Stunts WIKI

[Cas]

That newer version looks very good!  By the way, do you guys know if it is possible to get the Wiki viewable in dark background?  And if that is done, can it be configured per user or is it only possible if the whole thing switches?

[Duplode]

I have added a work-in-progress set of tables summarising the differences between the game versions to the relevant Wiki article. If you see anything missing, please let us know and/or edit it in. Oh, and one of those items might surprise you! 

[afullo]

Great work! Hmm, is there a track (Vancouver) inside DEFAULT.RPL ? Mine (BB 1.1) is 2.8 KB, so it cannot contain both DEFAULT.TRK and VANCOUVR.TRK... 

[Duplode]

Hmm, is there a track (Vancouver) inside DEFAULT.RPL ? Mine (BB 1.1) is 2.8 KB, so it cannot contain both DEFAULT.TRK and VANCOUVR.TRK... 

In the 1.1 versions as originally distributed, there is a DEFAULT.RPL replay which was driven on the "hidden" VANCOUVR track. viniciusferrao and dstien have covered the details in this thread. (I probably should add some footnotes to the table to better explain this sort of thing.)

[Cas]

Yes, probably DEFAULT.TRK, VANCOUVR.TRK and DEFAULT.RPL deserve their own articles. I have already told this, but the version of Stunts I first met was Brøderbund 1.0. It clearly had gone through other hands before so what I will say about it not necessarily describes features of the original 1.0 version, yet some items might. It was March or April 1993 and in Argentina, original software did not exist. Piracy was the only way of obtaining any software. A friend at school, upon knowing that I had a new PC (a 386 DX), offered to come to my place and bring some games. He came with a box of boxes of floppies. One of the games he copied to me was Stunts.

At that time, there were shops in Buenos Aires that were dedicated to somehow obtaining original games, then rebrand them by adding an extra init screen and/or a crack and sometimes a routine that would ask you to enter a password and the password was the shop name. Then, they would redistribute the game by selling cheap copies. In other parts of the country, such us where I live, there were other shops that would feed themselves from these Buenos Aires shops. A guy would visit these shops in Buenos Aires from time to time and buy as many copies as they could, bring them back to Córdoba and then resell. The most famous game reseller (pirate, of course) in my town was called "Wolrd Soft".

Anyway, my copy of Stunts had an extra intro screen that displayed the name of the Buenos Aires shop. Then, a crack would run and the game would kick in. The DEFAULT.TRK was the one we all know, except that it had been modified and one of the paths was incomplete. It seems that version 1.0 allowed for incomplete paths as long as at least one could be driven. Version 1.1 won't let you race if there are incomplete paths (-=To be verified=-). The DEFAULT.RPL was raced on the original DEFAULT.TRK or perhaps on this modified DEFAULT.TRK. I still have the copy, so I'll check. But it was clear that this wasn't the truly original DEFAULT.RPL because it ended in a crash at the loop (the car would shoot up into the sky and then fall and crash into the ground). No VANCOUVR.TRK. A file was missing which caused selecting Skid Vicious to crash when trying to race, but I later found the missing file somewhere else and incorporated it to my copy. The AdLib/SB driver produced strange artifacts, but I later solved this problem by replacing it with the driver from the game Fight (a.k.a. 4D Sport Boxing). So my old copy isn't exactly as it originally came. The crack was a file called STUNT.COM (only one "stunt") and there was a file called MLOOK.BAT that would first call SETUP, then STUNT. STUNT would call STUNTS and STUNTS would call LOAD. If you ran STUNTS, it'd have the "security system" activated.

[KyLiE]

I have added a work-in-progress set of tables summarising the differences between the game versions to the relevant Wiki article.

Nice work!

Oh, and one of those items might surprise you! 

Which item are you referring to?  Is it VANCOUVR.TRK?

[afullo]

Hmm, is there a track (Vancouver) inside DEFAULT.RPL ? Mine (BB 1.1) is 2.8 KB, so it cannot contain both DEFAULT.TRK and VANCOUVR.TRK... 

