MDDClone-SDL page
Last updated: 13.03.2010, current version: 23.3
MDDClone-SDL is an SDL port of Mercenary, based on original games that were written by Paul Woakes and (C) 1986 Novagen. Currently, only Mercenary I: Escape From Targ and Second City (Mercenary I mission disk) are supported, but there are plans to extend the port to support Damocles and Dion Crisis.
Although MDDClone-SDL is a closed source game due to copyright restrictions, all platforms which support SDL and nasm output are ultimately targetted, depending on available time.
You'll find very valuable informations about the gameplay on a fan website:
http://mercenarysite.free.fr
Initiative not associated with Psygnosis and/or Sony.
New source of launcher. Put into launcher-src and recompile
Techdemo 23.3 Win 32-bit
Techdemo 23.3 Mac OS X Intel - tested on Snow Leopard 10.6
Techdemo 23.3 Linux 32/64-bit - works on bare Ubuntu, Mint, Mandriva and others
Techdemo 23 FreeBSD 32/64-bit - works on bare PC-BSD and FreeBSD 8.0
MDDClone-SDL comes in two versions: software rendered, and hardware rendered. The software version (mddclone-sdl-gfx) looks just like the original with small enhancements, while the hardware version (mddclone-sdl-ogl) aims to add new eye-candies to the game.
MDDClone-SDL is available in 9 languages: English (default), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian and Polish. Thanks to all the translators! (hey, no problem!). You can select the language, as well as other options, either by using the Launcher program inside the archive, or commandline parameters.
To invoke in-game menu, press Escape. Inside, in the main menu -> Help, you can learn the game's keyboard layout, but a full list of keys, including some neat new walking features, can be found inside doc/MDDClone-SDL EN Keys.txt.
Mac OS X notes:
Double click on the game archive to untar it, enter the newly created directory and double click on the launcher program.
*nix notes:
Untar the game archive with:
tar -xvf mddclone-sdl-ogl-(...).tar.gz
cd into the created directory and run the game by using "mddclone-sdl-run.sh" script:
cd mddclone-sdl-ogl-(...)
./mddclone-sdl-run.sh
so the game can find the supplied libraries. If you're lucky enough, the script will succeed in running Launcher program. If not, then you must either edit this script to make it suit your needs by uncommenting (removing "#") and editing one of the examples inside, or compile the Launcher from source. See Compiling section to learn how to do it. It's braindead easy :)
13.03.2010
Third minor release for Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and Windows: 23.3, is out. There's a new feature in all of them - Frameskip for OpenGL version. It allows you to run the game on machines that are too slow, or have too poor OpenGL support to run the game smoothly. The frameskip can be enabled from the Launcher and from the in-game menu (Options->Video).
14.02.2010
Second Mac OS X release: 23.2 is out. Along with the software version, it also contains the OpenGL version and the Launcher. Please test it out and report back on our
BBS, just to tell if it works.
31.01.2010
First test release 23.1 for Mac OS X Intel is out! Only software rendering is currently supported, and Launcher is yet unavailable.
FreeBSD release 23 now contains game launcher linked against GTK libraries as they are available on both FreeBSD and PC-BSD.
17.12.09
Techdemo 23 for GNU/Linux and Windows have been released.
29.11.09
Techdemo 22.1 for FreeBSD 32 and 64-bit and PC-BSD 64-bit has been released. Other BSDs weren't tested.
22.11.09
Techdemo 22.1 for Windows and GNU/Linux have been released. Greater amount of
distros is supported now, and sound issues have been resolved.
01.11.09
Not much more effort will be put into this version of MDDClone-SDL, except stereoscopy support in OpenGL, intro/outro and various platforms compatibility. The next big step of the project as a whole, will be reworking the original Win32 MDDClone's low level routines (mostly Assembler) into a multiplatform code, while sticking to the well organised and throuroughly tested MDDClone code which calls those low level routines. According to MDDClone Author, this step will greatly reduce the time needed to port the remaining games. Yes, folks. I mean Damocles and Dion in OpenGL and under Win and *nices :)
The bad news (for you and the project) is that I'm continuing my studies while working so I won't have as much time to work on this project as I had so far.
