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Descent

A few years back, following the staggering success of 3D shoot'em'up Doom, the PC played host to the first truly 3D maze exploration and shoot'em'up game - Interplay's Descent. The game added wildly to the complexity of Doom by placing the player in a totally free 3D environment, in which they could move with complete freedom in all three dimensions. The player travelled around in a small spacecraft, with no concept of "up" or "down" or even gravity, which was a very disorientating concept for many players. Using a full 3D map, it was hailed as far too complex by some and as amazingly brilliant by others. Since then it has seen a sequel, the imaginatively titled Descent 2, and ports to other platforms including the Sony Playstation. Now it is finally due for full release for the Acorn platform.

Earlier this year the PC source code was made available for free use "in perpetuity". This source included heavily-optimised assembler sections. None-the-less, Jack Parkinson began porting the game almost straight away, and he soon gained the attention of R-Comp (having also been in earlier contact with them when R-Comp had requested him to withhold his free port of Doom from release, a request with which he had complied). R-Comp offered to try to get the rights to publish his port of the game in an official Acorn version. Later some C source code for the Mac also became publically available, which made some of the tasks involved in porting the game a bit easier.

At about the same time Matthew Bloch and Rik Griffin also started work on a separate freeware port of the game (much the same as Jack Parkinson's original intention prior to R-Comp's intervention), but without the knowledge of R-Comp. It was not until later in the development of the game that both sides learnt about each other, and R-Comp made various moves to attempt to persuade the authors of the non-commercial version to abandon their port. They rejected these moves, although it was always clear that R-Comp's version was superior in some regards, as one would naturally expect of a full commercial release.

[Loading screen for free Descent]

The free version still requires a reasonable amount of work, and it is unclear whether time will ever be found for this. The commercial version, on the other hand, is now having the finishing touches applied ready for release, and of course will be sold complete with the level files which would need to be purchased separately for use with the freeware version.

[Free Descent running in a window]
Free Acorn Descent running in a desktop window

R-Comp have said that they hope to release Descent within a few weeks. The initial release will, however, require a StrongARM-equipped machine.

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©Gareth Moore
Last updated 26/8/98