Totally Games Forums

[The Machinist]

Hi you all at Totally Games!

It's a long time I'm a fan of Totally Games... well, you can imagine, I was born in 1975! Sorry for poor English, since I am Italian.

So, SWOTL... yes, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe!

I loved that game... such as many other boys in the World, since SWOTL was born. Although more than 15 years have passed, you can still find old SWOTL fans around the world.
Now, I wonder...

WHY NOT the SWOTL Source Code for free, with all the tools to modify it?

Damn... it's a very old game... only we old fans we keep playing it; there are no any chances to sell SWOTL anymore!
No market at all in these days, with powerful PCs... much more powerful than the old Intel 486 and DOS Operating System!
It would be just a way to make happy some old fans...
For example, years ago the Id Software has released DOOM and Quake II source codes, and all the tools and hints to modify them... why not for SWOTL, that it's even older than Doom and Quake II???
Please!

For the young players that don't know SWOTL, here is a video posted by another old SWOTL fan:
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=9eosVhMLr1A (Huntig B-17s with a Bf-109G)
A little demonstrations of Campaign Battles:
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbFxVpfExA&feature=related (novice player... )
And in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOTL
Of course... the Fan Site:
http://home.comcast.net/~swotl/

Otherwise, dear Totally Games... PLEASE DO create a SWOTL II ... but a true, real SWOTL II ...!
I mean a powerful Campaign Battles, with Industrial Production, Tech Research, Mission Builder, Flight Builder, Weapons Roster... like (and better than) in the old SWOTL... for example adding ground and sea units... and...
NOT a sequel of that "strange story-driven game" that has been named... Secret Weapons over Normandy !

Sorry guys, but SWON really "missed the target", according to me.
I am not asking for a SWOTL II using 100 different keys in Keyboard... it's enough to have a lovely Flight Game using a Joypad (mouse) and four keys, with rather "Arcade" flight charecteristics... but YOU CAN'T REMOVE the "Charm" and "intense involving" of Campaign Battles, such were in SWOTL: the variety of weapons to choose in Weapons Roster ("are better 30mm Mk108 or Mk103, for this mission?!"), the tacticts to use in Flight Builder ("are better four Mustangs in Escort Close, or two in Escort Close and two Sweeping ahead the B-17s?!")... the possibility to assign different targets to squadron mates, in the in-flight map... the fear to lose friendly planes... the rush to build a stronger Air Force sooner than the enemy...
Tactics, Strategy, Weapons, Industrial Production, Playability... made SWOTL lovely!
And all this with... a mouse click!

Thanks for listening to me!

[Alby]

SWOTL was before I joined the company. I'm sure we have the source code sitting somewhere on a backup tape for a machine that we no longer have.

That's the problem with software and storage media. Nowadays, you can hardly buy a computer with a 3.5 in floppy in it anymore. Nevermind 5 1/4 disks. Someday CD's will go the way of the dodo and then all my CD's and backup discs will be worthless.

So, the short answer is, because I'm not even sure we can find the source code anymore.

I do have all the X-wing and after source code on my machine. I like to keep source and assets for every project that I've ever worked on on my machine for quick reference.
_________________
Albert Mack
Lead Programmer, Totally Games

[The Machinist]

Thank you very much for your answer, Alby!

I know that many years have passed since SWOTL was programmed... and a Customer asking for the Source Code is always embarrassing.
If I was asking for it several years ago, like 1998-2000, perhaps you still had to answer me that was too early... and now pehraps it's too late...

Well, I imagine you have to work and you haven't much time to waste about SWOTL...
I just pray you, if you can find some free time, please do a little search for the SWOTL Source Code and all related tools... may be, you could put them in this Site for free download, for old fans: SWOTL itself it's not a big program (less tha 5 MB on Hard Disk...). Perhaps sir Larry Holland knows better were SWOTL Source Code is stored, since he projected and programmed SWOTL.

However, I hope at least that SWOTL can strongly inspire you, again, for a new WWII Air Combat game that, like SWOTL, takes into consideration:
1- Historical Realism
2- Tactics
3- Strategy
4- Industrial Production and Logistics
5- Campaign Battles
6- Mission builder
7- Flight Builder
Please notice that NO ANY OTHER WWII Air Combat game, in the last 15 years, has featured all these things at the same time... that were featured on SWOTL! You could do it... and even 100 times better than SWOTL, with modern computers! May be even adding some other elements, such as land war and sea war... and with the possibility, for the Customer, to add his own Mods, Skins, new Airplanes, new Weapons, ecc...
I guess that the SWOTL Formula (or even better) can still work out an award-winning WWII Air Combat game... like SWOTL won awards, many years ago!

Good Work, and have a nice day!

[Sushi]

[Frasier000]

it is interesting!
_________________
Cold Case DVD
the king of queens dvd box set

[The Machinist]

Hi people! Nice to see you again!

