Another weekend and another Dark Forces Playthrough Commentary by Princessruri !

In this Part II video he takes us from the red mines of the Gromas system to the Cal-Seti spaceport of Ramsees-Hed

Did you know that...

- The large central pit in the Gromas Mine pits reflect bullets for the same reason Phase 1 Dark Trooper armor is reflective?

  They are made from the same material - Phrik!

- Enemies cannot traverse catwalks because they do not render correctly when on top of 3D Objects? 

- The first thing you see in Ramsees Hed are the gigantic engines of the ship you are about to enter?

- There is a hidden Ewok in one of the crates in the Ramsees Hed docking bay?

Click on the video below to continue his adventure!

Just in time for the weekend we are releasing Part 1 of our Dark Forces Playthrough by our very-own Princessruri !

With extensive background in Dark Forces map design and a guru of Dark Forces trivia he brings detailed commentary on Dark Forces missions. 

Did you know that...

- The Dark Forces map designers had a background in architecture and designed the maps in AutoCad?

- The Death Star Plans have an animated version not shown on the first map?

- There is a hidden room that hides a miniature Moldy Crow ?

Click on the video below to learn more ! 

Hello Everyone! 

As part of bringing DF-21 even further into the 21st century we are proud to announce today the launch of our official Discord !

This will be the go to place to discuss Dark Forces news, level editing, streaming and showing off your art assets. If you are having issues with your GOBs we have a support channel where you can get help from the community. And we even have a custom discord bot that automatically notifies us when Dark Forces is being played on Twitch! 

As Lucius' The Force Engine becomes more fully-featured we will have tutorial streams to help you create your own maps. And we will host playthroughs of our favorite maps such as Assassination on Nar Shaddaa, Dark Tide IV and Mines.

You may notice that we now have a dedicated "Join Our Discord" button and Daily User Statistics!  

Come join us today! 

Lucius is back with a brand new update and a new experimental build of The Force Engine that allows for in-game voxels! In addition to static decor such as tables and chains, there are now fully rendered health and ammo powerups and even interrogation droid enemies remade in shiny voxel graphics by the talented Paweł Dzierżanowski. Go visit his page for more fantastic art.

Those of you who are eager to finally see what a Build-engine voxel would look like in a Dark Forces setting, please head to The Force Engine - Experimental Builds page for information.

You can download the Experimental build Here

And now for for some preview images to satisfy your curiosity!

Today we have great news on modernizing Dark Forces controls. -=CHE@TER=- has released a new version of DeHacker that automates most of the configuration setup. The new program will have you up and running in two button presses.
Version 1.4 Improvements

• Dual 16 and 32 bit Executable. You can now run the program directly in 32-bit Windows.
  
• Automatic Setup of Modern Controls
  
• Auto detection of Steam and GOG Galaxy stores
  
• Support for Standalone Dark Forces install
  

Remember Dark XL, that beautiful hope that burned bright and short in the Mid 2000's? Well LuciusXL has returned after a decade with a new project, The Force Engine. Based off the work for DarkXL, but completely rewritten, The Force Engine is a new attempt to reverse engineer Dark Force's Jedi engine. There's even a playable pre-release version! Keep in mind this is pre-alpha, so don't expect it to replace DosBox quite yet.
The Force Engine
Forum
Discord
Download

Also, -=CHE@TER=- has released a new version of his awesome Dark Force DeHacker utility. It's now up to verion 1.3 (I missed uploading 1.2, but its not my fault -=CHE@TER=- is a beast with 3 updates in 2 months!) The updates from version 1.2 are available in version 1.3.

Version 1.2 Improvements
-Auto Aim can now be disabled! Makes mouselook even more modern.
Version 1.3 Improvements
- You can now have enable a cross-hair. Welcome to the late 90's!
- You can even make custom cross-hairs! Pew Pew!
- Mouse Sensitivity can be adjusted on each axis.
- New No CD option. The old one would mess with custom briefings for addon levels.
Download
Website

Version 1.1 of Dark Forces DeHacker Released! This amazing utility by -=CHE@TER=- that enables Mouselook now does EVEN MORE!

