Rayman 1

[Mortamon Saturn]

I've just realized the Jaguar version was the origin for the idea of the Golden Fist being lost after taking three hits with it in Rayman 2!... Except here, you lose it after ONE hit, and so they decided to get extra stingy with lives to replace them with a ton of fist power-ups!

So... to go on with the Jaguar bugs, two things!
First off, I had 37 lives while I was backtracking to the Dream Forest after beating Mr Stone... Then when I returned to Bongo Hills, the counter decreased to 0 lives upon launching the level! And I never got them back, what the hell?!
Was it a known issue in the original, like some overflowing thing!?

And that's far from being the worst!
I decided to take a break right when I made it to Candy Château's door in the Switch Jaguar version... and when I reloaded the game, ALL of my save was gone! Both the original and new system, which I both used consistently! Nothing!
COME ON, I just had one more level to beat, and it's one of the collection's few versions where you can't use cheats!

This game needs to be patched ASAP, come on, this is embarassingly incompetent!

And yes, I couldn't even use any of the classic cheats to speedrun through the game again, as you don't have the Atari Jaguar's number pad to input them...
However, this allowed me to discover that they did account for that regarding Ray Breakout, as there's a special command to trigger it from the main menu!

("SECRET GAME. Press during the game's opening to open a secret game!")
...And holy crap, this minigame's controls in that version just suck.

If only they thought of the same thing for Ubi Cliff in the GBC version...

I agree with the two of you; even as someone who loves the heck out of the UbiArt games and their soundtracks, I think that trying to move past games closer to that sort of vibe is not the right move. Doing that with the soundtrack alone robs newer generations of part of the magic that made Rayman 1 what it is to us, and that just doesn't sit right with me.


While the track doesn't entirely fit the vibe of Picture City or Rayman in general, at least the Jaguar version makes the song (and the OST in general) more bearable by sparing us the UbiArt instruments!

It's saddening to see how much of a downgrade Héral's style has got since Rayman Mini... Their style may not be my cup of tea, but I admire the Origins and Legends soundtracks, they're truly the fruit of pure talent and hard work!
I really hope that for whatever next game Héral will get to compose for, that they will give him more time to cook and that he will take the opportunity to update the contents of his "Rayman bag", as most of the instruments he's using are just not doing it anymore... It would be terrible to reduce Rayman's music identity to that when he already has experience with more serious and atmospheric soundtracks like the original Beyond Good and Evil, Héral is genuinely capable of producing masterpieces, comedic or not.


And yes, I've got hardly any complaint about the Jaguar versions of these tracks, I certainly would have been nostalgic over these renditions if I would have grown with them!
If there's anything bad I'd have to point out, is how random the track selection becomes mostly from unlocking Twilight Gulch onwards... Like you got The Hard Rocks in Gong Heights, Bzzit/Moskito tracks jumpscaring you in some Blue Mountains maps (like PluM pointed out), some Picture City music in the Cave of Skops (if I remember that correctly)... it's even more random than OG Rayman Advance here!

Surprisingly, even the Space Mama theme (which is used for a level instead of the boss) is actually great here... Heck, I'd even say it's one of the best new Jaguar tracks! The omission of the godawful singing and its appearance in less intense contexts allows the instrumentation to shine to its full potential, it is truly beautiful without these factors staining all of it!
It's baffling how little it takes to actually fix these tunes: give them a truly cohesive style and dump all of the goofy cacophonic noises and voices playing over them, and you end up with solid melodies!
Of course, the best move would still be to have the originals as an option, but I'm certainly looking forward to the Advance port this time!

I wanna ask. Is the level editor from Designer in the 30th collection? Or at the very least, in the collection's files?

I couldn't find it inside the game's folder, so unless it's an internal thing, it's clearly not there and there's no legitimate method to use it...
Yet another missed opportunity, at least for the PC version...
At worst, if you really want the mapper, you can easily get it for almost nothing by grabbing Rayman Forever on GOG when it's on sale.

[PluMGMK]

I've just realized the Jaguar version was the origin for the idea of the Golden Fist being lost after taking three hits with it in Rayman 2!... Except here, you lose it after ONE hit, and so they decided to get extra stingy with lives to replace them with a ton of fist power-ups!

