Mech Commander Gold
 

Mech Commander Gold

[Protected until 2010] by Hasbro

Freeware.
http://www.reloaded.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=10620

Functionally this contains the base MechCommander game plus an expansion that never got a standalone release. This is the version we should get on the site.

There is a problem with the size - the high-resolution sprites for zoomed-in view cannot be removed and take up 246 MB of space.
I'm going to look for ways of dummying them out, but don't hold your breath.

Have you tried using RAR compression or different forms of 7z compression, and have you tried using their 'solid' archive mode?

For the moment I've tried 7z using LZMA algorithm at Ultra compression, with 64 MB dictionary and word length set to 64.

Oldgames.ru has a 180 MB rip. I'll see how they did it.

None of the videos can be transcoded without breaking the game's compatibility with them. I've removed pilot videos (tiny, tiny animations sporadically occurring wen the pilot's speaking - most of the time they're unnoticed to start with) and the intro (50 MB), while keeping the voices, outro and briefing videos.
The music could be downsampled to reduce it by some 50 MB.
Final rip is at 240 MB and the only major components missing are the intro and the zoomed-in versions of the sprites.

MechCommander is clearly my preferred game between them all. I know it extremely well and play it regularly... This is why I can tell you that removing those small vids you think are pointless would be a detriment to the game.

You see, every time someone speak those videos plays out. They hardly ever match with what they say, but this is not the point. The point is, if the guy tell you he's got crippled (lost a big chunk of armor suddenly or lost a leg) or he just saw an hostile, you want to know who just said that. If he got crippled and he's still mobile you want him out of the action ASAP so he don't get blown up or his weapons don't get blown up. If he just saw an hostile which you didn't expect, you want to be able to zoom on the area very fast.

If you have two or three mechs like in the beginning this is not much of a problem. You however have missions in which you can go as high as 12 mechs (if I remember well you have 3 dropships * 4 places) and those missions usually want you to split up your forces to cover more ground too. When you need to pick up one of those numerous units specifically then you're very happy to be able to simply click on the guy or gal who just said something.

So... I agree that removing them would not be game critical. But at the same time I don't agree that they are trivial.

Just saying.

You're right. The 6 meg or so size saving isn't worth removing them. They're back in. :)

Cheers.

Actually, Fifth, the reason why those videos can't be transcoded is because you're using the modern Bink/Smacker tool, which is incompatible with most older games which use Smacker-encoded videos. Instead, you'll want to use one of the official Smacker Tools releases, which, as far as I know, is only available at http://www.gamefront.com/files/9461/Smacker_Tools.

Ah. That would explain it.
TYVM for the heads up, Expack. I'll update the rip then. :)

No problem, Fifth. :OK:

Also, some tips: First, if you don't want the videos to display at all, yet you don't want the game to crash due to a lack of actual Smacker video data, you can do the next best thing by telling Smacker Tools to process frames 0-1. Most of the time, the game will still play the video, but because only two frames were rendered, the user will hardly notice anything.

Second, if Smacker Tools processes a video in less than 5 seconds, and you're using Vista or Windows 7, there's a good chance Smacker Tools will freeze. If Smacker Tools processes a video in less than 5 seconds during a batch operation, however, Smacker Tools will always freeze. However, should Smacker Tools processes a video in less than 5 seconds under Windows XP or lower, and it appears to freeze, just give the application about 5-10 minutes, and everything will be fine.

257 MB now, with all videos downsampled but otherwise present. :)

If you can do anything about it please don't downsample the intro movie. The one with the Raven shitting his pants while a Madcat chase him.

This video ought to be the best intro video in any game ever. :D

:( It was either that or rip it our completely.

Ah. Better have it online than not I guess. :(

Mechcommander
 

www.mechcommander.co.uk



:OK:

And what is this site supposed to do? All I can see on any link is a request to log in.

I certainly not want to create yet another account on a web page I don't know without knowing the site use or offer...