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This article is about the second game in the series. For the original game, see Descent (computer game). Descent is a 3D First-person shooter Video game developed by Parallax Software and released in 1995 For the third and last game in the series, see Descent³. Descent 3 is the third and final game in the line of Descent computer games well known for the use of Six degrees of freedom and true 3D rendering
Descent II

Developer(s) Parallax Software
Publisher(s) Interplay Productions
Engine Portal Rendering System
Platform(s) PC (Linux, Mac OS, Mac OS X, MS-DOS, RISC OS, Solaris, Windows), PlayStation, Windows CE,AmigaAmigaOs 4. A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual that creates Video games A developer may specialize in a certain video Parallax Software was a Video game developer best known for creating the Descent series of computer games. A game engine is a software system designed for the creation and development of computer and video games In Computing, a platform describes some sort of Hardware architecture or Software framework (including Application frameworks, that allows A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of Graphical user interface -based Operating systems developed by Apple Inc Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. RISC OS is an Operating system originally created by British manufacturer Acorn Computers for their ARM based Computers ranging Solaris is a Unix -based Operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992 as the successor to SunOS. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone, PS1, or informally as PSX) is a 32-bit fifth generation Video game console Windows CE (also known officially as Windows Embedded Compact post version 6 0
Release date March 13, 1996
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: Teen (PC-13)
USK: 12
Media CD-ROM
System requirements PC
  • IBM/Tandy or 100% compatible 486 DX-50 or faster
  • 8 MB RAM (16 MB required if running under Win95)
  • Hard drive
  • DOS 5. Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) See also [[Game classification]] Video games are categorized into Genres based on their Gameplay interaction A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War In video gaming, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session A Multiplayer video game is a Video game in which more than one person can play the same game at the same time A video game content rating system is a system used for the classification of Video games into suitability-related groups The Entertainment Software Rating Board ( ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that applies and enforces ratings, Advertising guidelines and USK redirects here For the Usinsk airport see Usinsk Airport. Digital media (as opposed to analog media) usually refers to Electronic media that work on digital Codes. CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable 0 or later
  • CD-ROM drive
Input methods Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Controller

Descent II is a 3D first-person shooter video game noted for popularizing the use of true 3D rendering technology and providing the player with six full degrees of freedom (often abbreviated "6DOF") to move and to look around. In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling A game controller is an Input device used to control a Video game. 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. 3D rendering is the 3D computer graphics process of automatically converting 3D Wire frame models into 2D images with 3D photorealistic effects on a computer Six degrees of freedom ( 6DoF) refers to motion in three Dimensional space namely the ability to move forward/backward up/down left/right ( translation

Originally planned as an expansion (and not a sequel) to Descent, Descent II added more weapon types, vastly improved robot types and AI. Descent is a 3D First-person shooter Video game developed by Parallax Software and released in 1995 It was followed by Descent³. Descent 3 is the third and final game in the line of Descent computer games well known for the use of Six degrees of freedom and true 3D rendering

The trademark for Descent was allowed to lapse by Interplay in 2002. A trademark or trade mark, represented by the symbols ™ and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual [1]

Contents

Audiovisuals

D2X

Both Descent and Descent II use a software renderer. Descent II however was also able to take advantage of the widening selection of 3D graphics accelerator video cards. Graphics were still 8-bit, but due to the additional CD memory available, instead of using a single palette set during gameplay, each of the six four-level sets had its own 256-color set, and there were effectively six texture sets, each of which had basically the same textures but optimized them specifically for those colors and textures most used in the four-level set. Furthermore, multiple resolutions were supported, and the game was ported to the Macintosh. After its release a patch was issued to add support for early 3D accelerators running the S3 ViRGE chipset. The S3 Virtual Reality Graphics Engine ( ViRGE) graphics Chipset was one of the first 2D / 3D accelerators designed for the mass market A patch (also from Parallax) added 3Dfx Voodoo support further down the line. 3dfx Interactive was a company that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D Graphics processing units and later Graphics cards After dominating the field

The original Descent uses indexed 8-bit color in DOS's display mode 13h, using 320 × 200 resolution. Eight-bit CPUs normally use an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit address bus which means that their Address space is limited to 64 KBs This is not a "natural Mode 13h is the IBM VGA BIOS mode number for a specific standard 256 color mode on IBM 's VGA graphics Hardware The Macintosh and later PC versions allow higher resolutions, such as 640 × 480. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Descent II allows the resolution maximum to be stretched to 800 × 600, or 1280 × 1024 with the -superhires option. Fan-made patches for Windows XP, which are even more popular for Descent II than its predecessor, will often stretch the maximum resolution to 1600 × 1200 and also take advantage of the newest Radeon and GeForce video cards. ATI Radeon is a brand of Graphics processing units (GPU that since 2000 has been manufactured by ATI Technologies and subsequently AMD and is GeForce is a Brand of PC graphics processor units (GPUs designed by Nvidia.