Aha, so the maps were rebalanced on account of this difference! Good to know. It also gives me an excuse for running out of Continues when I normally never even have to use them!

First off, I had 37 lives while I was backtracking to the Dream Forest after beating Mr Stone... Then when I returned to Bongo Hills, the counter decreased to 0 lives upon launching the level! And I never got them back, what the hell?!
Was it a known issue in the original, like some overflowing thing!?

Oh wow! I did notice that when you reload the game you lose extra hitpoints and Tings, but the lives counter always stayed where it was for me.

Tbh I'd say it's a problem with the modified libretro emulator on the Switch port, given that they also messed up the music as you described before…

I decided to take a break right when I made it to Candy Château's door in the Switch Jaguar version... and when I reloaded the game, ALL of my save was gone! Both the original and new system, which I both used consistently! Nothing!
COME ON, I just had one more level to beat, and it's one of the collection's few versions where you can't use cheats!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

This game needs to be patched ASAP, come on, this is embarassingly incompetent!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is all about the libretro emulation. I don't think the memory card save system is used at all, it just uses savestates. There seems to be some hooking mechanism where certain code in the game is intercepted to make things happen on the emulator – so when it tries to write a save to the memory card, the emulator takes a savestate instead, and when it tries to play music or adjust the volume, the emulator plays / adjusts the new music instead. Sounds like that's messed up in the Switch version somehow…

However, this allowed me to discover that they did account for that regarding Ray Breakout, as there's a special command to trigger it from the main menu!

2026022212241200-9B664D7B06C998A03987AA69135EDEB8.jpg
("SECRET GAME. Press during the game's opening to open a secret game!")

Oh yeah, I noticed that at the beginning when I was consulting the controls. It kinda spoils it a bit, doesn't it?

If only they thought of the same thing for Ubi Cliff in the GBC version...

Very good point!

I really hope that for whatever next game Héral will get to compose for, that they will give him more time to cook and that he will take the opportunity to update the contents of his "Rayman bag", as most of the instruments he's using are just not doing it anymore... It would be terrible to reduce Rayman's music identity to that when he already has experience with more serious and atmospheric soundtracks like the original Beyond Good and Evil, Héral is genuinely capable of producing masterpieces, comedic or not.

Hear hear!

And yes, I've got hardly any complaint about the Jaguar versions of these tracks, I certainly would have been nostalgic over these renditions if I would have grown with them!

Yeah, I think I agree. I was so relieved to be spared the worst excesses I kept reading about, thanks to choosing the Jag version!

If there's anything bad I'd have to point out, is how random the track selection becomes mostly from unlocking Twilight Gulch onwards... Like you got The Hard Rocks in Gong Heights, Bzzit/Moskito tracks jumpscaring you in some Blue Mountains maps (like PluM pointed out), some Picture City music in the Cave of Skops (if I remember that correctly)... it's even more random than OG Rayman Advance here!

Like the Moskito track in Blue Mountains plays in the first map of Moskito's Nest (instead of the second map of Anguish Lagoon where you'd expect), and maybe that map happens to use the same track as the Blue Mountains levels in the original Jaguar version? There's probably a 1:1 mapping from the old to the new tracks (I need to check this though), so it'd just take a questionable decision in one map to cause utter incoherence elsewhere…

Funnily enough, I distinctly remember making a video many years ago of a Designer level where I had Rayman flying on a mosquito, and had swapped in the Mountain tiles, and I mixed the original of that exact track with one of the Mountain ones. I guess I never uploaded it though, cause I can't find it on my YouTube channel…

I wanna ask. Is the level editor from Designer in the 30th collection? Or at the very least, in the collection's files?

I couldn't find it inside the game's folder, so unless it's an internal thing, it's clearly not there and there's no legitimate method to use it...
Yet another missed opportunity, at least for the PC version...
At worst, if you really want the mapper, you can easily get it for almost nothing by grabbing Rayman Forever on GOG when it's on sale.

It's actually in there, fairly well hidden. If you use Cowabunga to convert assets.pie to a ZIP, then extract the file "/roms/DOS/dreamm.ifs", that in turn is another archive which contains the full contents of the Rayman Forever CD-ROM (plus some stuff that I think is related to the new music), including the Mapper! Haven't checked if it works though…

[dr_st]

See, that's why I never buy new releases.

