DOS Days

Descent

Released: 1995
Published by: Interplay Productions, Inc.
Developed by: Parallax Software Corp.
Author(s): Michael Kulas, Matthew Toschlog, Mark Allender, Robert Huebner, John Slagel, Che-Yuan Wang, Adam Pletcher, Ken Allen, Brian Luzietti, Larry Peacock, Gregory Allen, Eric Brosius

System Requirements

Introduction

Descent is a first-person flying space shooter that brought something unique to PC gaming - full 3-axis movement. The game is essentially a 3D version of the old 8-bit computer game, Thrust (at least, that's how I see it). You explore mines, destroying robot ships along the way with the purpose of discovering and eliminating the mine's reactor and getting back to the surface before it explodes in 45 seconds.

The game was fully 3D in that enemy ships were true 3D polygons, and the entire levels themselves were in three dimensions where the mine's tunnels can go above and below each other. It was also cutting edge in other areas, featuring light source shading, texture mapping, 3-D morphing, and directional sound effects. In addition you could go head-to-head over a null modem cable or play across a modem with up to 8 players.

It was noted by many that the nature of flying around in your "Pyro GX Fighter" in such 3D space could make some feel a little nauseus! It's quite easy on the larger levels to get lost without looking at the map, as your sense of 'which way is up' can be misplaced.

Game Audio

From where can it be run?

The game must be installed to your hard disk. Insert the first floppy disk and run INSTALL.EXE to begin the installation process.

Copy Protection

Descent has no copy protection.

How to Setup

To configure the game for your hardware, run the provided setup.exe utility. You have the following options:

1) Main menu:

2) Auto Detect Sound Hardware:

3) Change digital sound card and music card:

5) Test digital sound card and music card:

7) View readme and Descent F.A.Q.:

9) Exit the setup utility, and a view of the descent.cfg file after configuring:

To abort the setup/game startup and return to the command prompt, press ESC.

If you don't have enough free RAM, Descent will use hard disk space instead of RAM. If it does this, ensure you have at least 8 to 16 MB of disk space available.

Problems

Symptom: Descent locks up on startup.
Cause: Possible sound card configuration problem.
Resolution: Try running Descent with the "-nosound" option. If it works, it's likely a sound card config issue. Re-run setup.exe and ensure your settings are correct. Try the auto-detect option if when testing both digital sounds and music they don't play.

Symptom: The frame rate in-game is very slow.
Cause: You're PC is probably not powerful enough to run Descent at the highest detail levels.
Resolution: Run the game on a faster computer, e.g. a 486. Alternatively, you can decrease the detail level or make the game window smaller by using F3 and using + and - buttons. Also, lowering the number of available sound channels in the Options->Details->Custom menu can help frame count significantly in large battles.

Symptom: There is no in-game music after level 7.
Cause: An error in the v1.0 to v1.5 patch causes music the drop out from level 8 onwards. This is due to the fact that the shareware version only contained the first 7 levels.
Resolution: Don't run the v1.0 to v1.5 patch. Instead, run the v1.0 to v1.4a patch. Version 1.5 only had one change over v1.4a, which was the inclusion of support for the 3D VR helmet/glasses. The v1.4a to v1.5 patch can be used after running the v1.0 to v1.4a patch if need be. Note that the CD-ROM version of the game from InterPlay was already patched up to v1.5 using the buggy patch. and does still suffer from this bug. If you have ths CD version, Vogons user akula75 put together a fix.

To Quit the Game

Press ESC in-game to return to the main menu. Then choose 'Quit' or press the 'Q' button and hit Enter when prompted to return to DOS.

Supporting Documents

Here are the original documents that came with the game:

• User Manual

Additional Files & Utilities

• Shareware Release: Patch v1.0 to v1.1
• Shareware Release: Patch v1.1 to v1.2
• Commercial Release: Patch v1.0 to v1.4
• Commercial Release: Patch v1.0 to v1.4a
• Commercial Release: Patch v1.0 to v1.5
• Commercial Release: Patch v1.4a to v1.5
• Descent - 3dfx Beta version - Created by Stefan Wiegand and the Descent Network Team, this patch for owners of a 3dfx Voodoo card allows for higher resolution, high framerates, full sound support, and it works with most of today's graphics cards.
• Controller Patch: Span Fix 0.9 - Created by Eivind Brendryen, this patch enables full twist capability with the MS SideWinder Precision Pro. This patch requires D2_3dfx 1.06b (found above), msvbvm50.dll, in the windows/system directory, and cmdlg32.ocx. If you don't have the .dll and/or the .ocx, download the DLL Pack. This patch works with D1 and D2.
• Descent 1 Full 1.4a/1.5 LCD-Bios VR Devices - Works with D1 and D2.
• Updated General MIDI driver - for DOS and Windows, by Vogons user tikalat.

