SNEG directors talk about bringing old D&D games to modern hardware

SNEG recently announced that they are carrying eight classics Dungeons & Dragons video games to modern PCs. I was given the opportunity to email a number of questions to the team and they were kind enough to respond. The answers came from the Directors of SNEG, Oleg Kalapovsky AND Artem Schuikoand talk briefly about media retention, their favorite titles from the latest batch, and more.

Many would argue that these games are outdated and old and that there are better games out there. Why is it important for you and SNEG to bring these games to modern hardware?

OK: There are many reasons we’ve always wanted to bring these games back and make them playable, but the most important is the ability to share the fun and joy we had when these games were first released. We were all excited when Dungeons & Dragons was introduced in Stranger Things. Many people have felt very nostalgic about it. It’s a similar situation here; the Silver Box Classics games were the first video game adaptations of the D&D universe. That’s how it all started and now we have dozens of games spanning these worlds.

These releases look like ports of classic games, why not give them the remaster or remake treatment like many other companies tend to do?

OK: We believe it’s good to take one step at a time. First, we want to bring back the charm of the original versions of the games in all their glory. If the community is still enthusiastic about them, then we’re happy to consider making proper remasters.

I know a lot of gamers see a port of a game and instantly devalue it these days. Even the remasters get a fair amount of that flack. Could you help explain what porting a game from older hardware to newer hardware entails to help consumers better understand what kind of work is required for this?

AS: There’s no simple answer here, as nearly every game we make playable on modern hardware has its own story. The best case is when you have access to the original source code. This makes our job easier as we can replace different parts of it and make the game work. The worst case (and the vast majority of them) is when you don’t have the source code. In that case you need to use some sort of wrapper (Dosbox or ScumVM for example) or reverse engineer some or even all of the code.

In 2015, SNEG brought Gold Box titles to modern hardware and now gamers are giving it another go with 8 more old time D&D video games. You’ve also worked to bring non-D&D games to modern hardware. How did SNEG get a chance to bring these old games into the modern era? Was it simply a phone call to someone or was there more to it?

OK: let’s be humble here :). It was the GOG team that brought Gold Box titles back to players through their platform in 2015, and we were honored to be a part of that journey. Trust me, every game we bring back has a long history behind it. Sometimes we need to talk to insurance companies, sometimes banks and real estate, and at best, real game developers. This could definitely be a good documentary :).

Media retention has become a hot topic for many in recent years and SNEG appears to be doing some work in that area. Do you have any tips or tricks on how to generate more effort for media retention? Is this something that just requires more dedicated publishers or are there other avenues that could and should be explored?

AS: I think the biggest thing that should happen is for big companies to allow passionate game developers to work on old IPs that are gathering dust and will never be a priority. But deep down I want to believe that soon we will have universities and schools lecturing on the history of video games, and that’s when everything could click.

Of the eight D&D games releasing this month, which is your favourite? Would you like this or any of the other games to be remastered or remade and anything specific you would like to see in the remaster/remake?

OK: I have two favorites: Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace, because it’s so unique to D&D, and the second is DragonStrike. This is the game I played a lot on the NES and only years later I found out that the PC and Amiga versions of the game were a bit different :D. As for what I’d like to see in the future, I’d love it if there was a new game in the Spelljammer setting. Cool space is great!