[RaypersonNikol]

*hides away from ya'll* Can't catch me from here, your words can't reach me!

Okay maybe they can but

I don't think I should say my opinion here without fear.

[PluMGMK]

*hides away from ya'll* Can't catch me from here, your words can't reach me!

Okay maybe they can but

I don't think I should say my opinion here without fear.

OK now I'm curious Are you afraid of sharing your opinions about the rerelease, or about the Jaguar version of Rayman?

Either way, you really shouldn't be!

[RaypersonNikol]

OK now I'm curious Are you afraid of sharing your opinions about the rerelease, or about the Jaguar version of Rayman?

Either way, you really shouldn't be!

The rerelease in general mainly (I never played the Jaguar version when it originally came out so I can't really say anything). I've shared my opinion before and have seen everyone else's opinions and it's like a sea I dare not float in because it's like sharks are swimming in it.

[TeensieKing]

PSX version completed with all trophies! This is my first time 100%ing Rayman 1, aside from Redemption. It didn’t feel as daunting as it used to, even without the quality-of-life features. That said, I didn’t restrict myself at all with the rewind. I might dive into the MS-DOS or Jaguar versions next, but there’s no rush. Those extra level compilations are calling me. I was so focused on the “main story” that I completely forgot about the developer interviews and bonus levels.

By the way, someone here asked about the level editor from Rayman Designer. With all the fuss about the new soundtrack, I barely see anyone talking about it, but that’s some serious wasted potential. Can you imagine how cool it would be if the editor were fully integrated with online features and crossplay? The Rayman community would be more alive than ever.

That’s another reason why the 30th Anniversary Edition is, in my opinion, the best way to play Rayman 1 today, though by no means the definitive version. There’s no such thing as a definitive version of this game. There’s always a trade-off.

[RaypersonNikol]

PSX version completed with all trophies! This is my first time 100%ing Rayman 1, aside from Redemption. It didn’t feel as daunting as it used to, even without the quality-of-life features. That said, I didn’t restrict myself at all with the rewind. I might dive into the MS-DOS or Jaguar versions next, but there’s no rush. Those extra level compilations are calling me. I was so focused on the “main story” that I completely forgot about the developer interviews and bonus levels.

By the way, someone here asked about the level editor from Rayman Designer. With all the fuss about the new soundtrack, I barely see anyone talking about it, but that’s some serious wasted potential. Can you imagine how cool it would be if the editor were fully integrated with online features and crossplay? The Rayman community would be more alive than ever.

That’s another reason why the 30th Anniversary Edition is, in my opinion, the best way to play Rayman 1 today, though by no means the definitive version. There’s no such thing as a definitive version of this game. There’s always a trade-off.

To be fair, idk how Rayman Designer would be programmed for the console versions, plus if there were to be online play and cross-platform play for that program, then everything will have to be heavily monitored and moderated due to the fact that rogue players can make levels that break rules that can be set by Ubisoft (e.g. no levels that are targeted against a certain player or group of players, no harmful rhetoric in levels, etc). It would be a whirlwind of a time. But of course, it would be fun and would be on the same level of Super Mario Maker.

[PluMGMK]

Honestly, the base level editor tools from Designer were pretty nerfed anyway. So many tiles and objects were removed, and some took us decades to figure out how to put back in…

[Hunchman801]

No, the PC/PS1 engine was a complete rewrite from the ground up, whereas the Jaguar one evolved from what was used in the original SNES prototype. The Jaguar version runs on a completely different engine from all the other versions, so it's not surprising that it feels completely different to play.

My bad, "porting" was definitely the wrong word to use there. I essentially meant trying to rebuild the same experience from the ground up for a different platform.

That said, Héral’s new soundtrack feels like a middle ground between his Origins-esque style and a more serious, immersive tone. And if nothing else, that at least makes it an interesting experiment. It does makes me wonder if he’s boxed himself into a specific sound.

While it's an interesting experiment in the sense that he managed to distance himself a bit from the UbiArt soundtracks, it's also slightly worrying that it still sounds so much like Origins or Legends. I want to believe that Héral has it in him to compose a proper soundtrack for a hypothetical Rayman 4, and this would have been a great opportunity to show it. Maybe next time.

