Exile 1-3 seem to have become Freeware...

[Red Fortress]

Exile 1-3 seem to have become Freeware...

So if you go to the Spiderweb Software Website and check the pages for the old Exile games you'll see the some :D changes.

"This game is now free to play" and "Download the fully registered version".

Exile: Escape From the Pit
Windows: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile/winexile.html
Mac: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile/macexile.html


Exile II: Crystal Souls
Windows: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile2/winexile2.html
Mac: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile2/macexile2.html

Exile III: Ruined World for Windows
Windows: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile3/winexile3.html
Mac: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile3/macexile3.html

Strange that there has been no :unsure: announcement, but it should be legit as it's on the Developers own website.

Enjoy!!!

[MrFlibble]

Cool, I'm pretty certain this wasn't the case just recently when I checked their site a while ago.

Weird that there had been no official announcement in the news (http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/newstuff.shtml), except maybe in one of Jeff Vogel's podcasts that are announced there.

Nice find!

[Smiling Spectre]

Actually, I am pretty sure that it was announced like half-year ago... Maybe even before that. I was pleased, but as they are mostly obsolete, I totally forgot about it. :(

[MrFlibble]

they are mostly obsolete
What? You didn't mean to say that the newer Avernum games completely replace the originals?

[Professor Oak]

I have some games to play, I think.

[Smiling Spectre]

I said "mostly"! :)

Well, I tried Exiles. Everything good, except dialogs. Need to enter every key reply manually simply killing me! I can tolerate IFs, but it's pretty much everything where keywords are really in place for me. :)

Avernums, on the other hand, have exactly the same content as Exiles - only somewhat newer engine, and menu-driven dialogs. Much better, as for me!

And I cannot say, of course, how close Avernum to Exile overall, but Exile I and Avernum 1 had exactly the same plot and initial dialogs, and pretty the same layouts and NPCs for first city, first raider base and overall map in first sector. I wasn't in more distant lands in Exile, so I cannot compare them more.

[MrFlibble]

I must say that personally I prefer the "old school style" graphics of the original series to the isometric newer ones, although those are nice too.

As for typing keywords, this is actually the standard practice for early CPRGs, and it is in several ways better than just giving the player a choice to cycle through all dialogue options because an attentive player who tries some extra keywords is rewarded with some extra background information.

In fact, I believe that any role-playing game would benefit from a freeform type of dialogue where the player could type in meaningful texts in a natural language and get varied responses (similar to chatterbots) as opposed to simply selecting pre-defined choices.