Just an expansion

[BladeFireLight]

While digging through old usenet posts looking for info on the USA 1.3 patch I came across this tidbit.

 

I have read recent posts from the MicroProse rep on America OnLine about the newest

X Com developments. There is an update/patch in the works that will fix sound bugs

and other crashes/problems. And also in the works is v1.5, which will be released

on *the expansion scenario disk*!! He couldn't/wouldn't give out any info on it,

except to say that it would include *underwater combat*!!

 

So, TFTD was originally an "Expansion" with version 1.5 of the game engine. Not that it's a revelation but they should have marketed it as one. To bad they never released the 1.5 patch. The difficulty fix and door open issue would have been nice for UFO DOS

 

-Blade FireLight

[ExpertRookie]

The difficulty fix and door open issue would have been nice for UFO DOS

 

I'm aware that one of your patches / Or Bomb Bloke's patch fixed the difficulty bug.

 

But for door open issue, Is it not possible to copy the door open code and patch it to Enemy Unknown from TFTD? Since both are of the same engine?

[Pete]

I'm no reverse-engineering expert, but I reckon you would need the source code to be able to do that.

[Bomb Bloke]

Apparently it's one of the many features of Seb's UFO Extender. He's able to mess with the compiled code directly, and has implemented about a billion mods I'd thought to be far too complex without source.

[Azrael Strife]

Apparently it's one of the many features of Seb's UFO Extender. He's able to mess with the compiled code directly, and has implemented about a billion mods I'd thought to be far too complex without source.

How the f*** was he able to do all those modifications without the source?!

[Bomb Bloke]

Dude knows Assembly, which is relatively easy to decompile to (as opposed to more high-level languages, such as C and Java, which are relatively easy to learn).

[Azrael Strife]

Really impressive, modifying the game UI using Assembler is no small feat.

[Space Voyager]

I have no idea what you are saying, it all seems like science fiction. And I'm not asking for translation, it might take a course in programming. In a few years perhaps. Probably not.

[NKF]

It's like working with the actual machine code itself. The most basic of the basic instructions that make the computer go. Even then, it's not quite down to working entirely in 1's and 0's, but it's probably the closest to it that you can get.

 

Using a programming language provides you a way a to write a program in a code that has its own set of rules and 'grammar'. Then, using the respective programming language's compiler, all of this code is then converted into machine instructions.

 

And since the program is just a bunch of machine code, being able to understand and work with the machine code definitely has its advantages.

 

Try to imagine drawing a picture dot by dot rather than using a selection of rubber stamps that have parts of the image pre-assembled.

 

- NKF

[j'ordos]

By the way is disassembling games becoming more popular or are the tools more readily available or what? A few years ago I'd never even heard of such a thing, and now I'mencountering scores of such projects, from dune2 to x-com to alpha centauri to planescape torment! Is it just me?

edit: and on topic: I'd LOVE to see a fully functional hybrid ufo-TFTD game running. Would love it even more playing it.

edit2: wait, I *did* know such a project a few years ago, hardwar Though I kinda assumed they had the source code.

[Thorondor]

I'd LOVE to see a fully functional hybrid ufo-TFTD game running. Would love it even more playing it.

Well, BB did do a very interesting EU-TFTD bridging mod. Have a look at this thread.

 

::

 

(...) and now I'mencountering scores of such projects, from dune2 to x-com (...)

Dune 2 ?! If you recall where you saw that one, I'd be curious to have a look, j'ordos.

[j'ordos]

Yeah I know about that and the xcomutil one, but I'd prefer something that wasn't in an alpha stage (please don't kill me BB!)

Yay, dune2 fan! Unfortunately there ain't something like seb76's loader for that, only a member that has disassembled it and posted a bunch of tweaks all over this forum: https://forum.dune2k.com/index.php?PHPSESSI...&board=19.0. There are a few remake projects going on using that disassembled code to make an exact copy.

Remember Super Dune 2 however? That hack that allowed you to play the 'hidden' sardaukar, fremen and mercenary sides? Remember all the bugs that came with it? Good, 'cause there is a project that aims to fix these and create new missions for them. It's in a pretty nice and playable state already: https://forum.dune2k.com/index.php?topic=19696.0

[Thorondor]

Great stuff, j'ordos. Thanks for the linkage!

 

::

 

May the spice flow!

 

*squishes Harkonnen heavy troopers under harvester's tracks*

[Catwalk]

Master of Magic has also been disassembled, leading to very extensive bug fixes and AI improvements. Come check it out on the forums at dragonsword.com, that's where I've been spending my time after I grew a bit bored with aliens for a while