Retrospective: Dark Forces

By John Walker Published 15 March, 2009

"You're not authorised in this area!"

I went back to Dark Forces with two things in mind. First, to see if it could still give me vertigo. And second, to find the map of Max's head. This was intended purely as a nostalgia trip, a brief look at an antiquated shooter that I'd once loved. What I'd forgotten was that it's really, really good.

Kyle Katarn, defected from the Empire, works as a mercenary for the Rebel Alliance. Intertwining with the events of the original Star Wars trilogy, the first mission has you stealing plans to the Death Star, in order than someone or other can find its weakness and destroy it. But along the way Katarn stumbles into information about a new Imperial project, the Dark Trooper. Dark Forces has Katarn follow the clues to the location of the various Empire facilities used to create the Dark Troopers, and ultimately to destroy their production.

For many people, when they reflect on the history of the first-person shooter, they go straight to Doom. Sure, Wolf 3D, but Doom is the one that holds a place of love in people's hearts. It was the game that really set the way ahead. For me, it was Dark Forces. Three years later than Doom, and not looking especially more sophisticated, Dark Forces was built in LucasArt's Jedi Engine. Although immediately similar to id's Doom engine, the most significant advance made within was the ability to build levels with a Y-axis: they gave gaming height. And hence, it was the first game to have me creep up to a ledge and say, "Woah!" sitting back hard in my chair.

Getting it running today isn't simple. Dark Forces was built for DOS, Apple Mac and PlayStation, all of which have become rather obsolete. (Zing! at the Mac users.) XP and Vista support a somewhat limited DOS emulation, and since I couldn't find a PSX copy, wedging it into Windows was the only choice.

'Retrospective: Dark Forces' Screenshot 1

The cut-scenes are so clearly a part of Full Throttle-era LucasArts.

There's a couple of routes to success with this, and I strongly recommend visiting the excellent Dark Forces fan site (still being updated!), DF-21. I ended up with a compromise. Running straight under XP I had no sound until I set it up with VDMSound, following DF-21's instructions, which then played everything at double speed. Running it via DOSBox worked perfectly, until I Alt-Entered to full screen, where it ran into all sorts of slowdown. In the end, putting up with sped-up speech seemed the better choice, but individual results seem to vary widely. DF-21's forums seem to have addressed most concerns.

It's amazing how clearly this was a 1990s LucasArts game. The cut-scenes were a country light year ahead of the time, beautifully mixing hand-painted and digitised animation, professionally voiced, including a more than fine impression of Darth Vader from Scott Lawrence, and being invariably worth sitting through. Despite being a straight shooter - shoot men, collect keys, find goals - the overtones of LucasArts' adventuring prowess appears, giving things a great sense of depth. It's no accident that Katarn's story is still being told in LucasArts games.

Remember that mouse-keyboard wasn't the norm for the FPS in the mid-nineties? Discovering Dark Force's default setup was two hands on the keys was a time-tunnel flashback. I'd completely forgotten how. While the Jedi Engine lets you look up and down, this can't be mapped to the mouse, and even at its most sensitive it's not possible to use it to turn quickly enough. In the end, I created a Frankenstein's control scheme of WASD, strafing with Q and E, and firing and nudging on the mouse. Like some sort of crutch, I had to have the mouse in my hand to be able to comfortably play, even if I was using it like a big two-buttoned blob. (By the way, to reassign controls, run the SETUP.BAT file in the main directory.)

'Retrospective: Dark Forces' Screenshot 2

It really is primitive, there's no denying it. But this was a game with cutting-edge particle effects at the time.

Once the crazed desire to freely look around is overcome (and compared to playing Doom now and realising there's no jump button, this is a small hurdle) it's any other FPS. Except, a really beautifully designed one. Dark Forces has a level design that's woefully absent in modern shooters. Despite the 256 colours, the world-o-blocks, and sneaky use of 2.5D rendering of objects, the crafting is so refined, so intelligently put together, that exploring the levels is still a joy.

Perhaps we fought against the blue key/blue door nature of early shooters too soon. Toward the end of the nineties, the critical response to shooters was to lament being forced to trek back and forth across levels gathering necessary keys for necessary doors. In removing this, we've left ourselves with the corridor, and good grief, it was a pleasure to have a choice of two directions to go in.

