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General discussionRelease: FLASHBACK™(133 posts)(133 posts)
(133 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 04, 2018
Attacked on Titan.

FLASHBACK™ is now available, only on GOG.com, 10% off until January 3rd.

As resilient as its scientist protagonist, legendary platformer FLASHBACK™ returns in its 25th anniversary with a Modern mode! This optional mode brings a post-FX graphic filter, remastered music and sound, tutorials, and a Rewind function which should make your attempt at escaping Titan slightly easier.

FLASHBACK™ is a timed GOG.com exclusive.
Posted December 04, 2018
Jut did a screenshot of the remastered version in "original mode".
Attachments:
flashback.jpg (469 Kb)
Posted December 04, 2018
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MarkoH01: But which feature is worth the remastered and which not still is a purely subjective thing. I do agree of course that adding a smudge filter should not be everything the remastered should offer - but is does not.
Obviously it is a matter of opinion. I've said that all along.

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MarkoH01: Since I never played the REminiscence version allow me to ask you if I will be able to do the following on it:
- For the first time ever, play the Director’s Cut version featuring 2 exclusive cutscenes
From inside the REminiscence cfg:

# display text instead of playing the polygon cutscenes
use_text_cutscenes=false
# enable playback of .SEQ cutscenes (always use polygon cutscenes if false)
use_seq_cutscenes=true
# enable playback of 'ASC' cutscene
play_asc_cutscene=false
# enable playback of 'CAILLOU-F.SET' cutscene
play_caillou_cutscene=true
# enable playback of 'METRO' cutscene
play_metro_cutscene=false
# enable playback of 'SERRURE' cutscene
play_serrure_cutscene=true

As you can see, there are a number of cutscene options and some that weren't played in the original release. These are the default for REminiscence.
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MarkoH01: - Want to practice on a specific level? You can now play any completed level during the main adventure
That has been possible since the original release using level codes.
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MarkoH01: - Replay any cutscene that you unlocked from the menu
Not that I know of. You can, however, play those cutscenes on the REminiscence web site via a JavaScript cutscene player. I don't see why couldn't be implemented in the executable itself.
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MarkoH01: - Jukebox: listen to the game's soundtrack
The game's soundtrack are just standard format audio files, so yes to this.
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MarkoH01: - Completely remastered sound and music,
REminiscence supports the Amiga soundtrack and Mega/Sega CD voices. It also supports the audio from the PC CD version's cutscenes.
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MarkoH01: - A brand new "Rewind" function, variable according to the level of difficulty
No, but it has save states.

I recently played through the game again. This is how I have it configured to look.
Posted December 04, 2018
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gamesfreak64: You are absolutely right, but it still is a dosbox version but within DOSBOX numerous things can be set....
anyway its all over the internet allmost every old site , abdanoned games site and dozens of more sites .
Just a little addition: the fact that this game obvioulsy is sold again means that it is not abandoned anymore meaning getting the original from these sites makes the legal question quite easy. I know that in several cases those "abandoned" games aren't problematic to get from those sites since nobody is there who would try to prevent you getting those from here - might not be that risk free anymore in this case now. So enter at your own risk ;)
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Serren: snip
Thank you for the detailed answers. Since I did not own the game the remaster is still worth a money but nice to see that those who do own it will have other options.
Post edited December 04, 2018 by MarkoH01
Posted December 04, 2018
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MarkoH01: Thank you for the detailed answers. Since I did not own the game the remaster is still worth a money but nice to see that those who do own it will have other options.
Thank you for being civil and open to discussion.
Posted December 04, 2018
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MarkoH01: Thank you for the detailed answers. Since I did not own the game the remaster is still worth a money but nice to see that those who do own it will have other options.
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Serren: Thank you for being civil and open to discussion.
No problem. I am always willing to discuss things if I see that people are actually having arguments which obviously you have :)

Still a bit too much imo to call this a "cashgrab" since the devs could have simply offered the unmodified game and demanding at least nearly the same price imo. It's not worth the money for you and I understand why that is the case. I guess the game is mostly adressed to those not owning it already.
Post edited December 04, 2018 by MarkoH01
Posted December 04, 2018
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MarkoH01: Still a bit too much imo to call this a "cashgrab" since the devs could have simply offered the unmodified game and demanding at least nearly the same price imo. It's not worth the money for you and I understand why that is the case. I guess the game is mostly adressed to those not owning it already.
I would be interested to know if this version includes the data files from the original so that you could play it using whatever engine or emulator you want. If not, I would have preferred a straight re-release of the original, even at the same price. Part of what I have a problem with is how they seem to be marketing this as though it were greatly enhanced over the originals. Had they done a proper upscale by redrawing everything, I would have paid a higher price for something like that.

