Flux for PC from 1999 on a New CD-ROM in 2020!

[@RaptureMusicOfficial]

Hi guys, I'm the composer of "Walkin' in the Park" which was used in Flux! 6:27 Yay, I'm credited right there :) Thanks for reviewing & playing the game :) Cheers, Fabian aka Rapture

[@thepirategamerboy12]

Awesome! That's one of my favorite songs in the game.

[@RaptureMusicOfficial]

@@thepirategamerboy12 Glad you like it man!

[@jucilenecordelladarosa9236]

All Flux OST is great, and I even have your (demo version?) song on my playlist to this day. I remember downloading it somewhere, years ago, when looking for the game and OST. I'm positively surprised to see people who worked on the game commenting here, and to know the buying link still works (I was tempted before, but didn't wanna risk a broken international purchase by myself)

[@RaptureMusicOfficial]

@@jucilenecordelladarosa9236 That's cool! Thanks for your comment. :) Maybe you like some of my songs which I do nowadays (on my YT chn). Cheers!

[@TheOnlyToblin]

Rapture, you goddamn legend! Still loving your music to this day. I made "Heart of Lonelyness" (yes, with that misspelling XD) credited as "Vermilion X". :)

[@TheOnlyToblin]

Oh man! Flux is a legend to me. I was part of the team that made the music for it. I went under the moniker "Vermilion X" at the time. (don't judge, I was like 18 years old). Stoked to see it covered. :)

[@anselmopereira3785]

I don't judge, that's probably one of the most 90s nicknames. And that's rad.

[@TheOnlyToblin]

@@anselmopereira3785 Haha, thanks mate! It was a wild ride. We were many a young teen who got the chance to actually be part of a REAL GAME. It was quite ego-boosting for my 18 year old self ;)

[@anselmopereira3785]

@@TheOnlyToblin I mean, seems like it was a blast.

[@joshuakaelin]

Thank you for granting us permission to use your music! Wouldn’t be the same without “Heart of Lonelyness.” Most of the songs on the soundtrack along with many of Elwood’s tracks are still in heavy rotation for me lol.

[@TheOnlyToblin]

@@joshuakaelin Thank you for giving a timid teenager the chance to be part of a "real thing". :)

[@rdkylp]

That background music tho... Good memories.

[@Karashata]

It's interesting that they're even offering a CD "backup" version of the game, but it's certainly not the original CD version they had back in the day. Original version was a stamped disc, came in a jewel case with proper artwork and everything, and had the game's music as CD audio tracks playable in a standard CD player. I still have my copy, but I don't have any systems capable of installing it (seems to use a 16-bit installer, which can't run on 64-bit Windows) or running it without serious graphical bugs and frequent crashes.

[@LGRBlerbs]

I'd love to see what that looks like!

[@Karashata]

@@LGRBlerbs Posted some pics to Twitter for you to check out. EDIT: Was gonna see about submitting an image of the CD to the Internet Archive but... I don't own the rights to the game, so I can't really do that.

[@JaySwordlight]

@@Karashata How about posting a scan of the artwork for Posterity?

[@Karashata]

@@JaySwordlight I don't have a scanner available to me with which to do so, but I'll keep it in mind if I do ever get one.

[@helloimash]

What about ripping the ISO and uploading that somewhere just for LGR? I think that might work. If you're comfortable with that.

[@SvDKILLSWITCH]

So I'm not sure if anyone else had the same urge to go and look for the soundtrack to Flux after this, but I did. While most of the in-game music is easy enough to find on KZbin, there seemed to be frustratingly little information on the first theme that plays. I am here to try and alleviate that: it's a song called "Deinen Pappa 3" by Reptile & Sky of Crystal Crew. More accurately, it's an extended remix of that song made for Flux. You can find tracker files (.xm) for the songs included in Flux LE, of which the remixed Deinen Pappa 3 is one of them, but Deinen Pappa 3 itself is also available on Spotify!

