Hello! This is intended to serve as a guide for getting Descent and Descent II running on modern hardware for a variety of use cases, as well as some links to Discord-based communities which may be of interest.

WHAT DO I NEED?

First of all, a copy of your game of choice --

Then, install your game using the service of your choice.

CHOOSE A PORT

SINGLE-PLAYER

Great! There are a lot of versatile options, all of which are pretty usable from one to the next.

• DXX-Rebirth is the top recommendation here, and has been for a number of years. If you are new to Descent, and/or are playing out of historical/academic interest, this port is your best starting point. Descent/2 are difficult to control for new players who have played other shooters before -- look for the 'UNCAPPED TURNING' option in the control/sensitivity options. For a more true-to-original experience that has an approachable aiming convention, try only using the 'RELEASE PITCH LOCK' instead. Either option make the game much more accessible to start, especially uncapped turning.

  • However, this port rarely sees serious use for multiplayer, and it isn't recommended to use either toggle if you plan to join games online, since you'll have to re-learn the game with the original control limits.

• DXX-Redux has seen explosive growth in the last few months (as of 2023). Although not as stable as Rebirth or Retro, it is the recommended choice for players looking to play both singleplayer and multiplayer Descent.

• DXX-Retro is less commonly used, but certainly functional. Again, plenty of QOL options here though a little less robust than Rebirth's set. This was previously the most popular multiplayer port in use, too.

  • 1.4.X6 installs on top of DXX-Rebirth 0.58.1, not the current version.
  • 1.4.X3 is the most recent version for Descent II, and also installs on top of Rebirth 0.58.1.

• DOSBox is how D1/2 normally install from online services and is serviceable for a couple of levels, if a little blocky. Ports are recommended for extended play though.

MULTI-PLAYER

Welcome! Descent and Descent II continue to have a small but dedicated community of players. Games are fairly regular, with anarchies and 1v1s happening near-daily.

• DXX-Redux has seen explosive growth in the last few months (as of 2023), and has rapidly supplanted 1.4.X6 as the port of choice for multiplayer. Although not as stable as Rebirth or Retro, it is the recommended choice for players looking to play multiplayer Descent or Descent II.

  • I'm not personally sure about cooperative game support in Redux, but it probably works?

• DXX-Retro is less commonly used, but certainly functional. Again, plenty of QOL options here though a little less robust than Rebirth's set. This was previously the most popular multiplayer port in use, too.

  • 1.4.X6 installs on top of DXX-Rebirth 0.58.1, not the current version.
  • 1.4.X3 is the most recent version for Descent II, and also installs on top of Rebirth 0.58.1.
  • Retro supports cooperative play, but setting up Rebirth first makes it a bit of a pain.

• DXX-Rebirth is not particularly recommended for competitive online play, as it utilizes a hub-and-spoke topology, rather than peer-to-peer. In essence, the hosting player has an advantage over all others in a match. For cooperative play, this isn't a big deal and this is a great option for that mode, but this isn't useful for serious multiplayer. Newbies interested in trying multiplayer with the pitch lock changed might have fun though.

• Chocolate Descent is a riff on Chocolate Doom, and intends to be Descent as if it were still on DOS. Very limited feature set by design, but weapon behavior and ship controls are like they were on legacy hardware. This is here as a window into history and only occasionally sees play.

INSTALL

DESCENT

Any port you choose will need the following files from the original Steam/GOG/Epic install:

• descent.hog
• descent.pig

Copy these to a new folder along with the un-Zipped files from the port you're using, and you should be good to go!

DESCENT II

Descent II's file list is a little longer:

• descent2.ham
• descent2.hog
• descent2.s11
• descent2.s22
• alien1.pig
• alien2.pig
• fire.pig
• ice.pig
• water.pig
• groupa.pig
• intro-h.mvl and/or intro-l.mvl (-h is high quality, -l is low quality)
• robots-h.mvl and/or robots-l.mvl (-h is high quality, -l is low quality)
• other-h.mvl and/or other-l.mvl (-h is high quality, -l is low quality)

Copy these to a new folder along with the un-Zipped files from the port you're using, and you should be good to go!

PREPARE FOR DESCENT

If your port of choice launches, you're ready to start playing! Here are a few more links to get you going:

• A few of the more popular Discords:
  • 6Hang - casual play of Descent and other 6dofs
  • Roncli's Descent Observatory - quarterly D1 1v1 tournaments
  • Descent Rangers - organized casual Descent/2 multiplayer
  • Descent Developer Discord - discussion about various ports, recent development, etc
  • /r/Descent Discord - the Discord server for this subreddit!
• The DXX Retro Tracker captures games from both the Retro and Redux ports of D1 and D2, with live scoreboards updating once per minute, and an archive of games played stretching back through the previous tracker host's inception in 2014.
• DXMA - The Descent Mission Archive replaces the old Descent Mission Database from the 2010s. New missions are being added/reuploaded all the time, and this is the first stopping point for new players to find custom missions. Un-Zip the files you download from here into either game's 'missions' folder on your hard drive, and they should show up in the New Game/Multiplayer menus.
• Chilly's Mission Set - this builds on the Descent Rangers pack with a bunch of missions both new and old, and I selfishly highly recommend it for people looking to join multiplayer D1 games, to save you time searching/downloading from DXMA. If a level has seen play in the last 5 years, it's probably in here. Again, un-Zip the folder here to your game directory and all of these should show up in your lists.

See you in the mines!

(Last updated: October 2023)