LineWars II
What is it?
LineWars II is my newest game for PC-compatibles. It was released as ShareWare by Safari Software (which is a subsidiary of Epic MegaGames) during September 1994. It was also released as the Game of the Month in the Epic Forum in CompuServe. The game is a 3D space fight simulation, something like Wing Commander or Elite (without the trading stuff). The unregistered version includes a demo, three single-player missions, a modem game and a network game (for up to 8 players). The registered version adds 6 new single-player missions, and different versions of the modem and network games.
The screen copy below is from a beta version running on an S3 accelerated graphics card at 800x600 resolution. The game only supported up to 256-color graphics modes, which was also what most hardware at that time had.
What hardware it runs on?
The game requires at least the following:
- IBM AT-Compatible computer (386 or 486 highly recommended)
- MCGA, VGA, VESA, S3 or Mach32 Graphics card
- 128K - 640K of total RAM (depending on graphics mode and music)
- About 1 MB of disk space (either floppy disk or hard disk)
The game also supports:
- Joystick
- Mouse
- ThrustMaster FCS (Flight Control System)
- VESA-compatible SuperVGA in 640x480x256 mode (requires a 386 or better CPU)
- S3 Accelerated SuperVGA in 800x600x256 mode (requires a 386 or better CPU)
- ATI Mach8 or Mach32 Accelerated SuperVGA in 800x600x256 mode (on a 386 or better CPU)
- Internal Speaker
- Covox or other parallel port DAC sound device
- Sound Blaster (with stereo sound on Sound Blaster Pro)
- Gravis UltraSound (with Focal Point 3D sound!)
- Roland LAPC-I (or MT-32 or compatible)
- Roland SCC-1 (or other General Midi synth)
- COM ports (supports also NS16550A and IBM Type 3 UARTs)
- Any file sharing network protocol
Where do I get it?
Here you can download the registered version (the game is nowadays freeware) as lw2r.zip. Note that while it might work on current 32-bit Windows machines, it will most certainly not work on a 64-bit system, and even the low-end Pentium 4 machine will run it so fast that controlling the ship is impossible in VESA 640x480 mode (as that mode is not tied to the screen refresh rate and will run at over 500fps). Running in MCGA 320x200 mode is tied to screen refresh rate so that mode is recommended (even though it looks very ugly) when running it on today's computers.
| File | Description |
| lw2r.zip | The registered version of LineWars II, free for you to download and play (in DOSBox, for example) |
| lw2beta.lzh | Beta version 0.65 from March 27th, 1993. Thanks to Viacheslav Slavinsky for digging these up from some obscure FTP site! |
| lw2demo2.lzh | Demo version 0.30 from December 14th, 1991. Thanks to Viacheslav Slavinsky for digging these up from some obscure FTP site! |
| lw2demo.lzh | Demo version 0.29 from November 9th, 1991. Thanks to Viacheslav Slavinsky for digging these up from some obscure FTP site! |
LineWars II on the web
Here I have collected some 3rd party websites mentioning LineWars II.
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LineWars_II | Wikipedia page about LineWars II. | |
| http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/564954.html | LineWars II walkthrough by KirbyRoks. | |
| http://www.terrybutler.co.uk/misc/linewars-ii/ | Terry Butler's LineWars II page. This page has also the original MOD music files by U4ia, who kindly let me use them in LineWars II. | |
| http://everything2.com/title/LineWars%2520II | LineWars II @ Everything2.com by WWWWolf | |
| http://www.pixelships.com/adg/ep0034.html | Kris Asick's fun Ancient DOS Games webshow episode about LineWars and LineWars II. Recommended! |