Finding out the way was blocked by a needed key, and heading the other way... S*** happens, doors are locked. Of course, a lot of games started to do this very poorly, but Dark Forces was smart. Generally locked doors are found halfway along your journey to the key, the backtracking only occurring after it's recovered, reminding you to return to the earlier point. You never feel manipulated, or that it's desperately padding. The levels are surprisingly large, and thanks to the Jedi Engine, on multiple floors, letting it create elaborate puzzles spanning entire buildings.

Perhaps another thing that's really sorely missed in modern-day shooters is the secret area. Born of the box-like nature of locations, having a tile on a wall hide a door leading to a bonus room stuffed with goodies was simple. It'd be slightly trickier to pull off in some photo-realistic jungle or beach, clearly, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't look back at it with nostalgic sighs. Dark Forces is packed with them, often taking you on elaborate side-journeys. It rewards exploration, deviation from the main path.

So could a thirteen-year-old FPS, in which you're aiming at literally a block of fourteen pixels when enemies are far enough away, still give me vertigo? Bloody hell, yes it could. Within minutes of starting I was reeling at ledges, leaning back in my chair, and letting loose cries of, "Woah!" It's still got it.

This is partly thanks to quite how slippy the controls are. Less than ideal, edging your way down a ledge along the side of a ravine is a tricky business. The crappy textures along the cliff faces only seem to extend the sensation of height, further exaggerated by the peculiar warping effect that occurs when you use the look up/down buttons.

'Retrospective: Dark Forces' Screenshot 3

Even seeing Kartarn's ship is a little nostalgic cuddle.

The vertical structures are still impressive, still far loftier than most games would aim for. Heading to the Research Facility to find Moff Rebus' designs for the Dark Trooper weaponry, you're precariously jumping and creeping your way through gigantic cliff-faces, in more danger of falling to your screaming death than from the Stormtroopers shooting at you. By the time you get to the ice planet Anteevy, on your way to Ice Station Beta and its robotics construction facilities, you're so used to the towering pathways that you get cocky, punished by the slippery frozen surfaces.

It was on Anteevy that my main goal was located. Certainly I'd been distracted by the engrossing Dark Troopers narrative, but fortunately I was able to focus and remember exactly where to look for Max's head.

There's a thing LucasArts does in its games that LucasArts won't ever speak about. Ask anyone, any developer, any producer, and they'll go stony-silent, lips thinned, making it extremely clear it's time to change subject. They hide Sam & Max's rabbit, Max, everywhere. They're not allowed to, because the copyright to Max belongs to creator Steve Purcell. They'll deny it, they'll tell you that they've no idea what you're talking about when you spot one. But Max is there. Max is on Anteevy, and without a moment's doubt I remembered exactly where.

As soon as you arrive on the level, you step off the cliff behind you, and land on a small ledge. Crouch down and you go through a tunnel in the rock, and find a hollowed out cavern, with an extra life token in the middle...

Oh yeah, sidebar: Dark Forces has no saves, and a lives system. Which is extremely strange. If you die it'll restart you moments from your death, but only three or four times, before you have to start the whole level over. A peculiarly PlayStation-like feature, despite being developed primarily for the PC, is possibly not the smartest inclusion in the game. Back to the story.

'Retrospective: Dark Forces' Screenshot 4

There he is! I am truly victorious.

Walk around the cavern, and like everything in the game, it's a rough squarish room. Curves were still years away. However, hit Tab to bring up the overlay map (remember those?! Bring them back!) and there he is. Undeniably the outline of the foul-mouthed rabbit's head. LucasArts will claim it's just a mad coincidence, of course. Mission accomplished.

It's genuinely surprising how playable Dark Forces remains. The nostalgia is great, memories flooding back the first time a Stormtrooper shouts out, "STOP REBEL SCUM!" or "BLAST HIM!" Just hearing the words "Dark Trooper" was a buzz, and it's still a wonder that Lucas hasn't made them a larger part of the Star Wars universe. But memories aside, it turns out it's well worth giving it a go. There's still a community, there's vast piles of user-made levels to check out, and beyond a few glitches with the sound, remarkably it still seems to run.