New Features (Slightly Anglicized as English isn't -=CHE@TER=-'s first language)
- "IMUSE music MIDI drivers fix" which will patch infinite loop bug in General MIDI and Roland music drivers. (You don't need to disable music to prevent game from hanging)
- "Configuration setup" menu where you can configure game controls and assign (bind) the previously unavailable option [Center View] to all three supported devices (keyboard, mouse and joystick)
- Unassign unused keyboard keys and set it to <None> (press Escape to set)
- Separate options to disable joystick, mouse, and even keyboard (only for assigned keys)
- Added documentation in "DARKINFO.TXT" file with complete list of all reserved keyboard keys, commandline options, and cheat codes.
- Create default configuration by deleting JEDI.CFG before run DeHacker and enter "Configuration setup" menu (dialog will appear to confirm default configuration file creation)
- New installation Batch File to easily make fresh installs from CD.

Improved Features
- "Weapon AutoMount" will now always work in game (original SETUP.EXE can break this option and render it completely unusable)
- You can now assign buttons 3 and 4 when "Standard 4 Button" joystick type selected (this was a SETUP.EXE bug)
- Selected mouse sensitivity will be better preserved. (The Original setup.exe behaves improperly).
- "System Speed" renamed to "Screen Size" to make to more accurately represent options. No longer limited to four options.

Thanks to -=CHE@TER=- and his amazing work. He even let me beta test this one!
Source Website (Russian)

Limited Run Games has announced that Dark Forces and Jedi Knight: Dark Force II are both getting Collector's edition releases on March 20th, 2020.

Just look at the box on this thing!

Dark Forces Collector's Edition

FEATURES

-Star Wars: Dark Forces Classic Edition blister pack

-Rigid box with foil stamping.

-Individually numbered certificate of authenticity.

-Booklet of retrospective essays.

-SteelBook case.

-3 art cards.

-LucasFilm USB drive.

-Reversible 18" x 24" poster.

-Commemorative coin.

-Moldy Crow enamel pin

Dark Forces Jedi Knight II is getting a pretty similar treatment. Mysteries of the Sith is included.

Jedi Knight Collector's Edition

For those unfamiliar with Limited Run Games, they will sell online in 2 batches at 10AM EST and 6PM EST. If there is leftover stock, it may be put on sale again BUT THERE IS NO GUARANTEE. Only 2,000 Copies will be available world wide at $64.99.

Both games are also available in Blister Packs, similar to how Star Wars action figures were in the 90's. These are limited to 3,000 copies at $29.99

@SecbaseUnLTD bringing us his beautiful "HD" Moldy Crow Model. Uploads aren't quite working at the moment, so here's some external links. The zip contains a small level that shows the different sizes of the model and also includes instructions on how to load the model into the game.

Pics (Twitter)
Download (Now Hosted on DF-21!)

Also, JonT forwarded me a shifty Russian link to a Dark Forces DeHAcker. It implements mouselook into the DOS version of the game! It offers some other features that modify how the game works, and even includes the source code. The website linked also features modifications for an eclectic selection of vintage DOS shooters.
Shifty Russian Website
Direct Link (Now Hosted on DF-21!)
I'll see ya on the dark side!

Night Dive Remaster
Nightdive Studio, known for their efforts to remaster classic FPS games has expressed interest in remastering the our beloved Dark Forces. CEO Stephen Kick has tweeted at Disney, hoping to catch attention of Disney. He requests that fans reply to his tweet to show Disney the love for our classic game.
Nightdive Tweet

The Secret Base remake by Jason Lewis has been updated recently with more amazing screenshots. You can practically taste the durasteel. Feast your eyes!

Here be the screenshots.

Some more fun Dark Force / Unreal news! Jason Lewis from Obsidian Entertainment is recreating the first level of Dark Forces, The Secret Base, in Unreal Engine 4. The level is still WIP, and it is unknown if it will be released to the public. It currently has a very Jedi Outcast vibe, and it''s be great to see where he takes it.

