Topics

Tomorrow is the first Monday of the month. And this time we have a Test Drive.

In the game from the creators of test drive 1 & 2 we present this month TEST DRIVE 3.

For those who have played the game, i am curious about our versions of the cars compared to the originals.

For the others, Alan Rotoi has a strong lead, but anything can happen.

Have fun. Drive safely 

Continuing the idea mentioned in the VCE file topic about the collision I noticed that there is no dedicated topic for this.

I include graphics and collision as one because they are in this case closely related.

Sound drivers had been around for a while in 1990. But this kind of graphics and the need for collision detection was fairly new.

It is clear by the way load.exe works that there is no graphics driver. The graphics engine is part of the main code. Even if we totally understand the code and port it to C, we would still have to rewrite all graphics related code to get SVGA.

The same applies to the collision. There is no separate engine written for it. But it is part of the main code. Finding how it works and changing part of it, like adding track elements, even if they share collision is impossible at this time.

At least. That is what I became to realise...

We start with the second official race on the 4th of July.
This time we go for speed. 

We have a fun fast track for you ready.
The car selection will be fast to of course.
I'll upload the track and carpack later this week.

I hope to see you all for the competition 🙂

For this Championship to work, Custom cars are needed, but also easy to add and remove to the game.
Therefore, I will update the game package every time with one that already has the current carpack installed.
That is good for starters but not a real solution.

I am working with CAS (mostly CAS his generosity in adapting his tool to my whims ) on updating Simple Garage to
easily prepare the game for the new race via a start menu. Each CarPack will contain an update config file for Simple Garage.

For this, I (yes really, this level i can handle myself  ) created a Batch start menu with several options, at first for myself,
so I can start from 1 executable in DOSBox and just choose what i want to start.
This will be extended with an option to quickly install the new CarPack (and remove the old).

Hi all.
For those that have visited the competition page, you might have noticed that the scoreboard has no point system.
That is not implemented yet.

Season 1. A New System.
After the tryout season last year, I took the time to rethink every aspect of the concept.

I know how I want to score CCC.
Only points per driven car, and points are awarded bottom up.
Slowest time for a car gets 1 point, each faster time for that care gets N+1 points.

So. The first replay send for a car gets 1 point. When a second comes, then the fastest gets 2, the other 1.
When a third time is posted that goes in between, then that one gets the 2 points, the fastest is raised to 3.

For example:
car1 (top = fastest)

• Dr1 3p
• Dr2 2p
• Dr3 1p

Car2.

• Dr2 1p

Car3

• Dr2 2p
• Dr4 1p

Overall score:
Dr2 5p
Dr1 3p
Dr3 1p
Dr4 1p

If 20 people participate.
And one car is driven by 16 different people.
Then for that car, the fastest time gets 16 points.

It's like opposite of the current ZakStunts system. Points are only awarded for single car podium,
Because I have no strength modifiers. The fastest time doesn't matter, it's the fastest time per car.

[For those that want a challenge, here is one. Try the rules. What are the weak spots and can we fix that with track design?]

Oh!  So I see that right now there's 5:00am running there, but the current lap time is 3:20, so I wonder if it's OK for us to post replays already or if you guys are still testing. Just let us know

Yes. We are ready for pipsqueaks to fill the scoreboard.
The track is not really made for the rule set. But that is ok.
I am curious to see how the rules can be bent with this track.
For those that want a challenge, here is one. Try the rules.
What are the weak spots and can we fix that with track design?

I chose this track for its length and difficulty. That is what i'm aiming for.
Quite a bit longer than a standard ZakStunts track, but a bit easier to drive.
Let's see how that goes.

I'll add the rules here.

The new version has a bug.. (Admin edit: this refers to an already replaced version of Zapper's KITT.)

In the new version it crashed. In a cracked stunts.com it crashed to but different.
In stunts_k (neverlock) it loads but missing track elements.. (no start, no hills. I see the windmill floating ahead.)

Very interesting. But I can't research it without my computer. 

Edit: I drove around a bit. (See screenshots)  and it's weird. Track pieces sometimes appeared late, hung elevated, then dropped down again.

