Any 3-D Ultra fans?

[MKInst]

Thanks Collector - I've tried using game extractor again (I've used it before) but for some reason it doesn't appear to support .tbv files in the program despite saying so on it's web-page. It supports RC-Racer's .rbx's though, but not .TBV. It seems to be able to extract the audio from the files (vocals, sound-effects, etc) but not any of the scripts, sprites or images, which is the bit I'm after...

Am I going to have to code my own extractor? (If so, could you help? I'm not sure how I would start...)

Also, did you like the gallery I made?

[Collector]

I am afraid I would not be of much help. REing file formats is out of my league.

Also, did you like the gallery I made?

You mean the imgurpage?

[MKInst]

Not quite, I meant the Deviant-hosted Galleries linked from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BackgroundArt/ ... traintown/

The imgur one was horrible - really terrible compression I wasn't aware of. XD

[Collector]

OK, better. Perhaps imgur converts everything to jpg like Facebook does. Perhaps you would like to contribute to its Sierra Wiki page. What is there is just a stub at this point.

http://wiki.sierrahelp.com/index.php?ti ... Train_Town

[MKInst]

It's been a while since I've been on here but I've got some new developments - I was able to extract a few (but not all) of Traintown's files from the Deluxe version - most interestingly are a few voice clips that were never used in-game ("Here comes the Passenger Liner" from The Night Before Christmas has a corresponding "The Freight Train's a-comin" that's never used) as well as a total of 134 .rr layout files, most of which appear to correspond to the scenario jobs, but many of them... not. My guess is that they are either early prototypes of the levels we know and love, or levels that we have never actually seen before - However, trying to open any of them within Traintown itself simply loads the Tutorial 1 job, presumably as that's the default for when it doesn't load a layout properly. Anyone know any ways I might be able to force the program to open them, or if they might be able to figure something out if I sent the files over?

[Collector]

You would have to modify the game scripts to call unused resources. In some cases you may be able to rename the unused ones to ones that are used to force the game to use those instead of the ones intended, but that may lead to unexpected results.

It is not at all uncommon to find unused or earlier versions of resources in released games. The Sierra Resource Viewer reveals many such incidences in the SCI games.

[MKInst]

I know it's far from being a rare thing to find unused data in games, I'm just surprised to find them in one I've played so much of, let alone things that seemingly no-one has discovered before. Is there a way to use the Sierra Resource Viewer with TrainTown or is it only for the much older games?

[Collector]

It is for SCI and AGI games. It occasionally will read some resources that just happen to have similar formats, like some of the later Sierra games that inherited some of those formats, but use completely different engines. There are a few audio resources from MoE that it will see, but will not find without going to the specific folder.

[KwisatzCA]

Definitely a fan!! However, I can't find my Creep Night Disc, and the original doesn't currently have an installer...

[Tawmis]

Funny; because I was looking to scan an image for someone; I ended up digging up my Sierra games, and scanning covers and manuals (realized a recent external drive crash I lost those scans) and ripping CDs... and just ripped my 3D Ultra Pinball about 2 minutes ago. I never got the other one. Since I was on ebay looking for something else - I saw you post - and you can buy the creep night CD for anywhere between 4 to 6 bucks on ebay. That's pretty cheap!

[BlueBMW]

I dont see a dedicated sub forum for these games so I thought I'd add my little experience here. I was itching to play some 3D ultra pinball the other day and was looking for a way to get it running on a newer machine. I tried the original disc in windows 3.11 inside of DOSBox but no such luck. Next step was either pull out the old DOS machine or google. Google was closer and came up with this little guide:
https://github.com/juanitogan/rbxit/wik ... all-Series

I copied the files in those instructions from my original disc and also did the Intel Indeo 3 update routine also linked in that guide:
https://github.com/juanitogan/rbxit/wik ... ec-install

After all that, the game runs terrific, with one exception. The mine table music is messed up. This seemed like a midi issue to me. My solution ended up being using the coolsoft midi mapper tool:
https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/midimapper

With that I was able to select the MUNT MT32 emulator which both corrected the messed up mine table music AND made the whole game sound pretty slick.

Hopefully this helps anyone who is trying to run this game on Windows 10.

[BlueBMW]

I think my previous post is still awaiting approval. A few more notes on getting the Mine music working correctly.

If you use the MT32 emulator, the mine music seems to play fine, but the other two tables might not sound like you like with the MT32 instrument set. One workaround I've found is to use the CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth and whatever soundfont you prefer and then using the mixer mute channel 6. That seems to eliminate the channel causing the awful music on the Mine table.

[Tawmis]

Cool info. And I set your posts to no longer require approval. We like to make sure that new accounts post Sierra related things that we need to approve - to ensure it's not a spammerbot.