Like Descent, Descent II operates on the premise of interconnected cubes. Sides of cubes can be attached to other cubes, or display up to two texture maps. Cubes can be deformed so long as they remain convex. In Euclidean space, an object is convex if for every pair of points within the object every point on the Straight line segment that joins them is also within the To create effects like doors and see-through grating, walls could be placed at the connected sides of two cubes. Descent introduced an elaborate static lighting scheme as well as simple dynamic lighting, another advancement compared to Doom. The environment could be lit with flares, lights could flicker. Newly added for Descent II is that the environment can be darkened by shooting out the lights.

Most of the 8-bit, 11 kHz sounds from the original Descent are remastered in 22 kHz, with the 11 kHz option available for systems with less memory and/or slower processors. The door sounds are mostly changed; numerous new weapon and robot sounds are added. There are several new MIDI and redbook CD tracks (described below. ) Numerous full-motion videos, available in both 320 × 200 or 640 × 480 for different processor speeds, are introduced, showing the escapes from levels and major events between missions.

Storyline

After the player has destroyed all of the mines in the solar system in the original Descent, he stops in the Asteroid belt for refueling. Dravis then contacts him and has a new mission:

"If you've studied your standard mercenary agreement, you would notice that PTMC reserves the right to keep you on retainer for up to 72 hours, post-mission. If you choose to decline further service, we may consider you in default of your contract, and your fee may be suspended, pending litigation. Good luck Material Defender. Dravis out. "

The player's ship is fitted with a prototype warp core and he is sent to clear out all of PTMC's deep space mines, the last of which seems to run all through a planetoid, which is revealed in the final cutscene to be a large spaceship.

After it breaks apart, the Material Defender radios in to alert Dravis to his return home, but his warp drive malfunctions and he ends up in an unknown location. The camera then fades to that location and the ship appears, drifting towards the camera while it zaps itself with bolts of electricity. "To be continued" is displayed in fiery letters, and the plotline continues in Descent³. Descent 3 is the third and final game in the line of Descent computer games well known for the use of Six degrees of freedom and true 3D rendering

Gameplay

Multiplayer

Like Doom, Descent offers excellent competitive multiplayer game play over a LAN. Descent is also touted as being one of the first games that allowed on-the-fly joining of multiplayer games, whereas in Doom it is presumed that all players have to be queued prior to initiating the match. With the advent of the Internet, IPX emulators such as Kali and Kahn[1], which actually combined better compression for IPX games with its own IRC network for users to meet in a standalone client, more and more people began to play Descent and Descent II over the Internet. Internetwork Packet Exchange ( IPX) is the OSI-model Network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX Protocol stack. Kali is an IPX network emulator for DOS and Windows, enabling legacy Multiplayer games to work over a modern TCP/IP network such Descent II was especially popular online due to its support for short packets and variable packet rate -- options which were crucial for smooth Internet play.

The Invitational Descent Ladder pitted the finest players in the most competitive environment available; 1 on 1 deathmatches. It should be noted that while the IDL accepted "Descent3" into its roster of games allowed to be played, it was not taken very seriously. It can be said that only the original "Descent" commonly known as d1 was taken seriously for competitors. The d1x project[2] developed by Sekmu[3], significantly improved gameplay.

Levels

Descent II focuses on systems beyond the solar system. The planets are Zeta Aquilae, Quartzon, Brimspark, Limefrost Spiral, Baloris Prime, and Omega. Zeta Aquilae (ζ Aql / ζ Aquilae is a Triple star system in the Constellation Aquila. The Omega system is subdivided into the Puuma Sphere and Tycho Brahe, with the latter being the final level of the game. Each system consists of 4 regular levels and 1 secret level.

In response to complaints that Descent's levels were mostly dull and lacked creativity, Descent II's levels were designed with a theme in mind; as an example, Level 2 "Turnabout Bore" lives up to its name since the map resembles a figure-8. There is the inclusion of difficult puzzles such as hidden doors and laser-reflecting force fields; mostly to hide valuable powerups or hostages, but some are required to complete the level.

