Why Epic Sucks

[KRSplatinum]

Epic Megagames is a **** company, they used to change all their file extensions to proprietary formats for their games, which they didn't even take advantage of in order to port their software to other operating systems or consoles.

Changing your file extensions is NEVER NECESSARY. Computers don't use this information when opening a file. This information is only used to sort and select files when opening them in an already-installed application. Hence the form for file formats in any "Open file..." dialog.

[DoubleGJ]

are you running for a 'Gus of the month' award here because you're doing a very good job at it

how is that a valid basis to sum up a whole company's value

[KRSplatinum]

Sorry, you're right, lol. This would be better off posted on Epic's forum or should be moved to Misc/Comedy Café/Spam Central/JCS-related Rants :P

Anyway, I see that Epic used proprietary file formats to allow the music to work with their game engine, and to place restrictions on how large their software files are.

What I'm getting at is that the JJ1 music is Actually designed for an Amiga operating system, NOT an MS-DOS operating system.

However, Amiga OS should only be used for general arcade game display screens or some sort of dedicated music notation editing tablet or computer, IMHO.

NOT a console or a PC, but the JJ1 music theoretically plays on Amiga OS.

I know this is in the wrong forum, but to sum up my point:

- The JJ1 music is designed for Amiga OS, not MS-DOS.
- Amiga-based formats these days are only useful to me in terms of dedicated music notation editing software, or as an arcade-style gaming machine. My basis for this distinction is that all module music tends to have origins in the Amiga OS, and module files typically have lower file sizes for the sake of running games.

[Violet CLM]

Changing your file extensions is NEVER NECESSARY. Computers don't use this information when opening a file. This information is only used to sort and select files when opening them in an already-installed application. Hence the form for file formats in any "Open file..." dialog.
But you admit it's a different file <em>format</em>. S3M and PSM musics are not at all byte-for-byte identical, so wouldn't you <em>want</em> them to have different extensions?

[Marijn]

Epic MegaGames were awesome, after the dropped that title... Well they were not that mega anymore..

[Marijn]

Epic MegaGames were awesome, after the dropped that title... Well they were not that mega anymore..

[KRSplatinum]

But you admit it's a different file <em>format</em>. S3M and PSM musics are not at all byte-for-byte identical, so wouldn't you <em>want</em> them to have different extensions?

I don't understand why you would compress ALL of your files in the manner that Epic compresses them to fit onto a floppy disc for JJ1.

What is the point of doing that manually? Just allow for more hard drive space, and let the software engine for JJ1 do Real-time musical compression to reduce the amount of work the game-makers had to do for their "high-quality, mid-quality, lo-quality" audio system.

In other words, implement convert.exe into JJ1, and allow it to read .MOD files as well. Wouldn't that be much simpler? It would just increase loading times of worlds before every JJ1 level.

Most likely, Epic had to make a new archive system that only JJ1 could read to reduce file size but maintain playback ability. I guess they did that after they created the game engine to add music for MS-DOS sound cards, since it was written in a C64-native format as opposed to a MS-DOS/Windows-native format.

Basically what I'm saying is that during the loading worlds screen time of JJ1, it should automatically use convert.exe to compress .mod files into .psm files, and use openMPT to convert .it/.xm/.s3m files to .mod files.

Therefore, you could possibly open any JJ2-related music file as a song for JJ1. But that would only work if the filesize is low enough because Epic placed restrictions on the filesize allowance of Convert.exe.

Well, overall, what I'm saying is Convert.exe ought to be cracked in terms of its filesize allowance. We don't live in a world of floppy discs anymore, their limitations are unnecessary.

[Violet CLM]

but JJ1 <em>was</em> written during a time of floppies
the first six episodes anyway

[Jerrythabest]

This is like saying Epic sucks because they didn't allow for any resolutions higher than 640x400. And because there is no online play in JJ1. After all, don't you remember how nicely you could have played JJ1 on your 55" 4K Ultra-HD TV over your awesome symmetric 500/500 Mbit/s fiber internet connection back in 1994?

Oh, yeah, none of that existed in that time. Go figure.

[KRSplatinum]

That's true. However, while rendering large music files I tend to verbally complain about the fact that they aren't done already.

[Slaz]

Epic is just a company, one that has succesfully grown from being small to a big business that's highly respected in the industry. I don't see how so much wealth, fame, and respect sucks..

So rants about JJ1/JJ2 design decisions should rather go to the people that actually made Epic's games. And even though I never personally met those guys, I can safely assume that they're good and tolerable people.

Ah, so much words for this thead.. Back to watching some TMNT. :p

[Stijn]

this thread is full of nonsense, I support DoubleGJ's nomination of KRSplat as Gus of the month