Rayman 2

[Greengoop]

Is anyone going to add it to the portal?

[RayCarrot]

I thought I'd add some context to where this comes from. Back in 1998 some magazines, such as Games Machine Italia, had contests where the readers could be selected to get to help beta test the game. The winners got sent a CD which they then apparently got to keep. Robin found one of these people and he was kind enough to dump his disc

[dr_st]

Edit 3: Apparently the beta only works on Intel CPUs and not on AMD

No way, how can it be? The first PC I played Rayman 2 on was a K6-2 with a 3dfx card. Worked great. There must be some stupid block in the beta, and I expect it can be worked around.

[RayCarrot]

Edit 3: Apparently the beta only works on Intel CPUs and not on AMD

No way, how can it be? The first PC I played Rayman 2 on was a K6-2 with a 3dfx card. Worked great. There must be some stupid block in the beta, and I expect it can be worked around.

Yeah Rib managed to fix it https://x.com/RibShark/status/1846851462288019549

[StrangeSolo]

For whoever can run it, it seems the following keys are checked: (non-numpad) 1, 2, 5, T, J, Q, W, all numpad keys including + and - and Shift. You guys probably already checked it, but maybe one of these will do something interesting?

As someone, who have tried the beta, I can say what worked and not worked for me!

Non-numpad 1 and 2 worked, as they switched modes between light balls and fists to shoot with!
Non-numpad 5 didn't work for me at all unfortunately.
Same with T, J and Q letters.
Q actually works, but in noclip mode only, which can be activated by pressing B. It makes you move faster in noclip mode and it can be useful!
As I mentioned before, you can enter into noclip mode by pressing B.
Numpad + and - didn't work for me.
Shift changes the way your camera moves in free-cam mode (which can be activated with numpad 1), so instead of moving around, you can change the position of it.
As I mentioned earlier, numpad 1 activates free-cam mode and numpad 2 (which is the only key, that for some reason recenters on Rayman's back), numpad 3, numpad 8 and numpad 9 disables free-cam.
A makes you move up in both noclip and free-cam, and Z - down.
And also D makes you enter into this vector (?) mode.
image_2024-10-16_003352400.png

With Raycarrot's help and permission, we have rechecked and updated the list!
Thanks again Raycarrot for that!
And "vector" mode is actually wireframe mode!

Here is the list of keys for this build!

Code: Select all

Arrow keys - move
A          - jump/move up in no-clip and free-cam
Space      - shoot
C          - Disables all other inputs (?)
D          - toggle wireframe mode
B          - toggle no-clip
Z          - move down in no-clip and free-cam
Numpad 1   - enter free-cam mode
Numpad 2   - exit free-cam mode with centered camera
Numpad 6   - exit free-cam mode
Numpad 7   - lock camera
1          - telescopic fist
2          - energy shots
F11        - restart map
F8         - take a snapshot
Shift      - speed up no-clip
Ctrl       - strafe/move backwards under water

[Nve]

That's cool. Finally, a build before the first release of the game. I actually presumed that some beta N64 cart was going to drop first. Thanks, Robin and the guy who dumped it.

[PluMGMK]

Only finally got around to trying it – and it's so messed up that when I run it under Wine, I get a straight segfault, rather than the usual Windows-style crash dialogue! The entire EXE is encrypted, and it contains its own decryption code and self-modifies the different sections successively in what feels like a really evil manner… Not sure if that's anything to do with the segfault I'm getting, but I'm sure it doesn't help

Gonna keep trying, haven't watched any of the videos yet

[RayCarrot]

Only finally got around to trying it – and it's so messed up that when I run it under Wine, I get a straight segfault, rather than the usual Windows-style crash dialogue! The entire EXE is encrypted, and it contains its own decryption code and self-modifies the different sections successively in what feels like a really evil manner… Not sure if that's anything to do with the segfault I'm getting, but I'm sure it doesn't help

Gonna keep trying, haven't watched any of the videos yet

I believe PCem is also available on Linux, so I would recommend giving that a try! That's what some of us used before Rib made the AMD patch.

[Hunchman801]

Is it just me or the telescopic fist feels a bit useless next to the magic fist? Does it actually deal more damage, or is it just the same thing but with a lesser range?

Anyway, if someone could take a few screenshots of it for the wiki, that'd be great!

[Greengoop]

Is it just me or the telescopic fist feels a bit useless next to the magic fist? Does it actually deal more damage, or is it just the same thing but with a lesser range?

Since the damaging systems work in different ways, you can’t really say one does more damage than the other

[Hunchman801]

Since the damaging systems work in different ways, you can’t really say one does more damage than the other

Can you elaborate on that? I can't quite tell the difference from the videos.

[Greengoop]

You are talking about the telescopic fist in rayman 1 right?

[Hunchman801]

No, I am talking about the telescopic fist in the early Rayman 2 demo that is mentioned in almost every single post in the last two pages of this thread.

[PluMGMK]

Only finally got around to trying it – and it's so messed up that when I run it under Wine, I get a straight segfault, rather than the usual Windows-style crash dialogue! The entire EXE is encrypted, and it contains its own decryption code and self-modifies the different sections successively in what feels like a really evil manner… Not sure if that's anything to do with the segfault I'm getting, but I'm sure it doesn't help

Gonna keep trying, haven't watched any of the videos yet

Managed to write a working decrypter: https://github.com/PluMGMK/r2_beta_15h50_decrypter
Now I see that the segfaults I was getting were likely due to me not having glide2x.dll in the right place It's because Ubi's home-made import resolver doesn't shut down the program if an import fails, but instead leaves garbage in the Import Address Table

But yeah, the takeaway is: they were so paranoid about people reverse-engineering the beta that they encrypted the bloody imports table and then wrote their own parser for it instead of just letting Windows resolve imports as usual!

EDIT: Still no joy, I've decided to try installing Win98 under PCem to see if it goes any better…

[Hunchman801]

Too bad, who am I going to pester for screenshots and an investigation of the telescopic fist's effects then?

[PluMGMK]

Oh I got it running eventually, with RayCarrot's help! It's really annoying to play though tbh

[Henchman1028]

Hope an early version of The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire is uncovered, now that we have early Tomb of the Ancients and Walk of Life. The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire is the most changed level in the PS1 version of Rayman 2 compared to the other versions, and I'd like to see how the early version of the level compares to the PS1 version, since we now have more evidence that PS1 Rayman 2 is based on an early build of the game, and one of the screenshots of early Rayman 2 does show the rope swinging section with the rotating flamethrower that's only in the PS1 version.

[Master]

I'll have to be fact-checked on this, but the impression I got from those who have been messing with the beta was that the only level files were the two we've seen, there's references to other levels but no maps or level data?

Shame though, because I agree on that. Sanctuary of Stone and Fire is probably the most different of the levels in the PS1 version of Rayman 2, and I'd love to know if they're vestiges of the original Rayman 2's development, or if this was something that was uniquely designed for the PS1 version.

[RayCarrot]

I'll have to be fact-checked on this, but the impression I got from those who have been messing with the beta was that the only level files were the two we've seen, there's references to other levels but no maps or level data?

Yeah, that's correct. Sadly all there is from other levels are the map names which I posted earlier. Robin has been digging into the beta though and restoring some unused mechanics still in there. For example it appears yellow lums were originally not a normal collectible, but rather magic you collected to fill up a magic meter which would allow you to shoot the energy balls!

[Master]

Hmm...the more I hear about this beta, the more uncannily funny and interesting RRR DS becomes...because that's quite similar to how the game did the magic fist if memory serves?