Honestly, the base level editor tools from Designer were pretty nerfed anyway. So many tiles and objects were removed, and some took us decades to figure out how to put back in…

The compilation would have been a great opportunity to release an improved version of the editor (although I agree with Nikol that it probably wouldn't work well on consoles), but I understand that something like that is clearly out of scope for a straightforward re-release of the games. Still, an improved editor with the possibility for users to upload their levels would have been really nice.

[doom32x]

Is the MS-DOS PC version of Rayman harder not only because of the cages but also because of enemy behavior?

Sorry, let me introduce myself , this is the first time I’m posting on this forum, but I’ve been reading posts and looking for information here for quite a while. When I was a kid, I played this game on my 486. It was a gift from my father, who is no longer with us and whom I miss very much. It was a very difficult game, and even with the cheat for infinite lives/continues and all levels unlocked (there wasn’t one for 100% cages), my brother and I were never able to beat it. So it’s a game I have very fond memories of, and it’s the original version I played.

Brief intro: Recently, with the Rayman 30th Anniversary, I had the perfect excuse to replay the MS-DOS PC version of Rayman that I played as a kid. Before that, about a year or a year and a half ago, I played the PSX version and completed it 100%. I didn’t find it very difficult, aside from that cage which in NTSC is placed a bit higher and, if you play on an emulator, you get input lag. So I played it on an original PSX with the Greatest Hits version of Rayman, a good controller, and a CRT TV. Obviously, it’s a hard game, but nothing out of this world.

I always remember the MS-DOS PC version of Rayman as being really difficult, and when I was a kid I couldn’t reach 100%, got stuck at 95% or something like that. I was missing one cage in one of the mountain levels.

So the thing is, I took the opportunity to download this version on the Switch to play the PC Rayman. The music differences don’t really affect me personally, but I noticed several things in the Bongo Hills level: the differences aren’t just cosmetic or limited to a random enemy here or there , they also affect how the enemies behave. It’s undeniable that the enemies are faster and a bit more aggressive. This already happens when comparing the Jaguar version to the PSX and Saturn versions, but in the DOS PC version it’s absurd, to the point where they clearly try to damage you much more quickly.

For example, the laser-shooting eyes in the secondto last Bongo Hills level (the one with 2–4 clouds and a guarded extra life),in the PSX version they shoot 1 or 2 beams, but here they shoot 4. The beams don’t stop falling while you’re dealing with that giant metal guardian, and those stupid crickets deliberately jump and kick you, whereas in the PSX version they r more forgiving and wait a bit before becoming aggressive. Here as soon as they see you they kick you like a blind mule.

I wanted to know if anyone else has had the (bad) luck of playing both versions and noticed these differences, or if it’s just me. I had always read that the DOS PC version was harder because of the cage placement and some extra lives, but I didn’t know, or hadn’t noticed or remembered, this behavior difference. I haven’t played much further because I’m afraid the save bug might delete my file or something. Fortunately, I have a MiSTer FPGA and started playing it there; I notice less lag than on the Switch, and I also know it won’t bug out at any point.

Can anyone confirm this? Thanks.

[hoodlumsworld]

Welcome to the forum! You definitely aren't crazy, I also found the PC version harder, although I could never explain why. I remember struggling with some enemies, but whenever I watch PS1 speedruns, people dispatch them like it's nothing... Or maybe I just never found the right trick to beat them?

Anyways, good luck finally getting that 100% completion in honor of your dad! You've got this.

[Chilistudios]

It's actually in there, fairly well hidden. If you use Cowabunga to convert assets.pie to a ZIP, then extract the file "/roms/DOS/dreamm.ifs", that in turn is another archive which contains the full contents of the Rayman Forever CD-ROM (plus some stuff that I think is related to the new music), including the Mapper! Haven't checked if it works though…

If the editor works, that's very nice to hear. I'm not exactly miffed about the music changes and stuff. Helps that the changes to the Jaguar and GBA versions are purely through the emulators. I really just want a simple, easily accessible way to Ray1 with all the bells and whistles.

[metalflygon08]

I swear the Cricket at the end of the flying maraca level is extra aggressive and has way more HP than the other ones.

Same for the Stone Man at the start of the last level of Mr. STONE'S peak.

That guy will NOT die.

