The OG

[NastyNative]

X-COM didn’t change the world.

In fact, even if you were a gamer through the early 90's, its possible

the game flew under your radar.

However this science fiction strategy title quickly developed a cult

following and is widely considered one of the best turn-based strategy tittles

of its era. With upcoming series reboot, this is the perfect

time to look back at this innovative game that almost didn't see

the light of day.

Julian Gollop Born in Ludhiana, India was the grand creator of X-COM.

He grew a passion for board games and he saw computers as a huge potential

for making board games that had artificial intelligence. Gallop couldn’t receive

any type of formalized computer programming training since it didn’t exist in the 80's.

He purchased a book on assembly language and was essentially his only source

of reference. He first programmed a game called "Laser Squad". Which is basically

the turned bases soldier vs alien part of the game. He managed to incorporate

destructible environments, hidden line of sight and the opportunity to fire. Laser Squad

was so successful that he decided to start working on his sequel and his brother Nick

Gollop helped port Laser Squad to the Commodore 64. They didn’t realize but the result of

their labor would leave an undeniable mark on the industry.

Microprose-UK gave them the deal and 4 people started working on X-COM.

Julian and his brother Nick did all the programming and a few artists

rotated through the project and near the end a sound designer added all the

effects, but Julian estimates that only about 4 people worked on the project at a time.

The original design was going to incorporate these suited government agents that would

be featured in the game as members of X-COM. Players could base these characters

in a city and collect information about alien activity (like spies) unfortunately Micropose

had julian remove them since they were doing their own game based on men in black.

Whatever that game was never saw the light of day.

No one really remembers how the name came to be, but it’s likely a shortened

version of Extraterrestrial Combat Unit. X-COM was nearly 3 years in production and

about 3 months before it was finished Micropose-UK was purchased by Spectrum

Holobyte and they were interested in Micropose-UK for its simulation games.

The only reason Spectrum Holobyte didn’t kick the project was because their own testers

petitioned for the game to release. X-COM released in 1994 for the PC and the PSone

the following year. It had strong sales in Europe , but it was amazing that it sold

well in the US. They rushed Terror from the Deep and then in 1997 they released

3rd version X-COM Apocalypse.

It’s amazing how close we came to never seeing this game.

I still remember Summer of 1996 , I walked into K-B toys and

walked to the bargain bin and pulled out X-COM

looked at it and it didn’t look interesting , but it was on sale for

like 10 bucks. I purchased the game and my life has never been the same.

I have been hoping for a remake ( a good remake ) since I finished playing

Terror from the Deep. Only to have to play Apocalypse and another really bad version.

Jullian and Nick Gallop still design strategy titles, They recently release

Ghost Recon : Future Soldier for the 3Ds, which was not only a solid turn based

strategy title, but ended up being one of the 3Ds' best launch game.

I found out about this Xenonauts about 3 days ago and Im a Die Hard X-COM fan.

With 2K's reimagining of X-COM it could put a hurting on sales for this project.

One thing that 2K are not adding; underwater mission which were by

far the coolest part of TFTD ( Terror From the Deep ).

Of course it would be alot of work to add such a massive part to a game.

I would highly sugges the addition of under water missions and keep it

Original the way TFTD went about it. Nothing more nothing less.

I will wait untill the BETA releases before purchasing.

[Gorlom]

This whole post was a plug for underwater misssions? And to have the underwater misssions be a completly seperate game from the missions above the surface? Or did you mean something else by "keeping it like the original"?

The programming would be ALOT of work. Too much really to get the game out within the timeframe Chris wants to release it. But the balanceing of the game would be absolutely horrendous.

[Gauddlike]

I see the other versions as great advertising for Xenonauts.

The amount of people who have ended up on this forum because they saw those games and went looking for something a little more original is fairly significant.

Personally the 2K games don't really appeal to me but I will look into them closer to release to make sure I am not missing out on something I would enjoy.

Underwater missions would be good but the sheer amount of work to add underwater weapons, vehicles and terrain tilesets would delay the game well into the next year.

I would like to see the two games combined at some point though to make both land and sea missions possible

[Hellstormer]

It is possible for 2K to add in underwater stuff in an expansion or DLC I'm sure. I don't know how Chris feels about that with this project however as what I've seen has all been based on the original Xcom with little mention of the others beyond "We aren't looking at that stuff right now". At least... IIRC

[Moonshine Fox]

I played Laser Squad Nemesis a lot. Also made by Gollop.

[Moonshine Fox]

Also, regarding underwater missions: They're cool, I'll admit, but they are still just another scenery to fight in. They don't add anything cool gameplay-wise. TFTD was, for all intents and purposes, just UFO underwater. Heck, most of the weapons were even carbon copies of the UFO weapons, but with new graphics and names.