Techdemo 23.3
- Mac OS X test releases
- OpenGL: Frameskip option for slower machines
Techdemo 23
- Done post-intro - entering atmosphere before you crash on Targ
- OpenGL: Fixed line bugs of cobweb and sofa in PC-BIL's room
- OpenGL: Fixed road line bugs - distant lines of the road you're on were only partly visible. Especially annoying in Second City
- OpenGL: Two of roads were never displayed
- Game launcher now stores the choices in user's directory (so ~ on Unix, \blahblah\Application data\ on Windows)
Techdemo 22.1
- Linux: custom library build (the way to do it) allowed for:
- ... providing support of bigger amount of distros, incl.: Fedora and Mandriva
- ... resolving smaller sound sample issue
- Low resolution in software renderer works correctly again
- BSD release
- Windows: caught up with previous Linux-only changes
Techdemo 22
- Linux: proven to work out-of-the-box on bare Ubuntu 32-bit and Ubuntu 64-bit
- Linux: game launcher (an app used for setting parameters) has now wxWidgets libraries linked statically and uses X11 backend instead of GTK for better compatibility
- Linux: because the sound sample was set to a too small value, the game could freeze on start. Now it's much bigger so more secure, although the sound is weird
- Linux: road network (roads visible from high altitude) is now correctly anti-aliased and slightly optimised
- Game states of individual language versions no longer interfere with each other. They were incompatible
- Ability to save game states slots' descriptions
- "Wall on wall" bug definitely fixed
- Library changes: removed DevIL, added SDL_image, Ogg and Vorbis - allowed to squish the archive a bit
Multiplatform MDDClone-SDL
New roads
New roads close-up
Second City
Targ from above
Colony Craft with fog
Greek translation
OpenGL objects
New doors
Photon emitter
Pepsi joke
MDDClone-SDL promo
Anti-aliasing in software
- OpenGL hardware rendering and software rendering, looking like the original
- anti-aliasing in both versions
- twice as big resolution as in original in the software version, and arbitrary resolution in OpenGL version
- camera shake while walking
- game state save/load
- contains Second City mission pack for Mercenary I
- 9 languages: English (default), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian and Polish
- Full port instead of a cheeky techdemo
- Damocles
- Dion
- OpenGL: visuals of the colony craft elevator are incorrect
- Software: there's an additional line in the middle of roads
To build the launcher program, you must first prepare your system to do it. Precisely, you must install the following packages:
- make,
- g++ (gcc-g++ on some distros),
- wxWidgets - *development* version (wxGTK-devel or libwxwidgets-dev on some distros)
Once you've got everything installed, it's time to build the executable. Just cd into the game's main directory, then launcher-src, and enter this command:
make
This will build the launcher executable, and put it in game's main directory. After this step, refer to the Running the Game section.
FreeBSD notes:
To build the Launcher, after installing wxWidgets from ports (/usr/ports/x11toolkits), you need to create a symbolic link to appropriate wx-config script. It will be called somehow like:
/usr/X11R6/bin/wxgtk2*
depending on which wxWidgets version you've chosen to install. To create the link, do the following as root:
ln -s /usr/X11R6/bin/wxgtk2[ADD_APPROPRIATE] /usr/bin/wx-config
You could also alter my Makefile in launcher-src directory to make it point to your config script in /usr/X11R6/bin/ instead of "wx-config" in PATH
- Novagen team - original authors
- MDDClone Author - Win32 port (MDDClone) author
- MDDClone translators
- Szymon Ender ( Simon Ender - for search engines ) - MDDClone-SDL port author (converted MDDClone to SDL and OpenGL), Polish translator. Private projects page
I'd also like to thank to the authors and contributors of the following libraries, which are used by MDDClone-SDL:
SDL, SDL_mixer, SDL_gfx, SDL_image, jpeg, png, Ogg, Vorbis, OpenGL, glut, wxWidgets (launcher).
If you have any feedback, then please use either Mercenary BBS (no registration required) or e-mail me directly. My e-mail address, as well as MDDClone Author's, are inside the docs, but please rather e-mail me, because I have more time.
Gentlemen at Tuxradar talk about MDDClone, MDDClone-SDL and our backward BBS :) on one of their great podcasts. Precisely they start talking about it at ~24:38. Have a laugh :)
MDDClone-SDL has been mentioned in a New Year's article about nice, but less popular games at http://www.linux-community.de. Danke schön :)
Listed below are webpages which came very handy when creating the game:
Kudos!