I originally posted this on the Bear's Pit: http://www.ja-galaxy-forum.com/board/ubbth...ge=0#Post157397
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So, I've been thinking about future years and the general deafening hopelessness of human existence and realize the only thing which can beat back the soul-eating gloom is an actual mod using 1.13 as a starting point. Several people on this board have pointed out that apparently vanilla JA2 is supposed to be set in the late 80s, and this got into my head the distant and hypothetical possibility of making an 80s mod.
"But Wounded Ronin, if JA2 is already set in the late 80s how could you possibly make an 80s mod?"
Well, first, you must view this to get into the spirit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
EDIT: In the above link you can see Biff singing and dancing.
Secondly, you'd make sure that all of the weapons available in the game and from Bobby Ray's were available in the 80s. So you'd have Beretta 92Fs and Mac 10s and Uzis but not SCARs. Furthermore, in order to go for an 80s cinematic feel, I'd make all the weapons into things that showed up frequently in the 80s. So Uzis, for example, were a really big fad in the 80s. I'd have many of the enemies armed with uzis.
Thirdly, I'd add some vapid drug plot. 80s trash action movies all had some trite storyline about drugs. So I'd make up some plot where you had to trash Arulco because it was importing a lot of heroin into the United States, or something.
Fourthly, I'd add Japanese people. In the US in the 80s everyone was afraid of Japan because Japanese auto makers were making better and cheaper cars that coked-out autowokers in the US with quality control problems. Yet, all the Midwestern autoworkers wanted you to be protectionist and buy their more expensive and inferior products and got all pissy at the Japanese for stealing their market share. So I'd add at least one Japanese guy (and the katana and shuriken) and one disgrunted Midwestern auto worker somewhere in Arulco.
Fifthly, and most epically, I'd replace all the music in-game with kickin' 80s tunes. Maybe "tensor.wav" could be replaced with Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now", which would be funny because it started playing when you couldn't see any redshirts. "I think we're alone now, doesn't seem to be anyone at all..." The combat music would be Pat Benetar's "Love Is A Battlefield" and "The Warrior" and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". The result would be an awe-inspiring 80s experience.
Sixthly, if my graphical modding powers were ultimate, I'd give everyone in the game BIG HAIR.
Seventhly, I'd have to downgrade available armors, since body armor in the 80s is vastly inferior to today. Perhaps the Leather Jacket and Armored Leather Jacket would actually become good items because of how leather jackets were so fashionable and badass in the 80s. Witness Sho Kosugi's "Rage of Honor" to see how a leather jacket is actually the perfect apparel for ninja stealth killing in a corporate warehouse. Naturally one would do the same things with the tech level for NVGs and so forth.
Eightly, there would be ninja.
Thus would your life and worldview be eternally changed for the better, grace of the 80s.