In a new video on his YouTube channel, RPG veteran Tim Cain outlined the challenges inherent to remastering Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, one of the true hardcore sicko legends of CRPGs, and a game that could really use a remaster.
Vexingly, it sounds like the dark ritual to reanimate Arcanum is pretty much all set up for some corporate necromancer to step in and utter an incantation, particularly when you compare the situation to copyright nightmares like No One Lives Forever.
But good luck getting a C-suite guy to take a break from attuning agile strategies to difficult economic headwinds long enough to pay attention to a crunchy, 2D RPG with a name like Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.
Arcanum feels, in a lot of ways, like an alternate Fallout 2—developer Troika was founded by Cain alongside fellow Fallout 1 devs Jason Anderson and Leonard Boyarsky after they left Fallout 2 partway through development. It has a similar look, mechanics, and approach to open-ended roleplaying as the OG Fallouts.
What it lacked in polish and combat balance—Cain characterizes it as having released in its alpha stage—it made up for with sheer ambition and responsiveness to player choice, as well as an incredible setting: A Forgotten Realmsy fantasy world fast forwarded to its Victorian age.
Like many games of its time, and even more so than a lot of classic RPGs that have already gotten remastered, Arcanum could use some Nightdive or Beamdog-style TLC. While Cain sounded pretty pessimistic about Arcanum’s chances in his video, it actually strikes me that most of the ingredients are lined up and ready to go—it’s just lacking a crucial start-up energy.
Cain, Boyarsky, and Anderson personally own Arcanum’s code and art assets between the three of them, while Microsoft—which employs Cain through Obsidian and Boyarsky and Anderson through inXile—owns the Arcanum IP as the last company holding the bag after a long line of acquisitions.
Still, Cain characterizes it as a “legally complex issue,” with any commercial negotiation to access the code and assets needing to satisfy all three founders of Troika.
Perhaps more maddening is that Cain’s hands are tied when it comes to even touching up the game with no money changing hands. “Since I own the code, I have recompiled it myself,” said Cain, resulting in a Windows 10 app version of the game.
Unfortunately, according to Cain “we can’t, under the original publishing agreement, release [Arcanum’s source code].” That publishing agreement was with Sierra, which was bought by Vivendi Games, which then merged with Activision, which was bought by Microsoft.
Legal questions aside, the technical hurdles to a remaster strike me as fairly prosaic: Cain would want to fix bugs and overhaul the UI and fonts to work at higher resolutions, with an optional “Tim’s Version” to introduce balance and QoL changes—it reminds me of fellow Obsidian developer Josh Sawyer’s JSawyer mod for Fallout: New Vegas. The most exciting addition proposed by Cain was new environment art to add more variety to Arcanum.
We’ll table all of that for until after I make my millions through game journalism, but there might be a middle ground to get a bit more “official” support for Arcanum. GOG and its Preservation Program seem well-poised to negotiate with all parties involved and use Cain’s expertise and resources from development for improvements to the existing commercially available version of Arcanum. Arcanum is, indeed, already part of the GOG initiative, and a 2024 patch introduced a number of stability and compatibility fixes.
Until such a time, Arcanum is best enjoyed with, what else, a fan patch. The Unofficial Arcanum Patch has not gotten an update in some time, with game critic Mandalore noting that the mod’s Ukraine-based creator, Drog Black Tooth (named for a character in the game), was MIA even before the Russian invasion. But the mod remains, and it is essential.