Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

105 ratings
How to run the game on modern PCs
By Spooky Primm Slim
Abe's Oddysee is more than 20 years old, and struggles to run on modern platforms. It usually requires third-party applications just to run properly. Here's how you can run Abe's Oddysee using R.E.L.I.V.E., a new game engine made by fans.
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What is R.E.L.I.V.E.?
Taken from the R.E.L.I.V.E. project website:

R.E.L.I.V.E. is a fan effort to create a new engine, capable of replacing Digital Dialect's aging PC port for Oddworld's first two cult-classic games.

More than twenty years after their release, both games struggle to run on modern platforms, usually requiring a third-party application like DxWnd just to run them properly.

R.E.L.I.V.E. intends to become a complete replacement of both the original AbeWin.exe and Exoddus.exe and any third-party tools, by providing both convenience and compatibility features.
Features of R.E.L.I.V.E.
Native Resolution Support
It doesn't matter if your monitor is FullHD, 4k or perhaps an old rectangle CRT monitor, R.E.L.I.V.E. supports all.

Windowed mode
No more need for DxWnd or similar, simply press F12 and the game goes into windowed mode or back to fullscreen on the fly.

Modern Platforms
R.E.L.I.V.E. natively supports Windows 10, MacOS and Linux.

Modern Technologies
The re-write uses the modern and cross-platform SDL2 Graphics Library, instead of the long deprecated DirectDraw API.

Open Source
R.E.L.I.V.E. is a fully open-source codebase, which you can freely use for your own projects or extend as you see fit.

Numerous Bugfixes
Tired of the crashes and weird things the game sometimes does? Worry not, the project's scope includes fixing all of these!

Future features
After the engine is fully reimplemented, the focus will shift to adding new features that were never part of the original:
  • Subtitles for cutscenes.
  • Fixing the original games' bugs.
  • Modding support.
  • Level editor.
  • Higher-resolution textures.
Where to get R.E.L.I.V.E.
You can download R.E.L.I.V.E. over at: https://aliveteam.github.io/.

How to install R.E.L.I.V.E.
Windows
These instructions work for both Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus.

Download the zip that fits your architecture (most likely 64-bits) from the links above.

Unzip it somewhere.

Navigate to where you installed the game (GOG asks you where you want to install it, with Steam you can right click on the game, select Manage -> Browse local files).

Copy relive.exe and SDL2.dll to the respective game's folder from the unzipped folder.

Run the game by launching relive.exe.
36 Comments
50% PMA mode 12 Sep @ 4:29pm 
I take it back, it's only the beta version that is broken, DONT DOWNLOAD THE BETA
Spooky Primm Slim  [author] 12 Sep @ 10:32am 
Also a comment from Reddit on Steam Deck (Credit /u/GameBoyAdv2004):

"RELIVE can be installed as an Archlinux package (SteamDecks's OS is an Arch derivative), so as long as you know how to use pacman it's fairly easy. Once the package is installed you just run relive-ao or relive-ae and it will prompt you to find the folder with all the level files, which can be found using Steam's "Browse" option in the game properties under "Installed files". This also makes it really easy to add the relive versions as non-steam games."
Spooky Primm Slim  [author] 12 Sep @ 10:31am 
@hectormanuel27

I'm not personally sure how this would be done but there is a thread where someone ran it on Steam Deck successfully here:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/15700/discussions/0/4415299132512772025/
Spooky Primm Slim  [author] 12 Sep @ 10:30am 
@icczy Sorry to hear about the issues, the people who work on Relive seem reasonably active on Discord so you could try asking there for a solution. I haven't noticed audio issues but it probably depends on individual PC setups.
50% PMA mode 12 Sep @ 6:24am 
the audio gets kinda weird and the cutscene dont play. I don't recommend using relive
hectormanuel27 10 Apr @ 9:14am 
Best way to run on Steam Deck?
Spooky Primm Slim  [author] 28 Mar @ 5:59pm 
@WAZZupbruvv - just the Windows version of the program. There's just one version. You can find instructions here: https://aliveteam.github.io/install.html
WAZZupbruvv 28 Mar @ 5:33pm 
hi guys! sorry, which one do i download for Windows 10?
Spooky Primm Slim  [author] 16 Jan @ 4:59am 
@Stoney.Archives - I suggest you go check YouTube, I'm sure there will be something out there.
Stoney.Archives 14 Jan @ 4:29pm 
can someone make a video because idk what i did wrong lol