The Settlers & The Settlers 2 Demo Versions

[MrFlibble]

In the meantime, I have updated the demo download links in the game wishlist thread. I haven't included the v0.15 demo because the claims of both versions to be the "first demo" are a bit confusing. Also there is evidence that v0.16 was distributed electronically from external sources like AOL.

[Hallfiry]

I haven't included the v0.15 demo because the claims of both versions to be the "first demo" are a bit confusing. Also there is evidence that v0.16 was distributed electronically from external sources like AOL.

Hm..., the release history of v0.15 is really a bit of a mystery. I guess it was just a lot of luck:
[speculation]The Joker Verlag asked Blue Byte for a demo in February or very early March and they (BB) already had their v0.15 build and were quite satisfied with it after making the language stuff external in v0.13 and fixing a few details. But right after they had sent it out, they made a few minor changes and raised the version number accordingly. Since the demos were nearly identical and only PC Joker had the wrong demo, they didn't change the "erste Demo" line in the readme. It's funny though, that they didn't send a new demo to PC Joker, even though they manufactured their CD in late March, so there would have been enough time for a correction.[/speculation]

So, even though we don't have any evidence that v0.15 was ever distributed electronically (before Saturday March 22, 2014), I still am highly confident, that it is a legitimate build that was NOT leaked, but officially sent out and was (not mistakenly!) intended to be sent out to the public for regular use as a freely distributable demo version.

[MrFlibble]

So, even though we don't have any evidence that v0.15 was ever distributed electronically (before Saturday March 22, 2014), I still am highly confident, that it is a legitimate build that was NOT leaked, but officially sent out and was (not mistakenly!) intended to be sent out to the public for regular use as a freely distributable demo version.

I wonder what the changes were between v0.15 and v0.16 that Blue Byte was so keen to get v0.16 as the official demo. Whether v0.15 was originally intended to be the first public demo version or not, BB felt it necessary to make changes and release a newer version, which eventually became the staple German demo (both because it is so widespread and because they included it on their official demo CD even after the retail release).

Is there any info about Blue Byte sending out demo versions for magazine preview purposes? Perhaps v0.15 was intended for limited testing? Also, what does the magazine itself where it was published say about it?

BTW, regarding the demo maps: while the demo scenario in the v1.01/v1.02 releases is certainly not part of the full game's campaign (as indicated by BB themselves on their website), what about the v0.15/0.16 demo map? Have you made any comparisons? There appears to be a description of all retail campaign maps here.

[Hallfiry]

I wonder what the changes were between v0.15 and v0.16 that Blue Byte was so keen to get v0.16 as the official demo. Whether v0.15 was originally intended to be the first public demo version or not, BB felt it necessary to make changes and release a newer version, which eventually became the staple German demo (both because it is so widespread and because they included it on their official demo CD even after the retail release).

I could ask the original developers, maybe one of them knows more on that...
(But I guess we won't get any answer at all)

Is there any info about Blue Byte sending out demo versions for magazine preview purposes? Perhaps v0.15 was intended for limited testing? Also, what does the magazine itself where it was published say about it?

Nah, we got no info there. I checked the magazine and It only mentions having the demo on the disk, but nothing about the demo. The followup issue had a review of S2, but no mention of the demo there.

BTW, regarding the demo maps: while the demo scenario in the v1.01/v1.02 releases is certainly not part of the full game's campaign (as indicated by BB themselves on their website), what about the v0.15/0.16 demo map? Have you made any comparisons? There appears to be a description of all retail campaign maps here.

I've never compared them, tbh. Maybe we can make a map list when we've got a sorted collection of "all" prerelease screenshots, so we can follow the map development a little bit more.


EDIT: I checked the filedates of v0.15 and it was seemingly completed on first of March, so there are basically only 4 days between completing v0.15 and compiling the exe of v0.16.

