code and is making a patch which already runs nicely on modern PCs, although he stated somewhere that he can't share the source code for legal reasons.

Thanks for the reply, since posting I have tracked down BattleZone Classic, being developed by Avatar who I remember from back in the day, but it looks like he has been working on it since 2005.

I'm running a version of 1.5 not sure if it's the latest, my only real issue with it is the supported screen modes. Is the new patched version supposed to be able to do more than 1280 x 1024? how about widescreen?

Get the latest version - http://www.battlezone1.net/patch


1920x1080

Oh, wow.
Not sure what version I *was* using, but this is AWESOME! Looks just amazing running at 2560x1440 with AA enabled. Thank you!

You're welcome.

With 13 years behind us, 1.4 still being active and 1.5 knocking at the door, I'm sure you can understand why are we not thrilled about someone wanting to mod something (besides there's no mod out there worth playing). Back in the day, mods were there to spice up the original, while today things like that cause splits in not so big community (around 200 players). No matter if it is cause of the simple MVM, a different server session or a different game engine.

All our focus is on 1.5 now (which will definitely bring more players), while waiting for it in 1.4.

Yeah, that is perfectly understandable. So as far as 1.5 goes, what still needs doing? Anything I can do to help?

Basically, we have to clear high priorities (1 and 2) from the bug index and any major issues from the current build, which is atm this one.

Help us test it, this one and any future version, then report your findings to Ken.

I just downloaded an old map I made - PacManDM, tried to run it but it crashes. That map had custom made... well, just about everything. So I guess that is the first thing for me to look at.
Could it be that non standard odf files no longer work, to prevent cheating?

It would be nice to see some good single player campaign mods, don't you think? If they are single player, multiplayer is still the same.

Thats exactly what I am working on now, new single player campaigns with also some multiplayer maps, but no custom units in multiplayer.
I call it an expansion pack, but it's basically a map pack with a launcher so you don't have to hassle with the command prompt to launch missions.

I will release a demo version soon when i finish some more missions, atm only the first Black Dog mission is done.

I remember talking about that in the lobby . I'll still be able to test-play the missions if you wanted.

Slight, I crash on that map too in 1.5. The best is to ask Ken; he's busy so he doesn't read much other topics than those in 1.5 section.

Spl Eagles & Goomba, yes, the most important is to have 1 MP version. As for SP (IA maps), I don't really care. I played maybe 5-6 IA missions over all these years.
In my experience with others, most new players will play SP (campaign) before coming to MP or after trying MP and realizing that they don't have a clue. Old players won't bother with too easy SP more than once every 5 years, they will play much harder RO or stick to MP. IA is mostly for mapmakers and their friends. If we had MPI, that would be another story...

My goal is (again) big Online community. Let's be honest; IA maps don't contribute much. Even new strat and DM maps (released in the last several years) hardly find a way to the players. Vast majority of the players are old ones or the returning ones. They don't want to play Mountain Madness, they still like Canyon Madness, nor they want Mausoleum, they still want Coliseum.