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[MrFlibble]

Originally Posted by Eagle of Fire

I sure would love to try out some kind of "emulation" of SP3 if any of you have any clue if it does exist.

Well, I've heard that the latest version of Microsoft Virtual PC emulates a machine with WinXP SP3, but it's supposed to run on the new generation OS's (I think the latest version of Vritual PC runs solely on Windows 7).

IIRC you can simply upgrade WinXP SP1 to SP3 at Microsoft's tech support website, but I remember it didn't work out well for me as everything slowed down drastically on my PC after the upgrade so I had to downgrade back to SP1 (that PC is quite old, true, but it still matches the officially declared system requirements of SP3)

[Eagle of Fire]

That's exactly why I don't upgrade to SP2 or SP3. It is a retarded upgrade that I don't even need because I never had security issues. I take care of my PC security myself.

[RRS]

Originally Posted by MrFlibble

an alternative for the Wing Commander titles

*click*
Suddenly I recalled I used to frequent the forums of Wing Commander: Privateer - Gemini Gold, a fan remake. I haven't checked in for years...

But as you said you don't want to list here fan-remakes (which re-use copyrighted intellectual properties, even if redoing all content). So it's more important to note that this remake was built upon an open source game called Vega Strike - as you can guess, a space trading & combat "sim". Apart from Privateer, it also sprung Star Trek, Elite and Babylon 5 mods...

[MrFlibble]

Nice, I didn't know about Vega Strike (I'm not very familiar with the space combat sim genre generally though).

BTW, I have Red Alert: A Path Beyond as an alternative for C&C: Renegade, it's also a kind of an exception to my own rules because it's primarily a multiplayer game. But APB isn't a remake of anything in a proper sense, since there's no official Renegade-like game for Red Alert.

I'd gladly talk about fan remakes and sequels too, but that certainly warrants a separate thread (I wonder why the Remake Index thread got un-stickied).

[MrFlibble]

Okay guys, I've added your suggestions to the list

I've also found a couple of neat community-made Doom episodes that work nicely with Freedoom as a first episode replacement (the internal Freedoom levels are okay but they often have a noticeably different style):

CH Retro Episode
This is a creative reimagining of the shareware episode of Doom, with immediately recognizable yet subtly different visuals, and overall clever level design. It starts as a relatively straightforward thing but the levels quickly get interesting, and are full of puzzles and secret areas. The download link at the review page does no work but the file can be obtained here.

Simply Phobos
Another Knee-Deep-themed episode, but quite different from the one above. The author of Simply Phobos has a preference for vast, spacious areas, and also isn't shy of almost literal visual quotations from the original levels. It's equally fun to play nevertheless, and captures the atmosphere of the original game quite well too. In addition, this episode comes with an optional music pack in a separate WAD.

[MrFlibble]

Here's a couple more Doom Episode 1 tributes that work with Freedoom:

Phobos Revisited
The aim of the author was to create a "same but different" kind of feeling, following the original levels quite closely yet introducing something new at every turn. Phobos Revisited was designed to run in the original game as well as with source ports, and it won the Cacowards award in 2004. Screenshots can be viewed here at the team's website.

Phobos Outpost/Planet Phobos
Another interesting work, this one deviates a lot more from the original - for example, the first level is nothing like Doom's E1M1 - however later on similar details and areas become more frequent. The levels here are supposed to represent a single, coherent installation (the eponymous outpost), and at the end of each level the starting area of the next one can briefly be seen. Difficulty is a bit higher than in other similar works, or in the first episode of the original game for that matter, but clever design makes them interesting to play. For some reason, the author renamed the episode to Planet Phobos at some point, although no content was apparently changed.

The same author also released an Episode 2 replacement, The Base of Evil (which was also renamed to Planet Hell later), however it doesn't seem to work with Freedoom for now because of a missing textures issue.

[Tomekk]

Originally Posted by MrFlibble

Here's a couple more Doom Episode 1 tributes that work with Freedoom:

Phobos Revisited
The aim of the author was to create a "same but different" kind of feeling, following the original levels quite closely yet introducing something new at every turn. Phobos Revisited was designed to run in the original game as well as with source ports, and it won the Cacowards award in 2004. Screenshots can be viewed here at the team's website.

Phobos Outpost/Planet Phobos
Another interesting work, this one deviates a lot more from the original - for example, the first level is nothing like Doom's E1M1 - however later on similar details and areas become more frequent. The levels here are supposed to represent a single, coherent installation (the eponymous outpost), and at the end of each level the starting area of the next one can briefly be seen. Difficulty is a bit higher than in other similar works, or in the first episode of the original game for that matter, but clever design makes them interesting to play. For some reason, the author renamed the episode to Planet Phobos at some point, although no content was apparently changed.

The same author also released an Episode 2 replacement, The Base of Evil (which was also renamed to Planet Hell later), however it doesn't seem to work with Freedoom for now because of a missing textures issue.

A bit off topic here, but still related to Doom... I remember reading about a mod/WAD for it that intended to remake the game according to the original design documents. Any chance you know about that?

[MrFlibble]

Hmm, I don't think I know such a mod. There are mods (included with the Boom/MBF fork of source ports) that enable beta graphics and levels from the press release beta.

There's also a recent project called Doom the Way id Did, which has designed to replicate the original style of John Romero and Sandy Petersen's levels.

On another note, Tom Hall did incorporate some of his ideas for Doom which were rejected into Rise of the Triad.

[Tomekk]

Originally Posted by MrFlibble

Hmm, I don't think I know such a mod. There are mods (included with the Boom/MBF fork of source ports) that enable beta graphics and levels from the press release beta.

There's also a recent project called Doom the Way id Did, which has designed to replicate the original style of John Romero and Sandy Petersen's levels.

On another note, Tom Hall did incorporate some of his ideas for Doom which were rejected into Rise of the Triad.

Found it!

Doom: Evil Unleashed

[MrFlibble]

Nice! Thanks for the link, I didn't know about this mod (not surprisingly, I usually skip unreleased projects when browsing ModDB).