JrMasterModelBuilder
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Posts posted by JrMasterModelBuilder
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The latest version (version 1.1.0) now includes a 30 FPS option.
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Yeah, the game originally was capped to 18 FPS in Flash Player 4, and that's the speed it was made for, and at which all the audio is most-in-sync.
A lot of people are used to and/or prefer 30 FPS though, so I'm working on an update which will add an FPS option you can pick at launch (re-release version) on in the menu (auto-save version).
Hoping to have that done tomorrow.
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5 hours ago, Illuminatus said:
Okay, thanks, guys. That's great to know.
Is there any original content missing in the current versions?
And how come I can't get the VNOG to start? It crashes every time it reaches the "Worker module" or something of the sort.
A lot of browser make SWF click-to-run these days. There are 2 SWF's on the page, the main interface and a 1x1 pixel worker one. Make sure both are allowed to run.
43 minutes ago, 21Boomerangs said:Wouldn’t it be possible to simply retain an old version of a browser that could run Flash and still play the old games? I have an old XP laptop that has been really helpful, especially for the Map of Mata Nui thing the community saved.
Yes, not ideal, but should be possible at a minimum.
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14b2020... something for next year I imagine, so the 14b is the mystery here.
14B2020 seems like an abbreviation of 1/4 BIONICLE 2020 with 1/4 being the date it was announed, April 1st.
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Maybe it was a TV commercial, and never posted online?
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Thanks for the scans, TuragaNuva! Your contributions to the Bionicle community have been invaluable. Very interesting to look at. I’m still super perplexed as to why the brand new box I ordered didn’t come with this story booklet.
Also, I’ll go back over my files tonight to look for those two mentioned in particular, but I would love, love, LOVE to see any missing cards, PlanetPerson!
(EDIT) Is it card #255? That should be a Muaka story card and I don’t have a scan of it.
I just wanted to follow up and ask if anyone might be willing to create a new set of clean scans for the Legend of Mata Nui booklet and/or create a scan of story card #255. No worries either way, but I wanted to throw that question out to the community. Thanks!
Are there any pictures of card #255? Or how do you know what it looks like?
I looked through this gallery and it looks like there may be a few other missing (not sure what's up with 285+): http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=168918
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Both Kaita were playable in the alpha. I use "playable" loosely, their section of the Makuta level is easily the most broken part of the gamePlayable Kaita? Weren't they and the Manas confined to a cutscene?
The one that starts at Kini Nui and ends with the six Toa disappearing and the masks left on the floor.
I wonder how that fits with the cutscene I mentioned.
There was no cutscene in that build. We think those levels were cut and replaced with a cutscene.
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Don’t you guys have contact with the original developers of the game? Surely they must have an Ideia or concepts of how the fight with Teridax should have been. Why not ask them?
So far we have not found anyone who knew of any real plans for the ending, besides the platforming challenges.
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Now that the files are out, I can't help but wonder if some talented fans might actually make a complete and updated version...
It's unlikely that a fan could finish the game, as we obviously don't know what the developers planned to put in the empty chunks... but it's possible that a fan could make what's there run a little better. I've been poking around the game's files for a while now, as I intend to do just that (I have experience with this kinda thing). It's not gonna be an easy project, though. Most decompilers spit out complete gibberish when you try to load the files, since they're generally designed with only one language in mind... and there's virtually no information on Saffire's game development pipeline online.
A lot of discussion on this is ongoing on this Discord server:
I actually got the game to work, but for some reason I'm unable to make any of the Toa turn to face different directions. Using the left and right keys only makes them sidestep, and I've tried all other keys. Does anyone who has played this have an answer on how to turn?
Also, I don't know how to jump.
Did you have to do anything special to get it to work (and can you share what OS/hardware you are using)? I can get the levels to run, except that the environment appears all black, including the Toa -- the only things that show up are the HUD and the particle effects. The audio plays just fine too, and the controls for moving, switching masks, etc. work. Is anyone else experiencing this despite setting SvpRad=1 in the .ini file?
I don't know if anyone else has had this problem. I would double-check that the ini file was edited successfully (check that the file extension wasn't changed or anything), and it is running with XP compatibility.
Bugs are also being discussed on the Discord, you might get help there.