[Pirez]

That's because you didn't try to convert them to Jesus (L3 on playstation, shift+f7 on a keyboard)

[metalflygon08]

That's because you didn't try to convert them to Jesus (L3 on playstation, shift+f7 on a keyboard)

Those demons deserve no salvation!

[PluMGMK]

Well, the Stone Man has 15 HP, which is the same as all the other Stone Men in the game (source: https://raym.app/maps_r1/index.html?mod ... ld=3&lvl=9). I think he just feels tougher because he boxes you in immediately at the start of the level and you need to fight your way out, and Stone Men are very difficult to damage properly at the best of times.

Your best bet is to jump over him as he's coming towards you!

[RaymanSpeedio]

I found this interesting thread about an obscure bug involving Skops' claw:

In Rayman Advance (and on DSi) there's a bug where you can make Skops disappear, or even crash the game...!

I'll explain below how it works. As it turns out there's quite a lot at play here!



For starters, and what made us discover this, is that there's a weird thing that happens in this boss on GBA/DSi. Each time Skops throws his claw it moves faster. Eventually it's so fast you don't even see it lol

Here's a video with invincibility which showcases it:

https://bsky.app/profile/raycarrot.bsky ... rbxwfytc2x

I was confused for the longest time as to why this happens. The code for the claw's movement is identical to other platforms, and seems correct.

It starts with a speed of -128 (so to the left), adds 2 to the speed each frame so it slows down to 0 and then re-accelerates up to 110 (to the right).



The issue as it turns out isn't in the claw's code at all. It's how the game handles which objects are currently considered "active".

The game has a list of the IDs for these active objects, which are objects currently on screen, as well as spawned objects (such as the claw).



Each time an object is spawned it adds itself to this list. The claw does this as expected. Then when the object has finished doing what it should then it despawns and removes itself from the list. But this is where we start getting into the issue...



In fact there are multiple bugs at play here, but the most important thing, and why this only happens on GBA/DSi, is that they updated the code for despawning objects to NOT do so if the position is -32000 (default position) or if the object is of type "SKO_PINCE" which is... well, the claw.



Why they added this code I have literally no idea. Maybe they thought the screen size was too small so the claw would accidentally despawn after leaving the screen on the left and it'd break the boss? Either way this is what causes the bug. The claw spawns each time it's thrown, but never despawns.

You may think this means there will now be multiple claws in the level, but there is only a single claw, so what happens instead if that the same ID for the same object gets added to the list of active objects over and over... Then each frame of the game it now processes the object multiple times.

For example, say the object should move 2 pixels to the left during 1 frame, but the object has been added to the list of active objects 5 times. Then what happens it it moves 2 pixels 5 times during that frame, resulting in it moving 10 pixels! So this now explains why the speed keeps increasing.

Having the speed increase is pretty funny in of itself, but the boss fight is quick so it never really causes any issues. But how fast can the claw move? Well this list of active objects has a hard limit. After 200 items it runs out of space, and there's no bounds check besides logging an error.



So what ends up happening after 200 times is that the claw keeps spawning and extending the list beyond 200, thus overwriting other data in memory.

At this point almost anything can happen. Usually the game just crashes/freezes, however you can end up with a situation where Skops disappears



You can very easily try out this glitch for yourself by turning on invincibility (Right, Up, Right, Left, Right and R on the pause screen) and leaving the game for a while. Be warned that the game will lag a lot towards the end as it'll be processing the claw over 100 times each frame...!

[syntheticgerbil]

Hi everyone, long time no post. I ordered the PS5 physical edition of Rayman Anniversary, so I won't be able to get to it for a while.

But I'm curious if anyone can confirm if it has:
- the three minigames from Rayman Collector
- the four making of videos for Rayman 2 from Rayman Collector/Forever (Probably doesn't have this)
- the bonus level Ubi Cliff which you can get with the ubikey in Rayman GBC

[RulesOfKulche]

So wow, ok... I heard about the 30th Anniversary Edition back when it first released, and, to the surprise of probably absolutely no one, I find it amazing that they decided to add the Electoons to the new cover art! I really never expected something like that to ever happen, so it totally made my day. I've been on a crazy spending spree lately, but I will definitely need to preorder the physical edition later! Not sure if I should get it for my Switch or my shiny new PS5 though...