Gaming Signal: Post-Game Release Support?

Post-Game Release Support?

This is always an area of interest since many games have issues when they are released. This is a fact of life for software since it is almost impossible to solve every issue or predict every use case. I could go on a long winded discussion of this from a software engineering perspective, and that would only result in two things - one being this post not conveying the information I really wanted to give, and two having folks stop reading what I write.

Anyways, the official patch route is often a long one and in many cases never done if companies close shop or release a new version. This does not stop work from being done by rather adventurous users who wish to see the game reach its full potential. These fan based mods or improvements are hit or miss, but they do try to add to a game they love. I have collected a few links that I want to share and see if anybody has any other games that have been touched in this way - not total conversions or mods, but end user patches to an existing game to fix flaws/deficiencies or story elements.

Without further ado, the list:

The most popular and probably best done mod/fix pack is the one from Circle of Eight for Temple of Elemental Evil. This was featured in a recent PC Gamer and claims to fix alot of the issues with the game that will not be addressed by the developer. I have not tried it but the general consensus is that it is very very good.
Another one I have seen lots of releases for is an unofficial patch pack for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. This fan update adds alot to the game, but since Troika is out of business, this maybe the only route to fixes and content patches.
Finally for my list is a new one that claims to fix the issues with the Obsidian game, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. They claim on their website that it will fix/restore content that is missing from the original game. It is still pretty early in development, but it might be worth checking out.

This is a relatively short list and as I said, does not include mods for games like Neverwinter Nights or Half-Life. The other great thing is that all of these games don't require the latest and greatest in hardware and can be acquired cheaply for those who are on a limited budget.

The craziest story has to be held by Harpoon. I was aware it went through a lot of changes - but look here for the gory details.

People are so in love with SCUMM-powered games (like the Monkey Island series and the Sam & Max series, along with many others) that there is an open source project going to recreate the engine so the games can be played on modern systems (sadly, the old DOS games just don't play right anymore.)

The Infocom games of the 80's are still available - showing the good content never dies. What's amazing are the people who have dedicated themselves to making them work on modern systems. Recently it seems the copyright was being enforced again (after years of languishing) so the online versions aren't available as freely as they used to be.

Posted by Scott on Wednesday October 25, 2006 at 1:25 PM