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Here is a closeup of the thing in the shape from the game, to better see it:
From the full shape, we can see it's must more detailed in that area, which suggests it's no accident
I've also exported the shape as an SVG, if anyone else wants to take a closer look.
Where did you see this in MNOG?
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Yeah, at first I thought Onua was supposed to be the main character.
It wasn't just the Toa, Whenua was also depicted in the front on the back of the Turaga boxes, and Onepu's mask is also the mask of the Matoran Nui.
Onua was also in the opening cutscene and first level of the canceled Legend of Mata Nui game.
A lot of early story stuff was inconsistent, maybe some debate early on over who should be the main Toa.
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Glad to see the project come together so nicely. Thanks, JrMasterModelBuilder!
The Toa Nuva CD's contents were actually donated to me by Mark of MoD (or RedQuark), so it would be fair to mention him as well.
Added!
Speaking of the Toa Nuva CD, is there any difference between it and the Bohrok Swarms CD? I looked at both, but didn't spot any.
These are the files that are different:
$ diff -rq BOHROKSWARM Toa\ Nuva Files BOHROKSWARM/Launch.exe and Toa Nuva/Launch.exe differ Files BOHROKSWARM/Mov/TA01.MOV and Toa Nuva/Mov/TA01.MOV differ Files BOHROKSWARM/Mov/TA02.MOV and Toa Nuva/Mov/TA02.MOV differ Files BOHROKSWARM/Mov/TA03.MOV and Toa Nuva/Mov/TA03.MOV differ Files BOHROKSWARM/Mov/TA04.MOV and Toa Nuva/Mov/TA04.MOV differ Files BOHROKSWARM/Mov/TA05.MOV and Toa Nuva/Mov/TA05.MOV differ Files BOHROKSWARM/Mov/TA06.MOV and Toa Nuva/Mov/TA06.MOV differ Files BOHROKSWARM/Readme.txt and Toa Nuva/Readme.txt differ Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_CZ.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_DE.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_DK.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_EL.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_ENG.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_FR.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_IT.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_KO.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_NL.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_PL.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_RU.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_SE.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_SK.txt Only in BOHROKSWARM: Readme_SL.txt Files BOHROKSWARM/Setup.exe and Toa Nuva/Setup.exe differ Files BOHROKSWARM/Setup.ini and Toa Nuva/Setup.ini differ Files BOHROKSWARM/data1.cab and Toa Nuva/data1.cab differ Files BOHROKSWARM/data1.hdr and Toa Nuva/data1.hdr differ Files BOHROKSWARM/data2.cab and Toa Nuva/data2.cab differ Files BOHROKSWARM/ident and Toa Nuva/ident differ Files BOHROKSWARM/layout.bin and Toa Nuva/layout.bin differ Files BOHROKSWARM/setup.inx and Toa Nuva/setup.inx differ
Basically, they replaced the Toa Mata animations with some narration and a description for each Toa Nuva.
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It took a little while to upload and such, but they have been added to the BMP archive.
Those who were unable to download them before should be able to download them from the Promo CD page now.
A big thanks to Illuminatus for providing this great content!
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Vahkiti said I should post this here:
That value in the second place is actually quite a bit larger than you might think (the end is being cut off).
Originally, this was to show the count-up to the next chapter. The following dates (as Unix timestamps) are actually hard-coded into player.swf.
Launch0 = 978325200;
Launch1 = 981054000;
Launch2 = 984682800;
Launch3 = 989953200;
Launch4 = 995223600;
Launch5 = 999370800;
Launch6 = 1000148401;
Launch7 = 1004036401;
Launch8 = 1007406063;
Launch9 = "10099254240000";
TimeOfLaunch = 978000000;
It appears the Launch9 is just some impossibly far out date so that the related code could still work. That value you see in game is actually, 10098246833937, or the difference between Launch8 and Launch9.
As for the first value, I believe it is based on a value called ServerBasedDate. In the official download and Templar online versions, this is hard-coded as 1007406064 (1 greater than Launch8). In our unofficial saving download, it's read from getdate.txt which contains 1028845484 (the date archive.org cached).
In any case, that date it's counting up to is Sun, 12 Jan 2290 12:24:00 GMT, which is quite far off indeed.
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Maybe they were pre-rendered pictures from development? Dunno. Also, just a question: why do we care about this game so much? It was cancelled over a decade ago, so why do we even have our hopes up of playing this game that's proven to be broken?
