Tyrian 2000

[MrFlibble]

I did some more research into this updated version of the demo that you found and I found something interesting.

It has not been patched with t2kpatch01.exe and neither has it been patched with the SoundBlaster Live patch. Seemingly it uses some alternate version which has been compiled on the same day as v1.3 of the SoundBlaster Live patch but the version is not SoundBlaster Live compatible. And most curiously, the game is still called version 1.0 at start-up.

As for the corrupt Eclipse logo at start-up, it seems the updated TYRIAN.PIC is missing. This file can be found from the SoundBlaster Live patch.

Very interesting indeed! So basically we have yet another version of the game, except it needs to be assembled with the files from different sources

It is too bad that the version numbers of Tyrian 2000 are really a mess. The freeware version also differs and identifies itself as version 3.0 at start-up (obviously to keep continuity with the original Tyrian version numberings).

I think Wikipedia mentions that Tyrian 2000 is v3.0. I guess it makes sense if v2.0 added the fourth episode and Tyrian 2000 added the fifth one.

What about the second SB patch?

[Litude]

I think Wikipedia mentions that Tyrian 2000 is v3.0. I guess it makes sense if v2.0 added the fourth episode and Tyrian 2000 added the fifth one.

Only the freeware release identifies itself as version 3.0. As a matter of fact the freeware release build is about 2 weeks earlier than that of the actual release. The freeware release simply says "Tyrian v3.0" at start-up, as opposed to the retail release which says "Tyrian 2000 v1.0".

What about the second SB patch?

Sadly I've been unable to track it down. I did manage to track down t2kpatch01, though not in its original distribution.

Also I just noticed what appears to be an error in at least TYRIAN.PIC in the SoundBlaster Live patch. Your game interface is in French if you copy over the file from that patch. Seems someone wasn't quite paying attention when making the update (it's actually surprisingly hard to notice if you have played the game a lot as you don't really read the interface stuff anymore).

[MrFlibble]

Only the freeware release identifies itself as version 3.0. As a matter of fact the freeware release build is about 2 weeks earlier than that of the actual release. The freeware release simply says "Tyrian v3.0" at start-up, as opposed to the retail release which says "Tyrian 2000 v1.0".

Wow, I didn't know that (because I've never owned the original full game).

Sadly I've been unable to track it down. I did manage to track down t2kpatch01, though not in its original distribution.

Could you please share that somewhere?

Also I just noticed what appears to be an error in at least TYRIAN.PIC in the SoundBlaster Live patch. Your game interface is in French if you copy over the file from that patch. Seems someone wasn't quite paying attention when making the update (it's actually surprisingly hard to notice if you have played the game a lot as you don't really read the interface stuff anymore).

They must have really rushed their releases, or maybe the files just got messed up because they were working on the translations to other languages as well.

BTW, is there any hope that the versions in other languages may be found? There must have been quite some work to translate all the text in the game.

[Litude]

Sadly I've been unable to track it down. I did manage to track down t2kpatch01, though not in its original distribution.

Could you please share that somewhere?

Sure, you can get it from here. Curiously it states in the readme that it is compatible with all versions of the game, but I bet patching it onto a localized version would produce a mix and match language mix. It will however work on both the demo and retail/freeware version.

I also took the liberty of creating a patch from the updated demo files for the full version. It works with both the freeware and retail release. As stated, your interface will be in French after applying it. Get it here.

They must have really rushed their releases, or maybe the files just got messed up because they were working on the translations to other languages as well.

The weird part is that there is no mention of any localized versions of the patch files on the archived versions of the XSIV website. It specifically states that the SoundBlaster Live patch is for the English version. The localized demo files had been removed by then so either they had discontinued support for these languages, or it is also possible that all these files were moved over to some localized website.

BTW, is there any hope that the versions in other languages may be found? There must have been quite some work to translate all the text in the game.

Honestly I don't know. I would expect the French version of the demo to be available on some cover disc over at http://www.abandonware-magazines.org/ but I haven't found it yet. As for the German version, I think Hallfiry's project is our best bet. Sadly from trying to track down certain Spanish files in the past, I don't think there is currently any real possibility of finding that one.

[MrFlibble]

Sadly I've been unable to track it down. I did manage to track down t2kpatch01, though not in its original distribution.

Could you please share that somewhere?

Sure, you can get it from here.

Thanks a lot! Would you mind if Hallfiry's demo downloads index pointed to this file?

I also took the liberty of creating a patch from the updated demo files for the full version. It works with both the freeware and retail release. As stated, your interface will be in French after applying it. Get it here.

Hmm, I wonder if there are any tools to edit TYRIAN.PIC to fix the French language issue?

