R-Comp Interactive have announced that their next conversion will be Interplay's Descent, a game described as a cross between Quake and a flight sim - you're launched into a fully immersive, 360-degree 3D, texture-mapped, and light-mapped environment. RCI's own statement, published on the comp.sys.acorn.games newsgroup, adds: "...since you pilot a spacecraft in the game, full 360 degree movement is possible in all dimensions. This aspect of the engine is made considerable use of, with tunnels sprouting from both the floors and ceilings of caverns."

The game, released for the PC in 1995 and a year later for the Playstation, has a large following on the Internet, with at least two Webrings run by to fans who, as with other 3D games such as Doom and Quake, have created extra maps and resources which can be downloaded for free. This trend of releasing games which can have their lifespans greatly extended for little or no extra cost is an encouraging development, as is the fact that the Descent engine has been licensed for other games such as an RPG.

How advanced the Acorn version of the game will be is open to question at the moment, with RCI stating:

"We expect the final product to be based around the Descent I/II definitive edition pack recently released by Interplay. Please note that this DOES NOT imply that we are porting Descent 2 at this stage, as unlike Doom1/2, Descent 2 uses quite different sources to Descent 1."

Although this seems a definite statement that the game will be a straight port of the original Descent only, the original game ran in 320x200 with the option of a cockpit display as well as the standard forward view; however, in a further statement RCI stated that the game would probaly be running at twice that resolution, and that because of the resolution the cockpit display might not be possible...

"The big splat cockpit graphic which takes over most of the screen, but makes you feel like you're flying a ship rather than playing Doom ;-> (Currently, we've removed it to make it easier to play in different resolutions)."

...even though the game requires a minimum of a StrongARM RiscPC (the maximum being a Phoebe-enhanced version).
"For all you techies, we're currently updating much of the code with Phoebe (grr. RiscPC2) in mind, particularly WRT CD audio routine and available screen modes (the current version doesn't play above 640x480)."
For all you non-StrongARM owners out there it looks like now is definitely the time to start saving up!

The involvement of Descent II in the evolution of Acorn Descent appears solely down to problems with the music in the original game:
"...since D2 includes full CD audio, we shall be making use of this for gamers without the MIDI used in the original Descent game."
After the negative publicity RCI have received in the past due to the lack of non-MIDI support in games such as Doom and Syndicate this slightly unorthodox method of getting music into the game seems to be a sign of the company listening to the games-buying public. This was further emphasised by a second news posting asking readers to place certain areas of development in order of importance, a quick email poll revealing that higher resolution and the cockpit display are apparently much more important to gamers than niceties like playing in a RiscOS window.

The deal struck by RCI seems to be much more comprehensive than some of their past licenses:
"The agreement allows for an exclusive distribution/executable deal between RCI and Interplay for Acorn Descent, and also covers the use of the Descent/Interplay names, logos and trademarks in relation to the Acorn platform. This should make magazine coverage and discussion of Acorn Descent products far more practical than before, with full access to artwork and promotional materials."

Although this may not seem to be of any great interest to the games-buying public other than to point to bigger and better advertising, it does hint at a higher status RCI is beginning to enjoy in the gaming industry in general after such big-name licenses such as Doom, Quake, Abuse and Syndicate, and bodes well for other big-name releases in the future; at the recent Wakefield show the names of two more big-name licenses were revealed in confidence to Acorn Arcade to be pretty much in the bag, with a third very popular title being actively sought after. With their current track record it may well be that other games will be added to this list in a very short space of time, and indeed they seem to already be dropping hints about the first two games (see the IRC Games Forum page).

As for a release date, RCI are keeping a little more tight-lipped after recent games have suffered from minor delays which, although not seeming to cause too much antagonism in the newsgroups, has nevertheless been slightly irritating for both purchasers and publisher alike:
"At this stage, we are unwilling to publish release dates and time scales, for fear of slippage and unforseen problems, but suffice to say that we are currently running a full version of the game with most bells and whistles in place."
Although they are obviously being more cautious than in the past, it was rumoured at the Wakefield show that the game was running in an almost releasable form but for bugfixing, so while cynics might think that the delay is more to do with putting some distance between the glut of recent games and the next batch of releases to maximise sales, optimists will probably see the recent dialogue between publisher and public as a positive sign that RCI's next release will be a highly-polished crowdpleaser.

On a related note, after playing the game on a PC not long after release I found the 360° movement required the use of lots of keys, making the use of a joystick almost impossible and the default set of keyboard keys not much better - when you're trying to move quickly through an enclosed, true 3D environment neither control method seemed very intuitive. On the Playstation however the PSX controller, with its joypad and many extra buttons, was much more instinctive; how coincidental then that the Wakefield show also unearthed rumours that not only might the standard Playstation pad be making an appearance on the Acorn platform, but also the advanced versions with twin analogue joysticks built in are being worked upon.

In the first draft of this page I avoided naming names to make sure it didn't muddy the waters for any potential deals, but at the very same time I was writing, the first Acorn Arcade sponsored IRC forum revealed this interesting piece of information when Stuart Tyrrell mentioned he was also working on the rumble-pack version of the Playstation pad:

    <RComp> We'll support anyone working on new input devices - stdev ;->

You can read the full log of that IRC session on the IRC Games Forum page.

Further Information:

The newsgroup postings in full:

• Posting 1
  
• Posting 2

RCI (R-Comp Interactive):	http://www.arsvcs.demon.co.uk/rci/
Interplay:	http://www.interplay.com/
Descent information at Interplay:	http://www.interplay.com/descent/descent.html
Descent FAQ:	http://www.warpcore.org/descent-faq/
Descent Webring:	http://www.webring.com/cgi-bin/webring?ring=dwring;list
Weenies Guide to Descent:	http://www.weenie.com/descent/
Descent resources at Interplay FTP:	ftp://ftp1.interplay.com/pub/descent/
Advertising movie (4MB Quicktime):	ftp://ftp1.interplay.com/pub/descent/descent.qt

Richard Goodwin

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