At $21 on sale, that is close enough to my expected price of $20 so I took the plunge.

Couple things right off:

1. It does have Midi. Midi is the only option. Not a fan of the Roland they picked for a soundfont, but it is serviceable. Someone mentioned that Midi wasn't an option, but it is in here.
2. After playing The Force Engine, it is hard to go back to an auto aiming blaster. I want to be able to shut auto-aiming off.

This software is 90% of the way to the perfect version of this game. I just need to marry up this thing to The Force Engine with its upgraded assets and cut scenes, and to be able to use the Force Engines ability to select my sound sources so I can use my own soundfont and player. The Force engine also lets you shut off auto aiming.

The good news:

The Force Engine is working on importing these assets.

I haven't tested it, but you should be able use your own soundfont with the remaster...

1. Copy the soundfont to the game folder.
2. Go in your file browser to: %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\Dark Forces Remaster
3. Open kexengine.cfg
4. Search for the line: seta im_soundfont "Roland SC-55.sf2"
5. Change it to include the name of the new soundfont.

Yeah, the "auto-aim" thing is really annoying. I'd almost forgotten about that with the original game.

The other thing that's annoying is that a few spots, which still exist, are no longer... well.. ESCAPABLE.

For example on Fest, just after you enter the air ducts to get into the base, there's a side-tunnel you can take. In the original game, you could go back there, kill the two turrets and collect some loot, but in the "remaster" version, I was unable to get out of that room. Jumping back into the duct you came from doesn't work. Meaning, the only way out of there was to respawn. (sigh)

Overall, it's a competent reworking, but it's not really a revised game, it's still the original with some "extra frosting" layered on top... but just enough was tweaked to break a few spots (like the aformentioned spot).

Most players won't go back there at all, I suspect, but those who do will, like me, end up stranded.

Thanks, I was not sure if I want to boy it, unless they add an option to select custom midi device, but that is good enough. (it's amazon how much additional 15~Mb can do)

Have you considered alerting the developer to this bug? It's their job to fix these things.

Yeah, but in my personal experience, "reporting bugs" to Night Dive hasn't really resulted in many getting fixed. Maybe I've just seen the statistically improbable examples of those not getting addressed, but... I think they really only respond to their "retailers" (Steam, GOG, etc) raising issues with them.

Yeah, I had already did that. Some of the instruments are barely audible. Thanks for the tip though.

In my case, I just changed the name of the new soundfont to the Roland one which does the same thing.

It has MIDI Music. But it works with a Software Emulation and some kind of Soundfont. If you own a real ROMpler (Roland Sound Canvas for example) you can't use it. And the way the music is played is somewhat off. It doesn't only lack iMuse, but sometimes it is too slow.

Just listen to the original DF music on a real ROMpler and then listen to the Remaster Music (Youtube is your friend*). It is noticeable. Even more if you know DF that way since the 90s.

But maybe for someone who doesn't know how it should sound and doesn't own a such a ROMpler it isn't a big deal. For me it is. I really hope that the Remaster will work with the Force Engine some day.

*
here is a good comparison: https://youtu.be/rJGodvshZ9s?t=1155

Oh I know. I played the original with MIDI when it came out (I had a Soundblaster with onboard MIDI) and I played the original again a year ago with the soundfont I mentioned using The Force Engine. This new one has a really bad soundfont in that Roland. It is only 50MB in size so you know the soundfonts aren't going to be great just looking at it. Listening to it, and confirmed not great.

The perfect mashup will be the Force Engine with the new assets. I like the higher quality graphics, but prefer to play The Force Engine version due to the ability to use General MIDI, which I send off to Qsynth to handle, and the ability to turn off auto aiming. Reading in The Force Engine build notes, the unreleased version now detects the remasters assets, so it is coming. Just have to wait a little longer.

Yeah, as soon as the force engine works and allows me to use my SC8820 along with the graphics of the remaster, I consider buying the remaster Version.

Tested your inescapable spot. Got the loot... Confirmed your issue with getting out of it. Noticed you have to crouch-jump to get out of it. You cannot get out of it standing up. Hope it helps.

Might this issue (with getting out) not have been in the original? I recall a number of areas where you have to crouch-jump to get someplace. I replayed the original only last year.