RGB Classic Games Forum

Feel free to rate and discuss this game.

Thanks for getting permission to release Xargon as freeware and to distribute its source code

Which compiler was used to compile the source code?

Looks to be Borland C.

leilei wrote:Looks to be Borland C.

You got it - Borland's Turbo C.

Not being a particular platform game fan, I checked out Xargon because of the very neat graphics, which reminded me of the SNES version of Prince of Persia somewhat. The game turned out to be nicely done and fun to play, and quite similar to Vinyl Goddess of Mars that I played before and had a good impression of. I couldn't be bothered to read through the rather lengthy story, but the weird design of the world where the protagonist found himself in is quite fitting for a game of this genre, and the creatures inhabiting it are well drawn and animated. The music is nothing special, but is not annoying either, and the levels are cleverly designed and interesting to explore.

There are a few things I perceived as drawbacks though. First, for whatever reason the character does not have a firing animation, and the laser beams seem to come out from the lower part of the body. Maybe it's a bug in the shareware version, maybe it's just how it was done. There is also no explanation from the in-universe point of view (or did I miss it?) to how said laser beams can be guided by the main character. Another feature of the game that could be done better is the ability to purchase useful items with gems that the player collects. You can "buy" any item whenever you feel like it on a level, although it would seem far more logical to have special item shopping points on a level, as it is the case in games like Halloween Harry or Alien Rampage. However, these aren't serious drawbacks, and they sure don't spoil the playing experience in any way.

MrFlibble wrote:The game turned out to be nicely done and fun to play... the levels are cleverly designed and interesting to explore.

Thanks for your kind words as well as your suggestions.

Well, thank you for making it in the first place ^_^ TBH I almost completely forgot about the comment I left here, but at any rate Xargon does deserve all the praise it can get I haven't played the game in a while but I retain a very good impression of it. Definitely one of the better games in its genre and time period.

Who was the oddball that thought up all of the creatures?

Why, the creatures aren't much different from those in Vinyl Goddess from Mars. And I'm not even talking about Commander Keen here

One of the things I like about Xargon is that the aliens look so otherworldly. They're not just modified Earth creatures, they legitimately look alien.

DOSGuy wrote:One of the things I like about Xargon is that the aliens look so otherworldly. They're not just modified Earth creatures, they legitimately look alien.

Thanks. Our team really tried to accomplish that. We didn't want Xargon to look too much like any other game.

BTW - I have some images of creatures that we chose not to use in the game and would be willing to share some of them. However, they are only on my hard drive. I can put them on my web site but wanted to find out if there's an easier way to include them here.

I'd be honored to help preserve some of your unused Xargon creatures. The simplest way is to just upload the images into the forum. If you want to include some kind of license restricting how they can be used, you could put the license and images in a zip file and upload that.

DOSGuy wrote:I'd be honored to help preserve some of your unused Xargon creatures. The simplest way is to just upload the images into the forum. If you want to include some kind of license restricting how they can be used, you could put the license and images in a zip file and upload that.

I'll do that. They are far from finished artwork and I'll put a note to that effect along with which artist created each.

A piece of trivia: I worked with four artists on Xargon and one of them Epic flew out to our house. I'll put all of their names in the document. The plan is to do this tomorrow morning.

kilodude wrote:

DOSGuy wrote:One of the things I like about Xargon is that the aliens look so otherworldly. They're not just modified Earth creatures, they legitimately look alien.

Thanks. Our team really tried to accomplish that. We didn't want Xargon to look too much like any other game.

I for one like the caterpillar creature that falls into segments when hit. It also makes a very weird, unusual (I'd even say - unexpected) noise

kilodude wrote:BTW - I have some images of creatures that we chose not to use in the game and would be willing to share some of them.

That's wonderful! ^_^ Not every game of the past has unused resources so readily available.

kilodude wrote:A piece of trivia: I worked with four artists on Xargon and one of them Epic flew out to our house.

Apparently this was custom practice for the company, I remember reading that Ken Silverman was visited by Mark Rein during the development of Ken's Labyrinth, and it was Mark who invented the idea of the plot which involved rescuing the player character's dog, Sparky

On another note, if you haven't already, you should really consider writing down your recollections of Xargon's development (and/or of any other of your projects as well) and publishing them via your site or here. That would certainly be of great historical interest

MrFlibble wrote:On another note, if you haven't already, you should really consider writing down your recollections of Xargon's development (and/or of any other of your projects as well) and publishing them via your site or here. That would certainly be of great historical interest

Well... there was talk of an interview for the site. I can resend the questions and the recollections you had already sent me if you need them, Allen.