Battle Zone / Battle Zone Enhanced

[66470242880c8Kolya]

This is a remake, not of the 1980 Atari coin-up (like BZFlag is), but of the 1998 Activision game Battle Zone and it's expansion The Red Odyssey.

Battle Zone has a single player campaign as well as a great multiplayer mode. There are not a lot of players yet but the people I met in the chat lobby were very helpful.
You steer hover tanks, rocket tanks, walkers and birds of prey in death-match, strategy and snipe maps. You can get out of your vehicle any time or get ejected from it when it's destroyed. On foot you have a rifle with snipe mode and can enter the next vehicle by walking into it.

Download
Battle Zone Enhanced is a stand alone Expansion in Development (based on BattleZone and Red Odyssey):
Get it here: http://www.battlezoneclub.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=78

Ken Miller's BattleZone: The original programmer of Battle Zone is working on his total overhaul mod/patch.
Get the latest version here: http://www.battlezone1.com/downloads/

[66470242881e9lostone1993]

I have battle zone, might give it ago see if it is a match

[6647024288356Kolya]

It actually seems that Battle Zone Enhanced has been discontinued. This would be a good place to ask what happened to it exactly.

You can still download the original installer for free from Activision which includes Single Player. According to some sources the Multiplayer part is a frequent subject to hackers though, which had been prevented in BZE.

Also there's a new version 1.5 beta, apparently written by the original programmer of Battle Zone.

[6647024288438lostone1993]

cool, thanks

[6647024288567Kolya]

I just started playing the single player campaign myself, quite a bucket of fun. The RTS part never became apparent in multiplayer and now I'm ordering around a little army incl. movable turrets, resource gatherers, factories, power plants and all that jive. And just cruising around is still as much fun as ever.

[664702428866alostone1993]

The last missions of the campaigns are my Favorites 
I could never get multiplayer to work I might have another fiddle, see if I can get it working
I think I still have the level editor somewhere as well 

[6647024288af8Kolya]

A new version of BattleZone Enhanced has been released. Note that this is a modded game. For the original game with new bug fixes by the original programmer Ken Miller see here.


Battle Zone Enhanced 1.3

Battlezoneclub links:
Main installer: (88MB) BattleZone Enhanced 1.3
Map Pack installer (18MB) Expansion Map Pack

Sector Zero links:
Main installer: (88MB) BattleZone Enhanced 1.3
Map Pack installer (18MB) Expansion Map Pack

BHBZ links:
Main installer (88MB) BattleZone Enhanced 1.3
Map Pack Installer (18MB) Expansion Map Pack


This version adds the new shell and a new Chinese single player mission.
Any other single player mission is a place holder and unfinished.

Bz Enhanced 1.3 is more stable, has more bug fixes, 56k and 10KBs broadband play ( the higher bandwidth broadband was removed due to being easier for a player to manipulate his connection to cause laggy gameplay ), an observer craft is available for the stock maps, Blackdog skins have been added, anet has been updated. Balance issues have been worked on and strat had some major fixes.

Bz Enhanced 1.3 is based on BattleZone while attemping to seperate the old stuff from the new. Bz Enhanced 1.3 adds such things as Chinese and ISDF races, new planets, maps, expanded editor, bug fixes and new features such as more host controls and higher bandwidth for reduced lag online. New security features such as Anti-Poser in game, full asset checking, asset encryption and passwords are no longer in readable form.

Requirements:
Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7
64MB of ram
Video card with 32MB of memory
Network Play: IPX /TCP Lan or 56k or 10KBs Broadband (Use TCP for Vista and Win 7)

Modding:
New Instant Action missions may be created along with Multiplayer maps.
New vehicles and structures may be added without causing a version mismatch.
The Editor Menu has been expanded to include most objects in the game.
Testdm maps have the full races on them for ease of testing. (See "Test maps.txt" in the /Edit/tools/ folder)
3D Studio Max plugins for max 3.x through 10.x and other tools... (See /Edit/3D Party Tools/ folder)

[6647024288c5aTesla-Trooper]

hi guys , well this  game is still been played by the many    i give you a full working download client of battlezone  with multiplayer server add-on and operational 


http://www.battlezone1.com/downloads/

look for the battlezone installer

well if any of you get this , look for me in the lobby , ask for tesla

bye   hf !

[6647024288e0aKolya]

Thanks Tesla, I've updated the links for bzEnhanced and Ken Miller's BZ in the first post.
One thing that never seemed quite clear to me: What is the relation between the two websites www.battlezone1.com and www.battlezoneclub.org? And what are the differences and goals of bzEnhanced vs. Ken Miller's BZ?

Finally, as someone who's running a forum myself AND as a user, I think it would help both forums if you made them readable for guests. Just saying. Have a good time!

[6647024288ee8Ace Cool #1]

Hey, how can I eject in Single Player?

Thanks.

[6647024288fddKolya]

I think it was J? There is an options screen where you can set some of the shortcuts.

[66470242890aaZeebok]

!! Why have I not known about this?! I loved the Battlezone series!

[6647024289459Olfred]

u need 2 lurk moar
(sorry, couldn't resist )

[6647024289611Kolya]

Personally I had never heard about this game before I started this thread. And often I don't take so easily to old classics that I didn't play at their time. But this was very different.

+ Great varied gameplay
+ Good UI design
- story (us vs. the russians) hasn't aged so well
-/+ some of the later mission objectives are very tough to achieve
+++ WHEEEEEEE!!! IMA FLYING!

[66470242896feUNN starts with ME?]

Good game is good. I even have the original disk!

