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Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

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Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#41
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In any case, imho, the best way to play any of these original games is on a PS2 This is why I'm still a PC user. Whenever nostalgia hits and I want to play some old games, I don't need to keep around or source some vintage console hardware and games on the 2nd hand market or rely on some low quality ports that were most likely outsourced with poor QA, but I can just get away with installing the original game build o…

...how does that help you follow the damn train, CJ?

You left Big Smoke behind, go get him!

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#42
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were especially doing that back then to avoid having to pay for a patent license for the MP3 codec. You could only play mp3s in the user playlist channel if the OS supplied the mp3 codec.

Is there a commercial consumer OS that doesn’t provide an MP3-compatible decoder api?

Yes, Windows 2000, the newest consumer Windows in 2002 when Grand Theft Auto 3 was released.

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS2 emulation works pretty well these days.

Sure, but why would you emulate something that already has a native build for PC?

Many games for older versions of Windows will not on modern versions of Windows without emulators, like DOSbox

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS2 emulation works pretty well these days.

Sure, but why would you emulate something that already has a native build for PC?

I think the PC build lacks some visual effects that are present on the PS2 version.

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS2 emulation works pretty well these days.

Sure, but why would you emulate something that already has a native build for PC?

You need 5+ mods to the PC version of San Andreas before it looks and feels “right”. Look up SkyGFX for an example

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#46

This is really interesting. I remember that the GTA 5 build log file was leaked back in the day. It contained a lot of interesting information too (e.g., something along the lines of an "auto play bot" which failed at a certain mission). I'm looking forward to some summary of this soon in a blog/Youtube video :-). That being said, it's a shame T2/R* is taking down/suing mods for this type of bad port. Despite being w…

>In any case, imho, the best way to play any of these original games is on a PS2 This is why I'm still a PC user. Whenever nostalgia hits and I want to play some old games, I don't need to keep around or source some vintage console hardware and games on the 2nd hand market or rely on some low quality ports that were most likely outsourced with poor QA, but I can just get away with installing the original game build o…

Well, assuming the PC version isn't a half-hearted console port...

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#47

This is really interesting. I remember that the GTA 5 build log file was leaked back in the day. It contained a lot of interesting information too (e.g., something along the lines of an "auto play bot" which failed at a certain mission). I'm looking forward to some summary of this soon in a blog/Youtube video :-). That being said, it's a shame T2/R* is taking down/suing mods for this type of bad port. Despite being w…

Nobody should be surprised Rockstar went as cheap as possible and suckered everyone. Rockstar is infamous for milking GTA 5 while not spending a dime on doing anything about harassment/trolling/hackers. I stopped playing GTA 5 after some rando found me in one of the more isolated parts of the map and just decided to kill me over and over and over again. There was nothing I could do to get away from him; I'd respawn c…

What do you mean no way to avoid this? Just use passive mode for a while to get away.

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a commercial consumer OS that doesn’t provide an MP3-compatible decoder api?

Yes, Windows 2000, the newest consumer Windows in 2002 when Grand Theft Auto 3 was released.

Windows 2000 wasn't a consumer OS, and it is older than Windows XP which came out in October 2001.

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In any case, imho, the best way to play any of these original games is on a PS2 This is why I'm still a PC user. Whenever nostalgia hits and I want to play some old games, I don't need to keep around or source some vintage console hardware and games on the 2nd hand market or rely on some low quality ports that were most likely outsourced with poor QA, but I can just get away with installing the original game build o…

Well, assuming the PC version isn't a half-hearted console port...

Is there a mature discussion on the history of 'consolization' anywhere online, first examples I am aware of are 2003: Deus-ex Invisible War and 2004: Thief - Deadly Shadows, where the PC port is deliberately gimped due to being developed for console. GTA VC/San Andreas were worth at least waiting for at the time, due to proper mouse support and higher resolution.

Previously the Doom/Quake version that was on console would be months/years late and cut down, but these 2003/2004 titles reversed the trend. There are probably earlier examples that I am unaware of.

Between this effect, subscription MMORPGs and the inevitability of microtransactions I lost interest around that time.

Re: Dataminers are finding developer comments and unlicensed songs in GTA Trilogy

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious -- how do you know this? It's such obscure/trivial stuff (but interesting). Seems like info you probably couldn't find. Neat to see it documented somewhere.

Well I'm kind of an audio nerd, and the radios are great to listen to in the background, so I guess that explains it. You probably can't find it, but it's relatively easy to figure out by just browsing the original game files, since the audio files (except for SFX.RAW/DAT) are all unpacked.

How did you find out those mp3s were encoded twice?
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