OK, I don't typically read "game journalism", but I gave this recent article a shot when it showed up in my quarantine news feed for whatever reason. I sure am glad I did. The writer gives us a good article about the game as well as a good description of the associated nostalgia he feels about a game from younger days. I recommend giving it a read-through. Links for article and game below:


https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdz5v/star-wars-dark-forces-25-years-later


https://www.gog.com/game/star_wars_dark_forces

I played it for the first time a few years ago and loved it. It didn't agree well, but it's funness after better than Doom

Well, not going to click on that. The game itself however is great. I remember it from back in the day. Really captured the Star Wars environment that very little else has. Very hard to play nowadays though with decades of fancy graphics and such like. Think the last time I installed it it was too dark to play on my setup.
I see there are engine reimplements:
http://xlengine.com/

And some doom mods. Might have to have another look!

The link to the article is perfectly legit. I can assure you it is completely safe for work and reading around family and such. A worthy read. I do not post inappropriate links.

Your prerogative, however. It's a great game and this article is a good look back at it as well as the feeling of game nostalgia in general and remembering the past days of gaming.

It’s called vice.com, I mean where do you go from there?

Legit company. Otherwise why would Google provide it as part of a news feed?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_Media

GOG use Facebook, Twitter, and amazon web services...

Anyways, the point is mute and I am going off topic.

I agree with the reviewer on the getting it to run part.

I remember it was a pain to get working back in the day and I don't remember why.

Thanks for the link. I really enjoyed it. It makes me want to reinstall Dark Forces and fire it up again.

Reading Zacny's piece also triggered in me a lot of nostalgia for Lucas Arts itself, too, as well as a measure of sadness for what they've become of now. It's one of those "New Media" sites that covers a wide range of topics, from politics to video games, and one of their angles is covering topics involving sexuality, and drugs, specifically marijuana (hence the name). The site itself is an outgrowth of Vice Magazine, which is kind of a counter-cultural current events print magazine. In my experience they're most well known for their science and tech blog, Motherboard.

Coincidentally I'm playing it for the first time now.

I don't have a problem with the graphics. Its the controls that make the game feel dated.

Secondary fire, look up, strafe, move backwards, look to the left - all at the same time. This is something I take for granted with mouselook + WASD, yet the default key bindings for dark forces require something like five hands. (Mouse, Z, <, down arrow, page down)

Lack of a good, finished source port for this kills me a little inside.

I remember the dev team who came so close to finishing a Dark Forces mod for Jedi Outcast ... or was is Academy?. What a shame it fell to ruin after all that work.

I drooled over getting a finished version of that mod for years while in development.:'(

I actually recall the day when I bought this game. I don't recall which store it was, but I recall I was cycling home with the game in my backpack, it was raining, and I was in such a hurry that I bumped into the side of a turning car with my bicycle.

Anyway I got home alive to play the game, and yes it was great at least back then.

I am right now playing the sequel, Dark Forces 2, for the first time. Still on the first level. I recall I did play this game back when it was released, but it must have been some demo version because the starting level is not what I recall it to be (somehow I recall there should have been a "hologram" made of pixels of some planet or maybe it was the Death Star, rotating there on the first level... or then I recall it from some other game). I have the retail version too on CD but I never got around to properly play it, so now I am playing the GOG version.

In the sequel, I like how the secret areas are placed. It is not so much blindly trying to push all walls to see if there is a hidden door or something, but they are in places which are kind hinted to you "something might be there".

What you describe is the very first level of the the first Dark Forces, which also was in its demo. Yes, it's also the death star that is the hologram.

I'm going to read the article later today, I just gave it a quick look.
The game was, and still is, incredibly immersive and lore respectful: it just puts you in there.
It is, honestly, sad to look at it and then what we are given today as Star Wars content, the last game looks good however.

XLengine isn't completely dead but barely alive: someone is attempting to keep the development going: https://github.com/Mindwerks/XLEngine