There are copies kicking around on eBay for around a pound, and if you've still got the original disc, it's a cinch to get it running. I heartily recommend having a go.

Picture of John.

About John Walker

Read more articles from John by visiting the John Walker archive page.

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Comments (69) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • brendor #1 3 years ago

    what the f? this is worse than those facile "articles" by fahey in "gamesindustry.biz"

    BOLLOCKS

  • OnlyMe #2 3 years ago

    Starting to enjoy the FPS genre more and more, I think it's weird that LucasArts have a way of avoiding that genre, when it's obviously the genre that would fit Star Wars the most. Imagine Dark Forces 3 on the Killzone 2 engine!

    Coincidently I just recently got into DOSbox and have so far tried out a few classics that I missed out on, due to being a 100% pure Amiga fan back then (and admittedly, I still am). It's been a fun trip down memory lane to see what the fuzz was about. I'm actually more convinced I walked the right path, though it's still fun to try out a few old DOS games - Dark Forces was one of them. I even got to try Under a Killing Moon for the very first time, as well as the 7th Guest (via ScummVM).

  • Katsumoto #3 3 years ago

    Heh, I still get this out every year or so. Utterly amazing game, I think the sequel may just about be better though. Love them both and would definitely count them in my "top ten" bla bla bla.

    The soundtrack is even sitting on my itunes. And yes, I know it's horrendous midi. I can't get enough! Only flicked through the article I am loathe to admit as I'm knackered and heading to bed, but will get up and relish every single word tomorrow, I promise. Hurrah!
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/09 @ 01:12

  • jp-30 #4 3 years ago

    The first 6 levels of Dark Forces have been remade as a mod for Jedi Academy (which used a modified Quake III: Team Arena engine).

    You can download it here, but obviously you'll need Jedi Academy to play it: [link url=http://darkforces.j ediknight.net
    ]http://darkforces.j ediknight.net
    [/link]

  • WJF #5 3 years ago

    As a sidenote, I believe this is the first FPS to have guns that didn't fire exactly where you wanted them to (the stormtrooper's rifles). That simple feature made the game much more enjoyable for me.

    But Jedi Knight was so much better, especially at creating vertigo, that I can't ever see myself ever re-playing Dark Forces, no matter how much fun I had at the time.

  • cyber_nicco #6 3 years ago

    I played this with a Flightmaster joystick (or is that Thrustmaster?). If I remember correctly the main joystick moved me around, whilst the hat aimed in the different directions. Something like that. I was very into this game when it came out.
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/09 @ 05:26

  • Goffee #7 3 years ago

    ahh, sweet - the first 3D aliens vs predator next please - now that rocked

  • cubbymoore #8 3 years ago

    Yeah this game rocked, much much much better than doom, doom seemed completely mindless and infantile in comparison. Dark Forces II didn't quite grab the same atmosphere but the lightsabers were amazing.

  • superjag86 #9 3 years ago

    I never played Dark Forces, but I remember really really enjoying it's sequel - Jedi Knight. That was probably the best Star Wars game I've ever played.

  • Igl85 #10 3 years ago

    damn, i remember I wasnt able to pass the third (I think) level, so I never finished it :( Hope it gets on GOG.com someday

  • stuarty_2003 #11 3 years ago

    I enjoyed Dark Forces and this article. Well done, John.

  • Syon #12 3 years ago

    I want this on XBLA.

  • dominalien #13 3 years ago

    Weekends with EG - who could want more?

    Never played Dark Forces, but like a few commenters before me, immensely enjoyed Jedi Knight.

    Played Jedi Academy recently - it's still ace (I know it's much newer). Bring back the Lucasarts of old!

  • paketep #14 3 years ago

    Ah, the good SW games before Lucas returned and raped the franchise...

  • Schiraman #15 3 years ago

    What a fantastic game, really memorable and ahead of its time.
    Shame the sequels were all so dire :(

  • StringBeanJean #16 3 years ago

    I really enjoyed this article. Great to see lesser-praised retro games getting a reappraisal. I used to love playing this game on my old 486 - more reviews of forgotton gems please!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #17 3 years ago

    This game was awesome. I really enjoyed it back then. I should play it again, haven't touched it for years.

