I recently got an Aleph One version of Excalibur from this site: https://sourceforge.net/projects/emr3/ but it doesn't have the same quality of life improvements as modern Aleph One e.g. plugins, custom scripts, crosshair support and better resolutions.
I tried forcing it to run with modern Aleph One (keeping the original executable in case things went wrong) and while it loads fine, attempting to start a new game results in it crashing to desktop before the opening FMV has a chance to start, presumably due to this error as in the log:
fatal alert (ID=-1): Please be sure the files 'Map', 'Shapes', 'Images' and 'Sounds' are correctly installed and try again. (csalerts_sdl.cpp:210)
The log seems to refer to October the third though, which is weird as it should have updated to today's date (9th October). I presume all I need to do is simply rename the required files to their Marathon counterparts in the new Aleph One and/or convert them to Aleph One detectable files e.g. physA etc. but if that's wrong (likely), how do I get it to work with the 20190331 build? (Windows).
You’re on a hopeless quest here. It’s not possible to play EMR with modern versions of Aleph One because the engine was using a different implementation of Lua at the time, and it’s not compatible with the current implementation. Even if you manage to get the game not to crash the current version of Aleph One, you won’t be able to complete several of the levels. It hasn’t been brought up to date in part because the license under which the game is distributed forbids modifying its content without the creators’ permission, and no one has bothered yet. I would assume the creators themselves have moved on to other things; the last version of the game was released some twelve years ago, I believe.
As a result, unless you manage to convince one of the creators to bring it up to date, or obtain their permission to do it yourself (and possess the programming knowledge to make the levels function as intended), there’s really no point to running the game in modern versions of Aleph One. It’s the decrepit version it was distributed with, or nothing at all. Sorry.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” —V, V for Vendetta (Alan Moore)
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” —Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
“If others had not been foolish, we should be so.” —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
“The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.” —Frank Wilhoit
The Man wrote:You’re on a hopeless quest here. It’s not possible to play EMR with modern versions of Aleph One because the engine was using a different implementation of Lua at the time, and it’s not compatible with the current implementation. Even if you manage to get the game not to crash the current version of Aleph One, you won’t be able to complete several of the levels. It hasn’t been brought up to date in part because the license under which the game is distributed forbids modifying its content without the creators’ permission, and no one has bothered yet. I would assume the creators themselves have moved on to other things; the last version of the game was released some twelve years ago, I believe.
As a result, unless you manage to convince one of the creators to bring it up to date, or obtain their permission to do it yourself (and possess the programming knowledge to make the levels function as intended), there’s really no point to running the game in modern versions of Aleph One. It’s the decrepit version it was distributed with, or nothing at all. Sorry.
Oh well. Guess I'll need to stick with it the way it is. I'm not a programmer so I've no hope of updating it myself. No idea how to contact the original team. Thanks for the information anyway. Is Damage Incorporated in a similar situation? I might try that out sometime. If it hasn't, I guess that could be updated for Aleph One and vice versa in the same way as Excalibur was, but for modern builds.
(I did find that one thread where RyokoTK and even Hamish himself of all people started a pointless flame war with someone just because the latter wanted a modern 2.5D engine upgrade they didn't agree with and didn't have to use themselves anyway)
EDIT: Nevermind the DI front so far: found the windows version.
I remade EMR map compatible with latest alephone (redone lots of lua and edited one map with unsupported locked door), but I'm afraid i could not share my changes due to legal reasons. Also enemies appears to be more dangerous even in most easiest mode now or that is just mine irrational thinking. I havent tested it very much so it still may not be beatable