[664702428980aZeebok]

Yeah the game held up well in my opinion, will have to bust out my copy and finally beat it. The storyline I thought was decent enough; made the cold war a little more interesting at least. This thread did remind me I never found a hard copy of the Red Odyssey expansion; found it today new/sealed in box!

[6647024289927lostone1993]

Do the new version work well on newer systems ? I ask because last time, I had hell trying to get it to work on my Vista laptop

BZ so many fond memory's, multiplayer was a treat though. ( I remember the last mission of the soviet Campaign being my favorite )

[6647024289a1fKolya]

I would definitely go for Ken Miller's updated version, regardless whether you have the original. I mean, he's the original programmer. And yes, should work on all modern systems.

[664702428a030Drone-Dragon]

To all you guys good comments about this series, it is awesome and it is a shame no game quite like it has been made. It would be fun to see more FPS-Strategy hybrids made.

I would definitely go for Ken Miller's updated version, regardless whether you have the original. I mean, he's the original programmer. And yes, should work on all modern systems.

Actually even with the enhanced version, it won't run properly for everyone. I got it not but a few months ago I believe it was since my discs for the whole series either won't work or have lotsa graphics trouble on my computer because it is too advanced in specs for them now, and even trying the various little fixes that go along with it to help these kinds of problems as well as what I found on other forums and what-not, I couldn't get them to run properly(the fixed versions I mean).

Also, for me and probably others, both Battlezone+The Red Odyssey and Battlezone 2: Combat Commander have color distortion out the whazoo even when they run. I've tried things to fix those to no avail. I really wanted to keep this series, but I've pretty much given up.

Personally I had never heard about this game before I started this thread. And often I don't take so easily to old classics that I didn't play at their time. But this was very different.

+ Great varied gameplay
+ Good UI design
- story (us vs. the russians) hasn't aged so well
-/+ some of the later mission objectives are very tough to achieve
+++ WHEEEEEEE!!! IMA FLYING!

Story agewise it is probably about the same feel when you look at the US vs China thing in the Fallout series. I doubt we will ever even have a cold war with China though, because we are pretty much their economy now...much to our own detriment.

I can't tell yah Kolya, how much fun I had every so often just saving then hovering my way to a tall mountain and emergency ejecting to destroy the vehicle and propel me WAY, WAY...WAAAAAAAAY........

[664702428a1f4Drone-Dragon]

[SPOILER ALERT BEGINS]To any of you who played this series, there was some conflict in the lore with BZ2: Combat Commander. It made it like the Furies(yes this is spelled right, it isn't meant to be "furries") from the original game were actually Black Dog soldiers who had been experimented on by the US, that later became the Scions. This is of course HAMFISTED FAIL! I just sort of pretend the Scions were made using the same biometal tech. An interesting side note, you kind of have to think of the Furies as a bunch of rage-addled Shodans.

If I don't get amnesia and forget this post what path did you guys go along with when the story branched halfway through in BZ2, ISDF or Scion?
I went with Scion because they were in the right in my opinion, from what I got out of that ending compared to the ISDF ending. Plus I did it first because I didn't want to kill Shabayev(spelling?).[SPOILER ALERT ENDS]

[664702428a37a..FACADE]

Just want to drop in, bump, and point out that none of the downloads linked above are actually provided by Activision and all are technically illegal (no such thing as abandonware in the eyes of the law, etc.). BZE is also on dodgy legal ground because it's a fork of the original game for which the developer does not have permission (and illegally obtained the source code).

The 1.5 and 1.3 patches (for BZ1 and BZ2 respectively) are highly recommended. They're on slightly-less dodgy ground than BZE, but still dubious; fortunately, Activision don't care so everybody goes with them anyway. You'll be hard pressed to get the game working or find a decent match in the older versions.

BZ2's storyline does not contradict with BZ1; the NSDF Furies (Scions) are distinct from the CCA Furies. Braddock goes heavy on the use of "Fury" to instil hatred and fear of memory of the CCA Furies in the battle against the Scions. (Also, there's a section of the story with actual Moon Nazis.)

[664702428a556Tricky]

I have many fond memories of BZ1. The beginning, basically a backdrop to the first moon landing. Then the setting moves to Mars, Venus and IO in a bizarre space race for vital resources. And just when you think you're starting to win the war, shit REALLY starts to hit the fan. I never saw that coming either!

I got BZ1 and Conflict Freespace for free when I got my first PC, an IBM Pentium 3. Whoever decided on those two titles when they made that package deal must have been some sort of visionary, because both of them have turned out to be classic PC games with long lasting patching/modding communities, just like SS2.

BZ2 wasn't the first game I bought, but it was the first game I ever ordered online. Because I wanted to save on shipping I still picked it up from a local store (that otherwise didn't have it on storage), but I remember taking the bus back home and feeling soo proud of myself for making such clever use of the Internet.

[664702428a69dKolya]

I've been playing BZ with my brother a lot lately. Getting a connection is quite unreliable unfortunately, regardless whether we use a local TCP/IP connection or connect via the server. I haven't found the cause yet, but it seems to be the game itself. We turned off antivirus and firewalls and still had the same problems.

That being said, it's all worth it, because a strategy game in BZ is hugely engaging and fun. We also tried BZ2 once but neither of us was convinced by the candy colours and with the unofficial patch BZ2 turned out to be very resource hungry for some reason. So we went back to BZ.

[664702428a78f..FACADE]

I'm only slightly engaged in BZ1, but you should see the output of the BZ2 modding community. Fantastic stuff, and there are projects in the pipes that dwarf both of the originals in their scope.