
Microsoft brings 18-year-old game 'Hover' to browser - hypr_geek
http://hover.ie/
======
JonnieCache
Let's complete the effect shall we?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4)

Dial it down to 240p for the true '95 experience.

~~~
daeken
This was the first video I ever watched on a computer. I will never forget
staring at this, realizing that I was seeing the future.

~~~
mappum
Wow, this video and the game are bringing back memories. This is the first
experience with a computer I can remember. I didn't really realize what I was
doing at the time, I would have been 2 or 3. Thankfully my dad cared enough
about computers to have one for the family, that early experience probably
contributed to my passion for software today.

~~~
ag80
>This is the first experience with a computer I can remember. I didn't really
realize what I was doing at the time, I would have been 2 or 3.

Whereupon I am confronted head on by the relentless progression of aging and
mortality.

~~~
Jtsummers
I'll admit, I started programming young, about 8 years old (probably not too
atypical in this forum though). The other day I realized, the new hires here
were born after I started programming. I now better understand how a couple
friends in college, non-traditional students who came back after stints in the
military and other career attempts, felt.

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Mikeb85
This is the best thing MS has done in years. I was just trying to remember
what this game was called, and now it's on the web, and plays great.

Now they just need to release web versions of Age of Empires, Age of Empires
2, and maybe do a new version of Combat Flight Simulator...

~~~
spectre256
There is the recently released AoE2 HD on Steam:
[http://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/)

~~~
Mikeb85
Unfortunately it's Windows only... Maybe if I have some time I'll fire it up
on Wine. Thanks for pointing that out BTW.

~~~
plaguuuuuu
Also I've heard that the game will cease to function when Games For Windows
Live is discontinued in July 2014

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shmerl
Competition does wonders. MS didn't manage to sabotage WebGL and had to
implement it in their browser. I wish they'd start enabling OpenGL across all
their platforms as well.

~~~
dubcanada
What has MS sabotaged in the web that would lead you to this?

If anything, MS made the current javascript ajaxy freak show.

~~~
shmerl
In the past MS used their usual sick lock-in tactics in IE. Intense
competition forced them to reduce this idiocy. Unfortunately in other areas
they still don't care. So I doubt you'll see OpenGL on Xbox or Windows tablets
/ handsets, until something will force them to enable it.

~~~
Jtsummers
You _can 't_ use OpenGL on Xbox or tablets, or is it just more difficult?

EDIT: A few google searches later, indeed it's not accessible in XBox or
Windows Phone 8. For some reason I didn't expect that.

~~~
shmerl
You can't. That's MS way of lock-in and ensuring that porting of games and
other applications is much harder.

Why didn't you expect that? I'd say that WebGL in IE is something unexpected,
not the other way around. MS has a long history of being jerks and using lock-
in with proprietary standards.

As they expressed it in the past:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft#Vendor_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft#Vendor_lock-
in)

~~~
com2kid
> You can't. That's MS way of lock-in and ensuring that porting of games and
> other applications is much harder.

It is a way of them not having to write, support, and optimize two entire sets
of drivers that accomplish the same thing.

I was actually working in Windows Phone when there were talks about supporting
OpenGL (I wasn't involved in any, I just watched from the sidelines). The
decision ultimately came down to already having people who could write really
fast and stable DirectX drivers. The expertise was there, so it was used.

~~~
shmerl
Sure, they'll find technical excuses. But as soon as it will start biting them
back, they'll quickly find needed expertise.

But probably Windows Phone is not the best example, since it's a minor
platform comparing to others. MS has no leverage on the industry with it. Xbox
is different. It's quite big. And enabling OpenGL there would only make sense
for gaming.

------
dave84
This runs much smoother than I ever got it to run on my 166mhz Pentium!

~~~
davej
It ran ok on my Pentium 60MHz with 8MB ram. :-)

------
yottabyte47
Official press release with amusing promo video:
[http://blogs.windows.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2013/10/02/hover-
br...](http://blogs.windows.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2013/10/02/hover-bringing-a-
classic-pc-game-to-the-web-with-internet-explorer-and-modern-web-
standards.aspx)

------
jefffoster
You can type 'Bambi' on the front page for an even more retro version.

~~~
garg
Much better! Thanks

------
kylec
I think they might need to work on their collision detection. When going up
the staircase I suddenly found myself _beneath_ the staircase, unable to
escape.

[http://i.imgur.com/EUYwin7.png](http://i.imgur.com/EUYwin7.png)

~~~
hansjorg
That sounds eerily like some of my other experiences with their software.

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deweller
> You'll need a browser that supports WebGL to play Hover.

I'm pretty sure Chrome supports WebGL.

~~~
dave84
Works fine on Chrome 29.0.1547.76 on Mac.

~~~
lsdafjklsd
Working fine for me on Chrome 29.0.1547.76 on 2013 13in MacAir

------
yottabyte47
You can still download the original version from Microsoft's public FTP
server:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/deskapps/games/public/AAS/Hover.EXE

Plays just fine on modern machines running Windows.

~~~
Mindless2112
Or just pop in your Windows 95 CD. I don't know why they didn't just install
it along with Windows 95 -- it was pretty reasonably sized if I recall
correctly.

~~~
davej
Perhaps it was small by todays standards but I remember my first Windows 95 PC
had a 290MB Hard Drive. A fresh Windows 95 install took up maybe 30MB or 40MB
if I remember correctly so even if Hover was only 1MB it was still a
relatively significant amount.