[@TheOnlyToblin]

Ooh, that's great! I was part of making the soundtrack of the game, and I always LOVED the title music, but it was the *one track* that was never credited in a way that was easy to find. Thank you for letting me know, now my memory is finally satisfied

[@TheLeggedOne]

Not only is it compact, but it is also a disc

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Should've went subcompact and got a mini CDR

[@jakethreesixty]

They were probably just shocked someone actually wanted a physical copy in 2020 lmao

[@DoctorWhom]

@@slightlyevolved Doesn't the Microsoft website give an ISO download for MAC/Linux visitors?

[@jakethreesixty]

@@slightlyevolved lol, I meant a physical copy of that particular game, should've clarified 😅

[@hikariyouk]

Physical backup copy is a standard Digital River thing. I would expect they're just automatically burnt and printed using a duplicator; we used to have a couple at work for CDs and DVDs we sent out...hell we probably still have them. I remember IT throwing a hissy fit because they ran Windows XP and there was no way of upgrading it to anything else (well there was - buying a newer model of the duplicator which ran a newer version of Windows).

[@-DeScruff]

@@slightlyevolved It will likely come on a non rewritable USB flash drive. Someone I know bought Win10 Home and it came on one. It kiiinda sucks though. Its non rewritable so if a newer version of Windows comes out you cant write that to the drive, or you can't store drivers or something on it. ( you can't exactly "get the latest drivers online" when the PC can't connect to the internet because it requires network drivers) Also the drive is sloooooow. Dunno exactly how slow, but it took longer to install windows with it then it did with some really old 8GB USB 2.0 drives I would buy in bulk numbers for like $3 a piece.

[@jakethreesixty]

I too like having physical copies, I intend to buy the next gen consoles that have disc drives for example lol

[@VectraQS]

I am _so happy_ to see this game getting more exposure. It's flown under the radar for years. It was a huge part of my childhood.

[@AltimeterAlligator]

Flux is great! That raytraced spritework looks excellent on a big rounded CRT. If only modern cameras could properly communicate late 90's/early 2000's visual flair.

[@Pixelmusement]

My old games are sold through Share-It which was merged into Digital River awhile ago, so I'm pretty sure if you choose the backup media option when buying one of my titles you get this exact same kind of CD just with different contents and a different title up top! (My old games have serial number codes though so they might print those on the CD too.)

[@SFHStarFromHell]

"All of the pieces in Flux were rendered using Persistance of Vision Raytracer (POV-Ray) 3.1, a tremendously powerful freeware ray-tracer..."- PlanetFlux website So it will support RTX...lol

[@CzornyLisek]

Ray tracing as something actually being used is as old as 2,5D graphics pretty much ; p

[@DripDripDrip69]

nVidia's marketing is really poisonous, making people think ray tracing is something they came up with.

[@alexandruianu8432]

@@DripDripDrip69 No, it's just people being stupid. Real-time AI-aided ray tracing on a single GPU is indeed new tech. They never said they invented ray tracing.

[@drgribb]

Ohhhh POV-Ray was the shit! Used to use that a bunch

[@EposVox]

Ayyy glad I am not the only one using gaffer tape to block addresses

[@LGRBlerbs]

it's so OPAQUE

[@overlybroadcast3952]

@@LGRBlerbs Gaff is great for damn near everything

[@joneshardwaregames]

I love your content and have been following you for around 10 years at this point. You inspired me to try KZbin myself and share the passion for old and new computer hardware. THANKS! :)

[@michielvandewijgaart8858]

Brings back memories, I really loved this game

[@jucilenecordelladarosa9236]

Such a happy surprise to know that the buying link still works (I was tempted before, but didn't wanna risk a broken international purchase by myself). I have some Windows 7 PCs at home (the demo version installed on them just fine), so I'm definitely buying Flux this year Hahahaha

[@sedrosken831]

This was a very distant memory to me up until a few years ago -- I played this game as a toddler on my mom's PII-450 machine! It took me a few months just to remember the name of the game. With the full (installer) version of the game, the music is actually present in its original tracker format. I believe you might even be able to add some of your own. I put everything I had into finding a copy, until I realized they still sold the game, at which point I bought (and backed up, several places) the digital download version. By the way, to get the new installer to install on 9x (the game itself still runs absolutely fine), open the .msi with Orca (an old MS devtool) and change the LaunchConditions to read "Version9X >= "400" OR VersionNT >= "400"". Flux will run on literally anything from Win95/NT4 up, provided you have DirectDraw capabilities. I'd recommend at least a K6-2/266 if you have a good video card, and a PII-350 or better if you don't.

