One of my all time favorite boardgames is getting a digital release. It's by an indie guy who has a passion for the game and he did a great job porting it some time ago but it's been stuck in legal rights hell for quite awhile.
Source of the Nile on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2898060/Source_of_the_Nile_Digital_Edition/)
Check out the guys youtube channel for some playthroughs
https://www.youtube.com/@fns5532/featured (https://www.youtube.com/@fns5532/featured)
If you haven't yet, you might want to check out a boardgame called Heart of Darkness. It's similar to Source of the Nile, plays well solo or with a group, and is quite a fun experience.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183780/heart-darkness-adventure-game-african-exploration (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183780/heart-darkness-adventure-game-african-exploration)
Quote from: joram on March 23, 2024, 08:12:35 AMOne of my all time favorite boardgames is getting a digital release. It's by an indie guy who has a passion for the game and he did a great job porting it some time ago but it's been stuck in legal rights hell for quite awhile.
Source of the Nile on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2898060/Source_of_the_Nile_Digital_Edition/)
Check out the guys youtube channel for some playthroughs
https://www.youtube.com/@fns5532/featured (https://www.youtube.com/@fns5532/featured)
Nice! I have the original boardgame. Its awesome.
Quote from: joram on March 23, 2024, 08:12:35 AMOne of my all time favorite boardgames is getting a digital release. It's by an indie guy who has a passion for the game and he did a great job porting it some time ago but it's been stuck in legal rights hell for quite awhile.
Source of the Nile on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2898060/Source_of_the_Nile_Digital_Edition/)
Check out the guys youtube channel for some playthroughs
https://www.youtube.com/@fns5532/featured (https://www.youtube.com/@fns5532/featured)
Good Find!! Thanks
Quote from: Tripoli on March 23, 2024, 10:15:59 AMQuote from: joram on March 23, 2024, 08:12:35 AMOne of my all time favorite boardgames is getting a digital release. It's by an indie guy who has a passion for the game and he did a great job porting it some time ago but it's been stuck in legal rights hell for quite awhile.
Source of the Nile on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2898060/Source_of_the_Nile_Digital_Edition/)
Check out the guys youtube channel for some playthroughs
https://www.youtube.com/@fns5532/featured (https://www.youtube.com/@fns5532/featured)
Nice! I have the original boardgame. Its awesome.
I might actually have two copies. I misplaced one, which was a birthday gift, so I bought another through Amazon's used store. Hoping to find the first copy still but I think it might have been purged accidentally.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 23, 2024, 08:26:45 AMIf you haven't yet, you might want to check out a boardgame called Heart of Darkness. It's similar to Source of the Nile, plays well solo or with a group, and is quite a fun experience.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183780/heart-darkness-adventure-game-african-exploration (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183780/heart-darkness-adventure-game-african-exploration)
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Good tip. I looked at this before a couple years back and at first it didn't seem interesting but in revisiting it, actually looks pretty good!
Released for $19.99
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2898060/Source_of_the_Nile_Digital_Edition/
But read the fine print -- "This game cannot be played on resolutions lower than 1920 x 1080 and Windows display scale must be set to 100%."
I like the look of this.nit seems replayability is pretty high. Thanks for the heads up.
I'll wait to see more comments on how this game displays, I hate having to manually make sure my desktop settings are set a certain way before playing a specific game, new releases should always have a way to handle different resolutions and scaling. Maybe it still works ok, but the warning gives me pause so I'll wait for feedback.
The manual warns of a certain resolution but i just fired it up and it was just fine.
With that said, I like it but it is bare bones. Perhaps it's the nostalgia factor but i have been enjoying myself exploring. I have an inkling how to play already having played the board game but the lack of tutorial will be an obstacle for those not familiar. The manual isn't terribly helpful but it does explain enough if you think through the implications. For example, pro tip, each Askari can support up to 3 people through hunting but it's terrain dependent. I tend to make sure Askari's are just under half my expedition. You can go with less if you bring enough of your own rations which is alternative approach. I also forgot what it took to carry a canoe and had to cache one fairly early because of it. It's explained in the manual but just reading it may not be enough for those brand new to the game.
In addition to a lack of tutorial, it is strictly solo play. There's no multiplayer (unsurprisingly) but there's also no AI opponents so a lot of the tension of the original boardgame is lost. The pluses is that all the fiddly tracking you have to do of your expedition is all automatic and you can knock out some explorations fairly quickly. Though I prefer classic, there's an enhanced map mode as well.
I do hope in some future iteration there are at least some AI opponents (and/or multiplayer) so you can feel a bit more pressure on when to keep going forward or when to turn back but other than that, it's fun. I also hope they can put a hall of fame in there as well so you can keep track of your previous expeditions. Maybe there is one, i haven't quite completed a whole game but i don't think there is. And finally, it needs a tutorial for the uninitiated. Perhaps someone will write a guide, which would help, but i think a full on tutorial is needed.
Can you share what resolution are you playing on and what is your default scaling setting? If using the settings the game recommends seems to be ok but seen discussion on higher resolutions to excessively stretches to fill the screen. I have 3840x2160 resolution plus I believe scaling is higher than 100 so trying to figure out how this might look.
I have an old monitor so i can't go up that high but i'm running at 2376x1485 at 125% scaling and it works fine.
With that said, while i cant play at a higher resolution, i changed my scaling to 150% to see what would happen and it does cause issues. I would note my current scaling is 'recommended' by the system but anything higher causes issues because you can't see important areas of the screen.
Quote from: joram on April 09, 2024, 06:17:54 AMI have an old monitor so i can't go up that high but i'm running at 2376x1485 at 125% scaling and it works fine.
With that said, while i cant play at a higher resolution, i changed my scaling to 150% to see what would happen and it does cause issues. I would note my current scaling is 'recommended' by the system but anything higher causes issues because you can't see important areas of the screen.
Really appreciate the above informed comments . Thank you.
I would have preferred a full on "Scramble for Africa" design with different European AI's as opponents....Brits, Portuguese, Dutch,French, Germans even...
:Dreamer: yeah
When you read the accounts of early African exploration, one of the things that is very striking is that each expedition devolved into a very personal struggle that eclipsed the nationality of the explorer. Burton may have been an English Victorian gentleman, but he was a formidable Arabic scholar and the greatest pornographer of his age. One of the root causes of his famous feud with Speke was that he didn't really fit in anywhere, and to some extent this was true of all the other African explorers as well, from Mungo Park to David Livingston.
One thing I really miss in the game is the exploration of West Africa, particularly of the river Niger, and the French expeditions that laid the foundations for the French empire in Africa would have been nice as well. But at the end of the day it all came down to whether you could maintain control over your askaris and bearers before they deserted or starved to death, and that vibe comes through from the game quite well.