Anyhow, I do hope you enjoy the game.
Posted December 04, 2018
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MarkoH01: Still a bit too much imo to call this a "cashgrab" since the devs could have simply offered the unmodified game and demanding at least nearly the same price imo. It's not worth the money for you and I understand why that is the case. I guess the game is mostly adressed to those not owning it already.
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Serren: I would be interested to know if this version includes the data files from the original so that you could play it using whatever engine or emulator you want. If not, I would have preferred a straight re-release of the original, even at the same price. Part of what I have a problem with is how they seem to be marketing this as though it were greatly enhanced over the originals. Had they done a proper upscale by redrawing everything, I would have paid a higher price for something like that.

Anyhow, I do hope you enjoy the game.
As it has been said before (and I just checked it), it is pure Unity only. Therefore all files are encrypted and packed in assets and if it should even be possible to extract those it might be difficult at least to do so. So sorry to tell you that your wish is not coming true (would have been easy to prevent that from GOGs side by simply adding the original as a bonus - would have eliminated the problem of "purists" as well - but they did not).

Thank you - I surely will.
Post edited December 04, 2018 by MarkoH01
Posted December 04, 2018
I would happily buy the DOS version either packaged with dosbox or as an extra bonus material but this one... no, thanks.
Posted December 04, 2018
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Serren: I would be interested to know if this version includes the data files from the original so that you could play it using whatever engine or emulator you want.
You can use RE on it. You have to copy the data folder from Flashback_Data\StreamingAssets as you would do. But RE runs fine with it.

I'm not sure DOSBox will though as it looks like its missing the original exe.
Posted December 04, 2018
I just tried the different filters and yes, the

AA filter - is simply a very bad FXAA filter, like putting some vaseline on the screen.
Bloom - Makes stuff a bit brighter - has nothing to do with actual bloom effect we know from games today.
Noise filter - it's like playing on an old TV with all those white noise and distortion. Nice gag but I doubt you'd want to play that way.
CRT emulation - actually quite usuable since it makes the game feel less pixelated - it also frames the game making it look as if you are playing on an actual CRT monitor.
Sidebar - Instead of black bars (the game is in 4:3 ratio) it puts blurred bars that do still show a bit the actual screen to the left and right. Unfortunately it does not seem to be possible to make them transparent so that you have complete 16:9 ratio. However the cutscenes are always 16:9 with a skip symbol on the upper right that you appearently cannot disable.

Also the 16bit sound effects seem to be much nicer than the 8 bit original ones and those comfort features like replay level and rewind are nicely integrated and accessible.

There's one thing imo that is completely stupid:
You can switch those features on and off from the options screen. Then you start a new game and now you'll HAVE to chose between classic (with all filters/features ect. turned off) and modern (with all of them turned on). Both will completely reset the settings you did in the options menu before you even clicked on "start new game" so after starting it you will have to set these options again to your liking.

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Serren: I would be interested to know if this version includes the data files from the original so that you could play it using whatever engine or emulator you want.
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Pond86: You can use RE on it. You have to copy the data folder from Flashback_Data\StreamingAssets as you would do. But RE runs fine with it.

I'm not sure DOSBox will though as it looks like its missing the original exe.
I just tried RE but I get an error missage that a SDL2.DLL is missing. Any ideas? (Running Win7/64 bit btw).
Post edited December 04, 2018 by MarkoH01
Posted December 04, 2018
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MarkoH01: I just tried the different filters and yes, the

AA filter - is simply a very bad FXAA filter, like putting some vaseline on the screen.
Bloom - Makes stuff a bit brighter - has nothing to do with actual bloom effect we know from games today.
Noise filter - it's like playing on an old TV with all those white noise and distortion. Nice gag but I doubt you'd want to play that way.
CRT emulation - actually quite usuable since it makes the game feel less pixelated - it also frames the game making it look as if you are playing on an actual CRT monitor.
Sidebar - Instead of black bars (the game is in 4:3 ratio) it puts blurred bars that do still show a bit the actual screen to the left and right. Unfortunately it does not seem to be possible to make them transparent so that you have complete 16:9 ratio. However the cutscenes are always 16:9 with a skip symbol on the upper right that you appearently cannot disable.

Also the 16bit sound effects seem to be much nicer than the 8 bit original ones and those comfort features like replay level and rewind are nicely integrated and accessible.