Place holder. But I really want to make this one,

Design and specs
Top speed is about 140 mph.
Transmission        Albins or Fortin Sequential Gearbox with Converter
Wheelbase           125?
Track Width         91?
Wheel Travel       22? Front & Rear
Suspension         Fox or King Full Bypass Technology with Bump Stops
Weight               3500 lbs Dry Weight
Steering             Howe Rack & Pinion Steering with Full Power Assist
Tires                  40" BFG KM2 Race Tires

OK. After careful consideration (and in junction with my competition proposal) I want to raise a question....
Different type of cars have different tires for the intended surface they will drive on.

Almost all custom cars have unique modifiers for grip and aerodynamics.
But not all have unique surface modifiers. For most road cars it is not really an issue. They should have road tires.
But for a light car with no profile tires, grass can be more slippery than for an off-road car with deep profile tires, for instance.
We can't change the wheels themselves, but we can modify their behavior to simulate tire type.

What triggered me. (in trying to categorize cars by stats) I can't find an off-road or a rally car by just looking at stats.
An off-road car, or a rally car, should have a dirt grip close to asphalt grip. Right?
Or am I misinterpreting the modifiers?

EDITED: the tone of the post and clarified my goal better. (may 9th)

[But before is put a lot of effort in setting up such competition, I would like to know if there is interest in it.]

I have been walking with this idea for a while. And it is not fully formed yet.
But I feel there is need for a new competition because of the developments of the past 2 years.
Ryoma hit our forum by storm, and his creativity inspired a lot of us to contribute as well.
This has resulted in a wealth of cars that are gandering dust.

Both current competitions are build so that there is a form of equality on track.
Zakstunts with a car bonus system that works well for a limited set of cars.
R4K uses a mandatory single car per race system.

But with so many cars we can make groups of relative equal cars per competition.
It is a sort of hybrid between the two. Each race a set of cars that theoretically have an equal chance of winning.

But before is put a lot of effort in setting up such competition, I would like to know if there is interest in it.

This was the name of Stunts before it became stunts..
I thought something like it before because many files have skid in them.

But I found proof this time.
https://archive.org/details/zero-magazine-08/page/n3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/zero-magazine-08/page/n9/mode/2up

This was in a magazine in June 1990.

Something in the shape ideas topic that should have its own.

I don't think i did anything wrong, but the game crashes as soon as the car begins to move.

How odd. I have tried replacing the STLM02.P3S with the 3SH you have attached, and it worked fine here; no crashes. (The flickering of the wheel primitive is a fair bit more noticeable when it is on the top of the car, but I guess there isn't much we can do about that.)

I cant get my test copy back to normal. but the zakstunts copy does run fine.
found the bug, i inverted the wheel on top.

fixed that and now it looks fine.

Here is proof that you can place a wheel horizontally.

This is a great car! You've done an excellent job on the visuals and performance parameters.  However, I noticed an issue with the crash sprite.  The further the car is from the camera, the more incorrectly the crash sprite appears.  It's not a huge issue, but I thought I would mention it in case anyone knows what causes it.

I've thought i found the cause if this. but it seems a bit more complex.
I run zakstunts with game exe. (the execompiled version of stunts that is used for the reverse engineering) so no modifications in the code.
In this version i have normal explosions with the original cars but the Ferrari Indy by Ryoma, the supercart by overdrive and this car (those if picked for testing) all have this explosion bug.

EDIT: Just checked the original uncracked game, and it is exactly the same there. It seems to be something shared with all custom cars.

I came across a stunts site I didn't know, In itself not very special, but I'm not sure if I can find it again.
So since it is a bit of "active" (although not maintained) stunts history I thought to post it here.
But I could not find a topic about it.

https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~abatko/interests/stunts/ Last updated in 2002.
I think it was a part of a multipage personal site, but u have not been able to find any page referring to this one.
It seems to be an orphaned page.

Some interesting details on the short page:

"It's a combination of a bitmap and 3-D polygon-type driving game..." -- Don Mattrick

Kevin Pickell was the lead programmer, while Don Mattrick was the designer,

Does anyone else know of old stunts sites?

Alright. I'll try to describe the challenge I've set myself, clear and to the point, in this post.

There are 3 scenarios:
1. You can run STUNTS on old hardware that supports DOS,
2. to new for option 1, to old for option 3.
3. You can run STUNTS on new hardware with an OS + DOSBox.

I have a laptop that falls in scenario 2.

I wanted to make it a DOS computer, but sound is not supported in DOS.
Running an OS and DOSBox is very difficult (1 core 1Ghz processor, 1 gig RAM)

What i try to do is find a very light OS (preferably without a graphical shell) that can load drivers for sound and graphics.
And use a (striped down) version of DOSBox or something similar to have DOS features and interface.

