I've had a few beta copies of Manhunt 2 laying around for some time and only started to dig into them. One thing I noticed is that on each of them there's a blank flag file (at least I assume that's what it was) called TEST_FIL Is this something to denote the build is meant for TEST/TOOL? I haven't come across many other games that have files like this in their directory. As far as I can tell this isn't present on the retail version.
They use ISO9660 level 1 for CD-ROM and DVD-ROMs, so TEST_FIL would just fit nicely for the 8-character filename length limit (so perhaps it was meant to read "TEST_FILE"). I don't think it really has any significance though - all games would have been developed on a development TOOL unit before they were mastered. The DEX/DebugStation/TEST is a normal PlayStation 2, designed for testing. It doesn't give different functionality.
Maybe the other files of the files of the game reference this file. Why not search them with a hex editor for its name? Whatever it is it is something specific to that game and not something common for all PS2 development software/hardware. Many of the developers of PS2 games seem to come up with different systems for development and debugging, rather than use a unified one. Some are particularly elaborate, and ease development to a great degree. I wonder this flag file might have been used to signify that the game boots on a TEST console with a TDB Startup Card... Or this file might just be a random test-file created just to test if creating files is functional and then forgotten with the rest of the game's resources.
Thank you both for your reply! Still in the process of digging through these builds and trying to figure out what is what. Yeah, I decided to take a peak at some of the files w/ a hex editor and turned up nothing. Well, it turned up a lot actually, just nothing related to TEST_FIL... "Animation is fucked - no keyframes!" is hilarious though. It's such a pain in the ass to get a look at what "retail" versions of the game look like, there appears to be an absolute ton of different versions floating around the web. Important to remember, this game didn't release until late October of 2006. I've got PAL versions from May, NTSC versions from early August, weird builds from two weeks prior to launch that appear to combine assets in the PSP version with ones in the PS2 version? Oy vey, I'm going to have to end up busting out my disc copy from storage. It's all very strange and I've yet to place where these TEST_FILs fit in (if they serve any purpose at all!)