[@zxcvb_bvcxz]

Oh man, Flux's music goes hard.

[@Ponimaju]

This is awesome! I remember hearing you mention it in that recent vid and I was excited because I have such great memories of the game from back in the day, and have a copy to play on an older setup with a CRT. It’s great that it’s still sold but I wish it would get on a digital storefront to have more eyes on it, and chances for new players to check it out. The music, those prerendered blocks, and the satisfying explosions all made this game so memorable for me.

[@ligius3]

That music definitely sounds like Ayla (Techno Trance / Tiesto). Was really big at the end of the 90s. One of my first mp3 files.

[@svivs]

Yes, I thought the same thing. Been a while since I last heard that. :-)

[@TheOnlyToblin]

As someone who actually made some of the music for Flux back in the day, can confirm that this style of music was ALL THE RAGE at the time.

[@chillinfartdotcc]

Ayla part ii indede

[@SiD3WiNDR]

Ahh, just posted that as a separate comment. Definitely Ayla. It's not just the "style", it's the actual melody. :-)

[@TheOnlyToblin]

@@SiD3WiNDR Yeah, remixes and obscure "rips" were super common back in the 90's in the tracker scene. Sometimes they were credited, sometimes not. Heck, it goes on even to this day. Ever heard of "Nightcore"? Probably the most egregious example of ripping people's work off and making money off of it. In this particular case, I don't actually know the guy who made that track, so I can't say anything about his intentions. :/

[@Okurka.]

Looks like you got ripped off. Their website claims the CD has the soundtrack and other goodies. "When your CD does arrive, you'll enjoy a permanent backup copy as well as the entire Flux soundtrack and other goodies."

[@donbot5000]

The original release does have it And some of us still have it. Lol

[@vivanecrosis]

Totally was a rip off.

[@dickkickem]

i feel like this definitely wasnt the original cd back when they released it in 99, wonder if anyone has an .iso of the original cd containing the soundtrack and all the "goodies"

[@mjc0961]

Scammed

[@hazeldavis3176]

Oh man! I played this game so much. Great soundtrack too.

[@richpayne3104]

Music alone sounds amazing

[@Door_Into_Summer]

You always do such a great job syncing the refresh rate!

[@lordcrayzar]

Whew it’s back. I was worried I missed it!

[@CybershamanX]

I had it up but didn't watch it right away. Part way in there was an Ebay listing for some weird gizmo piece of equipment. So, I scrolled down to the comments and they hadn't loaded, so...I refreshed the page and... Damn it! Set to private! I should have screen shotted it. I mean, it's stupid, but I just hate a mystery. :P Oh, well. ;)

[@LGRBlerbs]

@@CybershamanX Heh, yeah it seems that Premiere got really confused at the image filename while rendering the last upload, so it chose a random unrelated image to insert into the video :P

[@CybershamanX]

@@LGRBlerbs Thanks for "solving the mystery" for me. :) You totally didn't have to explain when it's really none of my damn business. It's just that I'm disabled and live by myself, so sometimes these sorts of things get the better of me. :/ Take care.

[@TAGMedia7]

@@LGRBlerbs that's a scary, weird prospect.

[@RetrogradeScene]

It’s nice there still selling a physical version. Shame they didn’t put a bit more effort in to it!

[@donbot5000]

My uncle used to do the original pressed artwork /jewel case release of Flux here on the east coast.

[@jamesharmer9293]

Energy Star monitor? That takes me back.....!

[@elli-mk]

I played it so much when I was a wee little kiddo and my brother let me at the family pc back in the day. Recently I remembered the game but was utterly heartbroken that I couldn't remember the name and searched through so many online archives until i finally found it. Boy, that was a wave of nostalgia. Actually drove me to tears.

[@zacharymartinez9988]

I love those POV-Ray graphics!

[@Flarexxxx]

Missed it the first time but nailed that notification this tine

[@rolandkatsuragi]

That fact that they're still selling physical discs is really endearing

[@netzwerk-werkstatt332]

This version of the game looks very cool and the music is awesome.

