Windows Covert Action

[fbouthil]

I always liked that 1990 game where you played a spy that tried to prevent criminal organizations from making crimes by decoding messages, tapping phone lines (electronic puzzle game), car chases and sneaking into houses to get clues and arrest suspects. I decided to make a windows version of it.

Here is what is working so far:
- Practise Crypto (takes a random message from a random plot)
- Practise Electronic
- Practise Specific Plot: For the moment, it only reads the plot file. Plots are in the "Plot" subfolder. You can create your own plots if you like.
- There is a "Music" subfolder with many subfolders inside, one for each type of activity. When doing an activity, it will play a random mp3 file in the corresponding folder if there are any.
- Practise Driving has been started, but all you can do for now is search for the airport or the CIA office.

I am going to work on car chases next.

If anyone wants to help, I will need furniture graphics from a top-down view (as per the original game). I will also need top-down views of Max and of Bodyguards. That will be for combat practise.

I expect I will also need suspect photos. It will probably be faces of about twice the size of a forum avatar. I have not decided on the details yet.

The program requires Microsoft .NET Framework (http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/) which is free. It probably requires DirectX also as I used a DirectX class to play the MP3 files.

Anyone know a better place to put my work in progess? I am over the 200k limit and it does not sound proper to have CivFanatics host it.

Windows Covert Action April 23, 2006 (http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=124564&d=1145819481)

[The Fifth Horseman]

He's got a newer version up on here (http://geocities.com/fbouthil/)

[Abi79]

If he'll manage to finish this remake, I'll be very happy. Cover Action is one of my favourite spying games to this day. It's so complex, so interesting, so...lovely :wub: :D

[The Fifth Horseman]

Personally, I adored the electronics sequences in the original. Neat adn easy to understand, yet challenging and fun to play.

[U-Boat Commander David]

Originally posted by Abi79@May 8 2006, 06:05 PM
Cover Action is one of my favourite spying games to this day. It's so complex, so interesting, so...lovely :wub: :D
I Agree 100%.

Covert Action is one of my Dos Favorites. :ok:

An "Evergreen" of the dos erea! :kosta:

[Tulac]

Originally posted by fbouthil@Apr 21 2006, 05:32 AM
Anyone know a better place to put my work in progess? I am over the 200k limit and it does not sound proper to have CivFanatics host it.


Well I guess you can asko on AR since it's dedicated to freeware and remakes, they've got a forum for this too http://www.reloaded.org/forum/index.php?showforum=53

[fbouthil]

Thanks the_fifth_horseman for reviving this topic. It was being ignored for more than 2 weeks, so I did not bother posting about having a newer version. :whistle:

I will surely create a new topic on abandonia reloaded this week as Tulac suggested, just to see if I can get a few more people interested in it. I created a website (http://geocities.com/fbouthil/) for that remake, so I don't really need abandonia to host it for now. I might ask them if they want to include it in their site once I got a working version if they think it is good enough.

For the moment, I am working on the combat part of the game. It is going to take some time since that part is mostly graphics and I am not very fast with Photoshop.

Any suggestions or comments appreciated.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Couldn't run it. :( NET Framework v2 required.

[Abi79]

Originally posted by the_fifth_horseman@May 11 2006, 01:17 PM
Couldn't run it. :( NET Framework v2 required.
And it's big...and it requires me to update Windows Installer to 2.0. Somehow, I do not want to update my poor, stupid and old Windows 98. I might end up without it after a restart. :cry:

[fbouthil]

Sorry about that. When I started coding, I did not know it required to download something that big (.net framework is 22.4M, the windows installer 2.0 is 1.6M if you need to upgrade). :blink:

On the other hand, I don't really feel like porting the whole game to another language.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Well, allright.
NF2.0 is just hard to get when one doesn't have net access from the machine that needs it.
I'll try to get it anyway. :bye:

[fbouthil]

:brain: I now have a partially working combat activity in my remake!

The most important things missing are the grenades, jumping, an inventory system and disguises. I realized I was spending more time playing with what I had done so far rather than adding things, so I thought I should post a new version. The mouse lets you walk, shoot or stand/crouch, but you are better using the keyboard for the latter (5 on the keypad or space). Here is a complete list of what is working and what is not: Combat Activity (http://www.geocities.com/fbouthil/Combat.htm)

I would like feedback from those who will try it. Is it too easy or hard to shoot guards? Is it too easy or hard for guards to shoot you? How many guards do you think should be in the house depending on the alert level? Are there enough inside doors or too many rooms with only one door? Are you walking and crawling too slowly or too fast?

[U-Boat Commander David]

Could someone may post a Step by Step Guide how to get this Running?

All i get after Starting is a grey Screen with blue Stuff on top. How the F... do i get this one Startin'?

[edit]

Alright, i got it runnin', but the Mouse Controle...Sucks. I would Rather Like a Keybord controle like in the Original. And a more "Zoomed" view. Currently the Screens show so much that it is Really hard to controle.:hairpull:

And different Skins for Guards and the own Figure.

The first time i played i tried to shoot myself... :tease:

[fbouthil]

Sorry about the guards and your own icon being the same, it is going to be one of the next things I work on.

As for the mouse control, it takes a few times to get used to it, but you can use the keyboard to crouch/stand (space or 5 on the keypad). It is also pretty difficult to move from one cover to another without the possibility to jump (coming up soon).

The way I kill guards is the following:

1. You can hide behind furniture
2. Quickly stand then crouch to see where the guards are
3. Put the mouse where you last saw the guard you want to shoot
4. Quickly stand up, shoot the guard and hide back. If the alarm is not on yet, you can take a few seconds to get a better aim before shooting, to make sure you take him down with one bullet.

Of course, if you use the mouse to stand up/crouch, you will get shot down before you can kill a single guard. I will remove the mouse control to stand up/crouch.

I did it that way because, in the original game, I hated it when I shot in the general direction of a guard and I shot another guard instead. I would often shoot a stunned guard lying on the ground that way. For that reason, I want to keep the fact that you use the mouse to shoot. On the other hand, I am going to add keyboard control to move around and to access the furniture.

The guards and yourself are going to be bigger, but I am not sure if I will zoom in the rest. Currently, I used 40 pixels per tile in the original game. To get a maximum room size of 10x10 tiles, as per the original game, I guess I could have gone to 50 pixels per tile. That means lots of Photoshop to redo the graphics, but it might be worth it.

[U-Boat Commander David]

Cool.

It Seems like you make Progress Pretty Damn Fast!