Essentially creating a virtual DOS machine.
So I can play DOS games on a dedicated machine.
I also would like to be able to Dual boot any computer into a fully functioning DOS.

I just found this. Thought it be interesting to share.
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=31838


It is quite possible to install and use MS-DOS/PC-DOS/DR-DOS within DOSBox. This can be useful for checking software compatibility or getting install programs to work that do not with the built-in DOS in DOSBox. In this guide I will outline the steps in getting it to work. But first, let me start with the limitations :

1. The original DOSes only work with floppy and hard disk images. DOS within DOSBox will NOT work with CD-ROM images. The reason for this is the lack of ATAPI emulation, so no CD-ROM driver will load.

2. This will not assist you in getting hardware features to work that are not emulated in DOSBox, such as BASIC-in-ROM, floppy disk based copy protection, etc.

3. All the items taken for granted in native DOSBox, such as the mouse driver, auto configurations, must be replicated by the user within the disk images.

4. If the DOS you are trying to install is an OEM model, it may fail if it looks for a particular system signature in the BIOS. Tandy DOS may work if machine=tandy.

More in the link above.....

I've started work on the Delorean.

I want to release it with the updated stunts package (including the coloured needle mod)
I got the idea because i want to make stunts future-proof and try to get some attention on the game.

so, this will be the Special car for Stunts V1.1 Modification 1.1

Stunts Back to the Future. 

The work is not presentable yet, so here some stock photo's.
I want to make the normal and the back to the future one both drivable through paint jobs.

I would like to know what you think.
I have lost of ideas, but what small tweaks would be cool to see?

Hi All.
There has been progress in changing the assembly code of the game to make small changes.
I want these to be well documented en therefore is this topic.

Please consider this topic as a READ ONLY. Each modification has its own topic where you can post your reaction.

Most changes are no more than small modifications. The first real mod is the Needle colour mod. That adds new code and has possibly not yet discovered bugs.

NB: The new original with separate executables for each graphic option is not a modification of the code.

Changes were made for:

• Ferrari edition main menu buttons
  
• changing the default car part one (the easy one)
  
• changing the default car part two (the tricky one)
  
• Changing the colour of the needle part one (redirecting the code)
  
• Changing the colour of the needle part two (adding a feature)
  

[Description]

https://web.archive.org/web/20060310110404/http://www.bttr-software.de/products/st4dldr/

Copyright © 1997-2005 BTTR Software
[Under 'MODIFIED' BSD LICENSE]

Contents
Description
System requirements
Version history
Downloads

Description
ST4DLDR is a tiny program to disable the car security system a.k.a. document check from the games Brøderbund 'Stunts' and Mindscape '4D Sports Driving'.

Yes, there are already tools to disable the car security system, but none of these works with all versions. — Not even all work with different graphics or sound card settings!

ST4DLDR fills this gap, because it can handle the following game versions.

Brøderbund Stunts 1.0 (Oct 05 1990)
Brøderbund Stunts 1.1 (Feb 12 1991)
Mindscape 4D Sports Driving 1.1 (Dec 13 1990)
Mindscape 4D Sports Driving 1.1 (Feb 25 1991)
System requirements
Intel i8086 microprocessor (or compatibles)
Microsoft MS-DOS 2.0 (or compatibles)
any version of Stunts/4D Sports Driving
Version history
01-FEB-2005

removed useless DOS version check (saves 9 bytes)
shortened 'Technical Support...' paragraph
added URL file
03-OCT-2004

removed all e-mail addresses to reduce spam
25-APR-2004

converted source code to 'The Netwide Assembler'
updated Makefiles and manual accordingly
no changes to the final 'St4dldr.com' binary!
17-JAN-2004

added detected game versions to manual
updated 'Usage' paragraph
minor source code adjustments
03-JAN-2004

fixed 'Dec 13 1990' game version detection
added some source code comments
minor changes in manual
21-DEC-2003

initial public release
Downloads
Binary + Manual: st4dldrb.zip (3,6 Kbytes)
Source code (The Netwide Assembler): st4dldrs.zip (5,1 Kbytes)

ST4DLDR was created using

• Aurora Editor 3.0c,
  
• Borland MAKE 3.6, and The
  
• Netwide Assembler (NASM) 0.98.38.