  • Lexx87 #18 3 years ago

    Where is part 2 of the KOTOR retrospective?

    I've been waiting for that :/

  • siro #19 3 years ago

    I still think that its successor, Jedi Knight, is one of the (if not the best) FPS of all times.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #20 3 years ago

    Cheers for this, John. Ignore the moaners. This gave me quite a nostalgic trip whilst reading it to a more innocent (younger) time of gaming.

    Often written-off as a Doom clone, I always felt this stood alone on its own merits. And the MUSIC!! The beautiful music... "sigh"

  • jimboton #21 3 years ago

    I loved this on the PSX. I liked it even more than its sequel Jedi Knight.

    About the lives system, I remember thinking at the time that it was part of the reason I was enjoing the game so much compared to other shooters on the pc. The excitement and challenge of finishing those huge levels was very rewarding and being able to quick save before each tricky jump would have made it a lot less memorable.

    Great article!

  • Xerx3s #22 3 years ago

    Back when lucas arts still made good games. ;_;
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/09 @ 11:40

  • Ignatius_Cheese #23 3 years ago

    Even a blinkered Lucasarts fanboy such as myself will freely admit that LA gaming died after the swansong that was Grim Fandango. Wouldn't want it to be recreated today as it just wouldn't survive in the current gaming market.

    Still, I'll probably buy the new Indiana Jones game... ;_;

  • barnard666 #24 3 years ago

    awesome - great article

  • D_arkTrooper #25 3 years ago

    This and the X-Wing/TIE Fighter titles were the first games I "got into" when I had my very first PC back in the day.

    It also inspired my username :)

  • LlamaFarmer #26 3 years ago

    Great article. Jedi Knight was one of the first games I properly got into, for the same reasons as John liking DF, the levels were amazing. Sometimes you felt like you were breaking the game somehow by working your way precariously across a ledge or pipe, unsure of where they'd lead. They felt more like places to explore than levels. The force powers just added to this, allowing you to jump ridiculous heights and distances. Great multiplayer too, and I only played the Battleground level repeatedly...

  • botherer #27 3 years ago

    I completely loved Jedi Knight as well, but Dark Forces is one of those watershed games in my brain. I'm very tempted to replay JK now, but when picking one to write about, it had to be DF.

    However, you know which game was better than Jedi Knight? The Mysteries of Sith expansion pack. That was absolutely stunning. If I can convince Tom to give that game a retro spin, I'll jump at it.

    brendor - your comment is my favourite of all the comments ever.

  • LlamaFarmer #28 3 years ago

    MotS was amazing, I was still fairly young when I played that, a group of my friends had a sleepover and we aimed to complete the game in that night. We got to the last level, in the old temple or something and we were absolutely terrified. I took the controls briefly, but being, at that point, rubbish at shooters, I was even more tense and scared. A swamp wompa or whatever they were leapt out at me, and I jumped, gave a little scream and hammered the keyboard in surprise and desperation....it fell down dead in front of me. Somehow I had managed to destruction and power slash it, as well as a few other dark powers. I collapsed from the chair and let someone else take over :)

  • Tomo #29 3 years ago

    Such an awesome game. It used to scare me immensely though, coming up against the bosses :[

    I can't believe how terrible it looks it the screenies. At one point I thought it looked amazing. It's just blocks of pixels! :D

    I think it stood out from Doom mainly because of the narrative, and also because the guns were so different to that. Like someone said, the spray was cool. I also remember the grenades being great fun to use. Good times.

  • JayScott #30 3 years ago

    Such a great game. Thanks for the nostalgia trip. Oh, and brendor - don't fucking read it if it shits you so much.

  • gaselite #31 3 years ago

    Jolly good, Very fond memories of this game and both it's sequels, jk2 mainly for its insanely fun multiplayer. I've been saying for ages that I hope they make another game in the dark forces series using the tech in the force unleashed engine (but with less facile game design, obviously).

  • chrisola #32 3 years ago

    this reminds be of some other 90's FPS games:

    Rise of the Triad
    Quarantine
    Tek War

    Quarantine SHOULD have been re-made by now, how is driving a taxi around a Bladerunner esque city whilst shooting and running people over not a good idea for a game?

