Anyone know what this FPS was?

level1900 · Post by **level1900** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 1:38 am

I copy and paste a question from a guy in the gamespot forum:

"I remember seeing a documentary on games about ten or so years ago that was cycling through FPSs and their developers. I think I remember seeing John Romero talking but he's the only one (his hair is what I remembered). But the one thing that really, really stuck out to me was they showed this FPS game where a character changes to a book as a weapon, flips it open and then draws a pentagram on the screen which then kills all the characters on screen. Bad ass, I know.

Unfortunately, that's all I really have on the game, that info. I know that's limited because since then I still haven't found the name of that game. I'm pretty sure it's not Heretic, Hexen or Hexen II (although I've not played through those games). It wasn't Blood, Duke Nukem or Rise of the Triad either for obvious reasons. My best guess is it was some game that was in development that was ultimately never released (maybe Columbine had something to do with it?)".

Any idea of what he's on about?

Post by **Trey** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:01 am

I think it might be Arx Fatalis, in order to cast spells you have to 'draw' them in the air. It was released 2002.

level1900 · Post by **level1900** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 3:26 am

I thought so too, but he said it's older than that. Before daikatana.

Arx Fatalis is a great game btw, you played it Trey?

Post by **Virgil** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:33 am

Some sequel to Heretic/Hexen?

Post by **InsaneFury** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:57 am

If it even predates Hexen/Heretic, perhaps Shadowcaster could sound nice?

Post by **Trey** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:52 pm

level1900 wrote:I thought so too, but he said it's older than that. Before daikatana.

Arx Fatalis is a great game btw, you played it Trey?

Yep, I played it. That's why it reminded me of the game you were talking about.

level1900 · Post by **level1900** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:02 pm

Trey wrote:
level1900 wrote:I thought so too, but he said it's older than that. Before daikatana.

Arx Fatalis is a great game btw, you played it Trey?
Yep, I played it. That's why it reminded me of the game you were talking about.

That's a totally underrated classic. Morrowind and Oblivion found some major inspiration in it.

I'll try and see if it's Shadowcaster, I'll keep you posted.

Doomed_Space_Marine · Post by **Doomed_Space_Marine** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:04 am

I'm sure it is just Arx Fatalis.

I read an interview in an old PC GAMER mag whidch was prior to the release of Daikatana (maybe year 2000), and Romero said he was already working on an RPG which ripped off japanese games but had more action in it or something. The point is the game in question probably had a different title back then like most w.i.p. games, but in the end it was Arx Fatalis.

As far as I know, Romero wasn't involved with Shadowcaster in any capacity except for the Wolf3D tech used by the game.

level1900 · Post by **level1900** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:40 am

Doomed_Space_Marine wrote:I'm sure it is just Arx Fatalis.

I read an interview in an old PC GAMER mag whidch was prior to the release of Daikatana (maybe year 2000), and Romero said he was already working on an RPG which ripped off japanese games but had more action in it or something. The point is the game in question probably had a different title back then like most w.i.p. games, but in the end it was Arx Fatalis.

As far as I know, Romero wasn't involved with Shadowcaster in any capacity except for the Wolf3D tech used by the game.

I'm pretty positive about Arx Fatalis too, but the dude who asked didn't reply to confirm, so we'll bring the doubt to our graves...

Post by **Trey** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:11 am

Now I'll die never knowing the truth...

Post by **zobraks** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:24 am

Doomed_Space_Marine · Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:44 am

I just looked at MobyGames and saw Romero wasn't involved with Arx Fatalis either.

The game the magazine article was talking about that I mentioned was just Anachronox after thinking about it for a while.

Now I think the video in question was just from some vapourware game, or an idea that was done for a game but then scrapped later. It could have been an early concept for Quake when Romero wanted it to be more RPG-ish or maybe an early revision of Daikatana.

I wish I could watch the documentary now . .

level1900 · Post by **level1900** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:30 pm

Doomed_Space_Marine wrote: Now I think the video in question was just from some vapourware game, or an idea that was done for a game but then scrapped later. It could have been an early concept for Quake when Romero wanted it to be more RPG-ish or maybe an early revision of Daikatana.

Yeah, it must have been a minor project, otherwise it'd appear in some cancelled games list or in romero's biography.

Post by **Virgil** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:26 pm

Romero has an account on Mobygames, you can send him a message and ask him directly.

level1900 · Post by **level1900** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:15 pm

Virgil wrote:Romero has an account on Mobygames, you can send him a message and ask him directly.

lol I'd rather PM bin laden rather than romero