Secret Base Unreal

Patrick Haslow (Of Dark Tide Infamy) has been working on implementing Dark Forces for Unreal Engine.

Proof of Concept Video
Forum Thread
Check it Out!

Star Wars Explains is doing a series on the lore of Star Wars: Dark Forces. Check it out!
Playlist

DF-21 has truly entered the 21st century, as we now have a Twitter account.
If that is your kind of thing, follow us @DF21net.

Happy 2017! DF-21 has a forum once again! Hit the button labeled "Forum" of the left hand side to visit it. Come join introduce / reintroduce yourself to the DF-21 community. Introduce Yourself *Bonus Content* Glixel wrote an article on Dark Forces to coincide with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. How a 'Star Wars' Video Game Told the 'Rogue One' Story 20 Years Ago

Hello All! Its jon-t, your negligent webmaster.

I recently discovered a tiny bug in the website that made it impossible for users to create an account. I have fixed it.

If you have tried to make an account, but were not able to log in, please try to make your account again.

To all of those loyal members of the community who have tried to make an account recently but have not been able to, I sincerely apologize for my negligence.

My apologies to everyone for the long time that DF-21.net was down. I was making significant upgrades to the server (from a core2duo to a 6 core AMDfx cpu clocked to almost 4GHZ!!) and, as usual, it took significantly longer than expected. Sorry about that. But it’s done now. Time for me to write my philosophy paper…

DF-21 is now back up. Rejoice. A fun little bit of content for y'all. John Romero (of Doom Fame) recently did a walk-through of his recreated level of E1M8. Lots of great stuff for 2.5d level designers. A shout out to Dark Forces was made with a staircase inspired by Jabba's Ship from Dark Forces. John Romero incorrectly describes this staircase as being an illusion created using teleporters. This is misinformation that goes back to the Usenet days, when many people assumed that Dark Forces was incapable of sector over sector geometry. https://vimeo.com/theromero/review/156288044/2ad02ce556

There is a dearth of quality Dark Forces custom level video content. Here is an attempt to remedy that. Check out Max Duckwell's youtube channel. He posts play-throughs of older FPS game, and has put up quite a few custom Dark Forces missions. From Free Kelly to Discovery at Ironfort, sit back, relax, and enjoy some Dark Forces. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4V3Cs5q0vBvXlcPsLsNJMCMnZt7KxnoQ

DF-21 is now the proud host of Dark Forces history! Cybercraft CDark, has been uploaded for consumption by the general public. Created by Mattias Welander, famous for working on the Dark3D engine, this is an editor he created that features a full 3D preview system. This is an alpha version of the software, so make backups before you unleash it on any of your projects. Please take this moment and sing the Swedish national anthem, "Du gamla, Du fria".

I've created a Subreddit that can be used for discussion topics until the forums are up and running. https://www.reddit.com/r/df21/

Been a while since the last update! Got some more levels uploaded as an apology: Ruins of Talos Series - A 4 part story driven series with ALOT of custom components. NOTE: The two Reunion levels are completely different and unique. Energy Mine on Parux - Beautifully constructed level set on the precipice of a canyon. It evokes a feeling similar to the "Surface Tension" section from Half Life. Dark Prelude - Nice little prequel duo-logy to Dark Forces chronicling how Kyle Katarn saved Jan Ors. First Level is more fun than the second. (If you like this kind of stuff, you should check out the "Birth of a Mercenary" levels for Mysteries of the Sith) The Rock Episode I - Gandolo IV - This level has great atmosphere. Taking inspiration from the Michael Bay movie of the same name (with less Sean Connery), this a well polished level with great feeling of uneasiness as you work your way through the facility. Most of the good stuff has been uploaded already, but there's a few more gems down the line.

More Goodness for the unwashed masses: Jedi Crystal - The Discovery - One of the newer levels created. A nicely made romp some older players may have never played. Jungles of Caldoun - A nice jungle themed level that centers around deciphering the purpose of a mysterious Imperial Base. Assassinate Darth Vader - Saddened by the fact that Dark forces didn't feature the promised Star Destroyer that Lucasarts showed off a map of? Here's what you've been waiting for! Mines - Every seen the movie "The Room"? It's kind of like that. Only 60 more levels to go folks...

