Cool Croc Twins original image

[Diestro]

I'm looking for an unmodified copy of the game Cool Croc Twins (doc-check intact, no added files). The IPF image does not contain the game intro and seems to have added files as well. All the TOSEC versions are already cracked. I'd appreciate it if someone could zone it for me. Thanks in advance!

[mai]

Originally Posted by Diestro

I'm looking for an unmodified copy of the game Cool Croc Twins (doc-check intact, no added files). The IPF image does not contain the game intro and seems to have added files as well. All the TOSEC versions are already cracked. I'd appreciate it if someone could zone it for me. Thanks in advance!

Just use IPF version, there is no other official release known until now!
Maybe cracked versions with Intro are just a pre-release or a beta and the intro has not made it into the official release!


@ Mods, move create thread in "Request Games"!

[lilalurl]

Originally Posted by mai

@ Mods, move create thread in "Request Games"!

Done. But next time "please" or "could you" wouldn't hurt...

[mai]

Thanks!

Originally Posted by lilalurl

But next time "please" or "could you" wouldn't hurt...

Really, is this a new rule?
However, next time i will try to use polite form again!

[lilalurl]

Yes, new rule. Failure to comply will be punished by torture of playing the whole Atari ST catalog of games

[RichL]

Originally Posted by lilalurl

Yes, new rule. Failure to comply will be punished by torture of playing the whole Atari ST catalog of games

Including Oids?

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by RichL

Including Oids?

Psstt... Amiga version of Oids was released some time ago, no need to endure it on the ST

[BarryB]

I have a copy of CCT from the Amiga Challenge compilation with code protection, it's different from IPF 920 as the intro is there but it's not run in the startup-sequence, a file called 'mj' is used to run the intro. Also, it seems this game was written in AMOS!

However, I can't seem to get the intro and game to run together? When you run 'mj' it returns control to the CLI, screen goes black then plays the intro and seems to load cct (the main game) at the end of the intro, it then just exits and sits at the CLI screen! You can press the fire button to exit the intro early but it still won't load the main game!

ADF in the Zone!

[DamienD]

On all the cracked versions there is a "Wait" command after the intro "MJ" is run:

 -------------------------- 
| s/startup-sequence       |
 -------------------------- 
| THE_BLACK_CAT_OF_ANTHROX |
| MJ                       |
| WAIT                     |
| CCT                      |
 --------------------------

As there's no time specified, it will sit there until you press the <Left Mouse Button>.

Don't really get the point of adding "Wait" like this

[BarryB]

That's the issue, you can't get the intro and the game running one after the other without intervention! The intro actually loads 'cct' after it finishes but it doesn't run for some reason, if you type 'cct' and then hit enter it will load and run, but trying to get both intro/game to run automatically just doesn't work!!

Also, why is the intro missing on the official IPF yet my copy has it, albeit disabled?

[chip]

Really ...... an intro disabled on the official IPF ?

That's really weird

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by chip

Really ...... an intro disabled on the official IPF ?

That's really weird

No, it really is missing, the file is not on the official IPF!

[Diestro]

Originally Posted by BarryB

I have a copy of CCT from the Amiga Challenge compilation with code protection, it's different from IPF 920 as the intro is there but it's not run in the startup-sequence, a file called 'mj' is used to run the intro. Also, it seems this game was written in AMOS!

However, I can't seem to get the intro and game to run together? When you run 'mj' it returns control to the CLI, screen goes black then plays the intro and seems to load cct (the main game) at the end of the intro, it then just exits and sits at the CLI screen! You can press the fire button to exit the intro early but it still won't load the main game!

ADF in the Zone!

Great! I'll check it out asap. Thanks!

[RichL]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Psstt... Amiga version of Oids was released some time ago, no need to endure it on the ST

I’ve been out of the loop for a while

[Diestro]

Originally Posted by DamienD

On all the cracked versions there is a "Wait" command after the intro "MJ" is run:

 -------------------------- 
| s/startup-sequence       |
 -------------------------- 
| THE_BLACK_CAT_OF_ANTHROX |
| MJ                       |
| WAIT                     |
| CCT                      |
 --------------------------

As there's no time specified, it will sit there until you press the <Left Mouse Button>.

Don't really get the point of adding "Wait" like this

 -------------------- 
| s/startup-sequence |
 -------------------- 
| mj                 |
| wait 60            |
| cct                |
 --------------------

Other cracked versions have this setup, which is lame as well because if you press fire to skip the intro you still have to wait a minute until it loads the main game.

[Diestro]

Originally Posted by BarryB

When you run 'mj' it returns control to the CLI, screen goes black then plays the intro and seems to load cct (the main game) at the end of the intro, it then just exits and sits at the CLI screen!

I hadn't realized the intro itself also tried to load the main game, since it was explicitly loaded from the startup-sequence. Playing around, I found out the intro can load the main game if it is uncompressed (as in the SPS copy). But then, both files don't fit on disk. My guess is they bombed when trying to put everything together into one disk and hacked a startup-sequence that "worked".

I'd still love to see an image of the original release to see what was delivered, but your contribution from an identified source is really helpful. Thanks again!

[BarryB]

I did wonder if it was a compression issue but like you say, the files are too big to fit on the disk uncompressed, unles you use runtime data compression like powerpacker data or crunchmania data compression on the data files!

So, I crunched all the data with crunchmania, uncompressed the mj & cct files and created a new disk and the intro now exits and loads the game, so it's definitely the cct file being compressed that's the issue or the mj file not expecting to load a compressed file?

[Diestro]

Originally Posted by BarryB

So, I crunched all the data with crunchmania, uncompressed the mj & cct files and created a new disk and the intro now exits and loads the game, so it's definitely the cct file being compressed that's the issue or the mj file not expecting to load a compressed file?

mj can remain compressed, and cct works compressed on its own, so my hunch is the problem lies in how mj loads cct. Browsing the AMOS manual, I see there's a RUN command that allows you to load one AMOS program from another (probably the case), and retain some data in memory. That could be where the problem lies. Hadn't heard about crunchmania; will check it out.

[BarryB]

Uncompressing the exe files just saves decrunch time and there is enough space on the disk when you have compressed the data to have both exe files uncompressed! You can also exit the intro by pressing fire while it's running.

I've zoned my cruchmania version!

[Diestro]

Excellent!