Where to acquire Arcanum (and for how much)?

The only downside to the pdf file is that you need yet another bit of software to open the damned thing.
Wordpad, Works, Word, Wordperfect, those aren't good enough.....

grumble...grumble...grumble...

 

And I am presuming from the ardent grumbling that you have none?

 

Acrobat Reader: for reading pdfs
OpenOffice.org: for reading and editing docs, odts; making pdfs
Notepad++: everything else
(well, Firefox: reading html, Nvu: editing html)

 

To answer Tecontar: I do now. I was able to beg a copy of Acrobat Reader off of my boss. But now it's just one more piece of software I only needed once.

As to Frigo: I've always preferred using Wordpad when editing htms. Of course, I never got into the fancier stuff like flash.

I made personal library website - of sorts - to display my pictures and stories. One click convience. That was fun for a while.

 

(Rueful snort) With my luck - Probably.

 

Yeah, acrobat reader is completely free. Acrobat itself is the package you pay for.

 

Oh well, I got it for free anyway.

But the info is nice to know. Thanks.

 

I got my Arcanum game from "PCGAMING WORLD" number four , april 2005

 

Hey Mode_Locrian, there you go. Add the gaming magazines to your search.

 

It really is sad that the game is only a few dollars in places these days. And its popularity seems to be dimming out. I have offered to pass it around for people to play but they dont like the style of the game or the lack of blood and guts, or so they say.

 

I tried to get my friend into Arcanum, but he showed MUCH more interest in Baldur's Gate II. At least he shows SOME taste.

 

I've encountered the same problems as Richard in getting anyone I know to try Arcanum.

The graphics are too primitive, the game's too complex - I think I heard them all. More than anything else though, it seems like most players don't like games where you actually have to think about something more than which button to push. ie: The fight games, the kill-em-all shooters, or the skateboard type seems to be all that the players I know want anything to do with.

Sad, really.

 

I thought about isometric vs 3D thing for some time, and I realized that 3D sucks Arcanum has a much higher detailed gfx than the average 3D thingy -> poor, low-res textures; low poly models; bad VIS and clipping, objects and walls disappearing, objects intersecting; no possible way to include hand-made pics; higher system requirements, more complex algorithms, higher cost to develop or license the engine; higher cost to make models, maps, or anything else

Altough Arcanum too lacks some things that would be nice to see, e.g. height map based terrain.

---

Complex?

Hehh, any MMORPG is much more complex than Arcanum.

 

Frigo wrote:

Add artwork that is of a known and easily workable type. GIF, BMP, JPG... etc.

Still, the old adage of "Keep it simple" has worked rather well with this game engine.
I, for one, am not displeased.

 

I just started playing this game in 2004, and I can't get enough of it. I had BG 2 on my hard drive, but I deleted it to save on memory. I may end up uninstalling Arcanum so that I might be able to play Baldur's Gate 2 again, complete with all of the special expansion crap I have with it...Any way, I'm all about gameplay, and Arcanum has it. Tons of gameplay. I boot up Arcanum and the gameplay is palpable.
I like BG, but the story isn't as enthralling as Troika's masterpiece. When I first played Arcanum, I got so wrapped up in the story and the game and everything, that I ended up playing for eight hours. I'm just glad I was unemployed at the time (first time for everything).
Anyway, I was lucky to find Arcanum when I did. I had seen it on store shelves before, but either didn't have the computer to handle ANY games, or I just didn't know what it was. I'll go with both. If you can find any copies of Arcanum, grab them up. Certain people will pay a lot for games such as this.

 

Gross is right, the two main selling points for this game is the storyline and the gameplay. You begin as (more or less) an everyman who gets dropped into a situation beyond your control, and from there, the path you choose is entirely your own. Kind of like Find-Your-Fate for a video game.

Arcanum was the first role-playing game I've ever encountered for a PC that not only had a decent story but was so open and varied in how you played it. You have a huge area to explore; not some narrow little path you have to follow. You can be as good or bad as you want to be. You're not locked into the Big Hero mode of most games. And no time limit - I think.

BTW: If you never go into the Void, does the game ever end on its own?
One game I played I had 10 years go by and still no Kergan.

 

I've been playing PC games since the late 90's and to date I've only found a few games worth playing more than once or twice:

Arcanum
Planescape: Torment
Fallout 1 & 2
BG 1 & 2
Age of Empires (all)

-Maybe I missed a few, but those are my favorites.

Unfortunately, games seem to be going to 3d mass-murder carnage or overly complex 100000+ soldiers fighting on boring battlefields. What can you do though? In ten years everything will probably be holographic interactive rpg pron.

I personally like the 'poor' graphics that Arcanum offers. Its just right for the story, and I think it wouldn't be as cool if was 3d uber-flash whatever. After all, its the story which makes it cool, not the glitter. Let the xbox kids have their mindless 3d hypnotic glitz, I'll stick with old-school art and talented storytelling.