Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri Demo Recording and Playback ============================================================= by Rich „Weeds„ Nagel The following are some message posts of mine detailing a totally undocumented feature of the game, how to record and playback demos (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7360). ---------------------------------------- Subject: Demo Recording and Playback? Date: August 1, 2001 ---------------------------------------- I had bought this gem about a year ago, found it in the bargain bin at Best Buy. I had never played it much until this week (I know, my bad ), and I have to say this game is awesome :) On to the purpose of this post, was anyone aware of a demo recording and playback feature in the game? The little bit of info that I have found on the Internet about the game has never mentioned this. Nevertheless, I was poking around with my hex editor today and stumbled upon the following: "RECORD REC PLAY". Hmmmmm...... 'sho 'nuff, I started up Terra Nova with the command line parameter +RECORD (i.e. "TN +RECORD"), played the game for a while, and then exited to DOS. There was a file that had been created in my TNOVA directory called "TN.REC" (a few times the filename was TNOVA000.REC, TNOVA001.REC, etc.., but I have no idea how I managed to get the game to increment the demo recordings numerically?). I then fired up the game "TN +PLAY", and was watching a self-running demo of my last battle! Is this "old hat" or have I discovered something new in this oldie? -------------------- Yep, it's not in the text files or manual, but it works :) Simply fire up the game like this "TN +RECORD" (or "__FF +RECORD) and do whatever ya normally do . After exiting the game, start it up again like this "TN +PLAY". The game will play the cutscenes, but you can skip them in the usual manner. After the drop, sit back and watch the demo :) If you exited the game while recording a demo, the game will continue as usual, with you being in control of the suit after the demo ends. One thing I've noticed is that you can't do *anything* while the demo plays, including exiting the game. I haven't been able to reproduce the game creating those TNOVA000.REC files that I mentioned in my previous post, only the TN.REC files. The TN.REC file will be overwriten everytime that you record a demo. I think that one of the command line swutihes forces the game to name the recordings sequentially (to the TNOVA000.REC files), but am not sure which one. All in all, it's a pretty kewl feature, alothough a few of the demos that I recorded got out of sync when I played them back (maybe this is why they didn't officially suport the feature, or maybe it's just that the game can't handle the new modern Pentiums ). As far as multiplayer, hehe, I doubt it. No mention in the EXE about modem, IPX, or the like. But... I'd be willing to bet my Universal Backup that there are prolly a bunch more hidden things just waiting to be discovered. The command line parameters are all in readable text in the EXE, but they are all scattered around and many times mixed in with other text. Makes for a real pain for searching for them . Damn shame that Looking Glass went under :( This game is truely a gem, I only wish that I had been playing it when it first came out, think of all of the demo recordings we would have in the archives by now :) BTW for all those curious, you can load the EXE into DOS Edit and have a looksie (Notepad will cobble it up), just make sure that ya don't actually save the file. DOS Edit IS NOT a hex editor, and will make a real mess of it . Search for RECORD, PLAY, TNOVA000.REC, or TN.REC. Lot's of interesting things in there . -------------------- If ya come across any usefull command line parameters, post 'em here :) I found one last night (kinda useless 'tho) "+CENTERFIRE". No matter where you shoot, it's always in the center of your view. Hehe, also something in there about a printer/printing "Printer out of paper" . -------------------- Snag this file http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/snor/weeds/Terra_Nova/RndSetup.zip and read the enclosed text file (RNDSETUP.TXT -> http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/snor/weeds/Terra_Nova/RndSetup.txt). It's not a demo recording of an actual battle, but rather is more of a "utility" recording. Might give ya an idea of some of the other possibilities of the demo recording feature :) Lemme know what ya think. -------------------- Here are a few more discoveries concerning demo recordings: The reason that playback of any recordings within a random mission go out of sync is because the random missions are just that, random . The REC file has no idea what enemies are where, or how many of them are in any given random map. Even if you set up the random mission the same way, the enemy placement will still be different me thinks. As far as recording regular missions, if you want to distribute them you'll have to also include the savegame file that you loaded in when recording the mission. Also, the savegame file will need to be in the same savegame slot on the end user's PC. I would suggest recording all demos using the first savegame slot (the filename is SAVE01.RES) to prevent any confusion. It appears that the command line parameters "+REC" and "+RECORD" do exactly the same thing, I see no difference in the demos created by using either of these switches. Concerning what I had mentioned in one of my previous posts about the game saving the recordings as TN.REC part of the time, and at other times TNOVA000.REC, it seems that the game will NOT increment the demos each time that you record one (the exitsting demo will be overwritten when recording new ones). Seems that if you have done a small or a medium sized installation, the game will create the file TNOVA000.REC in the root of your hard drive. If you have done a large or a full installation, the file is saved as TN.REC in your TNOVA directory. Note that the game ignores the TNOVA000.REC demo recordings if trying to play one back using "TN +PLAY", the filename MUST be TN.REC and located in your TNOVA directory in order to play it back. Nevertheless, still a pretty kewl feature :) BTW (OT), I finally completed my first game playing all of the missions set at "Standard Duty", this game is simply AWESOME :) Although... AACCCKKKK! I thought I would be able to randomly select and play any of the missions in any order within the game after completing an entire "career". Guess not :( I REALLY wish I had been zipping up my savegames as I progressed during the game :( -------------------- I've recently been playing TNSFC again, and discovered another little tidbit about the recorded demos. You do NOT have to save and include your savegame files ("SAVE01.RES", "SAVE02.RES", "SAVE03.RES", etc...) when distributing your demo recordings, and it doesn't matter what savegame slot that the demo was recorded from. Also, it doesn't matter if you already have one (or more) of your existing savegame slots filled, the game ignores your existing saved games when playing back recorded demos and it doesn't mess with them. When playing back recorded demos (via "TN +PLAY" or "__FF +PLAY) the game creates a dummy savegame file in the savegame slot that was loaded when originally recording the demo, and you'll find one (or more) new files created in your TNOVA game directory when exiting the game after the demo plays ("FAKE01.RES", "FAKE02.RES", "FAKE03.RES", etc...). After playing back a recorded demo and exiting the game, you can safely delete these files (as they will be recreated when playing back the demos again). Apparently, the game automatically embeds the saved game data into the demo recording file ("TN.REC") when loading a savegame slot to record a demo from, and uses this embedded saved game data when playing back the recorded demo. Lastly, another little discovery about demo recording and playback: You can add one of the command line parameters (or ANY of the game's supported command line parameters for that matter) to the bottom of your "TN.CFG" Terra Nova configuration file (minus the plus "+" signs). This will start the demo recording (or playback) immediately after starting the game (and skipping through the initial intro movies). A useful application for this would be to add the command line parameter "RECORD" to the bottom of your "TN.CFG" Terra Nova configuration file, and the game will record a demo file ("TN.REC") of all of the campaign missions (or a single campaign mission) that you have played in that single game session every time that you start the game. As previously mentioned, note that the demo recording file ("TN.REC") will be overwritten each time that you start the game with the "RECORD" command line parameter. Anyhow, LOTS of new discoveries for this almost 30 year old game! :) --------------------