Xenonauts is already strained just getting the proper stuff in before release. Adding underwater scenarios will blow that timeframe completely out of the water (no pun intended). Maybe as a kickstarter project. But stock? Nope, can't see it happening, and I'll definitely not want to sacrifice anything to put it in. I'd sooner see female soldiers than underwater missions. Sorry

EDIT: Also 100th post, yay!

Edited April 13, 2012 by Moonshine Fox
I'm awesome that way.

[thothkins]

While I'd love to see a game where you have the option of fighting in a variety of environments, it really doesn't look feasible for this one. As already posted there must be a fair number of updates to the land based game that the developers want to do without having to create a whole new game to go along side it.

[Gorlom]

tothkins we are already going to have a lot of enviroments. Beyond the farm and industrial we are getting artic/tundra, desert and (I think) a town tileset?

Or are you talking about something else and I am completly missunderstanding your intent?

[NastyNative]

This whole post was a plug for underwater misssions? And to have the underwater misssions be a completly seperate game from the missions above the surface? Or did you mean something else by "keeping it like the original"?

The programming would be ALOT of work. Too much really to get the game out within the timeframe Chris wants to release it. But the balanceing of the game would be absolutely horrendous.

Actually this post is called OG (Original Ganster) Jullion Gallop being that person.

If you read the post you can see how its about how close we came to never seeing

an X-COM game period. Meaning that Xenanouts would most likely NOT exist.

Also you can say it was a homage to the original XCOM!

In addition, the underwater missions would give this game a serious edge.

Your view of the game is not the only view!

Just because something is HARD to accomplish, doesnt mean its not BADASS!

[JonVanCaneghem]

Actually this post is called OG (Original Ganster) Jullion Gallop being that person.

If you read the post you can see how its about how close we came to never seeing

an X-COM game period. Meaning that Xenanouts would most likely NOT exist.

Also you can say it was a homage to the original XCOM!

In addition, the underwater missions would give this game a serious edge.

Your view of the game is not the only view!

Just because something is HARD to accomplish, doesnt mean its not BADASS!

Well, there are a lot of things that would be badass, but if you're going to dream, dream big. Bigger than terror from the deep anyway. Leave that for some hard-working modders who don't mind churning out all the re-skinning work that is necessary for such a project.

[NastyNative]

Well its easy to say dream big!

What do you suggest?

[thothkins]

When I typed "environments" I was thinking sea and then space for some reason. But rather than type"sea", which would have been shorter, I went with the confusing "environments." :-)

I think everyone would be delighted with underwater missions. But I'd be very, very happy just to have a complete version of the main EU type game in the bag first.

Anyway, it wasn't that TFTD was hard. It was that bits of it were dull. Even the OG thought as much. Although he did say that looking back he should have gone with the 6 months to turn TFTD around (which took 12 anyway) and then gone on to Apocalypse.

Glad to hear about the different tilesets. What did the original have - Farm, terror town, jungle (darn mutons), desert, polar, their base, your base, cydonia. I seem to remember the sound of gravel or rock, but I didn't see any in my last game so could have been imagining that.

[pack.wolf]

The only thing TFTD added gameplay-wise was "right click to open door". That's it. Other than that it was just new textures and names for all the stuff in EU. Sure, it was a lot of fun at the time, but let's not let nostalgia cloud our judgment to much.

Adding underwater missions to Xenonauts might sound like a nice idea at first, but I think it would be rather annoying when you actually get to play the game. You'd have to do twice the research to get the underwater-equivalents of everything. You'd have to manufacture twice as much stuff to get the underwater-equivalents of everything. You'd have to have twice as many bases so you can park your subs somewhere. And for what added value? One additional tileset? Not worth it imo. I'll rather take a jungle tileset or an airport/trainstation/harbor/nuclear powerplant/hoover dam (or other dam ) for terror missions.

Or, if you want to dream big, bases managed by allied states that can run missions of there own. Damage to these bases and reduction of their capabilities the longer the war drags on. More and more desolate and partially destroyed battlefields (on arrival, not after sb went berserk with the rocket launcher ;D ) the longer the war drags on. A dwarf-fortress like history for each of my soldiers. Rebellions by indoctrinated humans fighting alongside the aliens. Additional mission types (rescue of civilians/VIPs, infrastructure defense, ...) I could go on. But underwater missions? Naah...

Edited April 14, 2012 by pack.wolf

[thothkins]

To bring a little flavour of TFTD you could have missions on Oil Rigs, tropical resorts/islands, military or cruise ships (smaller versions such as clear aliens from the bridge) without having to alter the mechanics. Possibly for modders to play with.

As for the r&d side, you'd probably want to merge some of it. Such as sonic weapons for both land and sea use (possibly in place of laser technology), Amphibian vehicles instead of just land tanks, that sort of thing.

Of marginal interest:-

The Skydiver (that EU's Skyranger was lifted from) was an amphibious interceptor.

[Gorlom]

Actually this post is called OG (Original Ganster) Jullion Gallop being that person.

