I know this seems a dormant project, but I spent a bit of time going through the game and its executable to see if any gaps could be filled, and found some interesting things.
Firstly I'd point out that the executable contains strings for pretty much all Thing types in it, which give us an idea of most entities off the bat. I already wrote in a different issue about the unknown weapons (Thing type 5), but as seen in the strings, it starts with subtype:
0 = Invincibility
1 = Invisibility
etc
Invincibility is in the final game and does work, but it only works for 5 seconds so it's a bit crap. Invisibility is more interesting - I got Claude to have a look and the same invisibility code from the demo is in and therefore likely works, but there is code to despawn all invisibility power ups off the map on map load in all builds after the demo so they can never be seen (it's possible to hack this out). Based on how it worked in the demo I would speculate this was due to the computer players never being programmed to react to the player going invisible in a meaningful way.
Track Object Things (Type 3)
A lot of these were simply never placed in maps, but the strings are all there:
0 = Sign post
1 = Tree
2 = Lamp post
3 = Camera static
4 = Camera follow
5 = Clone
6 = Cone1
7 = Cone2
8 = Barrel1
9 = Barrel2
10 = Barrel3
So what is "camera static"? According to Claude this not used in early builds of the game, and only came to be used in the 1.2 patch. There it's used as part of the new chase cam mode (press Y) for the sweeping static camera shots. So they must have intended this system to be in the game all along but only got it working in the patch. There's also code for a lot more comprehensive spectator camera mode that it looks like was never finished/used (for multiplayer?). "Clone" is the ghost car used in the 1.2 ghost race mode.
Race Objects (Type 1)
0 = House [?]
1 = Repair area
2 = Refuel
3 = Rearm
4 = Start
5 = Checkpoint
Need to check these, but checkpoint matches up with known.
Waypoint system (Type 9)
0 = Vector [a wall]
1 = Way point
2 = Way point fuel
3 = Way point weapons
4 = Way point armour
5 = Way point stop
6 = Way point short cut
7 = Way point brake
8 = Way point no boost
9 = Way point full boost
10 = Way point cave start
I need to check and confirm a lot of the above, but this is exactly how other Bullfrog games (confirmed in Magic Carpet 1/2, Syndicate Wars, Theme Hospital) worked, with the Thing types usually left in the files in the correct order.
I know this seems a dormant project, but I spent a bit of time going through the game and its executable to see if any gaps could be filled, and found some interesting things.
Firstly I'd point out that the executable contains strings for pretty much all Thing types in it, which give us an idea of most entities off the bat. I already wrote in a different issue about the unknown weapons (Thing type 5), but as seen in the strings, it starts with subtype:
0 = Invincibility
1 = Invisibility
etc
Invincibility is in the final game and does work, but it only works for 5 seconds so it's a bit crap. Invisibility is more interesting - I got Claude to have a look and the same invisibility code from the demo is in and therefore likely works, but there is code to despawn all invisibility power ups off the map on map load in all builds after the demo so they can never be seen (it's possible to hack this out). Based on how it worked in the demo I would speculate this was due to the computer players never being programmed to react to the player going invisible in a meaningful way.
Track Object Things (Type 3)
A lot of these were simply never placed in maps, but the strings are all there:
0 = Sign post
1 = Tree
2 = Lamp post
3 = Camera static
4 = Camera follow
5 = Clone
6 = Cone1
7 = Cone2
8 = Barrel1
9 = Barrel2
10 = Barrel3
So what is "camera static"? According to Claude this not used in early builds of the game, and only came to be used in the 1.2 patch. There it's used as part of the new chase cam mode (press Y) for the sweeping static camera shots. So they must have intended this system to be in the game all along but only got it working in the patch. There's also code for a lot more comprehensive spectator camera mode that it looks like was never finished/used (for multiplayer?). "Clone" is the ghost car used in the 1.2 ghost race mode.
Race Objects (Type 1)
0 = House [?]
1 = Repair area
2 = Refuel
3 = Rearm
4 = Start
5 = Checkpoint
Need to check these, but checkpoint matches up with known.
Waypoint system (Type 9)
0 = Vector [a wall]
1 = Way point
2 = Way point fuel
3 = Way point weapons
4 = Way point armour
5 = Way point stop
6 = Way point short cut
7 = Way point brake
8 = Way point no boost
9 = Way point full boost
10 = Way point cave start
I need to check and confirm a lot of the above, but this is exactly how other Bullfrog games (confirmed in Magic Carpet 1/2, Syndicate Wars, Theme Hospital) worked, with the Thing types usually left in the files in the correct order.