Even if an editor does not exist, perhaps the fact that the game is open source may help, and someone will make such an editor? (I know it's maybe too much effort for a single fix but anyway.)

As for the German version, I think Hallfiry's project is our best bet. Sadly from trying to track down certain Spanish files in the past, I don't think there is currently any real possibility of finding that one.

So far, a query for Tyrian at Hallfiry's cover CD index only yields this file (which is the regular English 1999 demo), found on a Polish CD Action cover disk. A French CD from a Generation 4 issue has this, but it seems like one of the original Epic shareware releases from 1995.

Same goes for TyrianPatch201.zip with a date stamp from 1999, which is actually just the v2.01 (v2.1) update from Epic.

[Litude]

Thanks a lot! Would you mind if Hallfiry's demo downloads index pointed to this file?

Sure, go ahead.

Hmm, I wonder if there are any tools to edit TYRIAN.PIC to fix the French language issue?

Even if an editor does not exist, perhaps the fact that the game is open source may help, and someone will make such an editor? (I know it's maybe too much effort for a single fix but anyway.)

I don't think so, but the format itself is pretty simple. It's just a couple of PCX files stuck together into a single file. It probably also has some kind of header.

So far, a query for Tyrian at Hallfiry's cover CD index only yields this file (which is the regular English 1999 demo), found on a Polish CD Action cover disk. A French CD from a Generation 4 issue has this, but it seems like one of the original Epic shareware releases from 1995.

Yeah I guess they are kind of lost. I haven't been able to find a single mention online of the retail game being released in German, French or Spanish either...

[MrFlibble]

Sure, go ahead.

Thanks!

Yeah I guess they are kind of lost. I haven't been able to find a single mention online of the retail game being released in German, French or Spanish either...

Perhaps someone or some website did make a copy or upload a demo somewhere?

Also, did Eclipse/World Tree Games have anything to do with the translations? Maybe someone from the translation team can be found and they know something?

BTW, did Stealth actually sell any of the registered non-English versions?

On a side note, all this publisher swapping seems to generally have an adverse effect on how well a game is preserved viw the Wayback Machine or otherwise.

[Litude]

I wouldn't really know. Jason would probably be the easiest one to get in contact with, but I wouldn't hold high hopes that he actually has any backups of these considering he had trouble finding even the full version of Tyrian 2000 from his backups (according to http://www.freewebs.com/worldtreegames/).

[MrFlibble]

Apparently there used to be an updated version of the World Tree Games updated demo, with all the necessary files:

::11 - 17 - 00 :: 1:40 :: Tyrian Demo Updated

An incomplete version of the Tyrian demo was uploaded. To download the right version click here. For those who don't know, Tyrian is a PC vertical scrolling shooter that you might as well try out because it's a lot of fun. The demo is quite long and full-featured! [source]

The file at that link has not been archived, but perhaps the updated version is available elsewhere still.

[Litude]

I'm guessing its the same as the one supplied by XSIV later on, i.e. T2K_DEMO.EXE.

[MrFlibble]

Here's an old discussion of Tyrian modding:
http://tyrian.yuku.com/topic/369/Tyrian-Modding?page=1

I think some info on the file formats can be gathered from that, apparently some people were able to extract the graphics.

[MrFlibble]

Using tyrunpak.exe from these tools I restored the English language interface in TYRIAN.PIC (attached to this post). However, it may cause the game to crash upon exit to DOS if SB sound effects are on (not 100% sure though). I've just tested the game with the old file (French interface from the SBL patch), and the crashes upon exit are the same, so it's not related to the new file. Must be something to do with my DOSBox configuration.

[Edit] I've made a separate thread in the modding forums where the fixed version of TYRIAN.PIC can be downloaded:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1294

[MrFlibble]

Because I took the English interface files from Tyrian v2.0 (I was just too lazy to do the Windows installation of the Tyrian 2000 1999 demo) for the fixed TYRIAN.PIC, I decided to double-check if there were any differences, and found one in the two-player arcade mode:


The sidebar and the bottom bar in the French version are noticeably darker than the ones in the fixed version. Further comparison revealed that the fixed version' colours in two-payer mode match the single-player interface colours, while French ones don't:



Also, there are dark brown pixels in the French version where the original English one has bright grey (e.g. at the top side of the shield meter), suggesting that the French version somehow got converted with a wrong palette. I checked the 1999 English demo (the free full release uses the same version of TYRIAN.PIC), and the colours there are also the same in two-player mode as in the French version:

[Litude]

Nice job in tracking down that extraction tool. I'm still holding hopes up that we might find the official updated English TYRIAN.PIC somehow.

[MrFlibble]

So you won't be adding that to your unofficial patch then?