Rediscovered that little gem

[marty651]

Hello everybody,

I'd like to introduce myself as another German (after the last post) who got deeply into Outpost 2 over the last days.

As for many other people the name "Outpost" was for me associated with that disaster in the 90s with a game having features in the documentation which were not implemented in the game. Well, you all know the story.

Over the last months I am on something like a "retro" trip. Especially I checked with many old games if there is still a fan community - perhaps still improving aspects of the game. (Another good example is Master of Orion 3 - also a disaster in the beginning - which is now after some modding really worth playing in my opinion).

So I dug out my old Outpost CDs and wanted to give it a try again. After some trouble with installing on Windows 10 I am now surprised about two things:

1. Outpost 2 is obviously underrated. I somehow lumped that together with Outpost 1 in the past. But it is much more in it than I assumed in the beginning.

2. I found this amazingly persistent little fan community still supporting the game. I profit a lot from your work here while playing this game so I decided to register - and if it is only to say Thank You!

I'm not so much an online gamer so I will follow more the activities which are also interesting for a single player.

One last remark: It was really hard to decide where to register: OPU or NTCS or both. Do you guys really want to use both platforms in parallel now? (I know the story behind why NTCS was started)

Cheers
marty651

[leeor_net]

HI!

And welcome!

We have a download here (http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/topic,5712.0.html) that with a DOSBox/Win3.11 setup with Outpost already installed and ready to go. It makes playing it a lot easier as 64-Bit versions of windows dropped support for 16-bit applications. It also has all of the latest official patches (up to v1.5) that were ever released so if you're feeling nostalgic and want to remember the train wreck that it was, by all means.

As for OPU vs NTCS -- the problems with OPU's unreliable server have been resolved. The website's software has been updated and I think is still being configured -- need to check in with Hooman and Arklon on that. I personally prefer OPU because this is where my roots began in the fan community. I am a member of NTCS but OPU's activity, especially over the last 8 months, is much higher. But that's just my personal preference, I don't see one as better than the other. Me, Lev and Drakmar (NTCS's operator) have agreed that we should act as sister sites instead of competitors. I always say if you're joining OPU consider joining NTCS as well.

We still have our QuakeNet IRC channel if you wanted to drop in and say hi (you can use the Chat link above for an embedded web client or head over to quakenet.org and use their webchat, channel #Outpost2) we're usually around. Well, me, Lev, Dave, Brekkjern and a few others.

Here's hoping to see you join in the fun! Over on IRC they still actively host and play Outpost 2 multiplayer games. Sundays are typically the most active for that though Friday/Saturday during the mid-day to evenings you'll find plenty of people ready to play.


SHAMELESS PLUG

You mentioned Outpost and liking single player games. It's not finished yet but it's partially playable and I'm still working on it:

http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/board,106.0.html

[marty651]

Hi Leeor,

Thanks for the Outpost 1 link. That makes it really comfortable to install on my Win 10 PC.

Up to know I installed Outpost 1 on my Win 7 32bit Notebook. It took me hours until I found that the installer only runs if Win 7 is started in Safe Mode. For Outpost 2 I wanted to use the converted Video Files from Drakmar (thanks to that!) because of the bigger size on the video window. But it took me also a while until I got the correct codec working (with ffdshow.)

Regarding OutpostHD: Of course I am aware your activities here - just downloading latest version 

Regarding NTSC: I am going to register NOW!

[dave_erald]

Welcome aboard buddy! Stay and look around, there is still usually something going on.

[Vagabond]

Hey Marty,

Welcome to the Outpost Universe. In case you haven't seen it yet (I think maybe it is the post you are referring to), pm wrote up a very nice looking article on the innards of Outpost 2 in German. I don't read or speak German, but it does look nice. http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/topic,5745.0.html

If you want to try a new Colony game, check out Outcaster's Starship here: http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/topic,5014.msg82579.html#msg82579

[Hooman]

Hello, welcome.

Glad you enjoy what you found.

I'm registered at both OPU and NTCS. I haven't checked the later in months though. OPU is my default, and I tend to forget about the other one until someone posts a link, or OPU goes down. As long as one site is up to post new stuff. =)

[leeor_net]

Up to know I installed Outpost 1 on my Win 7 32bit Notebook. It took me hours until I found that the installer only runs if Win 7 is started in Safe Mode.

Interesting. I never had that problem when I was still running Windows 7 32 bit. It just... worked. Though I did have to set compatibility mode for the installer.

[marty651]

Up to know I installed Outpost 1 on my Win 7 32bit Notebook. It took me hours until I found that the installer only runs if Win 7 is started in Safe Mode.

Interesting. I never had that problem when I was still running Windows 7 32 bit. It just... worked. Though I did have to set compatibility mode for the installer.

I don't know why it was necessary on my Win 7 system. I tried all compatibility modes.

By the way: I don't get the activation e-mail from NTCS. Anybody knows where I can find Drakmar? 

[leeor_net]

He's poking around over at NTCS usually... I'll shoot him an e-mail.

[Drakmar]

I went ahead and activated your account Marty. Recently performed a lot of work on NTCS and I didn't realize that I had accidentally killed my email server settings, lol. Thanks for letting me know btw Leeor_net!

[marty651]

I went ahead and activated your account Marty. Recently performed a lot of work on NTCS and I didn't realize that I had accidentally killed my email server settings, lol. Thanks for letting me know btw Leeor_net!

Thanks!