Ascendency

[Monroe]

Lo' and Behold one of my favorite games of all time is now a free download.

http://www.b-sting.nl/ascendancy/index.html

I still have my CD so its not as big of a find for me but I was talking to a friend about it and saw that its now free at Abandonia (which is a good site to know about anyway). You need a DOS Emulator to play I recommend DOSbox.

I have to admit I never got into the MoO series but Ascendancy blows every other space RTS or Civ style game out of the water besides Homeworld and maybe Star Wars Rebellion. Just make sure you download the antagonizer update. Otherwise, unless you're fighting the Minions and the Chamanchies, the game is way too easy.

I might play around with the files to see if there's a way to meet all 20 of the other races at once instead of just a game of 7. The huge maps are big enough that there's plenty of room.

[Tsukiyumi]

This looks very cool; I'll have to give it a try.

[Monroe]

Awesome let me know what you think. This, Civ I and II, Dark Forces, X-Wing Gold, and Warcraft II made up my elementary school arsenal of games. Glad I can share at least one of them

[Tsukiyumi]

What front end do you recommend for DosBox? I got DosShell.

[Tsukiyumi]

It's been very cool so far. I have something of a strategy so far; we'll see how it pays off.

[Deepcrush]

What do I need and need to do in order to play this? Will it run on vista?

[Monroe]

I'm going to download the download version to see if I can get it to work too so I can help you guys out.
Everything you need to download is on the site but you need a DOS emulator. I have DOSbox and it works well. Far as the command line I'm not a 100% sure what to type. Someone will have to fill in that gap. I think its /run then the directory the .exe is in but I'm not completely sure.

[Tsukiyumi]

Mine's working fine with the front-end I mentioned. And, I don't anticipate the need for much help; it's nice and straightforward.

[Monroe]

Weird I downloaded it and just double clicked on the .exe and its working in Windows XP but doesn't seem to have any sound. So you're using the dos emulator?

[Monroe]

Okay I was able to figure out how to get sound to work. It was a bit garbled kind of like how I finally got WCII to get sound (hopefully unlike my Warcraft II on XP the game won't crash every half hour )

Here's how I did it:

-Open your ascendancy folder.
-Click on the setsound.exe
-Choose the first option
-Auto detect
-hit done

And you've got sound. Then just double click on the antag.exe (which You should have downloaded by now and placed in your main Ascendancy directory as just the normal game is waaay too easy) and it should start up the game
Its a real shame I may never finish my German campaign of Rome Total War and I just got Sins of a Solar Empire and Crysis for my birthday and I still haven't beaten the next 350 levels of Warcraft II and I'm trying to get all those achievements in WoW done. Oh too many games too little time.

[Tsukiyumi]

My sound works fine.

Get DosBox.
Get DosShell front end.
Install both of them (DosBox first).
Install Ascendance to a folder.
Point DosShell to the exe. for Ascendance (ASCEND)
Play the game in a window.

[Monroe]

ooo i like the idea of doing it in a window. Make sure you get antag.exe

I started a game as the Chronmysts since I don't think I'd ever been them before and their ability is useful but not over powering like the Chamanchies and Minions. I really like the Orfa and the Shivarr.

[Deepcrush]

You know, this is why I'm not a computer guy. Hurting people is so much easier then this. Point, shoot, next, repeat.

[Monroe]

You're missing out if you haven't installed it. I think if I play another game though I'm not going to turn it on hostile AI. No one will make peace with me Its kind of exciting. I'm kicking ass in colony number and thanks to the Xeno digs I have some very stellar weapons and goodies for the tech level of the universe. But since everyone is declaring war on me its hard to keep up.

[Monroe]

I'm curious how everyone's games went. And an offer for more people to check it out.