[@ebridgewater]

That's a very impressive laptop screen for 1996!

[@Waldimart]

Burned with Nero Burning Rom, just for you!

[@georgeyreynolds]

Possibly not but the image was created in that for whoever is burning the CDs

[@mornwind318]

The music is so good

[@F_I_J_I_W_A_T_E_R]

I bought some guitar effects software from a site that used Digital River and I was really tempted to buy a physical copy. I'm glad I saw this, because I was bummed out thinking I could've gotten a nice boxed version!

[@eddiehimself]

I've got a Yamaha 2.1 speaker system with a subwoofer for my Windows 98 PC. The W98 startup sound sounds like that THX demo at the cinema on The Simpsons with it LOL.

[@NicolasBahamondes]

A long time ago, someone uploaded a RealArcade installer file (RGS) of Flux on its full version. That file was uploaded on a Windows drivers website and it remained completely anonymous to the people's eyes. That's when I downloaded it and uploaded to the Internet Archive. As a side note, the disc comes with an MSI for a game which have serious bugs on modern Windows versions. Do no attempt to run it on Windows 10 x64

[@NightpireVideos]

I had to look up the soundtrack for Flux after the video on the main channel. It's maximum 2000 and I love it

[@BlobVanDam]

One of those sound effects sounds exactly like one of the notifications in steam. I wonder if they're using the same stock sound?

[@jakethreesixty]

Timestamp? I'll do some digging

[@adriandrost4823]

Also a Sound in blood

[@devilmaylol]

Also a sound effect from the first Resident Evil.

[@kaitlyn__L]

sounds like a generic computer beep sound, tons of sci-fi uses these packs (flux makes quite a lot of different generic sci-fi beeps tbh)

[@CzornyLisek]

C&C series also used those sounds

[@madson-web]

Such epic music

[@221b]

That reminds me of when I bought a physical version of Aquaria back in the day. The installer was an EXE file instead of MSI, but beyond that it was pretty similar; just a plain burned CD in a cardboard sleeve. Apparently they just offered stuff like that as a service to people without fast/reliable Internet connections; it wasn't meant to be any kind of collector's item.

[@MAIcrosoft]

Finally, you let Dreams II play out in full, because the best part is after the drop lol XD

[@jaredtaylor3182]

Man, I remember this game, nostalgia hits hard 😊

[@mrgtmodernretrogamingtech6891]

A Puzzle Game with 90's Techno BABY!!! Amazing! XD

[@alphaascii]

Wow, i never played this game before, but the music is FIRE!

[@Leahi84]

This looks so awesome. I definitely want to play this. Never heard of it back in the day.

[@Skidd2]

....... love that windows xp startup sounds.....mmmmmmmmm.

[@fen4554]

We use a similar setup for short run CD/DVD/BRD orders. The discs are coated in a white thermal print layer and after burning it they can just toss it into a 3 pass color sublimation printer. Looks better than silkscreen. In this case it's an overprint with just the black text.

[@ADR69]

That music shreds

[@Bucking_Fastard]

That music is really good!

[@MontieMongoose]

Too bad there isn't a big box version.

[@sugargliderdude]

gateway 2000, my first PC, PC's and the internet was quite a magical time back then!

[@larrywilliams8010]

I lived in Livermore many years before Sonic Ave was paved

[@G3DTrance]

You've already "sold" me this game in the other video. ;-D

[@HalfBlindGamer]

Loved this game too! It also made me go out and buy Nirwana from Ayla (DJ Tandu). Some great tunes!

[@zxcvb_bvcxz]

So it looks like the creator of the FastTracker track in the game just straight up copied the melody: www.modules.pl/index.php?id=module&mod=3904

[@Xenodyne]

Woah, from Livermore! I know/have been to/worked in that city!

[@CzlowiekDrzewo]

You could have a rave to that soundtrack

[@BestNerdLife]

"Prepare to be blown away!" *whooosh*

[@dillyndvd]

The menu sound effects sound exactly like the original Resident Evil menu sound effects lol

[@danieluchwal3515]

Loved Flux as a kid man the music and everything was so cool

[@TheSanchoPancha]

I loooooved this game in these days 😎

[@LaDeXi]

That music is awesome 😁

[@HamzaAnsari1425]

6:56 - I could swear that sound effect is in WWF Smackdown 2: Know Your Role on the PS1, when you're browsing through the options.

