Look What I Found

[Darkspire]

Going through my boxes for spares for a new PC build and I found this, PC build is on hold while I configure DOSbox  :)

Darkspire

[Grim.Reaper]

Going through my boxes for spares for a new PC build and I found this, PC build is on hold while I configure DOSbox  :)

Darkspire

I loved all the ssi boxes/art, catalogs they used to have, and their detailed manuals....those were the days.

[eyebiter]

.

[W8taminute]

Those were the days indeed.  Great find Dark. 

[Darkspire]

I found the CD still in the case but as for the manual not a sign, I would go through the lot but my attic makes the Lost World look like the local park,  thank goodness for replacement docs, even managed to find the install sheet with the system specs and setup on so setting it up in DOSbox is really easy.

Darkspire

[ChrisK]

Sweet! I loved all of the General games. I am in the beta for the new Panzer General online game, but I am finding it quite disappointing. It's completely unlike any of the previous games, the game plays more like World War I than World War II, and the combination of the restrictive map and card system and inaccurate unit descriptions leaves me missing the original series more and more. If I still had Fantasy General around someplace, I'd probably reinstall it. Come to think of it, GOG might have it... 8)

[Greybriar]

I still have Fantasy General installed on one of my old PCs and fired it up for awhile just the other day.

You can download the manual and Install Guide from Replacementdocs. (But do not click on the big green Start Download buttons by mistake!)

[Bison]

Man that really makes me wish I had a copy of the AD&D Gold Box.

[Sir Slash]

I remember that one. It had a killer AI to play against and lots of great units. I remember the air unit that had a guy with a rifle held aloft by a big balloon. Lots of fun. ;D

[Darkspire]

Error in posting.

[son_of_montfort]

Odd that GoG.com does not have this one (or really any SSI product). I have The Rites of War (Eldar based WK40K general game) CD but my Fantasy General CDs are buried somewhere. I never beat the game and always wondered what the main bad guy was like.

[JasonPratt]

Fantasy General also has an excellent soundtrack.

Easily ported to audio CD, too. (This reminds me I gave away my copy for Christmas at a Sunday School party a few years ago; need to burn a new one.)

I was just thinking about getting this out and running through it again. Even though in almost every way Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy is better, I just like the basic story of FG better (and the music more, duh). The sketch art for the units isn't slouchy either.

Gosh... I wonder if I can even find my copy of this game now... {sniffle}


Reminder to anyone thinking of playing again! -- the game design is INTENTIONALLY BROKEN, as a clumsy way of correcting some balance issues. If your army doesn't have a broad mix of unit types, the game will artificially ramp up the number and quality of oppositional units on any map. This also forces you to assign research points across many unit types, which was probably the reason for breaking the code all along (since it would be easy to pick up Phoenix Knights early in the game this way, and they're almost unbeatable especially early in the game).

The designers ARE admittedly up front about breaking the game design this way; they warn in the instructions they intentionally did this. Still, it's an unusual and ridiculous problem not found in any other 5-Star game (or its sequel/remakes) I ever played.

[JasonPratt]

I should add in fairness to the story of FW/EL, when I say I prefer the basic story of FG I mean I prefer the scope and purity of a ragbag band of rebels rising up in a corner of fantasy Australia to methodically work their way into saving the world from fantasy Hitler after he has already conquered the world. I prefer that concept, but there isn't much actual story to FG -- which allows for more projection, on the other hand, since the player kind of writes the story of the heroes and units in our own minds as we go.

Among the many many many improvements of the FW/EL games, is that while the story may not be quite so epic and pure, there is actually a story: a real story with real characters and tensions between nominal factions and misunderstandings and tragedies and characterizations. And while the physical scope isn't all that epic, or what's being accomplished, the story itself is long -- like nine (or eight and a quarter) full campaigns long. Detailed things happen, and the plot progresses between (and during) missions.

Now, I'm not overly fond with how clumsily some of this is handled, and the voice acting (in English anyway) is often painful enough I just turn the voices off. (Ditto for the music, which is at best bland and which I wish I could replace with the FG tracks.) But I have to give FW/EL props that there is a developed story, even if the developers were forced to improvise one when their rights to straight-up remaking Fantasy General fell through. Scatting that up actually looks more impressive in that light.

Meanwhile, yay found my CD.  ;D Now let's see if I can get it to play in DosBOX...

[JasonPratt]

Update: D-Fend Reloaded installs and runs Fantasy General perfectly fine on Win8, although to be safe I allowed it to run the installer for the game off the CD so DFend could track what was happening.

One thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to stop the game from trying to access the CD for the music and movies, which tends to make for stuttering. I went for the full install, and I watched ALL THE SOUND AND MEDIA be installed on my C drive, so I shouldn't need the CD anymore... hm.

[SgtRock]

Fantasy General & Star General were too of my favorites, would rather see remakes of them then the Warhammer stuff.