Hexadecimal Mantis

Very nice, thank you

On 1/29/2023 at 1:32 PM, Oren said:

Nobody talks about it because there's like no information about it.

There is a pitch document for it up on BioMedia Project. Recommend looking at that if you haven't already. I can also answer any other questions you might have

I have mixed feelings about this game. It definitely would have been better if the developers didn't procrastinate until the last minute. I do want to clear a few things up though. First, Kopaka mata and Tahu Nuva were intended to walk around at some point during development (Some of the areas are still accessible in the final game via glitches). I can also confirm that all of the Toa mata excluding Pohatu were playable at some point. As for that early Lewa Mata level shown in the trailers, It is still in the base game, and I managed to get it working recently https://youtu.be/MDLEFqzHPso

Bionicle inspired my creativity, and probably my spatial reasoning skills.

There is audio, but the game mutes it for some reason. 

I practically figured out all there is to know about the content within the game. There isn't anything too interesting http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/25667-bionicle-2-city-of-legends-research/

They posted a link

I wonder if this came from that Harry Potter disk lol. Anyways, this is fantastic!

Rest in piece GPKK.

In all seriousness, it's not a big deal.

It looks like a misprint of some kind. The marbled coloring suggests that something fell into the mold, or the equipment wasn't completely clean. The HF prototype parts I've seen were created with rapid prototyping material instead of LEGO's usual plastic concoction. I've seen stuff like this pop up in some sets, not HF sets though.

 

I have RedQuark in my Facebook's friend list. What do we need him for?

 

What, really?

 

Isn't he the guy who has a copy of the game?

 

DeepBrick had a copy. He communicated through RedQuark.

I'd be very surprised if this was anything substantial. I mean, the mystery of this game is nearly 20 years old and suddenly we realize an old Harry Potter CD had parts of it all along?

Assuming it's anything, no one should get their hopes up beyond like a logo splash or the opening cutscene video. It seems too unlikely for it to be anything else.

As much as I want this to be real, you are probably right. I do recall a LEGO Harry Potter CD having some demos (Not LOMN though) But the demos were videos, not playable games. I wonder if OP checked out the other demos to see if they are actually playable.

LOMN has a ton of issues. It needs a very specific setup to run correctly. The demo could just be a video of some kind, but If you really have a copy you should contact RQ asap.

This is really interesting, thanks for doing this. Are VOLT and BIGB used in games from other companies as well, or just Argonaut?

 

Their approach at the new musical style is interesting. I wonder if it was composed by the same people who did the first game, or if it really is just a generic temp track.

I've seen the BIGB and VOLT archives in some games from High Voltage software. As for the music, the style change probably suggests a temp track or different composer.

Very interesting and great work! hopefully we can play this one day

It's playable. A quick google search should suffice.

It would definitely be a tedious process. iirc the graphics are not compressed with LZ77, so that might make it a little more difficult.

Hello fellow Bionicle fans. I'm sure most of you have heard of Bionicle 2: City of Legends for the Xbox. A sequel to Bionicle: The Game created by Argonaut Games that never came into fruition. I've been busy with school and stuff, so I decided to take a closer look at the game when I had some free time. Here is a basic summary of what I found.

Like Bionicle: The Game (Excluding the Gamecube port), Bionicle 2 uses VOLT archives and BIGB archives. I extracted some of the VOLT archives and this is probably the most interesting thing I found within them.

https://imgur.com/mHSnghy

The XML files appear to be leftover build instructions. These are really interesting to see because they give more insight on how the BIGB archives are built. There are also some leftover logs, but Bionicle: The Game had some of those too.

The VOLT archives are identical to ones used in the PC port of Bionicle: The Game, but the BIGB archives have an interesting property. Unlike Bionicle: The Game, Bionicle 2's BIGB archives have no RLE. This makes researching and editing the files a lot easier, since you don't have to deal with compression. This also opens up the possibility of mods, but I haven’t done any work with it. The structure of the BIGB archives is also different. There are the usual uncompressed segments for the SFX, two other uncompressed segments, which are compressed in Bionicle: The Game, and one extra segment. It works like this. The headers for the files are stored in the first of the two uncompressed segments used for data, and the files themselves are stored in the extra segment. (Excluding SFX since it's stored in the other two segments) The wad version is also different. It is 0xD8 (216) while the latest version for Bionicle: The Game is 0x74 (116). This makes sense since Bionicle 2 is newer. Bionicle 2 also has a hidden level select. I believe I can access it with some VOLT editing, but I don't have real hardware to test it on. Looking at the level select archive I found that areas in Bionicle: The Game are referenced there for some reason.

https://imgur.com/jsxwM3X

Bionicle 2’s GAME.txt also yields something interesting.

https://imgur.com/B5nIpHd

The game’s title is I-Ninja which is another game that Argonaut created. This leads me to believe I-Ninja was used as a base game for both Bionicle: The Game and Bionicle 2.

As for the music and SFX, the game is completely mute when playing. However, there are actually a ton of SFX and a few music files stored in some of the archives! I figured out the format fairly quickly and found some interesting stuff.

Main level theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohfy8_NLYWM

Title screen theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kTy13s9_1s

The tracks sound really preliminary, but that is to be expected since the game was really early in development. I still need to compile some of the SFX and post them.

I also extracted some of the textures, which are a different format than the ones used in Bionicle: The Game. I got the textures unswizzled, and unfortunately I didn’t find anything too interesting. I have an album filled with some of Matau’s textures if you’re curious.

https://imgur.com/a/VJxB4

I should also mention that It’s somewhat safe to assume that the structure of the Xbox port of Bionicle: The Game is the same as Bionicle 2, but I haven’t looked into it yet.

Anyways, thanks for reading. I’ll hopefully get some formal documentation out on the internet soon.

Unfortunately no. The archives don't work, and my attempts of hacking up parts of the files into others files with a hex editor have been inconsistent at best. However there are some tech demo trailers showing the level scattered around the internet.

Wow nice work! Is that list of level archives from levels.txt? levels.txt controls the level select. I'm trying to figure out a way to get the level select working on PC, but the vol archives are getting in the way.

Interesting! Will you be posting your finds on The Cutting Room Floor?

I was actually thinking about that. I'll probably do it in the foreseeable future.

Most of the cut music is found in the unused levels and they sound similar to the release tracks. However, a track used in the final version of Ga Wahi is not entirely cut from the game, but cut short for some reason. The complete track can be heard in one of the Gali test maps created close in time to the game's final release.

I bought duplicates of Axonn and Brutaka to make Botar actually. Though I bought them for retail price back when they were in stores.

I did it by jumping off the shield at the beginning of the level and walking backwards until the timer disappeared. I haven't tried it on pc though.

EDIT: I have YouTube video of the Kini now 

I have been working with the Kopaka Mata level lately. I was able to access the Kini area by performing the shield glitch and killing the timer! http://i.imgur.com/kXedgN2.png

All of the Toa Mata models are present in the game's files. But not all of the Toa Nuva models. Kopaka Nuva is missing.