Sorry if my English may be not 100% correct, since I'm Italian.
I would like to talk about the old SWOTL little more.

Just yesterday I played again with my old SWOTL (using DOS Box, that works eccellently to run old software in modern machines). It was at least one year I didn't played it. And Surprisingly, this wonderful old game... managed to keep me playing for at least two hours.
Two hours.
I'm talking about a game that I bought in 1992, and I played it a million times yet. Still, yesterday, it managed to capture my attention, and it managed to keep me two hours in campaign battles.
You are talking with a 34 years old guy that, in the last 17 years, has played nearly 90% of any WWI Air Combat Simulations developed by any Softwarehouses. In my Hard Disks, I have titles such as European Air War (Microprose), IL-2 Sturmovik, Forgotten Battles (Ubi Soft), Combat Flight Simulator 2 & CFS 3, and many others... and of course, your Secret Weapons over Normandy (2003).
Well... I'm no more playing ANY of these Simulations. Nothing at all.

However, SWOTL managed to come back to my attention.
Do you know how SWOTL is big on Hard Disk?
3,60 MB ... 3,60 Mega Byte !
WHY?! I asked myself, since 17 years have passed... why I'm not still bored of SWOTL?! Why SWOTL is still so fascinating?!
So, I tryed to analize the SWOTL "charme" with attention, and I realized:

1- The Campaign Battles. The simple fact that you can use a Mission Builder inside the Campaign Battles, it's a lot of fun. You plan your missions entirely, for you and the squadrons on your side, and try to guess the right tactics to defeat the enemy. Little example: a B-17 group, one P-51 squadron in escort close for the B-17, but another P-51 squadron in "strafe and level bomb" stealth-mission against the German airfield that probabily will scramble interceptors for the B-17s... will it work, to save the B-17s?! Too much fun. And this is only one of the infinite tactics that you can draw yourself, on the map, and execute. And you can fly any of the airplanes of your planned mission.

2- The enemy reaction. A lot of fun, too : AI is very good, and they are always really trying to defeat you. AI pilots are good. AI strategy is good. For any tactics that you can develop, surprisingly, you see a correct enemy reaction (if they have the strenght to react). Sometimes they are "meat on the table", since you can kill a lot of them; but they always attack hard, and they "play to win": they're not "sitting ducks". This is even more surprisingly beacuse SWOTL is only AI, and does not support On-Line gaming.

3- The leadership and will to win. As a result of combination of points 1 and 2 as I just shown over here, you are very engaded by the game, and you want to win. Each time, you plan your day mission to win your Campaign Battles, you decide your strategy, then you fly to make the thins to work. Very challenging, because it's not a passive pre-built mission: all depends to you. Even by selecting the correct orders for team mates during air battle (such as: attack this target) in the On-Flight Map.

4- The role playing. The AI pilots gain points and experience. You choose the pilots for the missions, you guess who one is better than another to fulfill the mission role, or better to pilot an airplane. And you can "grow" any AI pilot simply playing mission with its name.

5- The action. SWOTL is a perfect mixure between Simulation and Arcade. Flight models, weapons, ammo and cockpits are serious enough to seem a Simulation; but playability is very high because you can fly the airplanes and fire the machineguns in the B-17 simply with the Mouse; using keyboard only to enter Map, adjust Throttle, select weapons and few other things.

6- The sounds, the colors and enviroment. SWOTL sounds are still cool; colors pallette is loveable, it reminds cartoons. The actors in Briefing and De-Briefing seem Comics, and this adds a lot of fun; and the Mission outcome is enfatized.

7- The details. Little details make good impression; and I'm not talking about the skin of airplanes (SWOTL graphics were excellent in 1991-92, may be not today, but they work good). I'm talking about little things such as: the Weapons Roster, with historical data and weapons (such as the Aerial Bombs and the Wfr. Gr. 21 cm) ; the possibility to make research (on the German side) to develop new airplanes or V-Weapons; the possibility to set the industrial production of engines, airframes, fuel types; and all is written in a good and detailed Summary, each day of campaign.

One word for SWOTL: "mithical".

I hope very much that, in the future, you will develop a new WWII title, may be a SWOTL II, that really meets these seven points I wrote about SWOTL. And possibily, a new SWOTL, easy for Mods and Add-Ons.

As I said: SWOTL is a 3,60 Mega Byte game.... but it's still unmatched, under many points of views. This means that the difference to do a good game is not given by loading Giga Bytes of Graphics. At my opinion, EVEN NOW, if SWOTL could be re-written to allow hundreds types of airplanes, vehicles, buildings and ships... instead of the old 3,6 MB (limited by era PCs RAM), even WITHOUT upgrading the graphics level... it would be the perfect Air War Game!

Have a nice day!

[devilphones]

Hi, I'am Newbie here, thank you for your post, i try to learn before