Really early versions of TTO

[orudge]

Is anyone with experiences in HEX willing to attempt this?

Well, I understand hexadecimal, it's quite simple really, after 9, you go to A, then B, and so on to F, then you go to 10. But that's perhaps not quite what you meant.

There's a TTD file format reference on Josef's site somewhere - while your game is TTO, that ought to help you poke around at least. I do have code for reading TTO games, but can't remember the precise details off the top of my head. OpenTTD supports reading TTO games though, so you may want to look at its source code for reference.

If you get anywhere, do let us know. It should theoretically be fairly simple, why not give it a try?

[Gurluas2000]

Well I do not really get it. Beside such an early demo would be a bit different codewise would it not?

Removing the limitations from it and basically giving us a fully functional prototype of TTO would be the best new year present ever.

[orudge]

Well I do not really get it. Beside such an early demo would be a bit different codewise would it not?

I wouldn't have thought so, really. Slightly different, maybe, but not hugely.

[Gurluas2000]

Nevertheless I am not qualified to do that, which is why I am hoping someone qualified would be willing to help.

[Hyronymus]

Nevertheless I am not qualified to do that, which is why I am hoping someone qualified would be willing to help.

For free or paid?

[Gurluas2000]

Unlocking an early build of a game you like should be a honor in itself. I do not have any money, but perhaps the community can donate?
Such projects do work,

Here is an example of a similar endaevor for Diablo.
http://www.diablo-evolution.com/index.p ... eid=alpha4

Diablo 4 is based on a pre-release demo, instead of just cracking it, the team basically added what Blizzard left out.
However in a game like Transport Tycoon I doubt any graphics would be missing at this point, all we have to do is remove the 1932 crash trigger and the train only limitation.

[Gurluas2000]

Bump...Come on?, no one?

Someone on this forum must have the technical knowledge of the Transport Tycoon internal workings to sort this out.
Especially those who developed OpenTTD and the TTDPatch because thjat requires reverse engineering...Someone should be able to find out whats making the game crash at 1932 and remove it.

[PikkaBird]

No. No-one.

[planetmaker]

Bump...Come on?, no one?

It might also be that "we" are much more interested in improving the respective games than starting a TTO-beta-Patch. In all the weeks that passed you might have read up on the internals enough to attempt that yourself than to hope that someone wants to solve your problem.

[Gurluas2000]

The point of this is not starting a tto beta patch but simply to remove a flag which makes the game crash. For a person that knows how the game works and knows how dos games in general works it should NOT be too difficult.

Also its not just my problem, I bet that almost everyone here would like to play an early developement version and see the unused/planned/scrapped vehicles/graphics/mechanics etc. of Transport Tycoon.

Instead of criticizing me to promoting an amazing find you should help me if you could.

[Gurluas2000]

With a new anniversary over us, and many years of Transport Tycoon, it may be time to reconsider returning to the roots of this great classic, and enable the beta-demo to go past the 1932 date.

[vear]

So I guess you have an ace up your sleeve, having in mind you're reviving the thread?

[SquireJames]

No, it's just Gurlas. He does these things from time to time.

[Gurluas2000]

So I guess you have an ace up your sleeve, having in mind you're reviving the thread?

Well, no, I am just hoping that someone talented enough reads this and helps out.
We have lots of literal geniuses working on OpenTTD and the TTDPatch, removing a demo timelimit should be possible for them.

[WWTBAM]

TTO with first demo grf files.png[/attachment]Well, I was going to suggest switching the GRF files in TTO with those from the demo you want to experience, but i got the below which suggests that the layout of the sprites has changed and maybe even a different palette. If it is just re ordering the sprites, I am willing to create TTO compatible GRF files using the demo graphics.

Edit: Decoding TRHCOM.GRF with GRFCODEC gives me a png with a broken palette.

[Gurluas2000]

It wouldn't be the same. The TTO demo contains coding and vehicle differences, not just graphic differences.
This is why it would be interesting to crack the demo so we could fully experience this early build.

[OzTrans]

... Decoding TRHCOM.GRF with GRFCODEC gives me a png with a broken palette.

Have you used the correct parameter setting for '-p' ? Try -p 5

Code: Select all

Options for the -p parameter:

Built-in palettes: use -p <number>, where <number> is one of the following:
        1  DOS TTD
        2  Windows TTD
        3  DOS TTD, Candyland
        4  Windows TTD, Candyland
        5  TT Original
        6  TT Original, Mars landscape

[Gurluas2000]

We should try to decode the Exe somehow. The client crashes instantly when the game reaches 1933. We need to figure out what causes it, and disable it.

[planetmaker]

And even for other palettes, you can simply tell grfcodec which palette to use, read from external palette files:

Code: Select all

Built-in palettes: use -p <number>, where <number> is one of the following:
	1  DOS TTD
	2  Windows TTD
	3  DOS TTD, Candyland
	4  Windows TTD, Candyland
	5  TT Original
	6  TT Original, Mars landscape

External palette files: use -p [type:]filename.
[type:] can be bcp, psp, or gpl.  (Other formats may become available later.)
If the type is omitted, bcp is assumed.

bcp	binary coded palette with the same format as the palette in a PCX
	file: 256 triples of red, green and blue encoded in bytes.
psp	the palette format output by Paintshop Pro
gpl	the palette format output by The GIMP.

We should try to decode the Exe somehow. The client crashes instantly when the game reaches 1933. We need to figure out what causes it, and disable it.

Spend more time working on that than posting "we should"

[Gurluas2000]

Unfortunately, my knowledge of coding is VERY meager, and my knowledge of DOS coding is non-existant.
If you asked me to mod World of Warcraft I could do it, which I have but... Decoding a DOS game, I have absolutely no idea how. We have a lot of people who reverse engineered the TTD client, and a lot of people who rewrote the game into OpenTTD, one of them may have an idea?

If I could have done it myself, I would have a long time ago.
I am not asking for help because I am lazy, but because we could unlock a fully playable pre-release version of TTO, a true treasure in the development process of our lovable Transport Tycoon.