The secret levels are unique in that the player can travel back and forth between the regular levels (of the same system) via teleporters so long as the reactor of the secret level is not destroyed. However the player may not save nor open a game on the secret level, since it would take the fun out of getting through single-open doors and hitting switches correctly the first time.

Some of these planets have notable characteristics:

The complete list of levels from the original Descent II mission is as follows:

Robots

Planets come with a complementary set of "themed" robots, instead of recycling enemies like Doom. For example, Brimspark (a volcanic lava planet) bots fire yellow/orange blast or explosive weapons, while in Limefrost Spiral (an ice world) bots unleash blue/white bursts from their Spreadfire and Helix cannons.

There are other robots that appear regularly in the game regardless of which planet they are in. One interesting enemy is the Diamond Claw, which is similar to the green Medium Lifters with bloodied claws from the original Descent, but the Diamond Claws can also "short-circuit" and release homing plasmas when struck with any energy weapon (i. e. any laser but not Vulcan, Gauss, mines or missiles), presenting an additional challenge to the player.

Descent II made major improvements in AI, with robots being able to do hit-and-run attacks or roaming through the level, such as the ITD "Eagle Bot" and ITSC. Most infamous was the Bandit or Thief-Bot which was a fast-moving and hard-to-kill enemy that attempted to steal the player's weapons and equipment; the similar E-Bandit will drain the player's energy and shields.

Another notable addition to the game was the Guide-Bot, a companion robot the player could use to aid in navigation and other tasks. It shot flares which could slightly damage the player or enemies, and was immune to laser fire but could be killed by a large amount of missile or Gauss splash damage from either the player or enemy robots. Splash damage, also known as radius damage, is a term used in several types of Games most notably in First-person shooter and Real-time strategy

Bosses

Like Descent, some levels replace the reactor with a boss robot that must be destroyed to trigger the escape. Descent II places a boss on the fourth level of each system, giving a better thrill throughout the game. Like Descent, all bosses are capable of 'cloaked teleporting' and spawning robots when attacked.

Descent II bosses add a new feature: the ability to generate homing plasma pulses when hit by energy weapons (much like those released by a Smart Missile, but weaker).

The first two bosses are vulnerable to all weapons, while the next two bosses are particularly vulnerable to particle weapons (i. e. Vulcan and Gauss Cannons, and missiles) but invulnerable to energy weapons. The fifth boss can only be damaged by energy weapons, while the final boss can only be killed by hitting a glowing green spot on its back.

Their traits are listed as follow:

Saving

Saving and restoring can be done at any time, except in the secret levels as mentioned above; it stores the exact details of every object's location and data within the level, and a small snapshot of the player's view, all at the time of the save.

Weapons and Items

Also see: Descent 1 Weapons

Descent II carries all of the precedent's weapons, with 10 additional weapons as well. Descent is a 3D First-person shooter Video game developed by Parallax Software and released in 1995 In addition, picking up the Ammo Rack powerup will double the amount of ordinance that can be picked up; for instance the amount of Vulcan ammo that can be carried is raised from 10000 to 20000 rounds. The new weapons are listed below:

Primary weapons

It has been noted that the fusion cannon is weaker in Descent II.

Secondary weapons

Flares:

Notable items

Picking up the Converter, Headlight, Quad Laser, Ammo Rack, Afterburner, or any energy-consuming weapon when the player already has one of those items gives the same amount of energy as an energy powerup for the difficulty level chosen.

Descent II Releases

Descent II (1996)

Originally planned as an expansion (and not a sequel) to Descent, Descent II added more weapon types, different enemy types, different mines, laser-reflecting force field walls, and transporter areas. In response to complaints that Descent's levels were mostly dull and lacked creativity, Descent II's levels were designed with a theme in mind; as an example, Level 2 "Turnabout Bore" lives up to its name since the map resembles a figure-8. There is the inclusion of difficult puzzles; most to hide valuable powerups but some are required to complete the level. A notable addition was the Guide-Bot, a companion robot the player could use to aid in navigation and other tasks. Another major improvement was the enemy robot AI with some robots not only being able to dodge fire but also do hit-and-run attacks or roam through the level. Most infamous was the Bandit or Thief-Bot which was a fast-moving and hard-to-kill enemy that attempted to steal the player's weapons and equipment; the similar E-Bandit will drain the player's energy and shields.