Because some people here yonder are programmers and specialize in fixing those things.
And there are some people who want more Bionicle, no matter what, even if it's a canceled PC game from a decade and a half ago. But getting that game to be feasibly playable requires more than fixing the bugs - it requires upgrading/changing the gaming engine so it will play on modern computer systems. I'm sure the game programmers of BZPower are up to the challenge, but I'm not getting my hopes up for a new Bionicle game anytime soon.
I would put "upgrading/changing the gaming engine" in the realm of impossible, unless we get source code. Depending on the issues, patching it might be possible.
But I'm really not interested in the game because I think it's a good game, or I will have fun playing it. For that, I would buy a modern game from one of the many publishers who simply make better games. I fully expect this game to bring many hours of frustration with it. Although I do find hacking somewhat enjoyable, I'm really just interested in seeing the original 2001 canon story line.
Deep Brick (I wonder if that name's supposed to be a parody of Deep Throat?)
I actually asked about this at one point. Yes, it is.
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Ergo, people pirating computer games and sharing songs are in blatant breach of copyright as they are distributing for free an item that is currently for sale. This means every time someone pirates a game, said company loses out on a sale, therefore costing them money.
Even that's a bit of a stretch. Often pirates are people who have already decided they will not, or are unable to, purchase the media legitimately. The only reason they are even going to use it at all is because they can get it for free. Contrary to what many copyright mongers claim, pirated copies do not equate to lost sales. Plus, some studies have show that those who pirate the most also tend to spend the most money on legit media.
Most of the CDs are probably in Denmark for obvious reasons. In the Turaga Files videos, Faber had A LOT of CDs on the boxes, so maaaybe there's a chance one copy might be there.
I would question the probability of that. If I recall correctly, LEGO Media was based in the US, but who knows what LEGO did with them, assuming they ever had any. Supposedly they got some test builds, and Templar too, but I don't know if we've had any hard confirmation.
As for Faber, I don't think I've seen any unidentifiable CD's in his pictures yet, unless I've missed them.
Was Deep Brick on any forums? Or was he totally anonymous?
Deep Brick was a name made up by RedQuark. If he was on any forum, it was under a different name.
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Now that I think about it, there's an actual word for what this game is: Vaporware.
Vaporware is a product announced to the public but never released to them. It is also typically never officially canceled. I'm not sure whether LoMN was officially cancelled or not though.
That's the exact word Greg Farshtey used to describe the game.
Vaporware is a product announced to the public but never released to them. It is also typically never officially canceled. I'm not sure whether LoMN was officially cancelled or not though.
No, not officially. But it was even advertised in one of the comics. Masks of Time were manufactured to be sold along with the game. It's not like it was a big secret.
But LEGO were probably too embarrassed to admit that a game for a brand new line had to be cancelled... it would lower expectations for consumers for what BIONICLE had to offer in the future and might have hurt the line. Better to stay quiet and let everyone forget about it...
Everyone except us, of course.
I think it was officialy cancelled, just not officially announced. They cancelled it quietly.
I agree that it's a little paranoid to be worrying about copyright on this game at this point, though we're not the ones to convince, it's Deep Brick/MarkofWherever if anything
Ok, let's make this clear: as far as I know is illegal to copy software with copyright without permission.
As far as I know, copying copyright software isn't actually illegal. Exactly how do you even define "copy"? It's up to the rights owners to enforce their copyright, and prove that criminal copyright infringement occurred. Same with fair use, unfortunately, where the only way to know for sure if something is fair use is to be sued and win.
Really, the closest thing we have for comparison is BIONICLE 2: City of Legends. It was a LEGO game that was being developed by a now-defunct company. The tech demo for it was uploaded some time ago, and nobody said anything.
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LEGO's official statements on the release of the game were variations of "We will not officially sanction the release of whatever it is you are talking about." This is obviously a blanket statement giving to all official requests for just about anything.
I know the initial responses were from people who had no knowledge of the game (hardly surprising after almost ten years) but I'm pretty sure we did eventually get a statement from someone who knew what we were asking about, and it was basically "no, unless the CD owner contacts us himself."
I don't know that they actually knew what we were talking about, so much as they were willing to conceded the possibility that whatever it was we were talking about might exist for the sake of moving the converstation forward. Anyway, yes, that's one of the official statements they gave after being pushed into giving a statement.
