Some protos (including Crash Bandicoot 1)

Discussion in 'Rare and Obscure Gaming' started by drx, Oct 12, 2011.

  1. sayin999

    sayin999 Officer at Arms

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2004
    Messages:
    3,407
    Likes Received:
    113
    Anyone know what the differences are in the mickey mania prototype?
     
  2. stranno

    stranno Enthusiastic Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2011
    Messages:
    569
    Likes Received:
    10
    You need the game also on the exe folder, otherwise it will keep saying that files are missing

    Anyway, i've only loaded a few games like Lost World or Sonic Jam, that works perfect, but MK or Resident Evil 2 dont, it keep saying the insert message :-S

    And its the "GOOD" set, not the "NOINTRO" one

    MoonDog, which is your set?

    EDIT: Finally, all this -tragedy- catalog working perfect. Use the No-Intro 20081125 romset
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2011
  3. Keiji Dragon

    Keiji Dragon Enthusiastic Member

    Joined:
    May 30, 2007
    Messages:
    523
    Likes Received:
    28
    Thank you for these protos, drx. Especially the Crash 1 proto!
     
  4. kanaka

    kanaka Spirited Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2007
    Messages:
    106
    Likes Received:
    0
    Really an amazing release! awesome as usual, thanks drx!
     
  5. rika_chou

    rika_chou <B>Site Supporter 2014</B>

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2005
    Messages:
    243
    Likes Received:
    3
    Good God, I never knew Sonic Jam was so horrible and unplayable for the game.com.

    The graphics are pretty impressive though, considering the restrictions.
     
  6. stranno

    stranno Enthusiastic Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2011
    Messages:
    569
    Likes Received:
    10
    I finished Batman & Robin and its not thaaaat bad. I mean, yeah, sprites have quite poor frames per animation, poor framerate (better than other games) and most of attacks sucks but ... sprites are really good designed, level design is AWESOME and BOSSES are cool

    Yeah, well, you see Ashens playing or whatever Youtube random user that is making fun of Game.com and it looks like shit, but in emulator it shows ... ok, i guess. I've seen worse Gameboy games than this
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2011
  7. mooseblaster

    mooseblaster Bleep. Site Supporter 2012, 2014

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2006
    Messages:
    1,568
    Likes Received:
    4
    Noting from the boot animation, the emulator is not running at 100% speed, which will affect the overall performance of games. Compare the speed & pitch of the intro on the emulator with this: http://youtu.be/7tIBIny4L6E?t=6m25s
     
  8. stranno

    stranno Enthusiastic Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2011
    Messages:
    569
    Likes Received:
    10
    Sound is not very accurated (already noticed in changelog readme) but most of games runs at real speed

    You can notice the not-quite-good-sound emulation when Batman gets a hit, very erotic on real-hardware, not quite erotic on emulator

    I've made a few videos

    Batman & Robin

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4gmojka3-s

    Duke Nukem 3D

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V72P9-6S7qM
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzZ_bFonwY

    Fighters Megamix

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVL2SXYraPw
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RcE7qjBmwU
     
  9. browzers

    browzers Spirited Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2010
    Messages:
    139
    Likes Received:
    0
    Pretty cool stuff, nice to have in a collection but i don't think i could stand playing any of these for more then 5 minutes ha ha.
     
  10. Kao

    Kao Gutsy Member

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2010
    Messages:
    458
    Likes Received:
    307
    The game.com documents are fascinating. Amazingly, the archive is filled with loose documents regarding e-mail chains, source code, and more. Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing.

    Edit: But it looks like somebody scrubbed through all the files in January of 2006 and removed sensitive information such as e-mail sender names. I'm guessing a few files were deleted as well. Mysterious!
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2011
  11. Hacc

    Hacc Active Member

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2011
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    A nice collection of protos, drx! I was surprised to see the Crash 1 proto in the mix. It had the answer to the "04" file mystery in the retail. Thanks!
     
  12. mooseblaster

    mooseblaster Bleep. Site Supporter 2012, 2014

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2006
    Messages:
    1,568
    Likes Received:
    4
    Actually, your examples seem to show otherwise. If you compare your video of Batman & Robin with that in Ashen's review (http://youtu.be/7tIBIny4L6E?t=12m7s), the animatic of the bat-signal is noticeably slower than on the real hardware, and overall it's a little more sluggish in places. I would say around 10% slowdown seems a fair number to throw out.

    Your video of Fighters Megamix shows highly fluctuating game speeds where some things run too quickly compared to http://youtu.be/7tIBIny4L6E?t=20m30s (such as the intro and Press A graphic) and others run too slowly (the timer in the game and the movements speed up and slow down, where it appears on the hardware the timer is fluid and the action animations a little more fluid).

    Also, I noticed that the emulation speed is based in-part on the speed of the audio emulation (as when I switched audio cards using Windows' Playback Settings, the emulation speed jumped to around 300% of normal) so I expect it's the buggy audio playback that is causing the speed fault.

    I don't think it's an absolute showstopper and is perfectly good for a debugging emulator, but I wouldn't mistake the emulator for a perfect recreation of the Game.com - although the fact you don't have to see the game through a thick layer of motion blur is a definite plus point!