If you read the post you can see how its about how close we came to never seeing

an X-COM game period. Meaning that Xenanouts would most likely NOT exist.

Also you can say it was a homage to the original XCOM!

Ok, so it's a homage. What is the point of that homage? Where is the discussion going? I'm still not following what you wanted to say with explaining how close it was we didnt get x-com.

In addition, the underwater missions would give this game a serious edge.

Your view of the game is not the only view!

Just because something is HARD to accomplish, doesnt mean its not BADASS!

And why are you derailing your own thread about the homage to talk about underwater missions when you already decided to make a thread in the suggestions forum?

And you still haven't explained HOW adding underwater missions would give this game an edge. It's just another tileset, with the drawback that it needs it's own set of transportation, armor, equipment, aliens and UFO/UMO (unidentified marine object)

Frankly just slapping on underwater missions onto the rest of the game would suck. At this point its too late to properly intergrate into the concept and gameplay as I see it. I hope to see in your suggestions thread that you can motivate it better then "I think it would be cool".

[Gauddlike]

There was also a mountain tileset that didn't get used very often if I recall, that could be the one you were thinking of.

[thothkins]

Thanks Gauddlike! that must have been it. I guess the aliens feared hiking in my last couple of games. I don't remember that tileset coming up once.

Was there a hills & valleys type of thing or was that supposed to be forest?

[Gauddlike]

From the wiki site http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=GEODATA.DAT

A list of terrain types.

UFO

0: Jungle

1: Farm

2: Forest

3: X-COM Base

4: Alien Base

5: Urban

6: Desert

7: Mountains

8: Polar

9: Mars

TFTD

0: Seabed

1: Pipes

2: Crashed Plane

3: Atlantis

4: Mu

5: Sunken Galleon

6: Sunken Liner

7: Volcanic

8: Coral

9: Artefact Site Stage 1

10: Artefact Site Stage 2

11: Cargo Ship Stage 1 & 2 (Check MISDATA[20-21] for which)

12: Port Attack

13: Island Attack

14: Colony Stage 2

15: T'leth Stage 1

16: T'leth Stage 2

17: T'leth Stage 3

18: X-COM Base

19: Passenger Ship Stage 1

20: Passenger Ship Stage 2

21: Colony Stage 1

Edited April 14, 2012 by Gauddlike

[thothkins]

Thanks for that. I hadn't seen that page in the huge wiki.

I liked the atlantis and Mu terrain references. Nice touch.

How about adapting the volcanic tileset from TFTD and giving your little guys a time limit for rescuing the civilians sort of mission?

[NastyNative]

Ok, so it's a homage. What is the point of that homage? Where is the discussion going? I'm still not following what you wanted to say with explaining how close it was we didnt get x-com.

And why are you derailing your own thread about the homage to talk about underwater missions when you already decided to make a thread in the suggestions forum?

And you still haven't explained HOW adding underwater missions would give this game an edge. It's just another tileset, with the drawback that it needs it's own set of transportation, armor, equipment, aliens and UFO/UMO (unidentified marine object)

Frankly just slapping on underwater missions onto the rest of the game would suck. At this point its too late to properly intergrate into the concept and gameplay as I see it. I hope to see in your suggestions thread that you can motivate it better then "I think it would be cool".

Here is your 1st replay to my homage!

This whole post was a plug for underwater misssions? And to have the underwater misssions be a completly seperate game from the missions above the surface? Or did you mean something else by "keeping it like the original"?

The programming would be ALOT of work. Too much really to get the game out within the timeframe Chris wants to release it. But the balanceing of the game would be absolutely horrendous.

Who derailed it?

I'll do ahead and post about underwater missions in the suggestion thread.

Keep this thread about my post.

Thanks!

[Gorlom]

The reason I asssumed it was a plug for underwater misssions was because I couldnt decern a purpose of the post other then you wanting to have underwater missions.

Your homage loked like a buildup and the wish for water missions it's purpose. Now you are telling me that isn't the case. So the comment of underwater missions is distracting form the homage, and thereby derailing the post. I should have said post rather then thread, my mistake.

Again. What is it you want to discuss with the homage? Is there anything to discuss or is this more of an article?

I'd very much appriciate if that was cleared up. Also you might benefit from not reading my posts in the tone you are reading them. I get the feeling you feel they are very aggressive even when I do not intend them as such. This puts you on the defensive and you dont answer or want to clear up my missunderstandings.

If you indeed have felt that my posts have been hostile I have to apologize.

[NastyNative]

It is what it is Gorlom I dont have to explain a post, its a forum posting should be fun not an explanation of

every word I type.

Yes, you attack almost every post on here!

Apology accepted.

[licker]

I hate underwater missions, they are totally freaking stupid.

That's my homage to UFO: UWM.

[NastyNative]

Well I love them!

What you gonna do about it.

Lick me to death....

[Gauddlike]

No wonder you are a nasty native