Graphics were still 8-bit, but multiple resolutions were supported, and it was ported to the Macintosh. After its release a patch was issued to add support for early 3D accelerators running the S3 ViRGE chipset. The S3 Virtual Reality Graphics Engine ( ViRGE) graphics Chipset was one of the first 2D / 3D accelerators designed for the mass market A patch (also from Parallax) added 3Dfx Voodoo support further down the line. 3dfx Interactive was a company that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D Graphics processing units and later Graphics cards After dominating the field The soundtrack was composed by range of musicians, from Type O Negative to Mark Walk and Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre. Type O Negative is a Heavy metal band from Brooklyn, New York City. Mark Walk is an American composer producer Multi-instrumentalist and current member of the bands Skinny Puppy and OhGr. Skinny Puppy is an industrial band formed in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 1982. Nivek Ogre (real name Kevin Graham Ogilvie) born December 5, 1962 is the vocalist best known for his work in the industrial band Skinny An expansion pack featured remixes of some tracks from the original score.

Descent II Soundtrack - Original Version:

(Vi #) indicates which track number is on S3 ViRGE Descent II Promo Disc. Mark Morgan is a video game music composer who has produced the soundtracks of various Interplay and Activision computer games

While the first Descent had been released as shareware with 7 levels, Descent II was released as a shorter 3 level demo. The term shareware, popularized by Bob Wallace, refers to Copyrighted commercial Software that is Distributed without payment on a trial A game demo is an often but not always freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released computer or video game. Another truncated version of Descent II was "Destination Quartzon" which featured the first 8 levels and was bundled with the Logitech Wingman Extreme joystick or with the S3 ViRGE chipset that also included the promotional game Terminal Velocity. Terminal Velocity is a Video game developed by Terminal Reality and published by 3D Realms on May 1 1995.

Descent Mission Builder 2 (1996)

An authorized, commercial Descent and Descent II level editor from Brainware. It gives users the tools necessary to design, create and implement levels for the commercial versions of Descent and Descent II. It is also capable of converting Descent levels into Descent II levels. DLE-XP, which is maintained by the creator of D2X-XL, is a modernized and enhanced version of DMB2.

Descent II: The Vertigo Series (1996)

An add-on for Descent II containing twenty additional levels (and three secret levels), plus the officially licensed Descent Mission Builder 2. Remixed versions of some music tracks from the original Descent II were also included on the CD in Redbook CD-audio format, an interesting addition to what is a simple level pack. It was lauded for its creative level design and the introduction of many exotic robots and two new bosses (briefing sessions had them in motion in contrast to static images in Descent II), though some levels also borrowed robots from Descent. "Flickering" lights were also a new feature to visual effects.

Descent II: The Infinite Abyss (1997)

A 2-CD special release of Descent II. The first disc contains Descent II with the latest patch applied (providing support for 3dfx and Rendition video cards), while the second disc is the original "Vertigo Series" add-on (with remixed versions of original music tracks from the first CD in Redbook CD-audio format).

Descent Maximum (PlayStation)

Descent Maximum is the PlayStation counterpart of Descent II on the PlayStation. Unlike the first PlayStation Descent which was considered mostly a direct port, Descent Maximum was designed to better accommodate the console and contained 30 entirely new levels. These maps had similar themes to those in Descent II, but were generally smaller than their PC cousins.

Descent II (GameTap) (2006?)

In 2006, Descent II made its debut on Time Warner's GameTap broadband game service, the full version of Descent II can be downloaded and played on Windows XP using GameTap. GameTap is an American online Video game service by Turner Broadcasting System (TBS

Descent novels

The Descent series also spawned a trilogy of novels written by Peter Telep and sold at several major booksellers. Peter Telep (born April 8) is an American Author, Screenwriter, and Educator. The titles are Descent, Descent: Stealing Thunder, and Descent: Equinox. The novels did not follow the games to the word, but expanded on the basic premise, and were very well received.

Source code

Main article: Descent third-party development

The Descent II source code, like that of Descent before it, has been released to the general public. Descent is a 3D First-person shooter Video game developed by Parallax Software and released in 1995 In Computer science, source code (commonly just source or code) is any sequence of statements or declarations written in some Human-readable There have been numerous third-party efforts to update and improve the game; some are still active, while others are not.

References

  1. ^ USPTO entry for the Descent game trademark.

External links

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