    Thanks for posting the videos, though. Really useful as a way of comparison!
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2011
  13. stranno

    stranno Enthusiastic Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2011
    Messages:
    569
    Likes Received:
    10
    There's no way to do an accurate comparation between real Youtube videos and emulation coz most of Youtube videos just sucks in terms of quality/speed. I mean, yeah, the screen sucks but also the Game Gear one and i've archived quality recordins for its screen. Dont know if the real ghosting is just so bad to dont see ANYTHING on screen but this is the 99% of Youtube videos (i dont say 100% coz i guess i havent seen all)

    I can compare the sound in some way but the speed and graphics without showing anything ... :fresh:

    I mean Ashens videos and many other

    And if you can actually see something i guess that also there's no way to compare the graphics that gamecom render with the shitty thing that shows on the screen, i mean, how can i measure the speed with this screen refresh rate? its like trying to do with Vectrex
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2011
  14. 108 Stars

    108 Stars Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2011
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    I love the Game.com emulator. I have never had the pleasure to lay a hand on a real game.com, but I think this is really a good way to xperience how shitty games can be.

    I guess the fact that you can actually see what´s happening on a PC monitor outweighs performace issues.
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2011
  15. stranno

    stranno Enthusiastic Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2011
    Messages:
    569
    Likes Received:
    10
    I havent tested RE2 yet :-/

    To open doors in DN3D you have to push up in front of the door + D (i mean 'X' in the keyboard). A bit tricky but i've finished it a few hours ago and its soooo easy
     
  16. 108 Stars

    108 Stars Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2011
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Got it working, there was confusion because of my keyboard layout. :)Thanks!
     
  17. geluda

    geluda <B>Site Supporter 2012</B><BR><B>Site Supporter 20

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2011
    Messages:
    1,422
    Likes Received:
    13
    Care to elaborate?
     
  18. Hacc

    Hacc Active Member

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2011
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Before anyone knew of the Crash 1 proto, I made a code to access any level/cutscene in the retail. During testing of the code, I discovered the famous Stormy Ascent level and another file (S0000004) that refused to load. In my notes, I simply referred to it as the "04" mystery (the value used in the released code). I tried numerous times to get it to load, but to no avail. It wasn't until I hacked the proto that I figured out what the file was used for.

    I did some comparisons of the proto and retail 'S0000004' file:

    Proto (NTSC)
    S0000004.NSD; 2.11 KB; 3/7/1996
    S0000004.NSF; 1.81 MB; 3/7/1996

    Retail (NTSC)
    S0000004.NSD; 2.11 KB; 5/11/1996
    S0000004.NSF; 1.81 MB; 5/11/1996
    Note: The file sizes are the same across all versions, if I recall correctly. The Japanese version will most likely lack a level name screen (doesn't have one for Stormy Ascent).

    Despite no changes in the files, it refuses to load (this has me puzzled). Each of the 'S# (0-2)' folders were last modified on 3/6/1996 like the proto. The 'S3' folder came later in development and contains the files for the following:

    Whole Hog, The Great Hall, Castle Machinery, two other Bonus rounds (Cortex and Tawna), the level completion screen and the intro/ending cutscenes. There are also two files that refuse to load in the proto: S0000002 and S0000010. I'm hoping for an older proto to be discovered to see what these two files were used for.

    Codes for the proto posted here: http://hpzr.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=games&thread=1031&post=279354
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2011
  19. JeroKiller15

    JeroKiller15 Rising Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2010
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Great protos, thanks for sharing!
     
  20. Decapicitated

    Decapicitated Site Supporter 2011-13 Lara Croft

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2011
    Messages:
    399
    Likes Received:
    33
    Awesome list, I did one for the retail version:

    00 = Null Deleted?
    01 = Null Deleted?
    02 = Null Deleted?
    03 = Cortex Power
    04 = Null Deleted?
    05 = Generator Room
    06 = Heavy Machinery
    07 = Toxic Waste
    08 = Pinstripe
    09 = N. Sanity Beach
    0A = Papu Papu
    0B = Null Deleted?
    0C = Jungle Rollers
    0D = Null Deleted?
    0E = Boulders
    0F = Upstream
    10 = Null Deleted?
    11 = Hog Wild
    12 = The Great Gate
    13 = Boulder Dash
    14 = Road to nowhere
    15 = Rolling Stones
    16 = The High Road
    17 = Ripper Roo
    18 = Up The Creek
    19 = Loads level selection (map)
    1A = Null Deleted?
    1B = Nitrus Brio
    1C = Temple Ruins
    1D = Jaws Of Darkness
    1E = Whole Hog
    1F = Dr. Neo Cortex
    20 = The Lost City
    21 = Koala kong
    22 = Stormy Ascent *(Deleted level)
    23 = Sunset vista
    24 = First Bonus Round
    25 = Second Bonus Round?
    26 = Buggy bonus level ?!?!?!? (Deleted bonus?)
    27 = Null Deleted?
    28 = Lights Out
    29 = The Lab
    2A = Fumbling in the dark
    2B = Null Deleted?
    2C = The Great Hall
    2D = Finish level, amount of boxes screen.
    2E = Slippery Climb
    2F = Null Deleted?
    30 = Null Deleted?
    31 = Null Deleted?
    32 = Null Deleted?
    33 = Bonus Round ??? Has no ending ???
    34 = Bonus Round ??? Has no ending ???
    35 = Null Deleted?
    36 = Null Deleted?
    37 = Castle Machinery
    38 = Null Deleted?
    39 = Null Deleted?
    3A = Null Deleted?
    3B = Null Deleted?
    3C = Null Deleted?

    One of the bonus rounds is very buggy and looks like it has that star effect in the beta version :)
     
sonicdude10
Draft saved Draft deleted
Insert every image as a...
  1.  0%

Share This Page