[MrFlibble]

I wonder what the changes were between v0.15 and v0.16 that Blue Byte was so keen to get v0.16 as the official demo. Whether v0.15 was originally intended to be the first public demo version or not, BB felt it necessary to make changes and release a newer version, which eventually became the staple German demo (both because it is so widespread and because they included it on their official demo CD even after the retail release).

I could ask the original developers, maybe one of them knows more on that...
(But I guess we won't get any answer at all)

I meant that maybe there is some bug, glitch or game mechanic that doesn't work properly in v0.15 which was fixed in v0.16. Perhaps this could be determined by running comparison tests.

BTW, regarding the demo maps: while the demo scenario in the v1.01/v1.02 releases is certainly not part of the full game's campaign (as indicated by BB themselves on their website), what about the v0.15/0.16 demo map? Have you made any comparisons? There appears to be a description of all retail campaign maps here.

I've never compared them, tbh. Maybe we can make a map list when we've got a sorted collection of "all" prerelease screenshots, so we can follow the map development a little bit more.

I've tried the cheat codes with v0.16 but they don't seem to work (even if typing DONNER instead of THUNDER). I wonder if the cheats were built in at that stage, or at least some debug mode that could be used to reveal the whole map. That would help with scenario map comparisons.

[Hallfiry]

I meant that maybe there is some bug, glitch or game mechanic that doesn't work properly in v0.15 which was fixed in v0.16. Perhaps this could be determined by running comparison tests.

Hm, I've got a little thing for starters: Back when I found the demo, I ran a file comparison, so we already know, what differences to check for (outside the exe):


And back then, I also found one design difference:

-names.ger calls the farm "Bauer" instead of "Bauernhof". This is like saying "Farmer's [...]" instead of "Farm". They probably changed it because it sounded strange to have the corresponding serf (Bauer) having the same name as his workplace.

EDIT: The BAK files only have additional newlines, no different content.
EDIT2: Dir.dat seems to be from running the game, it's not a real difference :/

[MrFlibble]

Hm, I've got a little thing for starters: Back when I found the demo, I ran a file comparison, so we already know, what differences to check for (outside the exe):

I remember that post of yours, but this comparison does not seem to yield much information on its own. The maps apparently were unchanged, while some text was altered (you have pointed out the main differences in this already), and there are more setup/installation background images (again, as you have mentioned before). The palette must have also been changed a bit, but probably not substantially.

The cheat code string seems to be encrypted in the game executable: the THUNDER code works in v1.02 demo, but its nowhere to be found as plain text in the demo files. Do you think you could give it a try to locate the cheat code in the v1.02 and v1.51 executables (it's WINTER for v1.51)? If that were to succeed, it would give an approximate idea of where the cheat code could be in the v0.15/0.16 (if it is there in the first place that is).

The v.016 may also have a debug mode if not a cheat mode.

[Hallfiry]

I wasn't able to find the cheat strings, yet. However I found out, that the 0.15 version has two messages when starting the game that say that you haven't saved in a while. The 0.16 version fixes this bug.

[MrFlibble]

Well, this could pretty much be the bug that had to be fixed before the game would make its debut in the public.

[Hallfiry]

BTW, is there any information on all the languages the game was released in?

Well, thinking again, we know at least about:
-English
-German
-French
-Polish
-Japanese (from the japanese release party thing that was documented on bluebyte's website)

EDIT: It seems, the Bluebyte Buch CD is identical with BlueByte News I/96!

[MrFlibble]

EDIT: It seems, the Bluebyte Buch CD is identical with BlueByte News I/96!

Nice! How did you get to learn that?

[Hallfiry]

EDIT: It seems, the Bluebyte Buch CD is identical with BlueByte News I/96!

Nice! How did you get to learn that?

From the setup thingy on the CDs that says Blue Byte News I/96 all over the place and even installs a corresponding folder with links to the CD contents >.<

I could have seen that earlier...

[MrFlibble]

I just discovered that the v0.16 demo download at ftp://ftp.wu.ac.at/ is no longer available. I've uploaded the file and put the link at Kult Game Downloads (I'm not sure if you have that file since you uploaded a RAR archive).