  • Ryuken #33 3 years ago

    Just goes to show how deep LucasArts has fallen, too bad even the masses seem to put up with shite like TFU...

  • Xerx3s #34 3 years ago

    "However, you know which game was better than Jedi Knight? The Mysteries of Sith expansion pack. That was absolutely stunning. If I can convince Tom to give that game a retro spin, I'll jump at it. "

    Yeah, JK2 and MotS where awesome as well. Light saber + force power DM ftmuw! \0/

  • thesombrerokid #35 3 years ago

    dark forces was the first pc game i owned and the one that convinced me PC was the way to go, i never looked at my megadrive again after this, incidently the PC version came out 2 years before the Playstation version and a year before the plastation in europe i remember because the playstation had only just came out in japan when i got this.

    EDIT: as awesome as JK & MotS where i think the beauty of this game is that it was a star wars game not about being a jedi, that and that they weren't just rehashing the films which is true for JK & MotS too.
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/09 @ 13:47

  • stuarty_2003 #36 3 years ago

    If only there was a way to run this is Mac OS 10.5....but no classic support.

    Hmm...bootcamp!

  • RedSparrows #37 3 years ago

    I really enjoyed this years ago. The music was great, all midi awesomness.

    I also remember the sewer level, and the red-planet mining level, when the first psychotic dark trooper prototype charges at you in the infinite depths of the mine, scaring the crap out of me. Was great fun.
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/09 @ 14:46

  • bad09 #38 3 years ago

    DF was one of the most enjoyable SW games I ever played. Jedi Knight, while great games) never really topped it for me as the series moved more into Jedi, and while blasters were still a big part there was more of a push to force powers and lightsabres.

    Like Syon, I would LOVE a shiny new version with some online action over XBLA, but lets worry about getting BF3 out the door first Lucasarts!

  • GreyScale #39 3 years ago

    This was the first game I got on my PC all those years ago, it blew me away. Ahh the golden days of shareware, midi soundtracks, secret rooms, annoying DOS installation problems...good times.

    Still remember it now, trying to kill Boba Fett with that uber huge gun that took up half of the screen.

    It was somewhat of a novelty when it came out too, as it predated the star wars revival/cash in that has happened lately.

  • neilka #40 3 years ago

    What's the second page going on about? LucasArts held the rights to the Sam and Max characters at the time this game was made, and Steve Purcell worked for them so he wasn't likely to object in any case.

  • thesombrerokid #41 3 years ago

    yeah the sam & max isn't a rights issue they just liked sneaking him in, he's in jedi knights too in full 3d

  • Mayhem64 #42 3 years ago

    I played and loved Dark Forces to death back then... I think I completed it about 3-4 times over the course of a year, going back to it when I was bored. Oh happy days...

  • Super_Zee #43 3 years ago

    Great weekend reading, I remember playing this on the PS1 aaages ago, should give it another crack.

    As for Star Wars FPS games, I thought Republic Commando was absolutely brilliant.

  • captain-future #44 3 years ago

    I fondly remember this game, which is pretty high praise from me, because I normally don't like FPS.

  • Errol #45 3 years ago

    Great game and a good retro feature.

    I'd like to see more of this type of article.

  • jonbwfc #46 3 years ago

    Stuarty_2003 said

    "If only there was a way to run this is Mac OS 10.5....but no classic support.
    Hmm...bootcamp! "

    You know, you can get DosBox for the Mac as well, assuming you've got an intel Mac. I use it to play UFO:Enemy Unknown all the time. Now THERE'S a game that needs a retrospective.

    Jon

  • Nikanoru #47 3 years ago

    "However, hit Tab to bring up the overlay map (remember those?! Bring them back!)"


    Why? Hah, as if shooters (or most genres for that matter) these days even need maps, period. It's just, forward along the single narrow path.

  • Zaltan #48 3 years ago

    I'm in agreement with GhenghisNaan Outcast was amazing.

  • FortysixterUK #49 3 years ago

    I used to love this game, but its easier to play on PS1.

    Also, having never got along with DOSbox, I still have an old pentium 233 with Win 98 v2 on it with a 3dfx card for graphics.