Yeah, what's the big deal? The beta discs are 15 years old. It was never sold. There is no profit for LEGO to lose if it's leaked. I doubt there are many people working with LEGO who remember the game well, if they remember it at all.
It's a bit paranoid to think that LEGO will hunt down and ruin anyone who dares to reveal any info or files about this unpublished, unfinished, unimportant, unwanted, unacknowledged yet fascinating game.
It's really hard to imaging LEGO, or whatever is left of Safire, sueing anyone over uploading the game. At this point, I would question either companies ability to prove they were even creating the game. And even if they could, what would they sue for? Damages? Against an unreleased title with a marketable value of $0? Since they have already made it very clear they will not be releasing the game, it would be even harder to argue the release of the game would cause any damages. I know LEGO said they don't want it released because they think it wouldn't reflect the quality standards, but the few people who would download it should be able to understand that. Plus, LEGO has an image to protect, and it doesn't look good to go suing people.
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LEGO's official statements on the release of the game were variations of "We will not officially sanction the release of whatever it is you are talking about." This is obviously a blanket statement giving to all official requests for just about anything. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a similar response asking if you could use promotional images in fan art, upload video game recordings, or any number of other things that are generally considered fair use. In fairness though, LEGO has to say things like this from a legal perspective, because the copyright system is so broken saying "yes" could have repercussions from copyright trolls.
What I would consider more important is the unofficial things LEGO employees said, which generally carried a "we don't care about whatever it is you are talking about, and we're really not sure why you do either." vibe.
Certain files from the CD (I believe it was the compressed data for Onua's level) have already been more or less released to the public, though if any of those formats have been identified/cracked is anyone's guess...
onua.blk was cracked by myself some time ago, and with it any other .blk files the game may contain. It contains a bunch of old DirectX .x files and a bunch of other files, but further reversing of the files within will require a copy of the game to test with.
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As for the mask, it has always been like this. The other gold Kaukau I got in another pack the same day.
If those packs were the same kind of pack, it can't be the yellow misprint. The gold Kanohi were actually from the 2002 mask packs, but the misprints were from the European 2001 mask packs.
Out of curiosity, how translucent is it? I always thought it was kind-of goofy that the gold Kaukau was opaque. How could they see through it?
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Thanks.
How do I contact you guys for this stuff? Is there like an email address or something?
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That's wierd. While all of the files are there and loading, there are some differences between the files that are still online on cache.lego.com. Not sure how that happen, perhaps whoever downloaded them (Jetslandingboard I think) got an earlier, buggy version. Not sure. I've re-downloaded the problem files. I've patched up the streaming version, they should be fully functional now. I'll fix the downloadable version tomorrow. UPDATE: Done.
If you find any other issues, let us know! Ideally be sending us a message or something. I only happened to notice this topic.
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Interesting! I extracted the SWF files from the Windows and Mac projectors to check for differences. Many of the files are different on a binary level, but most changes are imperceptibly small (some differences possibly only different by quirks in the encoders used). Hovever, Hafu-Taipu.swf and Kini-Nui.swf have an embedded font, unlike the projectors which use the default font. Toa-Kaita-01.swf, Toa-Kaita-02.swf, and Toa-Kaita-03.swf from the win and mac projectors all lack any sounds, rely on system fonts for those with text. Text from two boxes is shown as one in the projector version of the first episode. As already mentioned, the names are switch, both have golden masks in the first scene, and the Kaita in the third scene switches for one segment.
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I now have a theory on what the Temple of Time looks like. In the Legend promo video, at about 0:26, we see this building: . It's on a hill above the rest of what's presumably a city, which could mean that it's important etc etc. Now, this would be unremarkable on its own, but in the "A New Journey Begins" image, this same building is shown again: Seeing as this is the only building, pretty much, which is shown in both, I'd hazard a guess that this is the Temple of Time; It sounds like it'll be fairly important in the upcoming story, so it would make sense to feature it multiple times.
The Temple of Time is seen in the top left of this image.
It doesn't really look like the same building.
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Biomedia Project's MNOG is running too slow, need help
in Bionicle Discussion
Posted · Edited by JrMasterModelBuilder
Both have been updated with this feature, the 2001 version has the setting with the other settings (under the key button in the bottom bar).