[@nicotallac2554]

The beggining reminded me of Ashens

[@CaptainNedD]

I find myself looking in detail in what's reflected in the CD as Clint swings it around. Almost like I'm in a sort of real world Portal game.

[@m4rgin4l]

I was blown away, and I wasn't prepared

[@superspedboy0076]

you say" look at that beard".... i say" look at that man! looking good brother!" lol thanks for the great content as always Clint!

[@NicolasBahamondes]

"Damn, I'm looking good".

[@TechnicolorMammoth]

I didn’t know my love for this kind of game at this time, and completely missed out on this one. I would have definitely played this alongside hours of Sims at the time.

[@maryen65]

O good old days with playing Flux!

[@TheMordecailover569]

I also remember playing the demo version of Flux when it was on RealArcade

[@Dukefazon]

This game reminds me of a neat Flash game I played quite a lot on Newgrounds, it's called Obversity. It's till up, I'm just playing a round right now.

[@aaronjshw3299]

I used to work at livermore hahaha..brings back memories when i saw that address

[@lolcat]

Was that literally a CD in a package

[@haansolo6169]

Almost a week without an LGR video. My life got out of balance.

[@TheLtData]

Cool sound track!! Don't play it on your car stereo: you'll be driving faster every minute ; )

[@gsnassif]

I bought the game a back in the 90s. Now I have to search my old CD-R backups to see where it is Don't want to buy it again if I don't have to. The music is the best!

[@zxcvb_bvcxz]

Yeah, the creators of Flux didn't do that CD, DigitalRiver did.

[@Dosgamert]

I loved the Spectrum Holobyte game called "BreakThru!", it's more endless like this, but it's a lot of fun!

[@TheOnlyToblin]

Flux has an endless mode, actually.

[@VintageModernRemixes]

Wow that 1024 display looks incredible

[@SiD3WiNDR]

Ayla(-style) background music? Nice!

[@kaitlyn__L]

Damn that music is banging

[@TheOnlyToblin]

Thank you! We were many young kiddos who got our first "break" by having our music in a game back then.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@TheOnlyToblin y'know what, I think I've listened to some of your other stuff around the place! The name Beyond Reality feels very familiar, at any rate 😊

[@shangrilai1990]

I remember Windows ME support being dropped by so many applications very quickly. It was a big issue for me as the apps/games I was trying to use and play with my friends wouldn't support ME and the PC I had was not supported by Windows XP. I eventually found my PC did support Windows 2000 and that was the happy medium I found for almost full compatibility with 9x and XP programs.

[@SuperPickle15]

In my experience, i only had a few games that supported 9x never work on win ME. And i had that machine throughout the entire lifetime of xp (eventually replacing it with vista)

[@Lilithe]

I had that exact Toshiba Tecra 730CDT in uni and it was ancient by then. I had installed the max 128MB of RAM but that P150 was just not cuttin' it in the 2000s.

[@wyndlpoons76]

reminds me of a non-cartoony version of Sega Swirl. love that game.

[@NoahBarr85]

The song around 7:59 reminded me a lot of Ayla and now I'm listening to late 90s trance. 🙃

[@SiD3WiNDR]

Digital River is a general purpose software storefront. They offer a burned CD for you if you can't or don't want to download such a "large" file, or if you just want a hardcopy for whatever (backup?) reasons. It's not supposed to be pretty and definitely not a big box release ;-)

[@matchmakerchris7617]

Never seen this game before but now that i have id like to try it sometime! Cool!

[@wesleytan6842]

I also got the CD! The CD-R comes from Taiyo Yuden Co. in Japan - which is JVC 700MB or 80min CDs for professional use. This one was the same, also a duplicated disc, likely those scams! I have also put a important notice on my social media.