There's one thing imo that is completely stupid:
You can switch those features on and off from the options screen. Then you start a new game and now you'll HAVE to chose between classic (with all filters/features ect. turned off) and modern (with all of them turned on). Both will completely reset the settings you did in the options menu before you even clicked on "start new game" so after starting it you will have to set these options again to your liking.

Interesting so RE is running with the Unity asset files as well and does not even need the executable? Maybe I will check this out as well.
RE has its own excutable. You will need to make setting changes for RE from the command line for a shortcut though.

The most you can get for transparent sides are in the attached image thats how my RE version looks (though I prefer the new versions blurred.)

Its also worth noting that for RE there will be no audio in the opening cutscene. You will need to grab the music files from the Amiga version and unzip them to a folder called music in your data folder. (Its the same even if you use the non GOG-normal DOS version.)

If you need them you can get it here:

https://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Flashback

You can even get the voices from the SegaCD version by finding a copy of VOICE.VCE and dropping that into your data folder.

edit: For the SDL error, you will need to download the dll. (For some reason it doesnt come with RE.) Extract it into RE's main directory.
Attachments:
fb.png (239 Kb)
Post edited December 04, 2018 by Pond86
Posted December 04, 2018
avatar
MarkoH01: I just tried the different filters and yes, the

AA filter - is simply a very bad FXAA filter, like putting some vaseline on the screen.
Bloom - Makes stuff a bit brighter - has nothing to do with actual bloom effect we know from games today.
Noise filter - it's like playing on an old TV with all those white noise and distortion. Nice gag but I doubt you'd want to play that way.
CRT emulation - actually quite usuable since it makes the game feel less pixelated - it also frames the game making it look as if you are playing on an actual CRT monitor.
Sidebar - Instead of black bars (the game is in 4:3 ratio) it puts blurred bars that do still show a bit the actual screen to the left and right. Unfortunately it does not seem to be possible to make them transparent so that you have complete 16:9 ratio. However the cutscenes are always 16:9 with a skip symbol on the upper right that you appearently cannot disable.

Also the 16bit sound effects seem to be much nicer than the 8 bit original ones and those comfort features like replay level and rewind are nicely integrated and accessible.

There's one thing imo that is completely stupid:
You can switch those features on and off from the options screen. Then you start a new game and now you'll HAVE to chose between classic (with all filters/features ect. turned off) and modern (with all of them turned on). Both will completely reset the settings you did in the options menu before you even clicked on "start new game" so after starting it you will have to set these options again to your liking.

Interesting so RE is running with the Unity asset files as well and does not even need the executable? Maybe I will check this out as well.
avatar
Pond86: RE has its own excutable. You will need to make setting changes for RE from the command line for a shortcut though.

The most you can get for transparent sides are in the attached image thats how my RE version looks (though I prefer the new versions blurred.)

Its also worth noting that for RE there will be no audio in the opening cutscene. You will need to grab the music files from the Amiga version and unzip them to a folder called music in your data folder. (Its the same even if you use the non GOG-normal DOS version.)

If you need them you can get it here:

https://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Flashback

You can even get the voices from the SegaCD version by finding a copy of VOICE.VCE and dropping that into your data folder.
So far I cannot even start RS - see above.
Posted December 04, 2018
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MarkoH01: So far I cannot even start RS - see above.
Just added an edit, but I'll repost it here.

I used the one from https://www.dll-files.com/sdl2.dll.html

Make sure to scroll down the page and not click the big orange button at the top. Extract and put the dll into RE's main directory.

I don't know why it wasnt included in the official thing.
Posted December 04, 2018
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MarkoH01: So far I cannot even start RS - see above.
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Pond86: Just added an edit, but I'll repost it here.

I used the one from https://www.dll-files.com/sdl2.dll.html

Make sure to scroll down the page and not click the big orange button at the top. Extract and put the dll into RE's main directory.

I don't know why it wasnt included in the official thing.
I used a different site (I don't trust dll only download sites) but now it works.
It's pretty silent for now but I will follow your instructions. Thank you.
Posted December 04, 2018
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Pond86: You can use RE on it. You have to copy the data folder from Flashback_Data\StreamingAssets as you would do. But RE runs fine with it.
Thanks.
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MarkoH01: I just tried RE but I get an error missage that a SDL2.DLL is missing. Any ideas? (Running Win7/64 bit btw).
You need to get the SDL2 library and put it in the same directory as REminiscence.
Pages:
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRelease: FLASHBACK™(133 posts)(133 posts)
(133 posts)