In the 1.1 versions as originally distributed, there is a DEFAULT.RPL replay which was driven on the "hidden" VANCOUVR track. viniciusferrao and dstien have covered the details in this thread. (I probably should add some footnotes to the table to better explain this sort of thing.)

Nice, I didn't know about it! Well, I guess most of the current players not aware of the fact possess just one version of DEFAULT.RPL, thus not being able to extract VANCOUVR.TRK in any manner, so it could be an idea to explain how that track is not hidden in the most diffused version of the replay file...

[Duplode]

Yes, probably DEFAULT.TRK, VANCOUVR.TRK and DEFAULT.RPL deserve their own articles. I have already told this, but the version of Stunts I first met was Brøderbund 1.0. It clearly had gone through other hands before so what I will say about it not necessarily describes features of the original 1.0 version, yet some items might.

On a related note, later I will add a track map of DEFAULT.TRK to its article, so that readers can find out whether the one in their copy has been modified, which indeed is a common occurrence. Loved the tidbit about the extra intro screen, by the way 

Which item are you referring to?  Is it VANCOUVR.TRK?

The one I was thinking of was the left corner bias -- the bias CTG has been warning us of through all those years. I have only realised the 1990 and 1991 versions differ on that last week, and it left me flabbergasted.

[KyLiE]

The one I was thinking of was the left corner bias -- the bias CTG has been warning us of through all those years.

Yes, that is quite interesting as well.  I always thought CTG was just bad at right hand corners!

Also, in case you find it interesting, the version of Stunts that I first played was the Mindscape 13/12/1990 version released by Red Sector.

[Cas]

This is the screen that appears when starting the Stunts 1.0 version I have. I also see there is a SMAX program there. It looks like that one is the crack, then STUNT.COM is the one that loads this start screen.

By the way, what does this left corner bias consist of exactly?  Physicists would say that the Stunts space-time violates C-symmetry    I'm pretty sure it violates T-symmetry too. P-symmetry... uhm... what would that be in Stunts? 

There are two things that I've tried to resolve about Stunts but seem like a mystery. I'll create a thread about them to discuss... maybe we in the community know more than one another thinks.

[afullo]

Also, in case you find it interesting, the version of Stunts that I first played was the Mindscape 13/12/1990 version released by Red Sector.

It was my only version until 2014, when I discovered ZakStunts; before that, I played it for the last time on September 2001, configuring a 12+ years timespan in which I didn't play Stunts at all.

[Duplode]

So I dug out my old backups, and it turns out the (Broderbund 1990) Stunts copy I had in the nineties had a distributor not unlike the one Cas describes! I guess I didn't remember it clearly because I often wouldn't use the modified executable back then (my copy also had a TXT file with the security system answers), but also because the patch was rather unobtrusive. As you can see in the screenshot below, the distributor credited themselves through an exit screen, rather than an intro one. Also note the phone numbers, in the old Brazilian area-code-and-seven-digits format, for branches in Brasília and São Paulo. Quite a professional operation

By the way, what does this left corner bias consist of exactly?

Have you ever felt that, in the 1991 versions, left corners seem easier than right ones? If you want to see it under controlled conditions, I have attached two minimal tracks with four large corners, one clockwise and the other anticlockwise. Try driving each of them as fast as you can with the Corvette on auto gears, and you'll likely notice the difference straight away.

[Daniel3D]

Also, in case you find it interesting, the version of Stunts that I first played was the Mindscape 13/12/1990 version released by Red Sector.

I had this cracked version to. I remember it so wel that I just started all versions I have just to verify it's not there anymore..
(I kind of knew because I have my versions from JTK since early 2000 something)
Although my oldest track backup contains also mostly JTK tracks, that's how I refound the game. "Stunts + JTK"

[Cas]

Try driving each of them as fast as you can with the Corvette on auto gears

At the beginning, it didn't seem too different. I had a better time turning left than turning right, but I felt it was just that I hadn't driven that well. Then I tried the one that turns left again and yes, it clearly is much easier. It's strange, because I can't really describe what the issue is when turning right. It's just harder. I could say there's less grip, but maybe it's not exactly that.

[KyLiE]

I tried this as well and it does seem that turning left is easier than turning right.