[@AniVegMinMan]

ive never been so glued to a video to laugh my ass off when i realize the second i actually get to see flux it's just a match 3

[@wdd6864]

This is extremely Addictive

[@chanthetechman]

I had that exact same gateway monitor back in the day with my gateway computer I had. For some reason it always showed up in the driver manager in windows as two monitors sometimes so I would have to go in and manually delete one monitor in the device manager or the system would mess up. Does that do that to you. I threw away that monitor and the computer that came with it years ago I wished I did.

[@refractionpcsx2]

Wait, they charged you $12 for a burned CD-R???

[@LGRBlerbs]

YEP.

[@markboz3366]

Better than the mobile games along those lines. If you want to get further than level 3 you need to buy game coins at $20 for 10 coins or our big coin value bundle of 200 at $80 That will get you to about level 10.

[@refractionpcsx2]

@@LGRBlerbs Jebus, I'd have done it for you for like $1 haha, I'd have printed it too!

[@blakegriplingph]

@@markboz3366 That's how cancerous P2W mobile gaming is.

[@refractionpcsx2]

@BadDriversOfTennessee are they not cheap? I mean I can get 50 CD-R's for $12.37 on Amazon, that's like 24 cents per disc.

[@05Matz]

Huh. I remember this! I thought it was a RealArcade exclusive... glad to see it survived, unlike so many other classics! Those late 90s/early 2000s pre-rendered graphics and grandiose sound effects / tracker music do something strange and nostalgic for me... even though I'm technically of a younger generation than would typically have grown up on that, I always seemed drawn back to games in that style -- it just seemed prettier than the "realism" fad picking up in games that were new during my childhood -- also older games were typically cheaper, and smaller in size and system requirements, so they were more obtainable for me back when I was a kid using hand-me-down computers. I always wonder why interfaces got steadily less "tactile" after that period, especially in games. Sure, with utilitarian interfaces, we managed to shave some pixels off by getting rid of the drop shadows and emboss/engrave effects (though that got less relevant as screen resolutions increased), but then interface designers decided to magnify everything back up to ludicrous sizes for the "everything should be touchscreen-first" fad. Now buttons are often unnecessarily huge again, but now they're either ugly flat-coloured monochrome "special character" silhouettes, or ugly flat-coloured rounded rectangles (or occasionally circles) with the text or symbology overlaid in the another colour. I liked the "physicality" of the slightly skeuomorphic interface themes of that period. Not necessarily with interface elements emulating any particular real object, but giving themselves texture, highlight, shadow, engraving, etc. that let you "feel" the material they were apparently made of. Controls set into panels, instead of... labels printed on paper. A machine with controls to manipulate, rather than a form with scratch-off boxes. Maybe that's nostalgia and childlike wonder/urge to press buttons talking. Oh well. At least Mint still ships Mint-X as one of the default options. It's kind of an intermediate between the old and new styles, so it looks OK next to whatever eclectic software you throw together. ...oh my gosh. I'm a cranky old man! Complaining about the terrible aesthetic taste of kids and corporations these days. In my mid-twenties! I sure got old fast...

[@ClamBake7525]

I still can't believe those batteries held a charge!

[@pigeon2503]

I think one (or several) of the Nancy Drew games use the same sounds for an in-game game. I'm unsure which one. My immediate thought is The Haunted Carousel, but I don't think it is. It's definitely one I've played a million times though, so nothing too recent (post 2010 is "recent")

[@bennyfactor]

Got a Lucius Verus style beard going on

[@Kborret]

That's a nice sweater.

[@bf0189]

Optical media is going to become cool again I suspect especiallly CDs. I love that I can buy cheap lossless music used or cheap new. I appreciate it's compact design because I never have to worry about running out of collecting space for quite a while. It's fun to get old CDJs and DJ with CDrs that you can get for cheap even.

[@rcmero]

It's a bit like how vinyl is seeing a resurgence recently, even after it was superseded by CDs and later streaming.

[@bf0189]

@@rcmero Absolutely!

[@Ponimaju]

When I built my latest PC (2017) it was the first time I went without a built in optical drive, but I had to get an external drive cause I still have a ton of discs and expected that I would still be using them, and ripping CDs and maybe DVDs. But I have only used it a couple times, and prefer to play the old games on a different PC with a CRT.

[@IRWPD]

Had know idea you could buy old games and they send you a disc. That's cool.