Save Games

Save game files are those with a .PLR ("Player") file extension in the game directory. The name of the player is the prefix. Save game files are not text-readable or editable.

Note that you cannot use player files that were created in one version of the game and use them with another. If the game detects the .PLR file you are attempting to use was written in a different game version you will see this:

Cheats

To activate the cheat codes type GABBAGABBAHEY during any particular time of gameplay. Then you can type in one or more of the following codes. It is very important to re-map the bomb key to avoid conflicts with code entry. Also, accessing the cheat mode will reset your score to 0 unless a new game is started. These cheats cannot be disabled and cannot be used in multiplayer mode.  Also note that when you restore a saved game, all cheats activated are gone except ASTRAL. You'll still be able to walk through walls, etc. if you activated it before you restored a saved game.

When you enter a cheat code you will hear a voice say 'Cheater!'.

All Game Versions:

Registered Game Version 1.4+ only:

All Registered Game Versions:

Demo Version:

Versions of the game known to exist

Original Floppy Disk Contents

The original media contains these files:

Directory of A:\

          .  <DIR>         10/12/97   16:02
          .. <DIR>         10/12/97   16:02
DESCENT1 SOW     1,411,541 11/12/97   23:47
INSTALL  EXE        44,773 11/12/97   23:47

2 file(s)        1,456,314 bytes

Directory of A:\

          .  <DIR>         10/12/97   16:02
          .. <DIR>         10/12/97   16:02
DESCENT2 SOW     1,452,927 11/12/97   23:47

1 file(s)        1,452,927 bytes

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory.

Directory of C:\GAMES\DESCENT
DCNTSHR  EXE          1,053,605 05-05-2021 14:31
DESCENT  B50              1,563 05-05-2021 14:29
DESCENT  BAT                163 05-05-2021 14:30
DESCENT  CFG                250 02-03-2022 11:06
DESCENT  HOG          2,339,773 05-05-2021 14:30
DESCENT  M50              1,006 05-05-2021 14:29
DESCENT  PHX              2,079 05-05-2021 14:29
DESCENT  PIG          2,509,799 05-05-2021 14:31
DESCENT2 ADV              1,347 05-05-2021 14:29
DESCENTG INI              2,824 05-05-2021 14:30
HMIDET   386             17,134 05-05-2021 14:30
HMIDRV   386            116,455 05-05-2021 14:30
HMIMDRV  386            111,876 05-05-2021 14:30
ORDERFRM TXT              2,077 05-05-2021 14:30
README   TXT             53,079 05-05-2021 14:30
REFCARD  TXT              2,991 05-05-2021 14:30
SETUP    EXE            381,029 05-05-2021 14:31

   17 File(s)         6,597,050 Bytes

Directory of C:\GAMES\DESCENT

CHAOS    HOG       174,751 10/12/97   23:47
CHAOS    MSN           309 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENT  B50         1,503 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENT  BAT           159 10/12/97   23:47   <== Use this to run the game
DESCENT  CFG           250 30/08/21   15:22   <== Game config file
DESCENT  DEM     2,211,582 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENT  FAQ        49,544 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENT  HOG     7,261,423 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENT  M50           946 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENT  PHX         2,079 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENT  PIG     4,520,145 10/12/97   23:48
DESCENT2 ADV         1,340 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENTG INI         5,204 10/12/97   23:47
DESCENTR EXE     1,115,789 10/12/97   23:48
DEVTEAM  PCX        23,314 10/12/97   23:47
HAND     PLR           522 03/05/21   16:15   <== A player file (save game file)
HMIDET   386        17,134 10/12/97   23:47   ==|
HMIDRV   386       116,455 10/12/97   23:47     |== HMI API sound drivers that detect your sound
HMIMDRV  386       111,928 10/12/97   23:47   ==|  card and give access to "digital" (PCM) sound
LEVEL18  DEM       273,939 10/12/97   23:47
MINIBOSS DEM       403,783 10/12/97   23:47
PCXVIEW  EXE        12,314 10/12/97   23:47
README   TXT        25,622 10/12/97   23:47
SETUP    EXE       376,673 10/12/97   23:48   <== Audio configuration utility

 27 file(s)     16,706,708 bytes