More missions have been uploaded. Here's some fun ones to check out and/or revisit. The Hoerby Trilogy - A good solid collection of levels leading up too... Prelude to Harkov's Defection - A Huge and technically brilliant level to explore. Make sure to download the required cutscene! Lahara Hotel - May sound like a boring level, but this was runner of for the Hall of Fame. Discovery at Ironfort - Another amazing level for Kevin Buscemi! May our former webmaster be venerated on high! A special thanks goes out to Graviton, who uploaded some Utilities and Editors. I really need to get a copy of WDFUSE in there (Does Wedit even run on modern windows? I could never get it to work back when it was current!)

Now that the Holidays are behind us, I've found some time to upload some more levels. The highly venerated Dark Tide series has now been uploaded in it's entirety. If you haven't played them yet, repent of your sins and participate in the sacred quadrilogy! Hey Patrick, I know you've been busy working on Bioshock and stuff, but Dark Tide WAS supposed to have a 5th level...

I couldn't resist making a front-page post with my administrative powers. I'm Taton, and I've been a minor member of the Dark Forces community since the late 90s. I wanted to share with the community the process involved with updating the Downloads sections. Dark Forces has a fascinating, almost continuous history of hosted custom content for over 20 years. Files were downloaded from Star Wars FTPs, Tola Dalton's Site, and eventually DF-21.net. With the source files for DF-21 being lost and apparently unrecoverable, a significant number of files were no longer available. If it wasn't for members of the community, these files may have been lost. There are still some files that may never be recovered. With all this in mind, I have begun archiving and documenting the Dark Forces custom level library. I have been testing and organizing the zip files of levels to ensure that DF-21.net is free of corrupted or outdated files. Level descriptions are being formatted, files are being hunted down in dusty forsaken corners of the internet, and a spreadsheet is being filled to create a master database of Dark Forces content. I am working through the levels alphabetically by zip-file name, and uploading them as they are documented. (I am filled with shame that "Boba Fett's Gone Mental" has been uploaded before any of the Dark tide Series) The level downloads section will steadily be updated overtime, and there's many exciting updates to be made as we enter a new year.

The uploads page is now working! So, if you've got files for the downloads section that I haven't put up yet (which is most of them), PLEASE, upload them!

After extended downtime, DF-21.net is finally back online, though it bears the scars of the chaos surrounding the downtime. So what happened? Initially it seemed to be a simple matter of the domain registration lapsing, as has happened before when the renewal notice was overlooked. However, the site remained offline even after renewing the registration. As it turns out, the provider formerly hosting DF-21.net not only managed to lose the website data, but they lost Lucius' account information, substantially complicating any efforts to resolve the issue with the hosting provider. Ultimately, they were unresponsive and it became necessary to seek out another web host provider. Since I already pay for web hosting that I don't really use, I offered to host DF-21.net. Ideally, I'd have uploaded a backup copy of the website, but unfortunately there was no comprehensive backup of DF-21.net available. The site you're viewing right now is a reconstruction built from data salvaged from JKDF2.com and Wayback Machine. Most of the download links were recoverable, but several were not. The forum was also lost, though the Dark Forces subsection of XL Engine.com continues to be available for Dark Forces discussion. As time permits, I'll do what I can to locate alternate sources for any missing data, though I suspect I'll need help sourcing some of the more elusive files. I also plan to fix or remove the multitude of broken links that have accumulated over the years. And of course, a full backup of the site would be prudent. EDIT: For anyone with questions or comments about DF-21.net, the Contact page has been updated with my contact info. Klasodeth

Welcome to the new DF-21.net! Please guys, Make an account and tell me what i need to work most on in the Chat Room

Ok, i know, i know, WHERE IS THE FORUMS BUTTON? Answer: Its not done yet, so in the meanwhile, just use chat.