XCom is one turn-based game on the computer that is thoroughly engaging right from the very beginning, and it spawned a whole legion of gamers who loved the turn-based genre. Unfortunately, the game did not make it a few iterations later down the DirectX line despite having a solid storyline and plenty of room for more challenges. Thankfully, we have XCom fans who have taken their programming expertise and translated it into a clone for the humble Nintendo DS. While it is not the original game in any sense (since the programmer did not use the original source code), the programmer has included most of the original game data.

This project by blue_knight is a labor of love, and here is an excerpt of his thoughts.

“I can currently load MAP,PCK,TAB,MCD and LBM files, can load in and create tilesets, render Battlescape maps (where each 10×10 or 20×20 area is randomly chosen from a set of maps depending on terrain type) with up to 4 height layers (the same as the original game) and of course show vehicles like the Avenger and UFOs.”

Features of this game currently includes the ability to show different heights as well as scroll around the maps via the D-pad or touching the screen boundaries. Unfortunately, lighting and “fog of war” have not been programmed in yet. The top display on the DS might currently be used as a debugging screen at the moment, but chances are the final, refined version will feature a map instead.

Source: DS News

You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Add to Del.icio.us