    Nearly all the old games work on that sucker !

  • makeamazing #50 3 years ago

    Whats with the first two posts in this topic... obviously not old enough to know a gaming classic when it hits them around the head!!! Stupid kids :D

    Classic game... and Tie-Fighter was classic. I also loved Outlaws, another Lucas classic... i would buy that game again, just for its soundtrack CD.

  • Xerx3s #51 3 years ago

    "You know, you can get DosBox for the Mac as well, assuming you've got an intel Mac. I use it to play UFO:Enemy Unknown all the time. Now THERE'S a game that needs a retrospective."

    There is a better solution. Get something like virtual pc and run whatever OS you want with hardware specs of that time. Everything works like it should, guaranteed.

  • StooMonster #52 3 years ago

    DARK FORCES made me sell my Mac and buy my first PC, along with MAGIC CARPET.

    Ohh... Dark Forces, you dragged me over to the Dark Side for a while but I got back into the Rebel Alliance (Mac) in 2001, and now use a separate PC for gaming and serious Excel work. :)

  • Grayvern #53 3 years ago

    More importantly its been ten years since planescape torment wheres the retospective on that.

  • botherer #54 3 years ago

    Grayvern - if you could figure out why Planescape crashes for me each time someone casts a spell, I'd be pitching it.

  • Grayvern #55 3 years ago

    Thats bad, i think i read somewhere about turning hardware acceleration off.

  • Azazel #56 3 years ago

    @botherer:

    That happened for me as well. I got round it by turning on all three of the software options in the Video options menu.

    It runs a bit slow, but it stops it from crashing when you cast spells.

  • elephant_stone #57 3 years ago

    ah the memories

  • Daryoon #58 3 years ago

    I miss the design of 90s FPS. The modern examples are a load of bollocks.

  • Domovoi #59 3 years ago

    Awesome. I even got a kick out of seeing the box art on the front page. Definitely going to give this another go.

  • Eurolamer #60 3 years ago

    Thanks John, nice article.

  • Tyronne #61 3 years ago

    Bugger bugger bugger, this is making me want to go raid the attic and get the discs down...but not only for dark forces but the sequels too.

  • Vermillion3000 #62 3 years ago

    I loved Dark Forces - it felt so authentic, regardless of how many of the levels were invented for the game.
    The guns were excellent too- especially the concussion rifle that would either wipe out an entire platoon of enemies or otherwise blow your own knees off.

    Nice.

    Oh and I played it on my Mac - go on, hate if you want but it seemed to work really well. (and I'm sure it had a normal save everywhere system...)
    Edited by 1 at 16/03/09 @ 15:54

  • anss123 #63 3 years ago

    @Vermillion3000:

    Dark Forces for the Mac was 640x400, over the 320x200 of the Dos/PSX versions, so it's probably the best version.

  • Nova5lag #64 3 years ago

    Dark Forces was great. I have the old PS1 version on my PSP. heh

  • Triggerhappytel #65 3 years ago

    I loved this game back in the day, although I never played Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2. The thing I loved about it was that it came at a time when FPS were dumb and mindless (i.e. Doom) but this actually had a decent narrative, good level design and bundles of atmosphere (helped by an excellent soundtrack).

    The thing I loved most about it was the level design, and how they were vast, filled with secrets and you could travel back and forth as you liked. I particularly remember the level where Jan Oors drops you about half a kilometre outside the facility, and you fight your first skeletal Dark Trooper at the end. Good times, good times. I still count this as one of my favourite FPS, even though it's probably pretty horrible these days.

  • Grayvern #66 3 years ago

    I miss health packs, and shield packs.

  • darc #67 3 years ago

    Fun article. How about a retrospective on System Shock 2? Who wouldn't want an excuse to get paid to play System Shock 2?

  • Nils-Marius #68 3 years ago

    Great article me thinks :)

  • m0thr4 #69 3 years ago

    @StooMonster
    and now use a separate PC for gaming and serious Excel work. :)

    Uh... Excel work? You mean Microsoft Excel? You mean the spreadsheet program that has been available for the Mac 2 years longer than it's been available for Windows (i.e. since 1985)?
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/09 @ 22:50