As an aside... I also remember Windows 95 was available on floppy, I think
maybe there was 10 floppy disks in total (?). I seem to recall that they used
special floppy disks that held more than the usual 1.44MB.

------
grahamburger
I broke it [http://imgur.com/YrdFbLU](http://imgur.com/YrdFbLU)

~~~
deletes
I assume you stacked bounce and went over the wall?

~~~
grahamburger
nope, walked right through the wall. Or fell, rather. I don't even know what
'stacked bounce' is.

------
kingnight
This brings me back, but I was really hoping it would be another game I played
in the 90s that was very similar except it was a flight sim where you could
get off the ground. I've done google searches over the year to find it but
have never been able to.

I am pretty sure the game was called 'Chaos'. The aesthetic was very angular;
I believe the main craft you steered was a yellow triangular shape. I loved
it. Anyone know it?

~~~
scott_karana
Descent? Terminal Velocity/Fury3/Hellbender?

~~~
kingnight
Unfortunately not, but those graphics certainly match the era.

This game's camera was behind the craft, so no POV shots from cockpit. The
graphics were truly more mundane than any of these though. It must have been
an independent release/demo I came across that never developed into anything
significant since there is nothing. It's too bad, my best friend and I played
for hours even though there was really no point to the game from what we could
tell.

~~~
toufka
There was Spectre VR, and Chaos VR. Chaos was an unfinished demo with no
goals. There were enemies and places that spawned infinitely. You were a
flying ship and could shoot and barrel roll etc. I think there were some kinds
of powerups. Infinite lives, but again, no score or goal. Still fantastic fun
to play.

[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131708/runtime_mipmap_...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131708/runtime_mipmap_filtering.php?page=3)

As I recall you could actually press a button to go between cockpit/external
views. There were a few versions too - I think the VR was a much later
addition.

[http://www.applefritter.com/node/14284](http://www.applefritter.com/node/14284)

~~~
kingnight
Yes! Thank you very much for this information and the links.

I am very glad I spent hours configuring a working virtual machine for classic
Mac OS last year and that I did not get rid of it!

The unfinished demo and open ended nature of it was totally part of the appeal
for me. Infinite map/enemies and no goal was just kind of a relaxing way to
play ( for hours and hours ).

Seriously, thank you again!

------
thelucky41
Within 10 seconds of loading it up, I had already glitched into a wall and
trapped myself in a box. Yep, that's nostalgia.

------
shurcooL
Does anyone else know of a small game called Hover by Eric Undersander? I
spent so many hours playing it. Too bad it's closed source and not maintained;
it'd be awesome on smartphones.

------
Sniffnoy
Did the original Hover used acceleration-based controls? I don't remember
that; I recall it being much easier to control...

~~~
erroca
Thats basically what made Hover a cool game, you "hovered" around the level.
That was basically what made it challenging

------
virtualritz
I immediately flew out of the map after collecting some speed boost (I was
just on a black infinite plane and the map floating above me). I guess the
collision detection code needs to some refactor. I wasn't able to get back on
there. That's when I closed the tab, after ~40 secs.

Awesome QA for a company of that size & resources. Wtf.

~~~
joemaller1
Flynn?

------
anona
The author is answering questions on reddit:
[https://pay.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1nl5nk/i_worked_wi...](https://pay.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1nl5nk/i_worked_with_microsoft_to_bring_hover_to_html5/)

------
infinita740
I really like it but two remarks: -they changed the graphics (it's no longer
"pixelated") -I think the physics are slightly different but maybe I don't
really remember

------
normloman
Since I first discovered Hover on my old win 95 disc, I've dreamed of a
multiplayer mode. At last.

------
hexley
Works for me in Safari 6.1 on Lion

My MacBook is so old it doesn't even have a GPU. NICE.

------
Sheepshow
Tried to drive up a set of stairs; was promptly placed inside the geometry.

------
galapago
Somebody know the name of the song of the soundtrack?

------
strathmeyer
What are the controls?? Where are the instructions??

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underwater
What's with the snarky title?

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camus
Funny how all these MS HTML5 websites can be visited only with MS latest
browser... latest chrome on Windows, it asks me to download IE11 , i'll
pass... that's not how you promote open standards , you make them work on all
browsers... unless you dont care ...

~~~
standeven
Worked fine in Firefox 24.

------
lectrick
Never heard of this game. Probably because I was playing Spectre VR on a Mac
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(video_game)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_\(video_game\)))
around that time, which this is a total unabashed knockoff of. Can't Microsoft
NOT copy something for a change?

~~~
joenathan
These games look nothing alike,

Spectre VR [http://www.myabandonware.com/media/captures/S/spectre-
vr/spe...](http://www.myabandonware.com/media/captures/S/spectre-vr/spectre-
vr_1.png)

Hover
[http://www.stanford.edu/~cammat/HOVER/images/screenshot001.J...](http://www.stanford.edu/~cammat/HOVER/images/screenshot001.JPG)

Have you taken your medication?

~~~
toufka
If you actually played both the games you'd realize they are really similar.
Capture the flag from the cockpit of a 'tank' with various power-ups you can
run over to activate against an opposing force. Sure, in one you shoot, and in
the other you do not. And the graphics in the browser above look more like the
graphics in Spectre than the screenshot you link to.

